Climate Action is a Shared Responsibility

The challenges of feeding, clothing and powering a hungry nation in a warming world. // Is climate action a shared responsibility and if so, as individuals, how do we reduce our carbon footprint? Student and teacher responses:

Rosie (Year 9) // Absolutely. Everyone needs to take action in their daily lives such as reducing plastic, water, energy and meat consumption - without everyone stepping up and doing their bit, we can’t conquer climate change. However, it’s also important to pressure big companies who have contributed the most to climate change, through means such as protest, for example, the global climate strike.

Deyanate (Year 7) // We should all carry the weight of climate action as it is a crucial issue in the world. Some ways we can do this is driving electric cars and reducing our use of fossil fuels.

Mr Baldwin (Teacher) // It is a shared responsibility, and everyone must do their part. Even though it is significantly caused by large corporations, it is still important for everyday people to change their habits in order to reduce our personal impact on climate change.

Climate change has created a sense of unpredictability within agricultural industries which increases the urgency for innovation, in order to adapt to these changes, and systemic change, in order to slow the process of global warming on a mass scale. Climate change affects the nutrients received by sheep, due to a lack of rainfall for thriving plant life, which ultimately leads to wool of lesser quality. Farmers have recently been implementing new, innovative techniques to adapt to these changes such as:

Using forecasts more frequently to plan in times of weather unpredictability.

Monitoring and responding to emerging pests.

Reducing water and electricity usage.

Managing animal nutrition by more carefully monitoring food that the livestock eats.

On an individual level, there are many changes, both small and large, that we can implement into our daily lives in order to be more environmentally conscious and reduce our personal carbon footprint. A mindset and lifestyle that shows significant improvements is the minimalist approach to life by reducing consumption - this can apply to many aspects of our daily lives such as food (especially meat), water, electricity, vehicles, plastic, waste and more. By being aware of how we’re contributing to climate change on an individual level, we are able to make more conscious decisions to reduce our footprint. Especially as youth, we can also create a powerful impact on politicians and the larger population through protest, such as climate strikes. Since we are below voting age, events like these allow us to urge the government into creating legislative change, such as declining deals from the fossil fuel industry and investing in renewable energy sources, in order to slow climate change on a larger scale. These strikes also provide us the opportunity to educate each other and as a community, we can use our powerful voice to create much needed change.