Climate Disruption

It's to no surprise climate disruption is happening. What is unbelievable is that there are people out there who actually deny that it is an issue. With surrounding facts and consequences that are already occurring from climate disruption, it's hard to understand what people are thinking who deny climate change.

What are some of the effects of climate disruption?

-----"These changes are already being observed in various forms in different areas, such as prolonged drought, heavier rain falls, retreating glaciers, melting permafrost, loss of sea ice, and rising sea levels. The impacts of these changes are disrupting transportation, energy, agriculture and health systems, and are expected to increase."-------

So, climate disruption isn't just hurting the environment, it is also hurting us and how we are living/the systems we have created. Climate disruption is actually stressing water resources which will in turn have a domino-like effect on many aspects that follow suit around it. Our whole health is surrounded by water and without a reliable source of water to be found, we will definitely be risking our health and well-being. 

----The U.S. Pentagon issued a statement saying that climate disruption actually poses a greater threat to it than terrorism. ----

So, how does this affect us locally? Obviously, this is occurring right at the very moment and people have to learn how to deal with it in someway or another. For example, we can take a look at the droughts we have had recently on the west coast in California. The Sierra Nevada mountains snow pack actually ended up melting due to higher than normal temperatures. The high temperatures also caused some of California's reservoirs capacity of H20 to decrease which is the source of water for millions. This is the negative consequence droughts have on citizens and the environment. 

The huge global problem of climate disruption is due to not just one country, one population, or one thing. Rather it is from a combined effort of how we make every day decisions and how our history has developed us in to industrious societies. It's scary that the negative consequences are so rapid, literally it is frightening, yet the effects don't seem to be slowing down, but increasing exponentially. If something doesn't change we are going to seem more local effects, there is no doubt about it. 

CENTER STREET FREE SPACE WITH BEEHIVE COLLECTIVE

April 15, 6pm, Center Street Free Space - HANDS-ON Collaborative Graphic-making workshop (set aside your whole evening, it will be approx 4 hrs long)

Walked in to Center Street Free Space at around 6:20. 3 Tables were connected, and there were about ten people sitting around it and two men standing up. The two men standing up would be the members of the Beehive Collective.

We started the workshop by playing a game. My friend, Leyton, told me a story where she had felt uplifted & empowered by an act she had done, while this was happening I was supposed to draw it while she didn't look. I tried to draw symbols of the words she was saying & story she was telling. Then, she did the same to for me. It was a fun exercise and it was gratifying to be able to tell a story of where I felt uplifted and felt like I had made an impact. You don't get to tell people that very often.

 Then, we played another game. We had to draw what "prison-industrial complex" meant to us. We then all passed around our drawings around the table. Some drawings were completely conceptual, for instance, a stairway leading to nowhere below the ground, others had literally prisons drawn and the United States inside of it, and many, many, many others of how people interpreted the phrase. 

The games were allowing us to open our minds and share with others without the unnecessary judgement or competition one many feel in a big group. 

We then came together and started to brainstorm things about Milwaukee, the good things and the bad things that we could change/that bothered us about our city/movements occurring/what we were passionate about. We came up with this huge spider web model of all sorts of things including...

- police assault/ police violence

-sexual assault

- gardens

- space reclamation

- food desert

- education

- potholes

- DIY action/ DIY bike shops

- sex trafficking

- sustainability

- etc.

We then tried to connect things together because by connecting the smaller variables we would be able to unleash the smaller details we could then put on paper and possible concepts we could follow. Then, we were separated in to 3 groups. I was grouped with 4 guys I had just met we all had to interpret and conceive a drawing based off these intertwining theories and connected-ness of ideas we all had brainstormed.  It was hilarious and a lot of fun. We had a running joke about HOW WE HAD TO HAVE A POTHOLE in the drawing. Finally, we put a pothole in...it was great. 

The Beehive members tried to let us feel at ease and didn't shoot any of our ideas down. They were all ears and wanted us to understand that instead of saying "No, but..." we should always say, "Yes and..." because it is a much more positive way of working with other people. They were extremely laid back and extremely inspirational. I talked with a member at the end, I feel bad because I don't remember their names, but he had told me there were only about twenty members of the collective. That really blew me away because I was suspecting a bigger number and I am not sure why. But, WOW, it was a great experience and I'd like to go to more events like that more often, or just make art and share ideas more often with people rather than living a 'basic' 'mundane' life. There is so much out there to discover and so much we can do to fix things in our city, school, and each other's lives.  

Final Project

I've decided I would like to do further study on a local business for my final project. I have heard and shopped at the Riverwest Co Op before, but never did I think twice of what actually goes on behind the scenes there. The fact that its right next door to me in my community really intrigues me and I want to learn how it facilitates and what sort of people are behind the scenes making it all happen. Knowing a friend that works there is a pretty big help too to gain information about it.

I want to make a mini-documentary about the Riverwest Co Op. I have this camera and I've been meaning to shoot something for a while and I figured this would be a great opportunity. I would like to include maybe two interviews in it, but the style I am going for is very relaxed. I don't want to make something super formal. The Co Op has a relaxed feeling that welcomes the community through its doors. I hope to gain information on how the Co Op thrives and what type of connections the owner-workers have to other businesses to get their products. This mini-doc will be fruitful with shots of every day happenings at the Co Op, but true focus will be on community and hopefully some main members will be able to speak to me so I can see how they profit from being a part of such a democratically run business.

So, the main purpose: how does a Co op work? Whose a part of this Riverwest Co op? Who makes things happen there? Are there any rules? Are there any obligations? How do you become a member? How could I start my own Co op?

: )