Around the world, students are responding to what journalists often refer to as “the biggest challenge facing humanity.” It’s the worldwide effort to transition to a more sustainable society, and mitigate the conditions that will cause catastrophic climate change and the Earth’s sixth great mass extinction (the only one caused by our species).
This week is Earth Cycle at U of T, a week organized to create awareness and get students involved. The environment is at the top of many people’s minds.
UTSU, OPIRG, GSU, and UTERN, among others, are all student groups that address climate change. But they often face difficult internal problems and lack cooperation between them. These groups—all of which receive a student levy—could be far more active on these fronts, and it’s reasonable to predict they will be.
However, the world has very little time to wait. Climate scientists have provided peer-reviewed evidence that anthropogenic climate change is happening very quickly, and that we don’t have a lot of time to make the necessary big changes. “Baby steps” and slow transitions are not adequate. We need to work together, and quickly.
The necessity of creating more renewable energy infrastructure—which the province’s Energy minister has just begun to do—is therefore urgent. So is halting the tar sands expansion and persuading the Harper government to stop obstructing international climate negotiations. In the absence of responsible leadership from government and corporate sectors in Canada, students must fill the gap.
Already, students are taking on many initiatives. Some are working to make the campus more energy efficient by urging President Naylor to sign the Presidents’ Climate Initiative. Two engineering students went to their department head and got green architecture and design courses introduced into the course calendar. Others regularly organize climate and water justice lectures and films. And thousands are part of Powershift, a worldwide student movement for action on climate change.
A few students at U of T do a lot of good work, but many more could be involved on a downtown campus of 40,000, particularly when we are in the midst of that critical period of history when it is still possible to prevent catastrophe. As geography professor Danny Harvey notes, “much has been lost but there is still much that can be saved.”
In other parts of the world, such as Germany and Norway, student groups are doing incredible work, but Canada sees too many young people unthinkingly subscribe to the norms of a society which operates at the expense of future generations and other species. I wonder “why not here?”
Part of the answer lies in how a production-oriented society influences our decision-making. During the Governing Council student elections, a Varsity reporter noted that typical applicants are either “ambitious resume-padders or fiery reform advocates” (Jan. 15, 2009). This turn of phrase neatly describes the twin motivations of many students who get involved in environmental issues at U of T. One could also phrase this as the distinction between those who assume responsibility but fail to carry it out, and those who work very hard to bring about change. As with most human endeavours, it is impossible to neatly classify people into one group or the other. We each have a bit of both in us.
Resume-padding and careerism is endemic to academia, and the environmental concern is no exception. Yet there is also something in the human spirit that can aspire to hope for more and do more. Concern for the other, whether human or non-human, is at the heart of environmentalism. It persuades the engineering student to study “green design” and to forgo the higher paying job with Exxon Mobil. It leads the university administrator to form a greening committee in his or her department or building—and there are many such committees at U of T. It leads a professor to design an interdisciplinary course incorporating environmental awareness.
Environmental concern can compel anyone in the university community to eschew elitism and individualism and embrace community-building around common ideals. But this is not merely idealistic; in the era of climate change and finite resource depletion, it is also a practical necessity.
Paul York is a graduate student and founder of Students Against Climate Change.
