Powerful nations are condemning the rest of the world to a life of lower standards, because of their selfish refusal to reduce the damage they do to the environment. This is the view of Alex Lenferna, coordinator of a new Grahamstown-based environmental action group that aims to involve students in what he believes is one of the most critical issues of our time: global warming.
Powerful nations are condemning the rest of the world to a life of lower standards, because of their selfish refusal to reduce the damage they do to the environment. This is the view of Alex Lenferna, coordinator of a new Grahamstown-based environmental action group that aims to involve students in what he believes is one of the most critical issues of our time: global warming.
His organisation, the South East African Climate Consortium Student Forum (SEACC SF), has been running for 18 months and already more than 100 students have joined up, a figure that pleases Lenferna – as in his view students are generally apathetic about such issues.
One of the consortium’s projects is a series of lectures on climate change, organised in conjunction with the Rhodes Environmental Learning Research Centre.
The lectures are part of the build up to December’s COP 17 conference in Durban: an international gathering under the auspices of the United Nations to address global warming.
Lenferna says that because South Africa is hosting the conference, it is important that as many South Africans as possible are properly informed so that they can participate in the debates and other activities around the event. His interest in climate change stems from his academic field of study and his passion to bring about change.
A Philosophy Master’s student, his research area is environmental ethics. Lenferna is passionate about climate change because it is “a microcosm of complex ethical issues”. He says it involves the lives of real people and is not just an abstract environmental issue. He is mainly concerned about ethics and the issues of global justice that remain unaddressed because powerful countries do not want to change their way of life. “We are thus condemning people to a life of lower standards,” said Lenferna.
He is also concerned with intergenerational justice, saying that the actions of each generation impacts of the environmental welfare of the generation that follows.
The first lecture held on 2 August by Dr Carl Palmer was entitled ‘Climate Change and Earth Systems’. He hopes that one of the results of the lecture series will be to help motivate all individuals (civil society and students) to put pressure on the business sector and the government to take climate change more seriously. "There is so much at stake; failure to act can undo a lot of development we have," said Lenferna.
Climate Change Lecture Series
16 August: Dr. Godwell Nhamo (EXXARO & UNISA) – 'Durban 9/12: Past, current and future concerns in global climate negotiations.'
23 August: Dr. Sheona Shackleton (Rhodes University Environmental Science) – 'Climate Change and its Effects in South Africa.'
30 August: Saliem Fakir (WWF) – 'The South African Position and Response to Climate Change.'
6 September: SEACC SF & Dylan McGarry (COPART) – 'A Climate Train, a COP, a COY and You.' Snacks will be served after each lecture. Each lecture will be held at Eden Grove Blue at Rhodes University at 6.30pm.
