The aim of this initiative was to organize an educational program for young people and students at the same time, on April 7th. The main theme of the event was climate change, as well as prevention options (mitigation) and individual responses. At first, perhaps the name of the initiative may seem provocative. But this is intentional. As Professor Eban Goodstein (Bard College, USA) emphasized in the opening video, a significant proportion of climate researchers agree that we have roughly 10 years to make a real difference. If we fail to change our consumer habits radically and making the economy more sustainable by 2030, it is highly likely that we will not be able to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius.
In the event organized by the Faculty of Economics, University of Miskolc four invited speakers attended: Zsófia Jurányi, István Nagy, Márton L. Kiss and Eszter Mihályi.
Zsófia Jurányi, physicist, atmospheric physicist and climate researcher, spent 14 months in Antarctica between 2016 and 2018. She recounted her experiences, daily tasks, and life with special photographs.
István Nagy and Márton L. Kiss shared the success story and experience of the Someshine team in the Solar Decathlon Europe 2019 international innovation house building competition. The competition promotes architectural solutions related to the utilization of solar energy that could modernize the existing building stock in Hungary.
Eszter Mihály, CSR Manager of Hell Energy Group, spoke about resource efficiency, corporate climate strategy and sustainability. As a responsible manufacturer, Hell Energy uses aluminium cans instead of PET bottles, which are 100% and endlessly recyclable.
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The speakers emphasized the importance of environmental awareness to prefer buying sustainable brands, striving for reuse and recycling. Every little thing counts, so everyone can do something to reduce the effects of climate change, for example by buying local products, avoiding overpackaged goods, and gradually switching to energy efficiency.
The importance of this event is shown by the fact that more than 80 students joined us in the online space. The event ended with interesting questions and positive feedback from the students.
The event was funded by Project EFOP-3.4.3-16-2016-00015 „Phoenix ME” – Renewable University Higher Education Institutional Improvements to improve the Quality and Accessibility of Higher Education (Internationalisation - 5th subproject).