Posts Tagged ‘careers’
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London EcoBarbie #5 Tate Gallery
LONDON ECO BARBIE –
Life’s not fair but at least my pants are..#5 Tate Gallery
By Amy WhitneyA desire to explore hidden areas of London led me to the Tate Gallery. Free, cultural and perfect for rainy days. The breezy space boasts a beautiful collection of classic artwork by the likes of Picasso, Matisse and Van Gogh. However what really drew my attention were the works of modern artists such as Ed Ruscha demonstrating the power of media, he portrays global warming, the Tate reaches large audiences from many nations.
Whereas consumerism and desire is experienced in the work of American artist Jeff Coons provoking the question of good and bad taste in my own consumption habits.
The pieces gave me inspiration to attempt some climate change artwork of my own, COPArt on Climate Squads website. Please take the time to pop along and visit the Tate Modern when your in London, its well worth it.
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Why do I care about climate change?
It seems mad to think that although studying geography at GCSE and A-Level, it was only when studying physical geography at university over the past 3 years that I was actually taught about climate change and its seriousness! It then dawns on me that climate change has only been entirely confirmed as a cause of human activity for 2 years, since the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) released their 2007 report: despite obvious long term changes in climate since 1970! I was therefore fortunate to have been studying geography and stumbled onto a course about climate change and have since found myself fascinated.
Sitting in a lecture theater with a lecturer telling us that by 2100 the Sahara desert is likely to have reached Paris; the entire remaining population could be living on UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand “lifeboat” countries and that mean global temperatures could potentially increase by as much as 11ºC (being just some of the many shocking facts we had to get our heads round), I found myself increasingly concerned by the future climate we have to face. However, this wasn’t just me, throughout the 3 years at University I saw a class of students grow from initially leaving lectures talking about the next club they are going to, to eventually a group of worried faces looking absolutely terrified by the hard facts we had been hit with. I started to think “well if this is all true, why isn’t more being done to stop it?”, “why isn’t this something everyone is forced to learn about because it’s REAL and is happening NOW!” Now obviously the facts mentioned are alarmist and worst case scenarios, but they are possible, and the problem that faces us is how we can get people to acknowledge the seriousness of climate change without putting them off by stating the shocking possibilities of climate change. It was these thoughts that led me into researching volunteering opportunities, internships and careers linked with climate change.
I found myself on the Global Action Plan website and registered my interest with “Climate Squad” with the mindset that any sort of activity I do along the lines of climate change will help me get a related job! My first meeting with the Climate Squad leaders was at the launch of the UK Governments Copenhagen strategy at London Zoo, and have since been working as a volunteer intern!
If any of this sounds familiar and you want to open doors to new opportunities, learn more about climate change and get more people active about it, or even to just put something extra valuable on your CV, register your interest with Climate Squad now!
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The DIY approach to cutting carbon
Climate change is real, it’s happening now, and the facts are pretty depressing. Without action, scientists predict nothing short of a global disaster - not hundreds of years in the future, but in our lifetimes.
But it’s not a done deal. The fact is that nearly half of all carbon emissions in the UK come from the energy we use every day - at home, at work and in transport. So rather than waiting for politicians to sort it out, we figured it’s time to take back the power and start cutting carbon ourselves. So, this is Climate Squad - the DIY approach to cutting carbon in our communities.
We’re aiming to get 3000 volunteers involved in persuading everyone from school kids, local councils and businesses to our friends, families and neighbours to take basic steps to cut the amount of carbon they use. To do this, we’ll train 300 leaders, aged 16-25, to run their own environmental projects in their communities.
The plan is, these 300 leaders will then be skilled up to embark on fabulous new careers doing something they care about. Meanwhile, politicians will see that England is prepared to change its carbon ways - so they’ll be pressured to make the international deals we need to get global warming under control. And our retirements will involve holidays and golf and bingo which, while dull, is much preferable to floods, droughts and general global catastrophe.
Climate Squad is still evolving. Help to shape the project by dropping your ideas in the suggestion box.
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