The third summit of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, this week, will cast both direct and indirect light on the wider effects of global warming. IPPC chairman Rajendra Pahcauri commented that he expected ‘heated debate’ about the issue from the large group of scientists and government officials gathered to present their often-conflicting views and findings. This discussion of the report at the centre of the conference – ‘Mitigation of Climate Change’ – will receive its last official airing in Bangkok before the final report is submitted to the meeting of the G8 + 4 in June.
The very fact that the conference is taking place in Bangkok casts another light on the matter. A week before the conference, a leading Thai climatologist predicted disastrous effects of global warming for the city, which is built on a series of largely covered-over canals below sea level. But, tellingly, he predicted that the most disastrous effects would first be seen along the Chao Phraya River, which snakes its way through the Thai capital from Ayutthaya to the north to the Bay of Thailand. One of Thailand’s top universities sits right along its banks.
Surely universities located along student-enticing coastal areas around the world are already considering the impacts global warming could have on the physical plants of their institutions. The concerns are real. Similarly, students – large numbers of which welcomed the delegates to the Bangkok IPCC conference in a heavy, unseasonable rain – will also base their decisions about places to study on geographic considerations. Even if the forecast unpredictable extreme weather could strike anywhere in the world, students might become wary of cracking their books too close to advancing seas.
Looked it in another, highly more positive way, the increasingly acknowledge problems of climate change offer a range of new possibilities for both universities and their students alike. The evidence is that there is – at least currently – no shortage of climatologists who have had to wait frustratingly long periods of time to deliver their scientific findings to the larger world. But the need, in the immediately foreseeable future, for specially trained engineers of every imaginable type, scientists whose areas of specialization could be put to use in various aspects of climate change and how to deal with it – and professionals in public administration, city and urban planning, and aid and refugee work – will soon be in high demand. Business and marketing may soon seem less promising fields in a world threatened by natural forces.
The ability of both institutions of higher education and the students who attend them to adapt to a rapidly changing geo-political reality could hold an important key to the survival of the planet. Seizing the moment could well be key to the very survival of both.
Hugh Nelson is an e-learning specialist who has worked in the education industry for more than 10 years. He currently lives in Hong Kong and is a director of UniRoute, a company that runs educational websites helping students prepare and successfully apply for post-graduate studies abroad.
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