CEESD l CEESD climate change awareness creation at St Louis College of Education

Climate change seminar at St. Louis College of Education
November 17, 2010

Our climate change awareness programme continued with the second in the series held at the St. Louis College of Education. The seminar was attended by over 500 students.The Lecture which was delivered by the solar systems and climate change coordinator of CEESD, KNUST, David Ato Quansah, touched on the causes of climate change, evidence of climate change, mitigation and more importantly adaptation techniques.

The lecture laid emphasis on the role teachers/educators are expected to play in the development and implementation of educational and public awareness programmes on climate change and its effects. It touched on how climate change is affecting our life – our economic prosperity, our health and other welfare – and how all of us together can save the environment for our benefit and for posterity.

Discussions also focused on how teachers can identify and record traditional knowledge, life styles, and activities that show linkages to climate change adaptation. The idea is to generate knowledge on local lifestyles that various communities are adopting in response to climate change, and to disseminate such information with the rest of world. According to David Quansah, teachers are expected to serve as knowledge banks with regards to climate change education in rural areas and less privileged communities where the most vulnerable people live.

Question asked by students dwelled on various issues on climate change, and on how poor waste handling practices contribute to climate change. Obviously impressed by the eye opening lecture they requested CEESD comes back to deliver a special lecture on waste management, and how Ghana is dealing with the issue of waste collection, treatment, and disposal.

Our target is to cover all forty colleges of education in the country to educate them on climate change using them (teacher trainees) as agents of change. We believe through them a massive paradigm shift will take place in the near future. Two institutions have been covered; the train will next stop at Mampong Technical College of Education.