The University of Manchester Students’ Union has put on a series of interactive exhibitions, academic lectures, and functions aimed at highlighting the issues of climate change and global development.
The programme of events, which ran from the 10th to the 15th of February, asked Manchester students to think about the questions, “What is the future of our World? What issues do we need to tackle in our lifetimes? What are the big problems our society faces?”
The centrepiece of the events was a series of lectures entitled ‘The Future of Our World’, which were given by prominent academics from across the University of Manchester.
The Humanitarian Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) gave students the opportunity to win a fully paid scholarship in one of their programmes.
Different university halls also got involved with the week. For example, Owens Park ran a bike sale in Fallowfield and Oak House did a donate clothes to charity day.
Finally, the Manchester Museum partnered with the Union to run an evening at the Museum and a tour of the Living Worlds Galleries.
Clifford Fleming, Campaigns & Citizenship Officer of the University of Manchester Students’ Union, was responsible for organising the week of events.
When asked by The Mancunion why he went to the trouble of organising ‘Earth Week’, Fleming explained that, “I have a passion for these areas and I think it’s really important for our generation to be considering some of the toughest challenges we have to face. University students will go on to become politicians, CEOs, campaign directors, policy makers and more.
“We have the power to tackle these huge issues, but we’ve got to learn about them and how to tackle them. Also, it’s in Union policy to have such a week, it’s in conjunction with national Go Green Week and I ran on my manifesto that I would do my utmost to raise global issues.”
He added further that the week was “absolutely fantastic, with packed out lectures and lots of people engaging with lots of different themes.
“The volunteer team have been so engaged and just amazing.”
