The Surefoot Effect from the UK, Volontariato Torino from Italy, the Centre for Education and Entrepreneurship Support (CWEP) from Poland, and E.N.T.E.R Network from Austria have secured €170,000 worth of funding for an Erasmus+ 2-year project with a focus on communicating aspects about climate change and other environmental issues at the local, national, European and international levels.
The first part of the project will see the creation of an interactive online platform where participants will be able to learn about different topics related to a deterioration of the global environments. These will include basic knowledge about climate change and other environmental problems, as well as potential solutions to these issues based on some of the outcomes of the Intellectual Outputs of the Erasmus+ project ‘A Tale of Two Futures’ (www.tales2futures.eu). Climate justice, environmental ethics, and corporate social responsibility will also be part of the curriculum.
The second part of the project aims at illustrating the main themes covered in the platform with the aid of 50 stills and a 20-page graphic novel created by European artists. We will also use these visual components as a dissemination tool. This fun and innovative format might make it easier for participants of the programme to learn core themes, especially for those without a scientific background of the subject.
Graphic novel story
By means of a graphic novel, we would like to give life to a family of six who has time-travelled from the year 2050, when the world has become carbon-neutral. The family wanted to visit Edinburgh, where grandpa and grandma met in 2010 while studying Ecological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. They then want to go back, but the time machine they have used has broken during the trip. The grandparents built the device together but they are forgetful. To repair it, they need to remember the events that meant something in their lives from 2010 until 2050, especially those which led to a carbon-neutral society. They need the people of Edinburgh to tell them about the sustainability projects that are already happening in the city, but also in other communities in Europe and around the world, as well as of the projects that contributed to this global change over four decades. The characters will also speak of other core concepts developed for the e-learning programme, such as climate justice and environmental ethics. Thanks to all these tips, the grandparents will slowly recover their memories until they are ready to repair the machine and return to 2050.