Global Collaboration Leads to New Horizons

 As I wrap up my week in Glasgow, I found myself reflecting back on my time spent at Moravian. Not really knowing where exactly I wanted my career to lead to, I found myself registering for my final semester at the end of the Fall 2020 semester. I was torn between really just being exhausted from having to make the abrupt adaptation to a whole new learning system and quite frankly just wanting to get the degree over with, or expanding my horizons in hopes of finding a better sense of direction. But we'll get back to that in just a second. 

That same semester [Fall 2020], I had decided to take the Climate Negotiations course that was offered, which is taught by both Dr. Husic and Dr. Binford, both of which are here with me at the COP26. The course taught quite literally what is in the name, negotiations about climate science and policy on different levels, along with additional topics. One week specifically, we had a guest speaker call-in to our class [via zoom] to speak about the cryosphere and how the specifics of the topic related to the class. Dr. Heïdi Sevestre, a French glaciologist who specializes in the dynamics of glaciers in the polar regions, while also spends time to focus on the interface of science-policy and communication. I was particularly looking forward to her talk, and I specifically remember being so intrigued by the topic that I went up to Dr. Husic after class ended to ask for her email. I was specifically interested in learning more about the mountain-building events in Antarctica. The rest sort of just fell into place from there; we contacted back and forth for quite some time after that, largely just sending scientific articles about Antarctica. 

Backtracking to the first paragraph - when it came time to register for classes for my final semester at Moravian, I hit quite the roadblock after finding out that I could not get a seat in a geology course at one of the neighboring universities. Upon discussion with Dr. Husic, she asked if I would have interest in doing an independent study. Knowing that I had a particular interest in geology and really enjoyed Dr. Sevestre's talk about glaciology, she suggested that I reach out to her to see if she would be willing to facilitate an independent study. I remember feeling quite intimidated by the thought of it, but I took the shot and reached out. Shortly after, she responded quite enthusiastically and shared that she thought that was a fantastic idea, and wanted to set up a video conference to begin discussing the specifics. We chose the project to surround an introduction to glacial and geomorphological mapping [of Gandbreen, a surge-type glacier located on Edgeøya, one of the islands in Svalbard, Norway). This would involve both an introduction to glaciology, but also a concurrent introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies [I was taking the Moravian GIS course at the same time]. Going into the project, I knew very little on glaciology and absolutely nothing about GIS. So, I considered her to be my instructor in both glaciology and the geomorphological mapping aspects of GIS.

Dr. Sevestre would give me a chapter to read a week and we would touch base [remotely via zoom] every Friday to go over any questions I had, and to instruct me on the specifics to get ball rolling on the mapping aspect of the project. The project took off quite quickly, and the mapping portion of the project was done by the midterm-point of the semester. At that point, I knew practically all there is to know about surge-type glaciers. It was also at that point that I knew that this was my calling; i.e. glaciology was the field for me. 

The way that the second half of the semester pertaining my independent study was structured was quite different than the first half, as Dr. Sevestre was actually going on the first all-female AND first carbon neutral research expedition in Svalbard (read more at https://www.climatesentinels.com). So, the remaining part of the semester consisted of putting together the research paper itself, and really tying everything together. I don't think I've ever been so motivated and enthralled to write a paper in my entire undergraduate career. In addition to that, I submitted an abstract to the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education and proceeded to present about my research at their 3rd Global Virtual Conference. That abstract and presentation has since been officially published by the program. The rest of the semester flew by and soon enough, Dr. Sevestre touched back to mainland and we were able to conclude the independent study.

During our "last" video chat of the semester, Dr. Husic, Dr. Sevestre, and I touched base to go over the overall progress and took some time to reflect. Reflections upon the limits that can be surpassed by remote learning; remote in more than one sense. Remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing the GIS lab to be closed, so I had to remotely connect to a GIS desktop through a VPN. Remote because I could not be in Dr. Sevestre's presence - there was a whole ocean between us. Remote because I could not go out into the field to observe Gandbreen, so the use of satellite imagery and remote sensing were put in place. During that last chat, Husic and Sevestre began a discussion about the COP26 at the end of the year, and I remember thinking how cool would it be to not only attend such an important event, but to also meet my mentor. 

Fast forward a few months [I graduated 😊], I found myself entering the world's largest climate summit. And with the heavy burden of knowing that this conference must be extremely proactive to minimize the devastating impacts that the climate crisis will continue to bring,  I was also excited to network and explore new possibilities (and to meet Heïdi, of course). 

And that's exactly what the week persisted of. 

I had the absolute honor to meet my friend, inspiration, and mentor to all things glaciology, Dr. Heïdi Sevestre. I was able to network with scientists and other environmental professionals from all over the globe. I was able to hear the stories and perspectives from those who can't be heard from back home. All thanks to global collaboration. 

With exciting opportunities to follow and some very exciting news about where I should end up for graduate school, I can give myself a fair amount of credit for having a fiery passion for the planet, however I also wouldn't be where I am without Dr. Husic and Dr. Sevestre. 

