Climate change is one of the hot topics in the media these days. Everyone who is not living in total isolation has been bombarded by various messages about what is happening to our climate and what is being done to prevent extreme change in it. With the Kyoto protocol nearing its expiry date and the Copenhagen summit that has now recently started, the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies (GGS) and the Leuven Sustainable Earth Research Centre (LSUE) felt the need to further inform Leuven’s students about this issue.

In cooperation with Politika, Merkator and the Kring voor Internationale Betrekkingen (KIB - association for international relations), GGS and LSUE organized two lectures to introduce students with a coherent summary of the various aspects of this climate change topic. This seems a welcome initiative when we consider all the myths this topic gave rise to.

The first lecture, on November 17th focused on the scientific side of the story. Professors van Lipzig and Govers (LSUE) both talked about ‘The reality of global warming’. These highly interesting lectures proved to be an appetizer for what was to come the week after.

The following Tuesday it was time to discover the political background of the story. The programmed lectures were specifically conceived to prepare ‘the K.U.Leuven public’ for the Copenhagen summit from 7th till 18th December, leaving all national delegations ample time for Christmas shopping when they get back home. Thus it was obvious the road from Kyoto to Copenhagen would hold a central place. Professor Bruyninckx, K.U.Leuven’s expert on global environmental politics from the Faculty of Social Sciences, was found willing to unveil these obscure political negotiations and to give an overview of the history of international climate policy.

Either this lecture must have been very entertaining or there was a high demand for explanation about Copenhagen, as even the big auditorium in MTC was almost filled to the brim. Although, the reason could also have been the renown of Bruyninckx’ oratorical skills, At first it seemed somewhat of a limitation that the lectures were to be held in Dutch, but if they would have been in English, the breathing air inside probably would have gotten quite precious. The lecture was meant as an introductory course, mainly intended for younger students who had not had the time to become experts on their own. Therefore, students specializing in climate change politics would not have learned a great deal. This was clearly heard in the vocabulary applied by professor Bruyninckx. Juggling with the lingo and abbreviations were reduced to an absolute minimum in order to not to scare away the audience. Because of the modest level of specialization, those of you who are really into this topic and are heartbroken you could not attend because your Dutch is not up to scratch: do not worry about it, you could watch the Champion’s League with peace of mind.

At approximately twenty to eight, the audience settled down and we was prepared to discover what political steps were taken to prevent our climate from derailing. Although, before he could get started, professor Bruyninckx was stuck with one existential question that had to be answered: whether or not to use a microphone? Hmm, tricky one… rather big auditorium to fill up with just your voice. Then again, a mike is so inconvenient and usually it comes with unwanted side noises. The lecture was started with the help of the microphone, but after a while someone got so annoyed with a constant ‘beep’ that she couldn’t take it anymore… away go the amplification tools, problem solved. Afterwards it was interesting to see how the seats in the back suddenly seemed less favorable, but this merely as a side note. |