Climate Change and Historical Injustice: What's the Link?
A one-hour session on who caused a hotter world and who is paying for it: the rich countries that burned coal first, the ancestors whose debts we may have inherited, the rider delivering lunch at 46 degrees, the farmer blamed for the smog. When does history become a bill, and who should pay it? Twelve independent cards; open three or four.
The opening question
When the bill comes after a group dinner, what's your instinct: split it equally, or everyone pays for exactly what they had?
Everyone in the room answers this in one line before any card is opened. Write the answers down; you will come back to them.
The cards
12 ways into the topic
Each card is independent. Your group votes on which to open, and four or five is plenty for an hour. Behind every card sit three prompts, one at a time, that only appear once it is opened on the board. Unopened cards keep for next time.
- 1
India Burning Coal To Grow
Rich countries burned coal for two hundred years and got rich. Now India is building factories and power plants.
- 2
Rich Countries Paying For Floods
A flood destroys towns in a poor country. Rich countries send money and call it help. People there say: this isn't help, your pollution caused this.
- 3
Paying For What Ancestors Did
Your great-grandfather got rich in a way that hurt other people. You never met him. But your family still lives in the house his money built.
- 4
Stop Blaming The British
Something goes wrong in India, and someone at dinner says, “The British did this to us.” Your cousin rolls his eyes.
- 5
Giving Back The Kohinoor
A huge diamond taken from India sits in a British crown. Every few years, people say it should come home. Britain says no.
- 6
Saying Sorry For The Past
Over a hundred years ago, British soldiers fired on a crowd at Jallianwala Bagh and killed hundreds of people.
- 7
Working Outside In The Heat
It's 46 degrees. You order lunch from your cool room. Twenty minutes later, a delivery rider rings the bell, soaked in sweat.
- 8
Blaming Farmers For Smog
Every winter, Delhi's air turns grey. The news shows farmers burning crop stubble in Punjab.
- 9
Blaming Our Parents' Generation
Your younger cousin says your parents' generation wrecked the planet. Your father says he reused everything and never owned a car until he was forty.
- 10
Kids In A Hotter World
You're married. Your parents keep asking when the baby is coming.
- 11
Flying For A Holiday
You've saved all year for a trip abroad. One long flight can put out more pollution than many people in a village cause in a whole year.
- 12
Jobs In A Coal Town
Your whole town works in the coal mine, the coal plant or the shops around them. Now the country wants to stop using coal.
The line to leave with
What are you still enjoying today that someone, somewhere, never agreed to pay for?
More boards,more ways in.
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