Photo by Sebastian Unrau on Unsplash
Course: Climate Change (2023)
Faculty Mentor: Arthur Lyon Dah
The biggest learning point for me in taking the course on Climate Change was understanding the urgency of the situation, which we are seeing now daily, all over the world and also near where I live in Sweden, where we have had floods and disruptions to transport and services.
I have given a presentation on “Climate Change and Its Ethical and Spiritual Dimensions” to my local Bahá’í community and interested friends. People shared ideas in small groups about how to live in an environmentally sustainable way. My husband and I have taken further steps to reduce energy demands by installing triple-pane windows, checking the level of insulation in our house, and reducing car journeys when possible.
I have also attended a planning meeting of a local forest/environmental group and have spent a day in a local forest with people from the forest group looking at red-listed species (those that are close to becoming extinct) and umbrella species (protection of which will also benefit other species that are a part of their ecosystem or “umbrella”). Reporting the numbers of these species can help planners stop deforestation of endangered old-growth forests. It is a long and tedious process but is one way to help our environment.
All ways are good to help our environment and stop climate change from escalating quickly. Perhaps, though, it might be useful to consider which ways are most effective because climate change is so urgent.
