The end of October full of Climate Action

October 23rd 2021 – Youth Climate and Nature Summit
(Nuorten ilmasto- ja luontohuippukokous)

Previous Saturday, 23rd of October 2021, had quite a lot going on in Helsinki, Finland. Young people around the country gathered in Helsinki Messukeskus to participate in an event called Youth Climate and Nature Summit. Young active Finns organized an event, which was targeted to the curious young people between ages of 15 to 29 interested in climate and nature action. The event started at 9.30 in the morning and had a full day scheduled with panel discussions, experts’ lecture sessions and workshops dealing with various topics related to climate change.

On behalf of ClimComp and Climate University me, Janina, and my colleague Joula arrived to the event. We put up a stand just outside the main stage. During the day, we discussed with the participants, asked them to answer a voluntary survey about climate competencies and shared Climate University course stickers and cards. The colorful stickers (and bowl full of candy) really woke up the interest in the participants.

In addition to the stand, we also organized a workshop together with experts from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The topic of our workshop was What is climate data and How to use it to make an impact. Risto Makkonen introduced the climate data and climate modelling and then the participants got to familiarize themselves with the new IPCC Interactive Atlas. Participants worked in small groups focusing on the future scenarios in chosen location. In the end, the task was to summarize the findings into twitter-type text targeted to the wide audience, a decision makers or to other countries. Two examples are presented here:

 

“Ilmastonmuutoksen haasteet näkyvät jo nyt ihmisten elämän ja elinkeinojen vaikeutena. Esimerkiksi Andien sulaneet vuoristojäätiköt aiheuttavat vesipulaa alueen maanviljelijöille jo nyt! Tulevaisuudesta ei vielä edes tiedetä kun vaikutukset ovat monimutkaisia ja arvaamattomia!”

”Haluatko, että lapsesi tulevat näkemään vielä lunta? Mitä enemmän vähennämme päästöjä, sitä suuremmalla todennäköisyydellä saamme kokea lumen vielä täällä Etelä-Suomessakin.
#arktinenalue #grönlantisulaa”

 

Overall, the day was great and inspiring for us and surely for the participants. The whole event was well-organized and carefully executed. Thank you for the organizers for letting us take part in this lovely event and special thank you for all the active participants!

 

 

October 27th 2021 – ILPO Workshop day in Kumpula for lower secondary students

ILPO – ilmastonmuutoksen perusopetus – week is on for some lower secondary students in Helsinki. This means that students are excursing in various places and listening, seeing, learning and experimenting in climate related workshops. Students from Ruusuvuori lower secondary school arrived to Helsinki Kumpula Campus as part of their ILPO-week. Me and Joula were there to take care of them.

In the first half of the day we talked about weather and climate; what is weather and how can one read weather maps, how does weather differ from climate and how is the climate changing. Interactive tasks and discussions kept the participants awake until it was time to visit the roof of Kumpula (6th floor) to see the weather measurement set up above the city. That surely was exciting and memorable for the young students.

The second half of the day was spent with the topic of urban meteorology. This was an entirely new term for the young students. To connect urban meteorology with the climate change we played an online game called Climate Adaptation Game, where the students played as decision makers in a small town. In time, the climatic circumstances are changing and tough decisions need to be made in order to keep the city alive and citizens happy. Students realized how hard it is to consider everything and how proper actions for the future are needed.

 

We had again such fun time with the young students again, and we hope they had a fruitful and engaging day themselves.

 

Happy November everyone!

Janina & Joula