Pirate's Cove

Great idea. More cultists graduating with tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt without a proper degree to let them afford to pay it back

Universities should take the lead in creating climate change warriors

Every day, we wake up to news of yet another forest fire, or photographs of glaciers melting. Temperatures this summer is unusually high owing to global warming. It is easy to fall into nihilism and believe that all hope is lost; after all, why bother when the consequences of climate change are so irreversible? However, what some people don’t get is that climate change can be tackled strategically; maybe by influencing adults to take definite steps to keep our climate ecologically balanced, or maybe just imbibing a sense of sustainability in kids.

Just because you read it doesn’t make it true. And it’s about as true as the zombie books and other horror I like to read

As a result, it is critical for Indian institutions to encourage students and assist them in coming up with new solutions to combat the boogeyman of climate change. The educational sector plays an important role in performing research and making genuine efforts to preserve and rebuild ecosystems. Universities are widely acknowledged as playing a crucial role in tackling major sustainability challenges through educating future generations, undertaking sustainability research, and encouraging legislators to also include sustainability concepts into the nation’s development efforts. On a global basis, university campuses are anticipated to act as an experimental paradigm for sustainability. A clean and sustainable campus will provide a healthy and happy learning environment. Set in the midst of nature, NIIT University has taken various greening initiatives and developed sustainable model to nurture the environment and to sensitize students to urgent need of combating the climate change.

Oh, wait, this is from India. Do the kids who attend college there really care? What about all the ones here in the U.S. on student visas? What about all the lower castes, and, yes, there is very much a caste system in place in India? Do they care, or, just want decent food and living conditions?

Here are some constructive ideas for universities on how to engage students to combat climate change:

1. Sustainability curriculum

Universities should develop and integrate the sustainability aspect in their curricula. This lesson would introduce students to the seriousness of the climate crisis while also encouraging them to consider solutions from the start. Students should also be encouraged to participate in various environmental initiatives like planting trees, sustaining water bodies, greening hills etc. Getting initiated into The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, popularly known as TEEB, is another way of powerful orientation for students.

Blimey.

2. Climate Warrior Fellowship

A ‘Climate Change Warrior Fellowship’ can be launched by some of the country’s premier universities to develop an army of young professionals and embed them into the governmental machinery. These young people could use their entrepreneurial thoughts and knowledge to help the government promote climate change initiatives from within the system. This would also equip individuals who are fresh out of high school or college with valuable real-world experience enacting change.