Tag: young people

Mothering Earth: Raising kids in uncertain times

Posted on by janet.crompton
Image credit: Amanda Woodman-Hardy. Copyright.

Did you know women are more likely than men to be affected by climate change? UN figures indicate that 80% of people displaced by climate change are women. And in light of the recent strikes by children across the world, it is clear that it is the most pressing issue for a lot of children around the world. So then, what role do mothers play in guiding and supporting our children in a changing climate? And what is it like to know the dangers of climate change and bring up a child in an uncertain world?

The guilt

You only have to visit forums like Mumsnet to see that climate change is being discussed quite frequently and with anxiety (for those who care) around how it will affect their children’s futures. As highlighted on the Victoria Derbyshire programme, young women across the world are contemplating whether to have kids at all for fear of how climate change will degrade their children’s lives. In fact a new group called BirthStrike has risen up in the belief that it would be unjust to raise children in an increasingly damaged world. Even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an increasingly popular American politician and activist said in an Instagram livestream “Our planet is going to hit disaster if we don’t turn this ship around … there’s scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult”. So for women today, if you do decide to have children or already have them in this warming world, you do have these feelings of guilt, as well as anxiety and despair for their futures.

When you are a mum working in the environmental sector, it’s really quite tough balancing being a good mum and doing your bit for the planet, even with the best intentions! Whether we like it or not, kids and babies are incredibly wasteful. Whether it is growing quickly out of their clothes that they’ve only worn for the last three months or wasting food by throwing it around or not eating their meals because they are fussy, all the things they break that have to be thrown away and replaced and even all the washing you have to do, so much water and energy is used on a weekly basis. And don’t even get me started on all the plastic tat, balloons and wasteful gifts produced for children’s birthdays…

Image credit: Masum Ibm Musa via Wikimedia Commons

As someone who decided to have a child a couple years ago knowing full well what was happening to the planet because I work for the Cabot Institute for the Environment, it really was a tough decision for me. But I was technically going to be a ‘geriatric mother’ by the time I gave birth and so I decided that I would have a kid before it was too late biologically. I justified it to myself by deciding to buy second hand toys and baby clothes where possible (luckily I’ve had lots of hand me downs!); cut back drastically on consuming animal products; I have a 100% renewable energy tariff and I haven’t flown for three years besides many other things I’m trying my hardest at doing for the sake of the planet.  I also decided that I would raise my kid as best as I could to know what nature was, to respect it, cherish it and protect it and my hope is that he will contribute something positive to the planet as he grows up. Yet still there is that guilt and feelings of hypocrisy that what I am doing is not enough.

How do academic mums feel?

Working at the University of Bristol are many mothers who study the effects of climate change on the atmosphere, land and oceans and on living things such as animals, plants and humans. There are mothers who look at risk, uncertainty and climate related disasters and there are engineers who are dreaming up ways to fix things. So how do these mums feel about knowing what will happen in the near future?  I asked around and here are some responses from my colleagues:

Professor Dani Schmidt

Professor Dani Schmidt

Dani studies the biotic response to climate change, focusing on ocean acidification and its impacts on marine ecosystems. She is a Wolfson Merit Scholar with the Royal Society and sits on the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change Working Group II, Chapter 6 Ocean Systems, AR5. Dani said:

“I think it is important to remember that our children will have the power to change the world. It is in our power to change what the world will look like in which our children will grow; the world they will look after. We need to raise thinkers, scientists, engineers who think differently. The worst we could do for our children is to give up hope and not empower them to come up with ideas. Despair hinders action. There is so much to do, new transportation, new energy efficiency, learning to take the CO2 out of the atmosphere again to name just a few. We need to inspire our children to love nature, as we will protect what we treasure”.

