The US and Canada join the assembly

The sixth monthly family assembly was held on line on 5 July. The family in the US were together and comprised 6 adults and 5 children aged between 11 and 14. In Canada the 2 grand/parents joined. In the UK we had the households in Oxford, Cambridge and London (adults and one child). Much of the discussion was about the concept of the family climate assembly and two main thoughts were the usefulness of sharing information about how individuals and families were reacting to the threat of climate change and the way in which family assemblies could increase awareness. Without awareness there could be no focus, or compliance and gradually we will increase climate literacy climate and climate change will become part of the vernacular.

It was made clear that the concept was intended to lift the burden and stress from individual action and to create solidarity between family members and resilience; encouraging each other to take meaningful action on climate and biodiversity and to provide support where awareness turns into eco-anxiety.

There were many promising signs including, home and municipal composting, school farm, plastic recycling, active travel and slow increase in vegetarianism. But there is a lot of flying, mostly for family reasons. There was also a discussion about the carbon accounting for the transition from fossil cars to EVs. The US contingent was invited to join the Whatsapp group where this experience and knowledge can be shared and they were invited to join the next assembly and to form other assemblies around their extended family networks.

This assembly was a step in the right direction and it will be interesting to see if the assemblies multiply. There are averaging about 2500 visits to the web site every 6 months so hopefully there are plenty of families working this way.