PUPILS GET INVOLVED IN CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE – The Leys School

17 Apr 2019

Sixth-formers Sarah D (U6) and Tommy H (L6) were chosen to introduce the fourth and final lecture in the month-long Cambridge Climate Change series, held at Trinity College.

CCLS is an annual event organised by residents of the city and staff and students from the University of Cambridge. The aim is to link key thinkers with as wide an audience as possible. Although many speakers are experts, non-scientific speakers from a range of social and political backgrounds are involved in the hope of bringing new angles to tackling climate change. The lectures are live-streamed to broaden accessibility.

Sarah and Tommy welcomed to the stage Rosemary “Ro” Randall from the Climate Psychology Alliance. She talked about the strong feelings climate change evokes and how to have meaningful discussions on a subject that can lead to feelings of anger, avoidance or disbelief.

The Leys has been very involved in this year’s CCLS, running workshops for its own pupils and other schools in the area on themes under discussion in the lectures. For example, the Healthy Planet Cambridge Schools’ Workshop gave pupils an opportunity to discuss “Food, Health and Climate Change” ahead of a lecture on the environmental impact of food by Joseph Poore from the University of Oxford. Leys pupils also attended the lecture series, which featured major figures such as Sir David King,  former Governmental Chief Scientific Advisor, and  James Lovelock , the thinker behind the  Gaia hypothesis which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system.