The Climate Reality Project onboard Peace Boat

Participants on the 101st Global Voyage have many opportunities to acquire knowledge on issues related to climate change and its impacts around the world. In collaboration with The Climate Reality Project, two guest educators who empower people to play a role against climate change joined the voyage as it sailed between Lautoka, Fiji and Brisbane, Australia. Linh Do is the Australian branch manager of The Climate Reality Project, as well as the editor-in-chief of The Verb, an environmental newswire service localizing and humanizing the stories of climate change. She was joined by Ailsa Lamont, founder of climate change and education consulting firm Pomegranate Global, as well as an international education professional with 30 years of experience spanning economic development, cross-cultural communications, the university sector and social innovation spanning more than 70 countries.

During their five days onboard, Linh and Ailsa conducted a series of lectures and a workshop. In their final event, “Ten Truths about Climate Change”, they presented and answered three questions – must we change? How can we change? And, will we change? In this event, they shared that “in addition to actions by countries, it is more important than ever that we all take the lead on climate.” Participants were given a personal climate action planner sheet at the workshop, as a chance to think more about little actions that we can do to fight against climate change.
“It has been a lot of fun to see that all of the participants that came to our sessions are genuinely really interested in climate change, compared to the fact that in Australia, we are always likely to have someone who does not believe in climate change,” Linh shared.

The Climate Reality Project was created by former US Vice-President and climate activist Al Gore in 2011 with the goal of training individuals to be leaders and advocates for action on climate change. Peace Boat had the opportunity of joining its most recent training conferences in Australia in June, and looks forward to working together to share with more people in Japan about not only the science, policy, lived experience, and reality of climate change, but also the various mediums available and effective means of communication.