Speaker: David Beard, Professor of Rhetoric, University of Minnesota Duluth
Subject: From Grief into Growth: Reflections on Collaborations on Climate Grief and Climate Action in Northeastern Minnesota and Beyond
Time: 19 March 2025 13:30 Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Summary:
There are multiple reasons why rural residents experience “environmental amotivation,” which “is correlated with beliefs that individuals are incapable of performing effective pro-environmental action, that the energy required is too great, or that specific actions will be ineffective (i.e., low response efficacy).” Causes of this amotivation may reside in the rural experience of economic, social and civic life, where residents of small towns feel remote from power and so unable to act.
Other causes of this amotivation may reside in the emotional stress of climate grief.
This presentation reflects on a yearlong project to synthesize multiple strands of work on climate grief and climate action, including the commissioning of multiple works of art, research into climate literacy and climate information resources, and the celebration and invitation to participate in the assisted migration of 110,000 trees from southern-central Minnesota to NE MN in advance of climate change.
Biography:
Professor Beard has published in the International Journal of Listening, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Southern Journal of Communication, and Enculturation, among other venues. With Heather Graves, he co-edited “The Rhetoric of Oil” (Routledge). He is also a Fellow with the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota.
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