'This concerns every person on Earth'
If they fail, disastrous consequences such as rising sea levels, extreme droughts, the extinction of many species and an unprecedented flows of migrants will be a reality in just a matter of time. During the last climate convention (which took place in 2009 in Copenhagen), world leaders were unable to come to any significant agreements. It is expected that they will do better this time around.
'The saying is true,' says Chaja Merk, Communication Management student at the AUAS: 'ours is the first generation that is noticing the consequences of global warming, and the last one that can do something about it.' It is for this reason that Merk, 26, intends to travel to Paris in the week of the conference, together with 19-year-old UvA-student Jessie Goldman. 'To show that people actually care,' Merk explains, 'and to put some pressure on the negotiators.'
The fact that the largest climate demonstration to be held in Paris was cancelled after the terrorist attacks of 13 November will not stop them. 'The attacks, terrible as they were, do not diminish the importance of this conference,' says Goldman. 'This concerns every person on Earth.' Still, the two see remarkably little zeal for this cause in their peer group. Goldman: 'People worry about climate change and global warming, but tend to see it as a given. They think it's just a fact of life, something that can't be helped. As if it were some horrible war in a faraway country.'
It's an understandable reaction, according to social psychologist Lieke Dreijerink. Dreijerink researches students' involvement with issues such as climate politics for Ivam, a UvA research and consultancy firm on sustainability. 'Many students feel that their actions contribute little, if anything, to solving the problem,' she says. This apathy is typical for an abstract problem like climate change, she explains. 'People hardly notice the consequences in their daily lives. And if they do, those consequences are far away, or sometime in the future. That doesn't provide much motivation for the present.'
Yet it is up to the current generation of students, Dreijerink says, to work towards a solution to these problems in the near future. 'It would be a good idea if they learned more about meaningful actions and behaviour from the government or university, they should give the good example.'
Mirko van Pampus (28), assistant professor Future Planet Studies at the UvA, is giving it his best effort to make his students aware of the possibilities available to them, although he stresses that this is all strictly outside of the classroom. Together with a colleague, he has been mobilising as many students as possible to travel to Paris.
To this end, he started studentstoparis.nl, a website providing students with information about climate change as well as advice on how to get to Paris on the cheap and what they can do to help once there. He is hoping that this time, people might 'get properly angry', he says, 'so that they'll get up and say: "The way we run things is insane, it's time you listen to us." That's the only way we might be able to make a change.'
Taking to the streets could indeed make a difference, Bert Metz confirms. And as an internationally respected authority on climate policy, he should know. He co-chaired the Working Group on mitigation on climate change of the United Nations' scientist climate panel IPCC that lays the scientific foundations for climate conferences, and was one of the members of the UN workgroup to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
'When many people show a willingness to march through the streets, it demonstrates that they really care whether something is accomplished,' Metz says. 'This helps politicians realise that it does matter to the electorate whose continuing support they will need in the future.'