Ben and Lia are two great friends who, despite living in extremely different places, have a lot in common in terms of their love for the environment. Ben lives in a small village with few inhabitants and limited access to public transportation, where most of the population works in fields, much like his own parents. Ben loves living in a more rural area because he feels close to nature.
Lia, unlike Ben, lives in a big city with many inhabitants, where there’s a lot of traffic and congestion. The distance from Ben’s village to Lia’s city is only a few kilometres, but the biggest obstacle is a large forest in the middle, which has been shrinking as the city is growing and needs new land for construction.
The two friends decide to visit each other’s hometowns to get a sense of each other’s ways of life. After the visits, the two friends are startled by the impact that climate change has had, both in the city and in the countryside. And so, they decide to come together and show their friends and community that, despite living in different places, they can have similar behaviors, and together, everyone can help to mitigate the effects of climate change. Can you help them?
The two friends realise that many of their acquaintances do not identify with many aspects of an urban and rural region, even as they grow more enthusiastic about the notion of bringing the two communities closer together and demonstrating to them that despite their differences, they may have similar behaviours. And now is where the challenge starts for Ben and Lia!
Just like Ben and Lia’s friends, take a moment throughout the day to reflect not only on the characteristics of each area and lifestyle but also on the consequences that living in an urban area has on climate change, and the consequences that living in a rural area has on climate change.
How does learning and reflecting help create a community that modifies its behaviors and acts positively in combating climate change?
As Ben and Lia learn more about the rural and urban areas where they both live, they realise that everyone in the community needs to promote positive changes for the environment. In science class one day, Lia learns about the impacts that climate change has on people’s real lives and decides to share them with Ben. The two decide to create a game of true or false for their friends to answer.
Try to reflect a litte. How can we alter the impact that climate change has? Ben and Lia want the deforestation, which has been happening to expand the city, to stop. How can this be done? Share your ideas and solutions, highlighting the role one can have in these situations.
Ben and Lia, happy with the support of all their friends, decide to come together and organise various strategies and solutions to share with the community so that everyone can change their behaviors for the good of the environment.
Reflect on the use of new strategies and solutions and the impact it will have on the future of the new generations living in the city or in the countryside. What could change?
Ben and Lia felt that it was time to show the community what they have been developing with the help of their friends. They scheduled a meeting at the city council, which, as they had hoped for, was successful. The Mayor sincerely appreciated their work, and he is committed to changing certain attitudes in favour of the environment, namely putting an end to the deforestation that has been occurring in the area.
Congratulations! All of your commitment and dedication to understanding the impact of climate change on urban and rural areas helped inform the community and encouraged them to adopt eco-friendly behaviors. But don’t forget, it doesn’t matter whether we live in a city or a more rural area, what’s important is that regardless of where we live, we all contribute to ending climate change.