Community Environmental Listening groups - a grass roots approach to addressing Climate Change

The community at large holds the power to influence change (“We The People”), and individual action is the most powerful way to achieve it. The collective action of community listening helps raise awareness of the environment in which we live, the impact we have on it, and the transformations we observe in it. Here and now. This is a catalyst for change. Environmental listening is a simple tool that can profoundly strengthen these very sensibilities. The practice of environmental listening makes us more aware of our place within the ecosystem and, perhaps uniquely, brings us into the now, the very moment of practice. This proposal outlines a new initiative to establish a community-embedded Environmental Listening Network that teaches environmental listening skills and conducts listening events free to the community. Using a network of key partnerships, including ASU Library and the National Library Network, it aims to share this simple yet powerful method of environmental engagement nationally and worldwide. An Environmental Listening Field Guide is in development for broad distribution.This approach addresses several challenges. The first is that the time commitment and financial commitment associated with engaging in environmental listing and building local communities are minimal. All socio-economic groups can engage in these activities equally. Environmental listening can be practiced daily, wherever the listener finds themselves. So doing so helps develop an awareness of the subtleties of the ecosystem in which we live. As individual action is increasingly amplified by social media, the empowerment of individuals is one of the most powerful ways forward. Environmental Listening is an effective strategy for bringing about these changes and a key tool in addressing climate impact. The Community Environmental Listening Project envisions a future where, through acoustic ecology, people embrace their presence on the land on which they live to understand and foster a balanced ecosystem