Andreas Ytterstad of Oslo Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway (currently Visiting Scholar at Centre for Environmental Journalism Colorado University Boulder)

Abstract:
There is an uprising of good sense in the air. Can we, after all, really do it? Can we put things right on our planet? In 1776 Thomas Paine wrote a book calling on Americans to join the revolution. He called it Common Sense because, “however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and reason will say, ‘tis right’.” The last words of Common Sense so clearly describe how humanity feels about global warming. Humanity has continued “putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity.”

That feeling, that panic, is no longer just lurking there in the back of our minds. It has exploded onto the streets as school children march across the world and it has created an existential and political buzz in the United States around the Green New Deal. Andreas Ytterstad, the founder of the powerful Bridge to the Future Alliance in Norway, will speak about how a climate jobs campaign could provide the nuts and bolts of such a Green New Deal, and why it must be built from the uprising of good sense everywhere, from Greta Thunberg to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.