3.1 Transport as an example of individual action
Globally, with the use of cars and planes continually increasing, a huge change is needed. Educators can help effect that change.
The impact of air travel is a particular concern in relation to higher education in the Global North, where universities’ efforts to minimise their environmental impact often don’t consider the damage associated with the pressure on academics to internationalise their careers and travel extensively for field research and conferences (Crumley-Effinger and Torres-Olave, 2021). An analysis of sustainability policies at 44 US universities found that over a third failed to mention air travel at all (Schmidt, 2022). During an online seminar, Neil Selwyn, based at Monash University in Australia, drew attention to his decision to stop accepting invitations to travel across the world, partly due to the climate crisis (Selwyn, 2022). Another speaker may make different decisions because there are activities they want to conduct with a live audience that could not be delivered online.
Educators don’t only make journeys for work reasons. In the Global North, many journeys with environmental impact will be holidays or visits to family and friends, and making these journeys without a car or plane would seem impractical to many. Decisions around personal journeys can involve what George Monbiot terms ‘love miles’ (Monbiot, 2006). Is it right to travel to visit distant loved ones, even if only for special occasions?
Indeed, the authors of this course have made contrasting decisions around flying. Some of us have signed an online pledge not to fly this year and shared our decision on social media. Others have not flown for many years for environmental reasons. One of us, on the other hand, lives far from their elderly mother and has decided not to contemplate stopping flying while it still provides the only practical means of visiting her.
There are considerations each educator can make regarding transport, energy use and resources. For example, they might question whether a field trip needs to take place, or whether an online simulation, virtual visit or invited expert online seminar might equally achieve the learning outcomes. This decision can be fraught with complexities, not least because positive changes in learners’ beliefs about climate change may be brought about through educational travel, even while the travel itself is adding to the problem under study (Landon et al., 2019).
There is always a balanced decision to be made, and communicating the decision-making process to learners can aid them in making their own balanced decisions. One decision that every adult learner makes is where to study, and Selwyn (2022) draws attention to the vast amount of international air travel associated with the desire to attend a prestigious and privileged university. To alleviate climate change, higher education needs to be localised.
As highlighted earlier, individual action is not enough. Reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with travel involves not only thinking about individual carbon footprints, but also thinking about what have been termed ‘carbon handprints’ (Pashby and de Oliveira Andreotti, 2016). This means individual educators having an active involvement in challenging and changing harmful wider cultures and systems.
Activity 4 Describing your own individual actions
1. Make some brief notes about one individual action that you have taken in connection with climate change or the environment.
2. Try to recall what inspired you to make this change in your life. Did you become aware of someone else doing it? Did a famous person speak about it?
3. How might you develop your ‘carbon handprint’ through having an active involvement in influencing others and changing cultures and systems around travel? You might think about cultures and systems within your institution, your local community or the global community.
4. How could you encourage the learners in your context in taking their own individual actions and developing their own ‘carbon handprint’?