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The UK in partnership with Italy are currently at the centre of international debates and actions on Climate change, as COP 26 in November 2021 is scheduled to take place in Glasgow. While Covid-19 places some uncertainty as to whether an online rather than physical meeting takes place, the realities of climate change do not wait. The Open University both teaches about and does research relevant to climate change. It has more than seven thousand staff and nearly 200,000 students who will be affected by climate change, let alone the millions of learners using OpenLearn.
This climate change page brings together existing OpenLearn content that is directly relevant to climate change which you can study but will also feature a series of weekly articles on different aspects of climate change as seen from the perspective of different constituencies across the whole Open University community. These weekly articles will start in September 2021 and will continue into the Spring of 2022.
Through these courses, articles and other content we hope to not only educate, inform and engage you but to provoke discussion, debate, and action from you. We need to see this as a global problem but one where local action, multiplied millions of times in homes and communities across the world can make a difference.
Discover more about the wider issue of sustainability in our interactive Sustainability Hub, featuring more articles plus videos, interactives and free courses on the subject.
And you can find even more free content from across the wider subject area of Nature & the Environment on OpenLearn.
NEW articles this week...
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Trees: local heroes in the fight against global climate change
Raising awareness of local trees.
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The planet as the stakeholder
Following current environmental trends, sustainability has become a prominent social concern for businesses, but how does this translate to the strategies of large corporations?
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Retrofitting older buildings to help mitigate the climate emergency
The need to reduce carbon emissions from older buildings: some opportunities and challenges.
Previous articles...
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Young children and the climate crisis
Tackling ecological and social injustice together: how early years practitioners and young children can respond to the climate crisis alongside non-human creatures and the material world around them.
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COP26 Glasgow and questions of environmental and social justice
Critical reflections on Glasgow’s own environmental and social justice history as the host city.
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Reduce e-waste through donating old computer devices
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Reduce means reducing your use of items that lead to waste. Since 2000, amounts of e-waste have grown from 20 million to 50 million tonnes per year.
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Economic incentives for countries to decarbonise
Acting alone is as important as acting together.
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The drive to sustainability in Higher Education
Driving the transition towards environmental sustainability and net zero in Higher Education (HE).
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Climate change and alternative living: issues of adaptation and sustainability
Life on Earth is a collective force, generated from all living creatures, characterised by their diversities, differences and similarities.
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Eco-art, Sustainable Art, art as activism
From synthetic polymers to recycling and up-cycling.
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Climate change and the built environment
The importance of retrofitting our existing buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stay comfortable in future climates.
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A Letter to Earth
This is a wonderful Earth anthem that I came across as an environmentally conscious teenager growing up in India in the 1990s.
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A socially engaged spiritual response to the Climate Crisis
How personal awakening can help societal transformation.
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SMEs and Net Zero – challenges and opportunities
How can small and medium-sized enterprises make the radical changes required to tackle the Climate Emergency?
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TOTEM LATAMAT: an Indigenous reminder we are all part of the ecosystem
Why might it not be science that holds the key to combatting climate change?
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What’s corruption got to do with climate change, and why should we care?
Delegates attending the COP26 meeting in Glasgow in November 2021 were entrusted with leading the global response to humanity’s greatest challenge: how can we stop the world from heating to the point it becomes uninhabitable for future generations?
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Learning from the past with historic buildings
How can we work with our building traditions to create designs that will last?
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Good Mock COP, Bad Mock COP
The Open University held a Mock COP26 event, inspiring future climate leaders from across Scotland in the Highlands and Moray.
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Literature and the Environment
Can reading encourage us to appreciate the environment and make sustainable changes to our lives?
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COP26 and the Glasgow Pact...one small step
Some of the 27,000 children born during the two weeks of COP26 will be 71 years old on the 100th Anniversary of the Rio 1992 Earth Summit. As that generation retells the story of how the nations of the world worked together to eventually limit dangerous global heating, Glasgow’s COP26 will be worth a mention.
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The psychological impacts of climate change
People around the world are suffering from “climate anxiety”. What is it and what can we do about it?
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Early reflections from Glasgow on COP26
Chief OU observer ‘optimistic’ after first three days.
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Water: Managing the 1% in a climate changing world
Water is essential to all life on Earth. This article explores how climate change is challenging our ways of thinking about and managing this scarce resource.
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Universities United
Reflections on how higher education institutions are working together to tackle climate change.
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Should animals have legal standing?
The law recognises babies, companies and ships as ‘persons’ with legal rights, but not even the most intelligent animals. Is it time for this to change?
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The first 25 years: OU Renewable Energy Education
Derek Taylor reflects on the 25 years since launching the innovative Open University T521 Renewable Energy Pack for Tertiary Education. This was a revolutionary development for the OU.
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The benefits of a longer product life
A savvy shift in industrial resourcefulness is reflected in products that last longer, are adaptable, maintainable, and repairable. Such products optimise material value through preventing waste. These design strategies challenge the ways we create, use, and dispose of our everyday stuff. By extending the utility of our products, we reduce ...
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Indigenous ceremonies and climate change
How might an Indigenous artwork transform responses to Climate Change? Find out as a Totonac totem travels to COP26.
