The Global Environmental History Influencer Workshop

This two-hour workshop will offer participants two options: (1) “Basic Training” for those who are eager to become Social Media Influencers for Global Environmental History; (2) Basic information for those interested in learning more about the relevance of global environmental history to the present.  The workshop’s primary objective is to prepare participants to become “Global Environmental History Storytellers” with core values mirroring the Rachel Carson Council’s storytelling initiatives and Yale’s Program on Climate Change Communication.  Every participant will be given access (via the Cloud) to the PowerPoints for East Carolina University’s Honors College Seminar on Global Environmental History.  The PowerPoints -- based on such sources as Daniel Headrick, Humans Versus Nature, and Clive Ponting, A Green History of the World -- cover such topics as “Ecohistory and Early Humans,” “Agricultural Societies and the Environment,” “European Mastery and Expansion,” “The Rape of the World,” “Disease and Human History,” “The Transition to Fossil Fuels,” “Artificial Urban Environments,” “Rise of the Affluent Society,” “Global Pollution & Global Warming,” “Environmentalism.”

The first half of the workshop will provide a broad overview of global environmental history.  During the second half, those participants interested in “Basic Training” to become Social Media Influencers will be introduced to the initial steps required to accomplish four AI-facilitated goals: (1) Defining an environmental history niche and identifying the target audience; (2) Brainstorming the development of relevant content on topics in global environmental history; (3) Identifying the most suitable tools required to build an online presence (for example, WordPress, BuddyPress, BuddyBoss, Substack); (4) Establishing and expanding a “simulated” online presence.  Ideally, as one anticipated outcome of the workshop, participants will join with the organizer/presenter to establish a cadre dedicated to the dissemination of accurate “Storytelling” about global environmental history.  With that goal in mind, the organizer/presenter will follow up with like-minded participants after the workshop.

In keeping with the objectives of the UN’s Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change, participants will be encouraged as “Storytellers” not only to develop and present accurate content on relevant topics in global environmental history, but also to combat “fake news” and debunk such myths as “The Past Was Cleaner/Better”; “Climate Change Has Nothing to Do With Human Activity”; “Climate Change Has Always Happened Without Causing Big Problems”; “Humans Have Always Adapted to Mother Nature and Vice Versa.”

Why focus on “Storytelling” about global environmental history?  Human environmental history is both the story of how Homo sapiens has circumvented natural ecological limitations and of the consequences for the environment.  Instead of seeing the environment as a major factor in human history, settled societies, especially modern urban-industrial societies, have acted under the illusion that, somehow, they are independent from the natural world – which generally has been seen as something to exploit with impunity.  Since the first great transition over 10,000 years ago, and particularly since 1800, humans have increasingly put tremendous pressure on the earth’s environment – in defiance of basic ecological principles. For centuries, these effects have been felt with such force that, ultimately, the global systems which make life on earth possible (the ozone layer and the mechanisms regulating the earth’s temperature) have been badly affected.

The fact that human society has not unraveled thus far does not guarantee it will not happen in the future. However, humankind has never faced such a global threat to our very existence.  And yet, as McMichael has concluded: “If we learn from the past, understand the present, and imagine a better and more sustainable future, we may yet call forth such sparks to ignite collective action and light the past to a sustainable way of living on a finite planet.”  “Storytelling” about global environmental history may be more important today than ever before in human history.

DC Climate Week is not responsible for this event. It is organized by the organizing group, and being listed on the DCCW calendar is not an endorsement of content or partners.