The training was separated into three parts. The first part, What is climate change?, aimed to increase understanding of climate change via the collaborative Climate Fresk game. Climate Fresk is excellent for vividly illustrating how the carbon crisis permeates everywhere, the complexity of it and the feedback loops which make it more powerful over time. It’s a little overwhelming – but in the analysis of cause and effect lies hope, as it points the way to meaningful interventions.
Even after decades of hearing about the climate emergency, I learned a bunch of new things. I thought sea ice melting raised the sea level. It doesn’t (although is catastrophic for biodiversity including polar bears). But land ice melting is a different story, and the potential impact of Greenland melt or worse, the south pole, is scary.
The second session explored what our role is, as a University. We heard from KCS on the work going on at King’s to increase climate and sustainability education and research, while at the same time decarbonising our operations. This was followed by discussions in groups, with us feeding back what we want to see, what is and isn’t working, and where we can have impact. There was a dose of reality and pragmatism when confronting the challenge that is our CO2 output, including through our heritage buildings, which will be too expensive to fully resolve meaning we must work harder elsewhere.
The third and final session was about what we can do as individuals. We watched the new video about climate and sustainability at King’s, and heard from students about what the climate crisis means to them and what they want to see from their university and in their curriculum.
The impact will all have as individuals is clear, and therein lies one of the many contradictions. We are all personally part of the problem, even if we aspire and work to be part of the solution. Which means we have a responsibility to act personally, and where possible, to exercise whatever institutional or societal influence we can.
We were encouraged to make personal commitments, and you won’t see me on campus using a disposable coffee cup (if you do, come and tell me off and I promise I will buy you a coffee in a keep cup). And this has stiffened my flexitarian resolve to eat more plants. I’ll also use my influence to push for eco-friendly design and environmentally sustainable practices on campus, as we grow the education and research we do here at King’s.
King’s can and needs to do a lot. But if I had to highlight one thing, it’s to ensure that the thousands of students who graduate every year, who will shortly become leaders and influencers around the globe, are informed about the climate crisis and feel some sense of accountability; and work in hope not despair.