RIGHTS OF PASSAGE IN HYDERABAD

Tea and cucumber sandwiches with the only female Nobel Laureate, Dorothy Hodgkin and tea and banana breakfasts with a Ghandi!

In early 1979, I was awarded a visiting science fellowship by the British Council at the University of Hyderabad, India. And, amongst a range of life affirming and memorable experiences, I was the only guest of honour at a reception for Dorothy at the new university being created out of the semi arid desert outside the city of Hyderabad. Given her outstanding achievements you can imagine my astonishment to be introduced by the Vice Chancellor G.B. Singh (himself an eminent Harvard educated chemist) to Dorothy in a scarlet carpeted elegant tent-bedecked with sumptuous flowers – in the grounds of the emerging new campus and spent a pleasant and stimulating hour alone with her, eating carefully crafted cucumber sandwiches (without crusts!) following her lecture to a hundred or so academic staff and students. We spoke of her early career as a research scientist which clearly interested me as it linked directly to my then status! I later learned more about Dorothy as she was one of Margret Thatcher’s professors at Oxford and held in great esteem by our PM, such that she had a picture of Dorothy in her office in number 10.During MT’s time as PM, I worked as an HMI (education) with national responsibility for environmental and technical education and drafted key reports for her secretary of state for education (Sir Keith Joseph). 

  Early in my time at Hyderabad I was also immensely proud to be introduced to Professor Ramchandra (Ramu) Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. Already an eminent Indian philosopher, he was the son of Devdas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi’s youngest son) and Lakshmi (daughter of C. Rajagopalachari another eminent writer and politician. Ramchandra Gandhi obtained his doctoral degree in philosophy from Oxford where he was a student of Sir Peter Strawson. Ramu is known for founding the philosophy department at the University of Hyderabad.  He and I routinely breakfasted on bananas and tea on the balcony of his tiny office in Hyderbad itself. And, he and colleagues introduced me to the idea of environmental philosophy and ways of encouraging deeper moral and ethical ways of approaching what has become my lasting career trajectory in the field of education and sustainability. And, he leaves a deep and lasting memory of him attending my 35th birthday party at the university guest house and his gift of his maternal grandfather’s book, Ramayana.

(Hodgkin won the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the structure of penicillin and insulin. As of 2016 she remained the only British woman scientist to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in any of the three sciences it recognises. In 1965 she was only the second woman and the first in almost 60 years, after Florence Nightingale in 1907, to be appointed to the Order of Merit. She was the first and, as of 2018, remains the only woman to receive the prestigious Copley Medal and elected to a fellowship of the Royal Society in 1947.And, she had an asteroid named after her in 1983!)

Did Environmental Education in Sweden help create the Phenomenon of Greta Thunberg?

I’m asking this question because I was interviewed by NBC Universal on Sunday about this. They are creating a programme about Greta and wanted some “expert” advice from someone who knows? A quick search on the internet and surprise surprise you will find a paper I and a few colleagues from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate wrote following a visit there in 1992. This is what we said:

Schools and higher education institutions in Sweden have developed a wide range of innovative and demanding curricula to meet the objectives of Sweden’s environmental policy. Upper secondary schools offer more opportunities to develop environmental awareness, understanding and practical skills than comparable sixth form and post-secondary colleges in England. In Sweden there is a strong emphasis on practical work developed through projects based on contemporary environmental issues and their resolution. Environmental education has been well supported by a substantial input of new resources, especially materials developed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Industry.

The NBC interview went well. Linda, a Canadian Journalist from Toronto, asked some searching questions about how Sweden’s approach to environmental education might have helped create such an influential figure on the international stage; by helping her to argue so eloquently and powerfully for action on climate change. I started by telling Linda about the Swede’s love of nature. Why?

 It probably started ages ago with the botanist Linnæus who gave the world its first classification system of plants and animals. Centuries later, conservationists, influenced by Linnæus, warned of the potential dangers of industrialisation to Sweden’s richly rural and agrarian countryside. Their work led to the legislation that secured the protection of the land and the creation of Europe’s first national parks in Sweden in 1909.

Today Sweden has 30 national parks and more than 4,000 nature reserves, together covering more than a tenth of the country’s land area, or the whole of neighbouring Denmark.

More than 80 per cent of Swedes live within 5 kilometres of a national park, nature reserve or other nature conservation site.

And yes, there is no doubt that its education system, backed by national policy, has led to a culture of informed and committed environmentalists from all sectors of society. Notable figures like Helena Norberg Hodge, Karl-Henrik Robert, Claes Nobel and many more. And now we can celebrate the addition of a young and vibrant woman to this illustrious list!

At just 16 years old, Greta Thunberg has started an international youth movement against climate change.

