It's Time For Students to Get Serious About Climate Change

Sometimes it can feel like a huge weight is pushing down on your chest. You hear about the impending doom of climate change but it doesn't seem like people are concerned. Every day you see people acting like it's all cool. Instagram photos from a secluded beach, or a delectable steak dinner, or a mini shopping spree... air travel, red meat, consumerism. I mean the Amazon is literally burning and all your friends are doing is wondering if you are up for a pub crawl on Friday.

That feeling you are experiencing, that weight on your chest, is what people are starting to call climate anxiety. It is a recent phenomenon, although we can hardly say that anxiety is something new. What has really changed lately is the constant reporting on climate related issues. On one side, it is great that people are learning more about climate change and wanting to take action. But on the other hand, people are starting to confront the difficulty of the task at hand and it is admittedly pretty terrifying.

If we distill anxiety down a bit, the real problem is the human brain. In times of extreme stress, it is thought that you experience the need for fight, flight, or freeze. Human brains in many ways are very primitive and doesn't exactly understand the difference between a physical threat, like a predator chasing you, and an existential threat, like adapting to climate change. Existential threats are troublesome because they aren't always something that can be taken care of easily.

Well, the rest of this post is dedicated to let you know about the top 5 things you can do in University to help reduce your carbon / climate footprint. And just to be 100% clear, we recognize that as a student you are torn between two important priorities, saving the world and ensuring your academic future. So this list is designed to be full of things that you can do fairly passively and still have maximum impact.

Use your pass

The U-pass is a handy little thing to have. It might even be a bit more powerful than you think. Aside from the environmental benefits (depending on who you ask, public transit generates 3 to 5 times less carbon emissions), the U-pass has a bunch of social and economic benefits. Using the bus and train helps reduce traffic jams, reduce poor air quality, and reduces traffic accidents around the city (sadly drivers between the ages of 18 and 25 have the highest accident rates).

Don't forget, your U-pass is good to use on any bus in the City of Ottawa or Gatineau. Pay attention during the holidays and special festivals; special bus routes are often available for things like Sens and Red Blacks games, Winterlude, and much more. Although public can sometimes take more time and might seem inconvenient, the benefits far outweigh any annoyance.

Less red meat

Eating less meat is a contentious thing to say because it can have strong ties to a person's cultural or personal identity. But at the same time, it is one of the best things you can do to reduce the impacts of climate change. But rather than swearing off meat completely, how about reducing just red meat and sticking to things like chicken and fish.

On campus you won't have a problem sticking to these limitations. Every food service location on campus has vegetarian options, as well as chicken and fish. The Dining Hall even has a few days where they play around with a low carbon menu, And if you want to just cut the amount of meat you eat, there are some incredible vegan options, including a full on vegan station.

Reuse

Before you react to this statement, you have to listen to the whole thing. Recycling isn't really that great. From the point of view of the environment, recycling is really only one step above sending something to landfill. There is a lot of energy that has to go into transforming materials into other things. But don't think that this is an excuse to stop recycling, instead consider the benefits or reuse.

There are a few programs on campus designed to help you reuse before you recycle. You can visit the Free Store and find a limitless amount of reused things... not to mention that you can save yourself a pretty penny. You can bring your reusable mug to Muggy Mondays and get yourself some free coffee. Actually you can bring your mug to any coffee location on campus and you will get a discount.
You can rent books instead of buying them; you can borrow board games from the library; you can eat free vegan meals at the People's Republic of Delicious (PRD) made from rescued food. The possibilities are endless.

Get learned

Seeing as you are at a university, taking some courses about sustainability and climate change shouldn't be outside the realm of possibilities. There are courses in every faculty related to every topic. Want to learn about where environmentalism and feminism intersect, there's a course for that. How about working on climate change issues while getting credits for your degree? Yup, you can do that. There is even a special collaborative Masters program that will let you stay in your own domain and get a specialization in environmental sustainability.

Beyond just winning arguments with your family about the root causes of climate change (or... gasp... arguments about whether climate change is happening), learning about climate change is probably a good thing to know for your future career. Because of the scope of climate change, there are few industries that won't be affected by it and you could be well placed to help come up with solutions. Think of industries related to insurance, international development, engineering... etc... etc.... which one of these won't be impacted by climate change?

Protest

Yep, we went there. Sometimes you just need to stand up and tell the powers that be, you want action on climate change. For the past year, students have been attending the Global Climate Strikes, which asks them to skip their courses in order to demonstrate (literally) to the government that they are serious about demands for climate reform.

Protests are an essential part of being an active citizen. When you see something that you don't like, it is your job to speak up. It is a great place to meet new people and honestly, some of the signs people make are amazing. The next Climate Strike in Ottawa is scheduled for September 27th at 11:30 at Confederation Park.

BONUS: volunteering

So there is one more thing you can do if you are absolutely racked and you feel like you need to do something. Come on out and volunteer with us. This does require some time on your behalf but it will certainly help make a difference. We are always looking for volunteers at our office, but there are so many other places you can volunteer on and off campus. Just find something that speaks to you and spend a few hours giving it a try.

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That's our list of the top 5 things you can do as a student at uOttawa to help fight climate change. You don't need to do all of them but try giving at least one of them a try. Trust me when I say that doing something is better than doing nothing. And if you are feeling anxious about climate change, getting out there and doing something will help reduce that anxiety and help out the planet.
And if you find that anxiety is getting the better of you, do take advantage of some of the counselling services available on campus.

~jonathan rausseo - campus sustainability manager