Diane, Heïdi - if you're reading this, thank you.

My advice to students is to take your passion and run with it. Don't be afraid to take a leap, it may lead you to new horizons. And most importantly something that a high school teacher once told me and is going to stick with me for the rest of my life, no effort you make is ever wasted. Cheers. 

Heading to COP25

It is time for my annual trek to the United Nations climate meetings; my colleague, two students, two Moravian College alums, and I are about to head to COP25 in Madrid. This is our 11th COP as delegates of the college; we have brought over 30 students to these negotiations on the global stage since 2009. Until a few weeks ago, we thought we were headed to Santiago, Chile, but civil unrest there led to the government canceling the plans. Somehow, the United Nations and Spain found a way to organize this global event in different city, country and continent -- all in about a week! We won't talk about the disruption to plans made months earlier and, for many, lost deposits and airfare. 

I am preparing my presentation for a side event (panel) entitled Contributions of higher education to climate action and implementation of the Paris Agreement and came across this 11/26/19 post from David Hess, former secretary of the PA Department of Environmental Protection, entitled Major Businesses, Higher Ed Institutions Write To Members Of House, Senate Urging Pennsylvania To Accelerate Transition To A Low-Carbon Economy. I was interested to see the comments of neighboring college CEOs from eastern PA. 

There is also an interesting recent 5-part essay entitled How will higher education respond to climate change that begins here. This series was written by Bryan Alexander, an internationally known futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and teacher, working in the field of how technology transforms education. Dr. Alexander has a Ph.D. in English, so speaks from the humanities perspective. For the first time that I recall, there is a COP25 side event that will focus on the humanities: Enhancing the Paris Ambition: Universities, Science, Humanities and Arts Interfaces 4 Future Life. I look forward to attending that session.

If you wonder why any of this matters, neither the most recent (greenhouse gas) Emissions Gap Report for 2019 nor the latest climate change research present a very positive scenario [see here for a summary, ref 1]. The students that we are currently educating will face a very different world in terms of climate and geo-political instability than we know now (think forced migrations, food and water insecurity, growing health concerns, and conflict). What will student success mean under these conditions? As we prepare individuals for transformative leadership in a world of change (part of the Moravian mission), are we preparing them for this change? Our campus InFocus programming is a start. Lest you think that I am being a bit melodramatic, check out this 11/29/19 article from The New Humanitarian [2].

If I still have your interest, here are two additional thoughts to consider:

1) Two weeks ago, the National Council for Science and the Environment released a report [3] showing the results of a survey of climate science publications from land grant and large R1 institutions from each state. One striking finding is that although institutions are working on regionally relevant climate research, they do little to communicate this data and its relevance to local decision makers. A few years ago at a gathering of environmental groups, faculty and students from the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges and other regional institutions, science faculty clearly expressed their reluctance to get involved in advocacy related to climate change or other local environmental challenges. Thus, this communication gap is not limited to the R1s.

2) A scientist from the German Development Institute and his colleagues recently completed an analysis [4] on whether countries indicate that education is necessary to implement Nationally Determined Contributions (to reducing greenhouse gas emissions). The bottom line according to Pieter Pauw is that "the lower the income levels of the countries, the larger the share of countries that states that education is necessary to implement the NDCs." The U.S. submitted their NDC in 2016, but there is no mention of education in it.

Screen shot from the NDC Explorer (Pauw, et al. 2017)

People I talked to over the past few weeks are curious as to how those of us from the U.S. will be "welcomed" given that we have formally begun the process of pulling out of the Paris Agreement, the only country to do so out of 196 states plus the European Union [5, 6]. That remains to be seen. Stay tuned.

Selected Works Cited:

1. Berwyn, B. "Climate Tipping Points Are Closer Than We Think, Scientists Warn." InsideClimate News, November 27, 2019.

2.  "Ebola setback, ‘starvation’ in Zimbabwe, and COP25 preparations: The Cheat Sheet." The New Humanitarian, Nov 29, 2019.

3. Goldman,  E.B. and M. Hyams. 2019. Climate Science Research in the United States and U.S. Territories: Survey of Scientific Publications from Selected Public Universities (2014-2018). The National Council for Science and the Environment: Washington, D.C.

4. Pauw, W.P, Cassanmagnano, D., Mbeva, K., Hein, J., Guarin, A., Brandi, C., Dzebo, A., Canales, N., Adams, K.M., Atteridge, A., Bock, T., Helms, J., Zalewski, A., Frommé. E., Lindener, A., Muhammad, D. (2016). NDC Explorer. German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). DOI: 10.23661/ndc_explorer_2017_2.0´

5. Friedman, L. "Trump Serves Notice to Quit Paris Climate Agreement." The New York Times, November 4, 2019; available here. 

6. Hersher, R. "U.S. Formally Begins To Leave The Paris Climate Agreement." NPR All Things Considered, Novermber 4, 2019; available here.