And we regret the process of our age … (ILiKETRAiNS)

Epic tales of floods (climate change), knowledge, wisdom and uncertainty set the context to this ambitious CD recording by the Leeds based indie group-ILiKETRAiNS.

Released at a time (2013) when the world’s leaders were struggling to come to terms with the impact of widening global austerity, major conflict zones and catastrophic and unpredictable weather systems in virtually all parts of the globe, the tracks explore what this might mean for humanity.

How do we respond to “tipping points”, when situations move from stability to instability as human activity crosses planetary boundaries, such as elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations leading to climate change? Is there a path towards more resilience, adaptation and renewal in the face of such unprecedented and accelerating change around the world? And what does this mean for Universities and the students enrolling in the 21 Century? Some high profile academics – the “apostles of change” – argue, for the most part convincingly, that education for sustainable development (ESD) can and should play an important part in developing the competencies and attributes of those who we need to “see the Deep”- meaning they who can begin to critically analyse and reflect on the meaning of sustainability and how they might contribute to resolving our increasingly un-sustainable world.

The cataclysmic effects of climate change are already wreaking havoc in our” global garden”

In itself sustainable development is not new. According to Genesis, Creation was launched with a statement of sustainable development policy; man was set in the garden “to work it and take care of it”. But whilst man has responded impressively to the first part of this commission, he has taken much longer to grasp the implications of the second. Indeed, it is only within the last decade or so that the complexity of sustainability has become better understood. As I talk to people who grasp some of the urgency surrounding the impact of our current un- sustainable lifestyles, I am constantly reminded that there is still scope for scientific and public disagreement about probabilities, timescales, and detailed causation and response. And yet the cataclysmic effects of climate change are already wreaking havoc in our” global garden” (see: The Climate Reality Project; 24hourly reports on climate change from numerous locations around the world.

It is tempting to cast education in the role of prophet or evangelist

Many have argued that our universities have a key role to play in moving us to a more sustainable future. But in defining the contribution our universities can play it important not to claim too much. It is tempting to cast education in the role of prophet or evangelist, charged with achieving a radical shift in society’s values. This view, however, entails some controversial assumptions about the role and purpose of education; and quite aside from the issue of principle, it is far from clear what such an approach would achieve in practice. The prophet’s usual fate, after all, is to be ignored. Values and attitudes-individual, industrial, public-are all moulded by many influences (for example, Government policy and the media). To say this is not at all to suggest that the University sector’s treatment of sustainability issues is not a significant strategic issue.

If the 2.5 million students currently enrolled in UK Universities graduate with the skills and attributes to help society become more sustainable, then they will have undoubtedly contributed. And it is right that universities should seek to lead this agenda.

However, as has been stressed by Lord Browne’s recent review of funding in higher education, they must maintain due contact with the aspirations of their clients. These aspirations were recently confirmed by a series of national surveys, commissioned by the Higher Education Academy in 2010, 2011 and 2012 of nearly 15,000 university students which found that almost 80% believe that sustainability skills are important for their future employment.

But all of this raises some important questions:

For example, are our universities systematically creating the conditions that offer under graduates the context, understanding, skills and values that will prepare them for the challenges we face in creating a more sustainable future? And do the 180,000 academic staff have the expertise and capabilities to create these conditions? We currently have no real mechanism for assessing this in any meaningful way. Even though the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) undertook a strategic review of sustainable development in HE in England in 2007 which covered some aspects of teaching and learning this is outdated and unlikely to be repeated with the current emphasis on budget cuts.

The Melbourne Model

The Higher Education Academy has initiated an ambitious but relatively small-scale pilot with 8 universities called the Green Academy – A Curriculum for Tomorrow, which aims to promote new approaches to the curriculum. It is fundamentally aimed at achieving what are described as “Graduate Attributes for the 21 Century” after a radical curriculum restructuring programme carried out by the University of Melbourne- which became known as the Melbourne Model. Harvard, Hong Kong and Yale have undergone similar reforms along with a small number of universities in the UK: Aberdeen, Manchester and Southampton. The Melbourne Model is based on 5 well defined graduate attributes: Academic Excellence; Knowledge across Disciplines; Leadership in Communities; Attuned to Cultural Diversity; and Active Global Citizenship.

International learning experiences

Two of these attributes directly focus on international learning experiences. Graduates of the University are expected to understand and respect for social and cultural diversity and value different cultures. They are expected to accept social and civic responsibilities and be advocates for improving the sustainability of their environment and have a broad global understanding coupled with a high regard for human rights, equity and ethics. Interdisciplinarity is emphasised especially where complex issues require more than one discipline to resolve them. This is exemplified by 2 programmes:

  • An Ecological History of Humanity;
  • Food for a Healthy Planet.

