Shawnee Westerman, who studies geology and law, is working with groups of five to 12 year olds from two school holiday programmes to promote an understanding of climate change issues in a positive way.
She is running the pilot project in collaboration with
As part of her summer project, Shawnee is visiting holiday programmes in Karori and Khandallah to give a short presentation about climate change before helping the children to create posters that focus on actions people can take to reduce their impact on the environment.
“Climate change often comes across as an apocalyptic, horrible thing that we can’t do anything about. People don’t respond well to that. I’m interested in promoting things people can easily do, such as saving power, using public transport, walking and cycling,” she says.
“Children communicating actions we can take to reduce the effects of climate change sends a strong message because they’re the ones who will have to live with what we’re doing to the planet now.”
The top posters will be on display in the Cable Car terminal on Lambton Quay during February and will be viewable online.
This project is based on a similar initiative carried out in the United States that found promoting an understanding of science through art is an effective way of raising awareness of climate change.
“Explaining the issue through art helped people who were frightened by the hard facts. It was also a really good way to help children understand and engage with the issue,” she says.