Get on your electric bike, do Miami-Montreal in three months and raise awareness about climate change as many people as possible during your journey. Heather Noreen, a 48-year-old American, succeeded in her bet. She finally arrived at her destination on May 31.
“I’m not an athlete, I even have knee problems! jokes Heather Noreen.
We met her at the beginning of June at the Maison du développement durable in Montreal. She was leading her last workshop before returning home to Lille, France. She had just completed her journey: 5,000 km on an electric bike, training nearly 600 people in some thirty cities along the way.
She had the opportunity to give all kinds of workshops during it: climate frescoes, biodiversity, food, mobility and digital technology, but also the 2tons workshop…
That evening, Heather Noreen trained eight people to host the Food Fresco. One of the participants, Olivier Gourment, told us he “collects” the Frescoes; but he continues to learn new things every time. “Food is a bit of a blind spot compared to the other Frescoes. And that’s 14 opportunities per week to act for the planet! », he says.
These workshops are presented in the form of a deck of cards based on official sources, such as reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
From deforestation to plastic pollution of the oceans, including meat consumption and the exploitation of agricultural land: participants are invited to trace the links between various causes and consequences of climate change. Then comes a stage where they think about solutions together, on an individual and collective level.
“It’s a bit like a puzzle. We put each piece together and connect everything we heard here and there, to better understand,” explains Heather Noreen.
Since its creation in 2015, more than a million people around the world have, for example, followed the Climate Fresque workshop – including more than 10,000 in Quebec. Many other frescoes also gradually saw the light of day: today there are around a hundred of them.
For Maxime Boivin, researcher at the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec and professor in the department of information and communication at Laval University, these workshops are “very interesting initiatives” to combat ecoanxiety.
For her, these training courses are in line with several surveys conducted recently in Quebec, which show that a vast majority of the population understands the urgency of climate change and wishes to see more concrete actions by businesses, politicians and people.
Heather Noreen had already given, a few days before, a first three-hour workshop to the participants of this Fresque – training that had never been offered before in Quebec. These three additional hours allowed them to become facilitators themselves, in order to subsequently provide training to others.
Maxime Boivin also emphasizes that this type of workshop can make it possible to move from individual actions to a more global movement. “The power we have lies in our small gestures, but above all in what they represent,” she explains. Our consumption choices, the actions we take in the public sphere […], allow us to demonstrate social desirability in the fight against climate change. When our individual actions contribute to a collective movement, that’s when they carry the most weight. »
Thus ended the first “Climate Tour” of Heather Noreen, who founded a non-profit organization of the same name (Climate Tours), through which she intends to support other similar initiatives.
“What makes me wake up every morning with hope is knowing that it only takes one in four people to mobilize to start a movement towards a more sustainable future,” she maintains.