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Let your money do the talking: fossil fuel divestment and COP26
Divestment from fossil fuels has increased over the last decade as a moral and financial response to the climate crisis, but is it an effective approach to tackle the severity of challenges we now face and how can it support the goals of COP26?
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Managing our personal financial risks from the changed climate
You might now understand what COP stands for, but have you heard of the TCFD requirements?
Interactives content
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Plastics in our ocean
Test your knowledge about plastics in our oceans, and learn about how they impact the environment by clicking on the image below...
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Ideas about living sustainably
Responding to the climate crisis can feel overwhelming. There are so many things we can do to be greener that it's hard to know where to start.
Try these free courses
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Sustainable Scotland
Sustainable Scotland is a free course that will appeal to anyone with an interest in a sustainable future in the context of contemporary Scottish society. It will give you a broad-based introduction to a number of different aspects of sustainability that impact on Scotland and the wider world.
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Eating for the environment
This free course, Eating for the environment, will explore the links between food, nutrition and environmental sustainability.
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Climate justice for the next generation
This free course, Climate justice for the next generation, frames global warming and climate change in terms of social justice, human rights and intergenerational equality and emphasises how children and those least responsible for climate change are the ones who suffer its most significant consequences. The course looks at the impact ...
More free courses...
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Climate change
Climate change is a key issue on today's social and political agenda. This free course explores the basic science that underpins climate change and global warming.
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Climate change: transitions to sustainability
Human societies have to take urgent action to end their dependences on fossil fuels. We have to alter the whole path of our development and decision making in order to make our societies both environmentally adaptable and sustainable. This free course, Climate change, takes on the task of trying to chart some of the ways in which it might be ...
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Could we control our climate?
Climate crisis is one of the grand challenges we face as a society, but it can be hard to approach as a subject. Not only can the science at times seem dauntingly complex, but the solutions are also far from clear. This leaves many people feeling confused, guilty, anxious, angry, or else completely switched off from the subject. This course ...
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Environment: treading lightly on the Earth
Environment: treading lightly on the Earth focuses on the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide. This free course will give you an understanding of the nature and importance of carbon footprints of individuals and households. It will enable you to measure your own carbon footprint and explore what you could do to reduce ...
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Can renewable energy sources power the world?
We ask the question ‘Can renewable energy sources power the world?’ as a response to the growing awareness that increased use of renewable energy technologies is making a major contribution to global efforts to limit anthropogenic climate change. The course begins by examining the environmental concerns that have caused a rise in interest in ...
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The oceans
The oceans cover more than 70 per cent of our planet. In this free course, The oceans, you will learn about the depths of the oceans and the properties of the water that fills them, what drives the ocean circulation and how the oceans influence our climate.
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Environmental management and organisations
It is believed that environmental management requires action at all levels and by organisations of all types and sizes. However it is not always clear what we mean by environmental management and the role that organisations do and could play. This free course, explores the different interpretations and viewpoints involved by using system ...
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Energy in buildings
Themes covered in this free course, Energy in buildings, include reducing heating demand in buildings, heating systems and fuel emissions, and reducing electricity use by appliances. The course looks at the importance of energy in buildings in the UK, investigate heat loss and how to prevent it, ways of increasing building efficiency, ...
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Working with our environment: an introduction
Global warming: are we responsible? Is our environmental impact damaging the planet? This free course, Working with our environment: an introduction, examines the use of ozone-depleting technology, the impact of fossil fuel use and explores how the development of technology can influence the direction of a society. From the Industrial Revolution...
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Introducing environmental decision making
Many of the decisions we make have implications for our environment, particularly those concerning natural resources and waste. Taking account of environmental factors in decision making can be both complex and challenging. This free course, Introducing environmental decision making, considers decisions in their broader contexts and advocates a ...
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Transport and sustainability
This free course, Transport and sustainability, explores the issues around sustainable transport and how the role of technology and society can interact to lower the overall impact of transport.
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The economics of flood insurance
This course shows how some of the theories and tools of economics can be applied to understanding and tackling the problem of flood risk in the UK. With the incidence of flooding rising due to climate change, this is an increasingly important policy issue worldwide. You will gain insights into the practical use of economics in a ...
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The environmental impact of teaching and learning
This free course, The environmental impact of teaching and learning, discusses the impact on the environment of carbon based teaching and learning in Higher Education Institutions. It introduces a suite of innovative tools and resources which have been designed to help assess and identify ways to reduce these impacts.
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Financial methods in environmental decisions
This free course, Financial methods in environmental decisions, begins by introducing some of the tools that can be used to assess the benefits of investment decisions, including ways of assessing the ‘external costs’ – the wider costs and benefits to society as a whole – of environmental decisions.
Acknowledgements
The development of this page has involved many people across the university:
Production team:
- Derek Goldman
- Andy Lane
- Jennifer McKeeman
- Tom Munday
- Kate Munday
- Alison Tang
Advisory group:
- Marjan Ajevski
- Shonil Bhagwat
- Richard Blundel
- Nick Braithwaite
- Clare Charlton
- Julia Cooke
- Jessica Davies
- Emma Dewberry
- Lucy Gilbert
- Nicola Graham
- Victoria Hands
- Stuart Parris
- Joanna Paul
- Stephen Peake
- Alison Penn
- Jane Roberts
- Shasha Wang
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