Throughout their undergraduate programme students benefit from exposure and experience of more than one way of knowing and seeing the world. Another good example is provided by the University of British Columbia whose courses seek to achieve four graduate attributes whereby the graduate demonstrates:

  • holistic systems thinking;
  • sustainability knowledge;
  • aware of, and integrates across, intellectual constructs;
  • acts to create positive change.

Given the current pressure on graduate employment and limited future job prospects, preparing future graduates for these uncertainties as well as those of global sustainability –is an essential element of a university learning experience and one which the University of Worcester is committed to supporting and leading through its programme of professional and academic development. Without this kind of support future generations of graduates are in real danger of becoming displaced from society and losing their capacity as global citizens.

LEARNING BY DROWNING?

It’s not difficult to see our blighted little island as a “tiny speck” of land sitting rather vulnerably somewhere in the North Sea and within this speck more and more islands of communities cut off by floods for weeks and months. And in many of these communities there has been an unacceptable absence of resources or help in their time of crisis.

Matlock and many areas of Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Worcestershire have been seriously affected by flooding yet again with economic, social and environmental consequences which have yet to be fully resolved and assessed. Chris Huhne, the former Liberal Democrat MP and Energy and Climate Secretary captured the nature of this national crises when he argued that “flood defence cuts driven by deficit reduction “are part of the problem; but more importantly he said” we cannot continue learning by drowning”. This short statement illuminates the “wicked un sustainable problem” we face with policies focussed entirely on adaptation to climate change as opposed to trying to stop the problem. As he says: this focus on spending more on adaptation in Matlock, for example-“is progress of sorts”. But it fails to consider two gargantuan accelerators of climate change. First is that the extreme wet weather we are experiencing is occurring now when climatologists have shown that the planet has only warmed by 0.85 degrees C since 1880 and hence we have a further 1.15 degrees C to go before we reach the 2 degree danger level that science predicts could tip us into runaway climate chaos. Second, the rise in rainfall intensity we are now experiencing and more so in the future will lead to a fourfold increase in physical damage to property and land. This increase does not include damage to future food supplies, degradation of soils, habitat loss and diminishing biodiversity and the cost of coliform bacterial infections caused by water contaminated by human sewage. Look out the window when it next rains and just try to imagine what Matlock or Worcester or Venice might look like with a 2 or 6 degree rise in global warming. Scary isn’t it?

The Money Myth

As the party election policy machinations gather pace the media headlines become more and more hyperbolic. One party blames the other that their respective spending plans will bankrupt the country. What do these pontifications mean to us ordinary individuals who know little about the economy? Today’s Daily Mail (10 November) will strike fear into many households, as its headline claims that Labours plans will amount to a spend of £1.2 trillion, costing every UK household 43,000 pounds. Who’s right?

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) offers some sanity and wiser commentary.  They claim that our economic model is failing us. From flat lining wages, precarious work and the threat of environmental and climate breakdown, it’s clear that the way the economy is being run is serving only a few people at the top and leaving the rest of us and the places where we live in its wake. It seems undeniably true that for the last 40 years, the economy has been run according to a misplaced faith in free markets and competition. It’s the myth of neoliberalism, which makes us all believe that the market is king. NEF argue persuasively that after 4 decades it’s time for a change. The big difference between the economics of the last 40 years and current thinking is that there is a mistaken belief that the size of the government’s budget is the same as a householder’s budget. But the government’s job is not to balance its budget but to balance the economy. Herein lies the big mistake as we listen to the politicians make their electoral spending pledges.

Modern monetary theory describes how money works in a modern economy. It starts with the simple recognition that in most countries the currency itself is a public monopoly, which means the currency is only issued by the state. That’s what is meant by a “sovereign currency”. Because the state issues the currency it doesn’t face the same constraints as households and businesses. Countries that operate their own sovereign currency like the UK, US, Japan and Canada spend tax and provide savings with a currency it and only it can create. This means that a sovereign currency issuing government is free to determine its own key economic decisions. It’s interesting that all governments (whatever their political persuasions) have maintained the so-called national debt, which is the accumulation of annual deficits, without default, for more than 3 centuries. So why do politicians currently beat us to death with their dire warnings about how the other political party’s spend money? And why have they persuaded us that austerity is a good thing? The fact is a currency issuing sovereign government like ours which does not borrow in foreign currencies can never be forced to default. Hence its spending decision’s in terms of output and employment, social inclusion, ecological repair and prevention of excessive household debt, which are crucial to the health of the economy and well-being of citizens are not dependent on a balanced budget. It is the role of government to manage its financial flows by monitoring and matching the demand for money with the productive capacity of the nation. Herein lies the answer to the myths that pervade both our media and our political class based on a 40-year-old ill-informed and mythological concept of the economy. 

