This week’s directed study task carried over the theme of climate change from last week’s input. We were encouraged to engage with a few activities centred around climate change, and our own carbon footprint.
Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.
It’s interesting to note, now that I have been encouraged to more thoroughly consider climate change on a social and personal level, the literature we have surrounding climate change and how they affect us on these levels. One of the more visible ways in which we have been affected by this legislation is, of course, in carrier bag charges in supermarkets. The regulations aim, in part “to apply the net proceeds raised by such charges to the advancement of environmental protection or improvement or to any other purposes that may be reasonably regarded as analogous.” (Climate Change, Scotland) Act (2009)) This, on consideration, seems entirely reasonable and to be a good way to ensure that businesses are making contributions to environmental protection by default.
Considering this aspect in particular following last weeks class, made the idea behind and – challenges of – cultural adaptation more relatable in terms of how we can approach climate change on a societal and personal level. The changeover to charging for carrier bags was something I experienced both as a consumer and as a retail worker, and experiencing both sides of this change was particularly interesting, and somewhat frustrating. It is a change I feel I adapted to fairly easily, as did many people my age and younger, and although I am unwilling to cast aspersions on older generations, I found that where I worked, they seemed to encounter the most difficulty in adapting to the change. At least, they may have initially.
This was a particularly mild cultural change however, and although my observations are anecdotal at best, it is interesting to contemplate general societal attitudes to change. In 2017 it is now an expected part of daily life, that you either reuse your own plastic bags or pay for them, but the initial change was met with some confusion, backlash, or a general misunderstanding of why we were even being charged for the bags in the first place. It should be noted that that was in fact plenty of signage signifying the change, and that we as workers were encouraged to make customers aware of the situation, but somewhere down the line there were still some individuals who were unaware of the situation.
It seems like a very small change in the grand scheme of things, but revisiting the idea encouraged me to think about climate change policy from a logistical standpoint. You cannot simply turn around one day and tell society that things have changed, it requires collaboration on a variety of fronts (political, business and societal to name a few examples), a preparatory period in which public awareness of the change is raised and a co-ordinated and simultaneous changeover on a national level. Implementing a single aspect of new climate policy seems to require so much in terms of logistics and resources, that it is wholly unsurprising that we on a cultural level are slowly adapting to these changes.
On a personal level, I have found certain changes in my lifestyle quite easy to make, in terms of my choices with regards to travel and the way I shop, among other aspects. As with the carrier bags, some aspects of change in my own lifestyle have become second nature, though I am aware that there are further changes I could make in order to make my lifestyle more environmentally friendly.
Antarctica on the Edge
This was a short clip which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTPY8Q0raU4 was quite enlightening to me. Certain aspects of the video were concepts I was familiar with, in particular with regards to some of the methods and aims of the scientific expeditions in this area, but it was fascinating to hear the scientists in the clip discuss their concerns.
What the video highlighted to me was not only the physical changes which global warming can trigger in even the most remote landscapes, but the inherent “knock-on” effects that these changes can have on the biodiversity in these areas. In the clip, the researchers were able to witness behaviour in brittle starfish that had not been encountered before, which they then implied warranted further investigation and study. In the grand scope of the situation, observing starfish may not seem high on the priority list, but the implications of climate change are visibly reflected in the researchers’ attitudes towards this. If global warming and climate change are left unmitigated, it will impact on biodiversity in ways that we may not yet predict. Even in the most remote biomes, any substantial change in environment or food chains can have startling results.
It is also disturbingly apparent how swiftly these changes are occurring. The researchers expected to study a compact, substantial mass of ice, but were instead confronted with a glacier which they referred to as “rotten” – in the sense that the ice is degrading for more quickly than it should. If upwards of thousands of years of sea ice and glacial development can be altered so quickly, then surely it is imperative that climate policies are enacted now, and we take steps to mitigating the effects of climate change sooner rather than later?
Personal Carbon Footprint
I was pleasantly surprised after completing the WWF Footprint calculator.I have included screenshots of my results from the questionnaire below:
The results were certainly better than I expected, though I can attribute them to the change in lifestyle I experienced upon moving from Glasgow to Ayr, as I have previously mentioned on this blog. As I predominantly walk and cycle to the places I need to go, with maybe one or two bus trips a month, my travel impact has, I imagine, decreased since my time living in Glasgow, where I used public transport regularly. I intend for it to remain so during my time at university, and although I intend to learn to drive upon graduating, I hope to keep an environmentally friendly mind when it comes to this. In terms of home life, as I tend to cook everything from scratch and rarely order takeout, my impact in terms of packaging and fuel consumption in that regard may be lower than I expected too.
I admit there are some further changes I could make in order to reduce my impact further. At the moment I do not recycle as much as I could – or should – at home, although when out and about I am quite conscious of recycling where I can. I need to bring this attitude home with me in order to further reduce my carbon footprint.
Another suggested possibility for change was introducing less meat into my diet. This is something that I am quite keen to try. Although I doubt I would be able to live a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, I am interested in trying to introduce at least one or two meat-free days into my week, with due consideration giving to the ingredients I use.
I believe this WWF questionnaire would be quite a fun activity to do with a primary class. Each child or group could be assigned a made up character and complete the questionnaire for them, finding information about what changes they could make or what they are already doing to reduce their carbon footprint. This could form the basis of research or a larger project which would tie into sustainability throughout the classroom environment. It could form the basis of a fact file, or could be built into a “carbon footprint challenge”, where children are encouraged to be more mindful of what they do with regards to their carbon footprint.
There are a multitude of options provided by the BP Educational Service page which could also be used to support teaching about climate change, and how we as individuals and a society impact on global warming and climate change. I believe it is a necessary part of teaching within sustainability, that we teach children about their own accountability from an early stage. The key to cultural adaptation is education and openness to change, and children’s school years are an ideal place to start. If we can encaourage children to grow up mindful of their impact, I believe that mitigation and adaptation, both mentioned in the Paris Agreement, will be more more effectively achieved.
References
Antarctica On The Edge. (2017). Al Jazeera English.
Legislation.gov.uk. (2017). Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. [online] Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2009/12/section/88 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2017].
Useful Resources
http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/
