THUNDER BAY - Lakehead University is declaring the 2021/2022 academic year a Year of Climate Action. The school is calling on students, faculty, and staff to envision diverse contributions from events to art, workshops, panel discussions, embedding climate learning outcomes into teaching, concrete climate actions, and more.
“Science demands a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in each year of this decade if we want to avoid the worst of human-caused climate change,” said David Barnett, Lakehead University’s provost and vice-president, academic.
“Declaring a Year of Climate Action supports Lakehead University's commitments to social responsibility and sustainability, which demand that we take action to create a healthy, equitable, and sustainable future. The question is not whether we can do this, but how we will do this,”
On Nov. 26, 2020, Lakehead University announced it would divest its endowment of fossil fuel stocks, the sixth Canadian university to do so. The school now plans to build on this divestment and to recognize the need for more steps to tackle climate change.
“The idea for the YOCA came from Dr. Lindsay Galway, Canada Research Chair in socio-ecological health, and a member of the Lakehead University Sustainability Stewardship Council (LUSSC),” said Ledah McKellar, Lakehead’s sustainability co-ordinator.
“Both LUSSC and its Climate Action Working Group are committed to considering how Lakehead University can be a leader in cultivating and taking climate action. As a university, our mandate is to educate the future leaders of society. But we also recognize our responsibility to model climate leadership.”
The climate action working group will work toward the following actions identified by LUSSC members:
- installing EV charging stations on both campuses
- providing training on climate change to faculty
- increasing the visibility of the Lakehead University Thunder Bay solar panels
- creating internal awards for research on climate change
“Many of our students, as well as our staff and faculty, have been voicing their climate concerns and the YOCA draws inspiration from their leadership,” said Dr. Galway, a member of the YOCA co-ordinating committee and climate action working group.
“I am inspired by the visionary members of our university community who have joined the YOCA Coordinating Committee and are volunteering their time to make the YOCA happen. Our team recognizes that we have a critical window of opportunity for taking climate action seriously,”
The YOCA will formally launch on Tuesday, Sept. 14 at 7 pm. The launch will introduce the YOCA, as well as profile how staff, faculty and students are getting involved.
The launch will conclude with a keynote presentation from Clayton Thomas-Müller, media producer, organizer, facilitator, public speaker and writer on Indigenous rights and environmental and economic justice. Registration is required.
More information on the Year of Climate Action is available here.