Dr Frances Cooper

Dr Frances Cooper

Frances’ research is focused on understanding the mechanics of large-scale continental deformation and the evolution of orogenic systems. In plain English, her work looks at natural hazards and risk. Frances said:

“My son is nearly 18 months old, which means he will be my age in 2056. If global warming continues at its current rate, it will have breached the 1.5°C recommended by the IPCC by this time, resulting in more severe weather patterns, destruction of ecosystems, and melting of the ice caps. It is, of course, impossible not to dwell on this when I think about his future, but I think it’s important to respond with affirmative action. Although he is too young at the moment to understand climate change, it will be an important part of his education and I want to raise him as someone who is engaged with the issue and proactive about doing something to prevent it. Nurturing his curiosity in nature and the outdoors will be an early stepping stone, getting him excited and interested in the world around him. This way, I hope that he will grow up with an appreciation of how his actions impact the environment and that he has a responsibility to protect it.”

Dr Katharine Baldock

Katherine is a community ecologist whose research focuses on insect pollinators and how processes such as urbanisation affect pollinator communities. She is a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow based in the School of Biological Sciences. Kath said:

“The effects of climate change on animals, plants and processes that maintain the earth’s ecosystems are becoming ever more concerning. Unseasonable temperatures and unpredictable weather can impact on natural biological processes. The timing of events such as leaf emergence, insect emergence and flowering can be altered and become uncoupled from species which depend on them, for example flowers may be in bloom before their pollinators have emerged in the spring.

“What effects will these changes have on the natural world that my son grows up to experience? Will polar bears still have a habitat in the wild or will they be confined to only to zoos? Exposing our children to nature from an early age will benefit not only their health and wellbeing but hopefully embed in them a sense of wonder of the natural world and a desire to preserve and protect it. And they need first-hand experience, not just through the wonderful wildlife documentaries on our screens. I have recently started taking my 18 month old son to forest school, a first step on his journey with nature. He is already fascinated by birds and other animals and I hope this will grow into an appreciation for the environment and an understanding of how important his and others’ actions will be to the future of our planet.”

A motherly uprising?

It’s not all doom and gloom and anxiety and guilt though. There are some fantastic female led groups who are rising up to take on the climate change challenge, like 1 Million Women, who are building a global movement of women and empowering them to change their lifestyles. By doing this the many mothers who make up this group are also empowering and changing the lifestyles of their friends and families too. It’s win win. There is a new group of mums called Mothers Rise Up who are sick of feeling helpless about their children’s futures in the face of catastrophic climate breakdown and have announced “We are organising!“. Then there is Mothers Against Climate Change  who say “Women also make ~ 85% of the purchasing decisions and tend to be more empathetic and willing to share what they have learned”. Also Mothers Out Front who are “mobilising for a liveable climate”. Even former Irish President Mary Robinson and comedian Maeve Higgins have created Mothers of Invention – an uplifting new podcast celebrating amazing women doing remarkable things in pursuit of climate justice. Mothers really can, are and will make a huge difference to the way the world will tackle climate change.

Mothers as educators

If you are privileged enough to have access to educational resources on climate change, whether that be books, apps, websites, TV programmes and documentaries, do use them and share them with your child and others. If you don’t have access, visit your local library and ask to borrow some free resources.

If your child has completed a degree but wants to go on to a Masters programme, you could direct them towards the Cabot Institute’s brand new Masters by Research in Global Environmental Challenges. This is a unique one-year research project, supported by an expert supervisor, with access to a bespoke training schedule designed to enhance your child’s career prospects and help them not only to develop an interdisciplinary approach to the most complex environmental challenges of today but also to support them in becoming future leaders in environmental challenges.

The University of Bristol also offers free open online courses as part of Bristol Futures. It helps participants to investigate some of the major opportunities and challenges facing our generation: including Innovation & Enterprise; Global Citizenship and Sustainable Futures. Here at Cabot we’ve also recently partnered with actor Jeff Bridges on his new educational programme aimed at educating school and university students, focusing on issues featured in his recent award winning documentary Living in the Futures Past. Watch Cabot’s contribution to that programme, a short film on emergence  by Tom O’Shea.

