The annual Rockhound Gemboree kicks off on Thursday, and among the activities will be a speaker series featuring 10 lecturers.
The talks will run over four days and will include content on geology, minerals, collecting and even dinosaurs. Chris Houston is the Executive Director of the Canadian Peace Museum and he will be presenting a lecture on peace and the environment.
“I think of these as two separate topics. I am going to help people understand how caring for the environment can advance peace and harmony and how environmental damage can exacerbate conflict.”
Houston added environmental damage can disrupt many people’s access to essential resources.
“Access to water and the ability to grow crops is impacted, and it forces them to change their behaviour and move to different places. There can be competition for land which creates tension, and that can lead to violence.”
He said there is evidence in many parts of the world where war was driven by environmental destruction. Houston will bring his talk closer to home, focusing on good relationships with neighbours as well as some concerning events.
“I am going to talk about events that made the news in Bancroft, including gun violence, bullying and political polarization. There are times people struggle to have conversations around locally contentious topics.”
Houston said having difficult conversations where people disagree is healthy.
“We need to relearn that skill and step away from existing only on Facebook and arguing at people through a computer screen. We need to have adult discussions where we recognize disagreeing is normal, and most of us probably have things in common.”
The first speaker is Tim Jeffries, whose talk is titled ‘Dinosaur Detective’ at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Houston is the last speaker on Saturday at 4 p.m. The speaker series is at the Bancroft Curling Club.
More information can be found on the Gemboree website at https://www.bancroftrockhoundgemboree.ca/.
