DS Director Scott Leckie led an online workshop hosted by the Centre for Local Prosperity entitled ‘We are all Climate Displaced Persons’ on 27 May, 2020 as part of the the 2020 Pandemic and Climate Crisis, and the Uncertain Future of Local Prosperity Virtual Thinkers Lodge Retreat. You can watch a short film about the workshop here: https://youtu.be/Gla-sUjxkq8
The publication on this event is available here: https://issuu.com/displacement-solutions/docs/thinkers_20lodge_20conv_20on_20uncertain_20future_. Pages 56-60 outline a series of concrete proposals for action put forward by Displacement Solutions to this important gathering.
In the spirit of previous in-depth retreats at the Thinkers Lodge, Pugwash, Nova Scotia (Canada) the Centre for Local Prosperity convenes virtual discussions with international, regional and local thought leaders on topics that include: shifting the community narrative for adaptability and future agency; climate grief and spirituality as motivation for engagement and action; restorative food, power, built environment, local governance and local economics. In this session, Thinkers discuss how we can create regional places or networks that act as refuges for climate displaced persons, coming from both within our region and internationally. Atlantic Canada could be considered a refugee area for humanity because we have natural resources, we have fresh water, we have a reasonable climate and we have a relatively low population density. We have everything that humanity needs. This video was adapted from the virtual discussion ‘We are all Climate Displaced Persons’ recorded May 27, 2020, edited by Ethan Neville with music by Kirsty Money.
The Centre for Local Prosperity – www.centreforlocalprosperity.ca – initiates conversations intended to encourage communities to begin a shift toward an economy that is properly scaled for the place. It is our hope that such a dialogue will result in real action for change by creating a new climate for change. The Centre for Local Prosperity takes pride in working alongside community groups, businesses and governments to identify opportunities and assess the risks in making the shift to a new economy. The Centre is prepared to hold workshops, conferences, and targeted discussions on topics as far ranging as local currency, climate-change, restorative business modelling, living wage, affordable and efficient housing, local energy production, food & community hubs, entrepreneurial start-ups, transportation, arts & culture and social and economic justice. Over time, the Centre envisions the crafting of a new narrative: a language that invites a balance between a culture of economic development and the preservation and restoration of natural systems. History demonstrates that vision without enlightened action is destined to lie fallow. Our hope is to discover an older grace and intelligence that binds us together in ways we could never have imagined. Once discovered it becomes the new social, economic and political narrative that restores the commons, elevates the notion of fairness, and sets a higher standard by which all progress is to be measured.