And more locally, Bristol mum Traci Lewis set up Catalyse Change CIC, a social enterprise supporting girls and young women to develop sustainability skills and knowledge for ‘healthy, happy and green’ communities, careers and planet. This is a great initiative because ultimately these will be the mother’s of the future and they will continue to share their knowledge as they become mothers and grandmothers and influencers in their careers.

Mothers as communicators

A lot of women like to talk and the best thing you can do is to talk and talk some more with the people around you about climate change.  I’ve made a point to talk lots with my hairdresser about climate change issues, mainly to inform her in the hope that she will talk to her hundreds of customers about the issues too but also that she will think about her own actions.

It is also important that we talk to our children and encourage them to communicate about climate change. Climate communications organisation, Climate Outreach, has shown that young people can be  just as effective crafting a message as they are delivering it. In her recent blog for Climate Outreach, Emilie Holland Baliozian said “Inviting youth into the climate conversation is more than just giving them a voice. It means giving them a seat at the table and listening to what they have to say. Youth-led organizations all around the world, such as Zero Hour, Climates, Youth Climate Leaders, or Young Friends of the Earth, as well as the many youth plaintiffs suing their governments, are stepping up where adults are not. Let’s start listening”. Do visit the Climate Outreach website as they have lots of useful tips for communicating climate change to lots of different groups of people.

Parents are not just carers, cooks, role models, cleaners, nurses and counsellors etc they are also educators. It’s important for mums (and dads) to be supportive of their kids in the quest for knowledge and like Dani said, to ‘inspire’ our children and that can be done by leading by example, so may be consider putting yourself on the Bristol Futures courses or attending a climate strike. Greta Thunberg is organising another international school strike on 15 March 2019. As mothers we could encourage our children to attend, we could also go with them and show our support, even better we could rally up our friends, colleagues and family members to join in too.

I, like my colleagues, am incredibly privileged to have up to date access to the latest research on climate change. If you want to be kept informed too, do sign up to the Cabot Institute newsletter.  I am not only a mother but an educator and I will do all that I can to pass on my knowledge to my child and inspire him in the wonder of nature, that we as humans often forget or don’t realise we are intrinsically part of, so that his generation may just have a brighter future by learning to ‘mother’ their Earth.

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This blog is written by Amanda Woodman-Hardy, Cabot Institute Coordinator at the University of Bristol. You can follow Amanda at @Enviro_Mand on Twitter. Amanda would like to extend her thanks to Dani, Frances and Kath for taking the time out of their incredibly busy schedules to contribute to this blog.

Amanda Woodman-Hardy

 

COP21 daily report: Be brave, work together and involve the next generation

Posted on by janet.crompton
Cabot Institute Director Professor Rich Pancost will be attending COP21 in Paris as part of the Bristol city-wide team, including the Mayor of Bristol, representatives from Bristol City Council and the Bristol Green Capital Partnership. He and others Cabot Institute members will be writing blogs during COP21, reflecting on what is happening in Paris, especially in the Paris and Bristol co-hosted Cities and Regions Pavilion, and also on the conclusion to Bristol’s year as the European Green Capital.  Follow #UoBGreen and #COP21 for live updates from the University of Bristol.  All blogs in the series are linked to at the bottom of this blog.
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Scene from COP21

The first several days of COP21 have seen a flurry of announcements, propositions and commitments.  Just within the Bristol/Paris/ICLEI tent, numerous new ideas have emerged as city after city has stepped forward and proposed its Transformative Action Plans. Despite the diversity of propositions, the key themes are emerging: Leaders must be brave and adventurous; we must all work together in new and innovative partnerships built on trust; and engagement with the next generation is crucial.

These are not terribly surprising!

The challenge for leaders to be brave was the key message from the Mayors of the past and future European Green Capitals. Speaking after the panel, Katarina Luhr, Vice Mayor from Stockholm, said:

“My message to the politicians negotiating at COP21 is to look to the future and be brave.”

I could not agree with this more.  Going ahead, as we face increasingly difficult challenges, navigate contentious compromise, or try something new and unknown, this bravery will become even more important… and more complicated.  Populations will have to empower leaders to be bold and leaders will have to earn that right by building trust.

