As the Fall semester of 2023 wrapped up, the Owls for Earth program travelled to the Mecca of all climate change research and development at COP 28 in Dubai.
Amongst the 85,000 participants were students and faculty from the Environmental Science Department who showcased the university on the world stage in their positions as Official Observers.
COP is a UNFCCC, United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change, convention where government officials, corporations and researchers all come together to spread knowledge and cultivate solutions to climate change.
The UNFCCC was an agreement made between 198 different countries acknowledging that a global effort is necessary to limit human interference with the environment. Since the treaty’s ratification in 1994, the COP conventions have been the driving force of enacting policy change and spreading climate change awareness across the world.
“The UNFCCC holds the key to having environmental sustainability in the future,” Miriah Kelly says.
In the last four years as Assistant Professor of Environmental Science, Kelly has built a community of students who are passionate about the environment called “Owls for Earth.”
The Owls for Earth program conduct research projects studying the array of effects that climate change can have on the environment and the societies that inhabit it. Their research included studying the removal of carbon dioxide from marine environments.
Eleni Haskos, a senior biology major, investigated some of the bio-physical risks associated with it.
Haskos collaborated with Raianna Grant, a graduate student in the Environmental Systems and Sustainability program, who centered her research around the socio-cultural effects. Haskos and Grant were ecstatic to find a program that offered an outlet for their energy towards researching the environment.
“We need to get more students involved in local events dedicated to environmental science by allowing people to talk about it in a safe space,”Grant says.
Alongside them is Rebecca Stanton, a senior environmental science major, who took her research down a different path. Stanton focused on small developing states like Papa New Guinea, the Canary Islands and more.
She learned about the struggles that these small coastal communities endure in their battle against rising sea levels. These places produce some of the lowest carbon dioxide emissions in the world but are burdened with some of the harshest consequences.
“They are the prime example of people who are being affected by climate change,” Stanton says. “It’s not their fault and they don’t have the resources to mitigate or adapt to it.”
Haskos, Grant and Stanton conducted their research over a period of three years until they were eventually presented with the opportunity to bring their findings to Dubai at the biggest convention in UNFCCC history.
All their hard work was validated when their studies proved to be substantial enough to earn research grants, covering their travel costs.
In the coming months, the focus shifted to obtaining travel visas and booking accommodations, which proved difficult during the fall semester. The group overcame all obstacles and made it to Dubai for the second week of COP 28.
“Day one walking in I was like a giddy child at Disney World,” Kelly says.
Kelly could barely say how happy she felt after making it to Dubai safely with all her students. The Owls for Earth truly had the world of research at their fingertips, being in the same place as the biggest figures in the environmental science community.
Kelly and her students listened and learned from the most important climate change conversations in the world.
“It was very cool to see how inspired people were to connect.” Grant says.
One moment that the Owls for Earth will always remember was their visit to a special event at the beach with a whale sculpture made of recycled plastic. As they made their way through the crowd in the 85-degree weather Kelly ran into John Kerry, former U.S. Secretary of State and current Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
This conversation was symbolic because Kelly and her students were truly the universities voice heard in a world typically dominated by large privately funded universities.
“I feel so strongly about our students at Southern being able to participate in these events along with other universities like Yale and UCONN,” Kelly says.
At COP 28 the Owls for Earth had the experience of a lifetime. Now they will continue their research and attempt to spread awareness in their communities by initiating productive dialogue on climate change.
“It comes down to just talking to each other. Try to find a peer who is more conscious about reducing waste and see what they do,” said Eleni Haskos.
The Owls for Earth emphasized that it is not up to big corporations or government to stop the growing effects of climate change. If we want to make our society more sustainable then we need to start by making more sustainable choices in our own lives.
“Buy and throw away less, reuse more.,” said Rebecca Stanton.
