Higher education and climate change: two stories from August 2023

How might academics respond to the unfolding climate crisis?

Today I’d like to share two developments which can help us think through that question.

The first comes from Canada, where two campuses (so far) have been under evacuation orders due to out of control fires. The University of British Columbia (Okanagan Campus), an institution with more than 11,000 students, announced a total evacuation yesterday as fires roared nearby.

British Columbia is now under a state of emergency. You can see the status of fires across the province from this governmental website:

The UBCO main page now features this very concise announcement: “A fire is burning near UBC Okanagan Campus. Evacuate.”

At the same time, farther to the north, Aurora College of Yelloknife (their website keeps giving me errors; anyone else getting this?) is delaying the start of fall classes because of fires, which have prompted evacuation in the area. The College’s Facebook account said this, two days ago:

Due to the evacuation of Yellowknife, Ndilo and Dettah, Aurora College’s Yellowknife North Slave Campus will be closed until further notice. We will re-assess the closure as updates are received from city officials and emergency organizations.

According to one local site, the delay is:

to provide more time for emergency personnel and affected communities to deal…