The Cabot Institute has been discussing this with our colleagues and partners (including the University’s new Brigstowe Institute) over the past year – and we are certainly not alone in this. We will report more on these issues in the coming months, but one emerging theme is how trust can be built through partnership. (See my blogs on the importance of University of Bristol partnerships here and here).

Few challenges, whether it be tackling climate change, resolving inequality or building a sustainable health service as our population ages, can be solved by a single agent acting alone.  Appropriately, George Ferguson and Cllr Daniella Radice, Assistant Mayor for Neighbourhoods, including Environment, emphasised partnership as they opened the discussion on the first day of the Cities and Regions Pavilion. And of course, the Pavilion itself is the product of partnership between Bristol, Paris and ICLEI, itself a partnership of >1000 local and sub-national organisations.

Partnership is necessary.  Diverse contributors with diverse perspectives and expertise must work together to solve the climate change crisis.

And partnership is hard. It requires a deep and long-term commitment and a willingness to share, compromise and trust. It is at the heart of the University of Bristol’s ambitions , including how we work with our city, but we also recognise that that requires long term commitment. We’re trying but we’re not going to pretend we have it cracked.

One great example of successful partnership is Bristol is Open, a joint venture between the University of Bristol and Bristol City Council but designed in a way to be open to a variety of new partners from business and civil society. BIO is a combination of state-of-the-art, publicly owned fibre-optic infrastructure, environmental sensors, 5G wireless technology, the university’s high performance computing and programmable city models.  It could enable a new type of smart city in which traffic, flood, emergency, and energy services are managed in real time to achieve efficiency, sustainability and resilience.

But that is the future of BIO.  What it is now is a city-wide laboratory that will be open for experimentation and innovation.  It is an invitation to partnership.  And one of the first steps in that invitation was the 18 November Festival of the Future City launch of the Data Dome, the UK’s first 3D, interactive dome for data visualisation at At-Bristol. The purpose and value of the smart, programmable city can be difficult to grasp – it was for me!  The Data Dome, similar to the Playable City initiative, is a way to share and explore the potential of this technology while learning about our city. [And the Bristol Brain, one of Bristol’s Transformative Action Plan propositions discussed on Tuesday, will also be central to this.]

Another truly exciting arena for partnership is the recently announced UKCRIC programme, led in Bristol by Professor Colin Taylor, also the theme leader for the Cabot Institute’s Future cities and communities research theme.  We will be discussing this much more in the future, especially as we launch the Collaboratory component of it, which will bring investment to the centre of Bristol to support even further collaboration and innovation.

Of course, one of the most exciting and successful examples of partnership that I have seen in Bristol or any other city is the Bristol Green Capital Partnership (BGCP), which was key to winning the European Green Capital award and remains dedicated to building momentum for climate action. Gary Topp, Development Director for the Partnership and Honorary Fellow in the University of Bristol, was part of the team showcasing Bristol’s ambition on Tuesday in Paris, where he outlined its work involving over 850 organisations committed to creating ‘a low carbon city with a high quality of life for all’. For other Green Capitals, creating a partnership was a major success; we started with one. And it is now the largest of its kind in the world.

One of the things I am most proud of in the Cabot Institute has been our support of and work with the BGCP (which predates my current role by several years).  Our Manager Philippa Bayley was the directly elected co-Director of the Partnership in 2014 (with the amazing Liz Zeidler of Happy City, about which I could write a whole extra blog!), and we have several ongoing projects. The Partnership is now gearing up to be a central and sustainable part of the 2015 legacy, serving as a uniting, empowering and vocal participant in the future of our city. On 26 November 2015, working with Crowdfunder UK, they launched their most recent initiative, the Better Bristol campaign to find new ways to support exciting and potentially transformative projects.  The largest such partnership in the world, the BGCP will play an essential role in ensuring that Bristol continues to be a place where grass roots projects thrive.

