Teaching green growth ” “

The agreement finally reached on the eve of the G20 in Australia, between the US and China on the reduction of CO2 emissions, was a sigh of relief. The impassioned plea by scientists gathered in Copenhagen a few weeks ago, calling upon the political realm to commit itself for climate protection now and in a consistent manner to prevent the irreparable, finally broke through. Politicians, economists, environmentalists have described the US-China agreement as encouraging, significant and important. But it is not enough. Project with schools. “Recent studies conducted by the Danish University of Aarhus show that more than 95% of research on climate and energy issues has to do with technology and with quantitative data”, wrote in the journal “The Nordic Way of Green growth” the Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers Dagfinn Høybråten. “Almost no scientist investigates human behaviours, although this is the key to achieving any real change in fighting the climate crisis”. And since human behaviour receives a decisive imprint in the years of school and higher education, the Nordic Council of Ministers, an intergovernmental body that binds the governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland Islands, has decided to provide resources to finance projects and materials for schools for increased awareness on the themes of climate and sustainability. On 11 November, traditionally “the day of the climate” for the Nordic countries, the Council of Ministers launched a project on “Education and training on green growth”. Reasoning, understanding, acting. “The Great Nordic Climate Challenge” is the combative title of the project addressed to 12-14 year-old students. It’s a three-stage competition that started November 11, ongoing until March 23. It will resume in the same period in 2015 and 2016. The purpose is to motivate students to reflect on electricity, heating and water consumption, teaching them to read the meters installed in their schools or to think of measures to reduce consumption. The higher the reduction of consumption actually applied in schools over the years, the more points will the school receive. Additional points may be collected with the realization of complementary projects, supported by educational materials uploaded on a multimedia platform (nordeniskolen.org). “During the three years of contest we will offer assistance and advice to students, in addition to providing them with a dedicated tool to control their consumption levels”, said Thomas Mikkelsen, from the Confederation of Nordic Associations (FNF), author of the project funded by the Council of Ministers. The digital platform provides informative material on climate change, the various energy sources, areas for discussion on issues such as transport. It is available in five languages and offers adjustments to the school curricula of each Country. This project will be presented at the Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 as a “good practice”. The challenge of sustainability. Implementing Rio + 20 in academic environments is the second part of the project. “Nordic universities provide academic education to thousands of students, some of whom will become leaders in this field”, said Meeri Karvinen from Aalto University (Finland), coordinator of this area. “Sustainability must become the prevailing mentality, and our students must become capable of influencing others to sustainability”. Once again, the starting point is analysis and evaluation through the lens of sustainability of the work carried out in universities, identifying strengths and barriers. Academic courses and programs will then be examined, along with the areas of research, didactic materials and teachers. In the background figure the goals of Nordic Universities as a result of the climate conference Rio + 20, marked by a set of commitments regarding education on sustainable development at interdisciplinary level, promotion of research on sustainable development, to make campuses “green” in every way possible, disseminate and share good practices with both the local community and in international contexts. Biophilia. The projects designed for pupils were launched in Iceland, inspired by the album Biophlia by Iceland singer Björk, released in 2011. That music has become an “educational program that uses music and creativity to boost children’s interest in science and music”, said Auour Þorgeirsdóttir, coordinator of the project. In fact, each song in the album addresses a specific scientific theme combined with a related visual and musical element. Thus, in cooperation with the singer, were developed a set of workshops for schools, also to teach how to make good use of natural resources.