Young people and climate change under the spotlight

The voice of young people in responding to the climate change debate will be the focus of a free public seminar at Southern Cross University’s Lismore campus on Wednesday, June 16, from 4pm to 5.30pm.

More broadly, the seminar will also invite participants to explore the case for – and limitations of – current responses to climate change in education.

Students, teachers and members of the public are welcome to attend the seminar, being hosted by the Centre for Children and Young People and the School of Education.

The guest speaker will be Dr Alan Reid, from the Centre for Research in Education and the Environment, University of Bath, UK.

Dr Reid is the editor of Environmental Education Research, and coordinates doctoral and masters programs in research methods in education and management. He also teaches graduate programs in environmental education, technologies and learning, and qualitative research approaches.

“In 2009, the Nobel Peace Laureate, Desmond Tutu, said that climate change was the greatest human-induced crisis facing the world today,” Dr Reid said.

“Before the 2007 Australian federal election, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called it the ‘greatest moral, economic and environmental challenge of our generation’.

“In 2006, Lord Stern, who led the British Government’s review on the Economics of Climate Change, argued: ‘There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we act now and act internationally’.

“And since 1990, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly highlighted a range of gradual and abrupt change scenarios for livelihoods, economies, habitats and ecosystems – including possible, irreversible, or catastrophic threats – if action on human-induced climate change doesn’t occur – in concert, in earnest, and immediately.

“So it is natural for us to ask why participatory forms of education don’t appear to have much prominence in this climate change debate.

“Indeed, given its preventative and beneficial use in other public policy ‘crises’ and ‘challenges’, if educational systems, structures and processes were brought to bear on climate change, could a polarised response be avoided? Namely, that education is either ‘part of the problem’ or ‘the solution’.”

In focusing on the role, participation and voice of students in responding to the climate change debate, the seminar will consider whether active social learning that is ‘interactive, participatory, challenging and risky’ is universally appropriate.

It will look at whether active social learning harbours ‘rich potential for emergence and transformation’, in attempting to bring education to the fore in climate change debate and action – and the alternatives.

The seminar will be held at the Lismore campus in room R-106a and video linked to
SCU Riverside, Brent Street, Tweed Heads, in room L-3 and to the Coffs Harbour campus in room MLG-13.

RSVP to Wendy Britt on wendy.britt@scu.edu.au or phone 66 203 605.

Photo: Dr Alan Reid, special guest speaker at a free public seminar on the voice of young people in responding to the climate change debate.