This Earth Day, we hosted our second Power of 10 Festival in Cornwall following the success of last year’s inaugural Festival in Cumbria. The day saw 200 students from across from 15 schools come together for a day of celebration, empowerment, and inspiration for our planet.
We were thrilled to be joined by Prof. Martin Siegert, climate scientist, glaciologist, Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Cornwall at the University of Exeter, for a talk on climate science and the importance of creating a net-zero society at this year’s Power of 10 Festival. Amidst the excitement of the day, we sat down for a brief interview to discuss why the Power of 10 Generation is so crucial to the future of our planet and what they bring to the climate movement:
Go ahead and introduce yourself!
“I’m Martin Siegert, I’m a glaciologist and climate scientist, as well as Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Cornwall at the University of Exeter.”
Could you tell us what you’re talking to the Power of 10 Festival attendees about?
“So my talk was really about climate change, the science evidence of that change, the fact that our society is responsible for the warming of the planet. We also talked about projecting where climate change is likely to go over the next 80 or so years, and about some of the affects of climate change. In particular as a glaciologist, I’m interested in sea-level change; so as the planet warms, the ice melts, and the sea level goes up, but the question we need to understand is, ‘how much is sea-level going up, how much has it gone up in the last 100 years, and how much will it go up in the next 100 years or so?’ And so I provided the children with some evidence of what we know about sea-level change, both from today and also in the past. We started talking about the Ice Age and what caused the Ice Age, what might happen over the next 100 years, and then also about understanding what we can do to change the situation. We need a net-zero transition as quickly as possible to stop further warming, and the co-benefits of doing that are all around us – cleaner air, better lives, and of course reducing sea-level rise.”
Do you find that the secondary school students are pretty receptive to these ideas? What is their understanding of this topic like and what kind of questions are they asking you? What are they showing concern about?
“The children were really great. They understood the problem [of climate change] and they had really good questions to ask about what can happen now. They asked about what happens when we capture carbon dioxide – what do we do with it? Because if we capture it and then it goes back into the atmosphere, that would be a bad thing, so we talked about carbon capture and storage, or using that carbon dioxide for another purpose. We also talked about embedded carbon, so if you build a geothermal power station or an electric vehicle, it has a carbon footprint associated with it. But how long does it take for that to be paid off, in carbon terms?
“We started talking about Cornwall and the impact Cornwall can have on the net-zero transition in terms of the renewable energy that’s all around us, but also in terms of the metal in the ground that is needed for the net-zero transition. I asked the children whether they’d be interested in mining, and actually not many of them put their hands up, but when I asked if they wanted to earn a lot of money, save the planet, travel around the world, a lot of hands went up! And I did say, ‘well, mining can do that,’ and maybe I convinced one or two children to think about doing that in the future.
“Then there were some profound questions, like ‘what caused the antarctic continent to get really cold?’ I’ve never actually been asked that question in this talk that I’ve given many times before, and it does have a good answer – the opening of the Drake Passage as South America separated from Antarctica caused the antarctic continent to plunge into a deep freeze. That was great, I was really pleased with the attention of the students and also the quality of the questions!”
Why do you think it’s important for this generation of students to understand these issues and be engaged with them?
“Climate change is an issue of our time, and its solution is going to be over the next 30 to 40 years. We need to create a net-zero emissions society by mid-century, and when we’re talking to schoolchildren today, these are people who have got 30 to 40 years of career in front of them. It will be the net-zero transition that dictates whatever they do in their jobs. The contribution they have to make is going to be significant, so understanding why they’re doing this is really critical if we’re ever going to ultimately get there. Engaging schoolchildren in this important topic is fundamental for their future, fundamental for their understanding, and ultimately fundamental to the success of what we know needs to happen.”
You can learn more about Power of 10 and join the movement by visiting https://powerof10.another-way.org.uk/
This year’s Power of 10 Festival was generously supported by the Duchy of Cornwall, Cornwall Council, and the University of Exeter (Cornwall).
