Committee, Mandate & Ongoing Initiative

Climate Emergency Committee Mandate

1. Design a 1- and 5-year strategic plan for an EOAS Climate Emergency Response that fully aligns department research, teaching, operations and public outreach with the recognition of a climate emergency
2. Provide support to existing or proposed EOAS initiatives that are relevant to the EOAS Climate Emergency Response
3. Undertake our own initiatives that enhance the capacity, engagement, and effectiveness of the EOAS Climate Emergency Response
4. Act as a liaison/representative of EOAS in initiatives related to the larger UBC Climate Emergency Response
5. Unite, promote, and leverage the set of diverse departmental activities and relationships that collectively constitute the EOAS climate emergency response 

Current Initiative Highlights

Our initiatives have grown from our climate dialogue events and in collaboration with EOAS community members. We organize our initiatives under four main topics:

1. Research, Teaching and Learning 

• Update EOSC 1XX course material to better treat the broader interdisciplinary contexts of the climate emergency (e.g. in EOSC 110, EOSC 112, EOSC 114 and EOSC 116)
• support the development of new courses to expand climate science education opportunities for diverse audiences (e.g. EOSC 3XX, EOSC 595C)
• Develop datasets and exercises relevant to the climate emergency (e.g. in EOSC 340, in collaboration with OCESE)
• Support the development of a quantitative climate physics courses under QuEST 
• Support the design of a new interdisciplinary climate credential for UBC undergraduate students

2. Policy and Civic Engagement 

• Design and launch EOAS climate emergency response webpages
• Build a community of  climate emergency-relevant researchers in EOAS 
• Highlight EOAS climate emergency-relevant research and researchers on an EOAS webpage 
• Celebrate EOAS student engagement with community-based climate action projects
• Highlight climate research in EOAS on the “On Earth” podcast of the Pacific Museum of Earth
• Develop a climate change “mythbusters” resource with inputs from EOAS researchers

3. Partnerships 

• Conduct a census of researchers in the department with industry, government and community partnerships 
• Encourage discourse on departmental culture and practice with respect to EOAS partnerships
• Explore teaching and learning opportunities on the future roles of Earth scientists in a sustainable and just future economy

4. Departmental Operations 

• Research and design sustainable travel guidance for the EOAS community
• Research and propose sustainable catering guidance for the EOAS community
• Guide investments to improve hybrid and remote participation in EOAS events

For a full list of all active initiatives as well as proposed initiatives in our 5-year plan, see the EOAS Climate Action Plan.