Climate Change Deliberative Democracy Event a Success!

There is a fascinating event happening this weekend at the UofA on citizen engagement. My friend, Wendy Andrews, has been attending and helping to organize the event. I don't do "guest blogs" but Wendy's offering is a worthy exception. Here is her take on what happened last night at the Deliberative Democracy event on Climate Change in Alberta:



Friday, Sept. 26, 2008
Deliberative Democracy and Climate Change


Capitalizing on Alberta’s Natural inclination to be a leader makes us step up as citizens!! Change is happening!

Friday night at the U of A Telus Centre, more than 200 people partook in a discussion about how to engage Albertans in addressing Climate change. Janette Hartz-Karp from Perth, Australia led us through a very entertaining World Café process.

High school students, Seniors, first nations, business executives, housewives and government personnel together explored what Alberta would look like in 2020 if we were successful in addressing climate change.

We had cross party representation at the event and all parties recognized the need to move forward…..but how? …….. That’s what we will deliberate tomorrow.

There is a great opportunity for Alberta to take a lead to be innovators in both Citizen Engagement processes and Climate change. People are acting now in the hope that they can best prepare for the future…..together.

I sat with several young people who were at University or just into the workforce who were totally up to challenge of making a difference in their own future. Wow! People are ready to be more involved in how they are governed…..see the results of today’s deliberations on http://www.climateconversation.ning.com

This is just the beginning of the discussion. You too, can be part of the excitement. Site will be updated daily and keep checking this blog as history is made.


Thx Wendy for the update. If you are interested in attending and learning more about this event on deliberative democracy HERE IS A LINK to my post last Thursday on the event: http://ken-chapman.blogspot.com/2008/09/deliberative-democracy-forum-on.html