The Hypocrisy of Academia?

Jonathan Wolff opines that University staff’s carbon use is huge and growing from their international conference travel to almost all parts of the Globe (Guardian What hypocrisy, academics think guiltily.29 October). True, but there is a bigger and more intensely worrying form of hypocrisy because the carbon footprint of the many university campuses here and overseas has grown exponentially over the past 20 years and their contribution to carbon emissions along with that of the thousands of students who travel to and from campus is a major issue and shows no signs of diminishing in the short term. Some years ago, a paper published by staff from the Open University showed that distance learning university courses involve 87% less energy and 85% lower CO2 emissions than the full-time campus-based courses. Part-time campus courses reduce energy and CO2 emissions by 65% and 61% respectively compared to full-time campus courses. But are universities worldwide sufficiently reading the signs of the times? And how far are they addressing the concomitant call from growing numbers of students who want their institutions to take sustainable development seriously in everything they do, and to ensure that what they are taught has an appropriate sustainability focus? Maybe, those faculty who feel the guilt of flying to international conferences might give more serious thought to realigning their teaching to reflect these concerns of their students-perhaps as a form of “cognitive offsetting?”

Storytelling and Climate Change

I am increasingly thinking and indeed currently reading about the myths we are telling ourselves about climate change and the Anthropocene.  It’s strange that the word myth is nowadays used to convey a false belief or idea which is somewhat different today than in former times. It used to mean more weighty matters such as the purpose and meaning of life and how we might guide our planetary existence. Indeed, the myth of more- is the myth of human progress, which has underpinned our unsustainable lifestyles of excessive consumption and waste and in this sense is a linear trajectory towards another myth: our perceived mastery of the planet. The planetary crisis has not been a good story to tell according to one recent and highly readable book entitled We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins with Breakfast. Its author Jonathan Safran Foer argues that the story of climate change often does not captivate or transfer and hence fails to convert us and above all fails to interest us.  He goes further and suggests that the fate of our planet has a similar place in literature and is vastly different from that exhibited in the broader cultural and social conversation which is dominating the likes of XR and Greta Thunberg. He suggests that writers are sensitive to what kind of stories that work- ones that stick in a durable sense in our culture like religious texts, pages and passages from history, sensational actions and moral conclusions. How we frame the story often determines how we relate to it and how it may or may not motivate us to act.

Changing how you look at things changes how you see them!

Put another way, it is crucial that we retain and facilitate the ability to think outside the box and the frame.  We need to challenge the way we think about the way we frame questions and possibilities so that we avoid the risks of diminishing our ability to understand and be creative-two key attributes which distinguish people from robots.  With the rise of fake news and the surge in populist politics, the framing of an issue becomes increasingly problematic to all of us and for education in particular.  I was struck by two recent pieces in the Guardian newspaper which reflects this dilemma.

The first was the editorial on education, entitled: It’s not what you know it’s how you know it sketched out a theme which has been etched on the minds of those who promote competencies and key skills in education for sustainable development, notably the teaching of critical thinking.  The author of a recent OECD report it claimed is advocating that all children should be taught to think critically about what they read on the internet, making the case that better evaluation of “what they read on the internet might make fake news less persuasive?”  Nor, as the piece argues is “critical thinking a solution to the closed worlds of social media”.  Indeed, it applies also to our values and belief systems about sustainability.  And, I also agree with the author that simply raising awareness of different points of view is not necessarily the way to shift the deniers especially those climate change deniers.

This leads me to the other article: “There’s another story about climate change. It starts with water” which eloquently sets out the case that the issue of climate change cannot be framed as a single story; to whit, that global warming is caused by too much CO2 in the atmosphere, due to the burning of fossil fuels.  The author correctly asserts that climate change is not the function of a “sole metric” because the blanket of water vapour which envelops the planet acts as a thermal buffer and governs 95% of the earth’s heat dynamics.  And, this is where my research background in plant physiology comes into play because it is plants that manage water, through transpiration.  So, if we want to bring the earth’s temperature back from the brink we need to bring its heat and water dynamics into balance.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimate that every square metre of the earth’s surface receives on average 342 watts of energy from the sun each day.  But, because of human activity we radiate back 339 Watts, a difference of less than 1%.  The remedy?  Better management of our ecosystems with more plant cover.  Music to my ears!

Perhaps understanding why issues are framed should be a key educational objective, in order to help our students enhance their critical thinking? And, like any good teacher, I recommend a readable and insightful book called FRAMESPOTTING by Laurence and Alison Mathews.  It illuminates how frames influence your thinking.