Mayor George Ferguson emphasised this principle in his concluding comments, noting that while targets and technology were important, the European Green Capital award was about people and partnerships among civil society, with schools, businesses and other cities. “Recognising that we cannot work in isolation,” he added, “is absolutely vital. We need to shape our cities in partnership, finding common links to suit everybody, provide confidence to deal with the unknown and take control of our destinies.”

A final example of this Partnership came later in the day, when our former Cabot Institute colleague Professor Andy Gouldson (now at Leeds) shared his research in investment in a sustainable future for Bristol. It revealed that over the next decade, such investment could save Bristol up to £300 million on its energy bills and create up to 10,000 jobs.  The report ‘The Economics of Low Carbon Cities: a Mini-Stern Review for the City of Bristol, was commissioned by the Cabot Institute and funded by the University, and uses a robust model to assess the costs and benefits of low carbon projects to accelerate Bristol’s progress.  A similar initiative, STEEP, involving Cabot Institute academic Mike Yearworth, showed how Systems approaches could also bring about city-scale energy efficiencies.  Both are underpinning Bristol’s consultation around its Climate and Energy Security.

So enough patting ourselves on the back.  These are some nice emerging success stories.  But we can do better.

Partnerships work best when everyone benefits, but we must put more effort into building deeper and more powerful trust so that partnerships create room for compromise.  Or even temporary sacrifice. Perhaps more importantly, we recognise that many people do not feel included in these ‘partnerships’. This requires more thought and reflection than a few paragraphs in a single blog.  Therefore, allow me to simply note this challenge and trust me to return to it; and I will finish by focussing on one of our most important partners.

The youth of our city and our planet

As an educational institution, we must make a strong commitment to prepare the next generation. Our offer should be imaginative, distinctive and innovative – and it should prepare our students to be global citizens, committed to a sustainable and just future, and inspired to be creative and enterprising.  These concepts are intrinsic to our ongoing Strategic Review, being led by our new Vice-Chancellor Hugh Brady.

They are also being embedded at an earlier age through one of Bristol 2015’s flagship successes. On 24 Nov, the city launched the Sustainable Learning programme, shared with thousands of Bristol children and  underpinned by the award-winning Shaun the Sheep app.

We must prepare the next generation to live in a more volatile and unpredictable world.  The University of Bristol is committed to that.

We must also prepare the world for them.  This is not about solving all the problems for them; nor is it just about giving them the education to solve problems.  It is also about creating the social, economic, legal and infrastructure framework that leaves room for them and their ideas and their creativity.  I think all policies, regulations and treaties (or their removal) should be tested against a central rule: does this create options for future generations or take them away.   The next generation must inherit a world where creativity and innovation are allowed to thrive. The Cabot Institute is committed to that.

But we must be equally committed to working with them now.

Young people at the Bristol Climate March this year.

George Ferguson emphasised this in Paris: “We all recognised the importance of putting our young people first and foremost; involving them in how we plan for their future… those young people often come up with ideas and solutions that are better than those of their older counterparts. Building cities for the future cannot just be for youth, it has to be with them”.

I have written (and tweeted) about how deeply impressed I am by our Youth Council and our Youth Mayors, several of whom were just nominated by RIFE Magazine as 24 Influential People under 24. They are brave!  And smart and informed and passionate.  They have ambition for themselves and ambition to make the world a better place and we would be fools to simply wait for them to become future leaders. They have much to offer now.

But that involves more than just inviting them to the meeting; it means letting them set the agenda.

Are we brave enough to do that?



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This blog is by Prof Rich Pancost, Director of the Cabot Institute at the University of Bristol.  For more information about the University of Bristol at COP21, please visit bristol.ac.uk/green-capital
Prof Rich Pancost

 

This blog is part of a COP21 daily report series. View other blogs in the series below:
 
Monday 30 November: COP21 daily report
Tuesday 1 December: Setting a more ambitious agenda – Bristol’s Transformative Action Plans
Wednesday 2 December: Reflecting on the science of climate change
Thursday 3 December: The politics and culture of climate change
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