It’s not easy being green – but we’re doing our best

Warwick campus was inspired by environmentalism last week, as Warwick People and Planet collaborated with the Students’ Union and societies to produce Go Green 2011, a week-long campaign to raise awareness of and inspire interest in environmental and ecological issues.

The week featured a number of lectures, discussions and activities focused around environmental causes, with each of the five themed days addressing a different aspect of modern environmentalism, including issues ranging from climate change to recycling projects. Prominent among the events were talks by writer and campaigner Mark Lynas, and a session of ‘Eco Poetry’ involving the poet Danny Chivers, who has long been associated with green causes.

Other highlights included the presence of the Rinky-Dink on Monday, an Age-of-Aquarius inspired bicycle capable of powering a sound system. The inventor of the machine, Dan Smythies, told the _Boar_ that he hoped the popularity of environmental causes could “turn the Rinky-Dink into a commercial application, for hire and purchase by schools and universities for educational purposes”.

Another society involved in the proceeds was the Greens Food Co-Op that have since last year operated a vegetable plot in the fields behind Arthur Vick accommodation.

Morwenna McDonald, the President of the society, presented the Co-Op as an example of how environmentalism can mix “fun activities with healthy eating and a better lifestyle”.

According to poet Danny Chivers, Go Green Week arrives at a time where much of the general public are becoming more sceptical of environmental causes, with a lack of press attention on the topic giving rise to doubts surrounding the validity of claims about climate change.

Chivers bemoaned the media’s neglect of green causes, and performed a variety of pieces that highlighted his frustration that “climate change has become an unfashionable thing to talk about”.

The Students’ Union’s Environmental Campaigns Officer, Sam Tovey, was less concerned about the problem, claiming that globally the year has been spent “laying down solid groundwork for next year’s campaigning, making it much more likely that we’ll achieve a good result in South Africa [at the 2011 Climate Change Summit]”.

The team behind Go Green Week are satisfied with attendance at the majority of the events, but there are still concerns about student involvement in national campaigns. Richard Preece, an undergraduate who attended a number of the events, argued that “there is a significant difference between high attendance at events involving celebrity guests and the creation of a movement that will have any effect on the global debate about environmentalism, let alone the problems facing the planet”.

One first-year People and Planet member commented: “I’m happy with the work we’ve done so far… although much more is going to have to happen to effect change, turnouts have been promising.”

In light of these concerns, Sam Tovey argued that for the next year’s Environmental Campaigns Officer, it will be important to focus on lobbying the University to produce wide, systematic changes “that will complement the changes that [Tovey and People and Planet] have been making within the student body”.

One campaigner, who did not wish to be named, told the Boar of the difficulties of raising awareness of environmental issues at Warwick University specifically, claiming that “it’s almost impossible to make anyone care about anything here. [Warwick is] a terrible university for campaigning in general.” The campaigner cited the campus’ isolation from other civilisation as the main reason for the problem, and argued that ‘issue weeks’ such as Go Green Week are necessary to provide the impetus for activism and protest within the University.