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Written by Caroline Zentner LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Monday, December 07 2009, 10:08 PM |
Two southern Alberta post-secondary educators are heading to Copenhagen to elevate the role of education in discussions about climate change at the UN Climate Change Conference which began Monday and runs until Dec. 18.
George Gallant, a broadcast journalism instructor at Lethbridge College, and Rick Mrazek, a University of Lethbridge professor of science education, will be part of a 10-member delegation from the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen or COP15 (15th Conference of the Parties).
“We’re going to be focusing on raising the role of education in the whole conversation about climate change,” Mrazek said.
The CWF, a non-profit organization with more than 320,000 Canadian supporters, wants to educate citizens so they can adapt to climate change and reduce their impact on the environment. About 15,000 people are expected to attend the Copenhagen conference, including government representatives, media and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.
Over the past few years, the CWF Learning Institute has been developed to strengthen the connection between people and their environment through education, whether by promoting unique learning experiences, conducting research, offering academic courses, creating educational innovation and advancing professional practice.
“COP15 is a very special opportunity for us to engage in the conversation with people from around the world who have the same concerns as us,” Mrazek said.
Mrazek left for Copenhagen Monday and will be attending two breakfast networking meetings hosted by the CWF where the Arctic will be the topic of discussion. He’ll also attend a second conference with education caucus representatives from the UN and attend a parallel conference at the Danish School of Education. At the latter one-day conference, discussion and presentations will focus on the role of education in climate change.
“We hope to learn from their successes because Denmark is further ahead, and find out what’s led to their success and how they deal with some of their challenges around public perception of the research community,” Mrazek said. “We want to have this as the beginning of a dialogue that we will continue once we're back in Canada.”
Gallant leaves for Copenhagen Friday, video camera in hand.
“Part of the reason we’re there is to make people in Canada aware of what’s going on in Copenhagen,” Gallant said. “What we’re trying to do is talk with educators and regular citizens in Copenhagen.”
The carbon footprint of the average Dane is significantly smaller than that of the average Canadian so Gallant hopes to talk to citizens about how they recycle, educate their children and reduce their consumption. Gallant will be producing daily video clips that will appear on the CWF website at www.canadianwildlifefederation.ca starting the second week of the conference.
Successful measures used in Denmark may have applications in Canada even though it’s a much larger country.
“Nothing is going to change unless we make it easy for people,” Gallant said.
“We want to continue to actively work toward the promoting of good education regarding climate change,” Mrazek said.
The CWF’s goal is to create material that’s free and easily accessible to teachers so they’ll use it to engage their students in meaningful conversations about climate change and other environmental issues. The CWF is dedicated to wildlife and habitat preservation.
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