As a Students' Union, we are in the unique position of being in a learning environment, responsible for picking up where the University leaves off. One of these areas is E&E.

 

There's common consensus across the board that there are some issues in the world which cannot be ignored anymore. Parts of the world are experiencing unheard of prosperity, where the rich are getting richer at an alarming rate, opportunities for young people are seemingly endless, and the older generation is becoming a problem because they simply live too long! Yet, in parts of the majority world, mothers are still dying in childbirth at a rate close to 1 in every 100 live births, farmers' crops won't sell because their prices can't compete with those of European or American government-subsidised crops, and armed conflicts continue to break up families and lives across the world. And we now have the challenges of climate change and depleting natural resources to contend with too.

 

If we're going to combat such problems in the world, and overcome the challenges facing us in the near future, we all need to do our bit - whether as individuals, businesses or charitable organisations! Have a browse through these pages and discover what your Union is doing about its own footprint, what you can do about yours, why you see this logo everywhere on campus and what that means, and what's on the calendar to keep you inspired.

 

This is probably one of those questions that just doesn't have an answer. Being ethical is very much defined by each individual person. It's about scutinising what's around you and deciding whether what's happening is 'ok' or not, in your opinion, considering your own personal morals. There might be some areas that we can all agree on: say that child labour and slavery are not ethical in any way. Then there are the grey areas: the death penalty, animal testing, and arms companies, for example.

 

Our job as a Students' Union is to bring these questions to the table, to encourage discussion and education about them, and to let students decide what our campus' ethics should be. Such discussion can cover an incredibly broad array of topics, from the funding methods of university courses, to ethical procurement within our supply chains and stocking fairtrade goods in the Union and campus shops. And if its not on the agenda, why not get in touch and bring it to the table?

 

 

For most people, this one is probably much easier to define. We're all aware of the talk currently surrounding environmental issues. These range from debates about climate change, the global energy supply, and peak oil, to issues such as bio-diversity and deforestation. There are many famous environmental campaigning organisations out there who often take on very specific issues, such as plans for new power stations, airport expansion and the United Nations global climate talks.

 

The biggest one is arguably climate change, and within that, human-caused is implied. For those who wish to read some of the most often quoted science, there's the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. If the 'human-caused or not?' topic is too sticky to deal with, the question I'm left with is this: What do we have to lose? Will we really do ourselves a massive disfavour by trying to minimise the pollutants we spew into the atmosphere and reduce our energy usage? 

 

Campaigners have in the past proven to be very effective with their messages. On-campus activism is also not unheard of: both the University's Fairtrade status and a lot of the recent improvements in environmental management on campus involved student participation and campaigns.

 

For more information about activities on campus, click here.

For information about external campaigning groups, check out the Links page.

 

 

 

This is the Peters World Map, a projection of the world that correctly displays

the relative sizes of our landmasses. To enlarge, click the picture.