Animal Studies Students Take Part In National History Museum And Greta Thunberg Climate Change Premier

Ani­mal Stud­ies stu­dents at Stam­ford Col­lege, part of the Inspire Edu­ca­tion Group, tuned in to watch the pre­mier of a broad­cast by the Nation­al His­to­ry Muse­um and Gre­ta Thun­berg, titled, ​‘Gre­ta Thun­berg in con­ver­sa­tion: Tack­ling bio­di­ver­si­ty loss and cli­mate change’.

The pro­lif­ic cli­mate activist had pre­vi­ous­ly vis­it­ed the Lon­don Muse­um, which exhibits a vast range of spec­i­mens from var­i­ous seg­ments of nat­ur­al his­to­ry, to meet with stu­dents of Lon­don schools to dis­cuss bio­di­ver­si­ty, the cli­mate cri­sis, eco anx­i­ety and pos­si­ble solu­tions to these prob­lems. To engage with a wider audi­ence, Greta’s talk was tele­vised, pub­li­cis­ing her thoughts on top­ics such as protest­ing and cli­mate jus­tice. Dur­ing the pre­mière, the Museum’s staff mem­bers, bio­di­ver­si­ty researcher Dr Adri­ana De Pal­ma, and Sci­ence Com­mu­ni­ca­tor Dr Khalil Thirl­away, were also on hand to answer the YouTube audience’s questions.

In the Asso­ci­a­tion of College’s Cli­mate Action Roadmap for Fur­ther Edu­ca­tion Col­leges, we are remind­ed that cli­mate change and eco­log­i­cal destruc­tion are some of the biggest chal­lenges of our time. Col­leges have a moral duty to act, and Inspire Edu­ca­tion Group’s Inspir­ing Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Green Plan out­lines the Group’s efforts towards reduc­ing emis­sions, improv­ing our nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and reduc­ing the con­sump­tion of resources. Inno­v­a­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties to edu­cate the younger gen­er­a­tion, such as this ground-break­ing pre­mier, do not go amiss, as explained by Ani­mal Stud­ies lec­tur­er, Mikalia John­son, said ​“As an FE provider, we have an impor­tant role to play in all aspects of sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The broad­cast with The Nation­al His­to­ry Muse­um and Gre­ta Thun­berg high­light­ed cli­mate change, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and bio­di­ver­si­ty loss, allow­ing our stu­dents to under­stand the caus­es, then trans­late this knowl­edge into pos­i­tive actions and solutions”.