Most people worry about environmental change but feel there is little they personally can do about it.  We can all fly less, eat less meat, recycle more, but these things won’t make a significant difference on their own.  It is obvious that the problem needs to be tackled at scale (a “moonshot”), and across a series of fronts. So beyond wait for someone else to step up, what can we do?  The 1 in 5 project provides a way for students and academics to contribute to a large scale, multi-disciplinary effort. Its simply requires reorienting some existing efforts and resources to the problem of climate change.  Without having to do anything additional to what we are already doing, we could have a significant impact on our ability to deal with the impact of climate change. 

Every year, in the UK alone, approximately half a million students complete an undergraduate degree. In the final year of their degree, when they are most skilled, every one of those students does a substantial piece of advanced work, a research project, a production, a dissertation, a show etc supervised by an expert in the field. Unlike almost any other part of the degree, decisions about the nature and content of the work are typically within the control of the student and the supervisor.  What if 1 in 5 of those dissertations, shows, studies etc – lets just call them “projects” for brevity – was related to climate change?  That would be 100,000 projects, a phenomenally large number.  At such a massive scale there is a real opportunity for impact. 

At this point, some of you might be thinking – I don’t or can’t do climate change related work so this is not relevant to me. In response we would counter that we have yet to find a discipline that can't deliver a project which is relevant to Climate Change, so please keep reading for now.    So how exactly could student projects have an impact? 

Let us first consider a scenario where a bunch of us go off and with no coordination run a series of unconnected projects. Effectively the current situation.

What is the likelihood of an individual project producing anything of real consequence?  If we have only one project its very low.  If there were 10 projects?  Still low, but clearly higher.  If we had a few hundred?  At this point you might pause and remember work done by a final year student that resulted in a conference presentation, or a journal article, a book chapter, a commercial product or a theatrical or musical performance.  But if there were 10s or even 100s of thousands of projects on climate change happening every year then clearly the chances of genuine impact become high. This is what statisticians call the “law of truly large numbers”: With a very large number of instances, even very unlikely things become likely.  

But on top of the projects generated, imagine the other consequences of 100,000 students per year working on something related to climate change.  There would be a lot of people more likely to ask their future employer about climate impact policies, or be prepared to engage with Uncle Norman in a discussion about global warming over Christmas dinner, or choose to put their money into a green investment fund.  In addition, some proportion of the students would be inspired to go on and pursue an idea related to climate change once they graduate, set up a company or maybe start a political movement.  Not only would climate related projects help us engage with the issue, but they help students and supervisors gain expertise, confidence and contacts.  We would all have been educated, empowered and inspired. 

Lastly, some academic staff, might be inspired to shift some of their research or interests towards climate change, bringing new ideas, techniques, or resources to the challenge.

All the above comes for free, without requiring us to do any more work than we already do or any additional input or investment. But what if we could add in some additional resources and organisation?

There are many problems that remain unsolved, and ideas that remain untried, because they require more effort or resource than could be delivered by an individual or small team.  Or because they need a breadth of expertise that is not readily available.   We know that when collections of people get organised, the results can be truly impressive.  Think of Wikipedia or Linux, the open-source computer operating system.   

Work at scale. Some problems can only be solved at scale.   Existing examples of this approach in universities are the “many labs” initiatives where a scientist, or group of scientists, propose an idea and then others sign up to collect data.  “Innocence projects” that are run in some law schools are another.  Student projects could follow the same model.  Academics, or groups of academics, could agree on an important problem or idea and then align 10s or 100s of student projects to pursue the idea.

Multi-disciplinary teams. The story of Silicon Valley is of engineers working on an idea in their garage and then being able to draw on local universities for technical, scientific and other expertise (and future employees) to turn a prototype into a billion dollar business or product.  A critical idea for addressing climate change might currently be in the head of a lecturer in Chemistry, the notepad of a PhD student in Journalism, or on a mechanic's bench in a garage in the Outer Hebrides.  Imagine being able to support these ideas through student projects, for example, coordinate a project to examine any associated legal issues, a project that explores aesthetic and design factors, and so on.  As another example, imagine something more mundane, collections of projects that together help local councils improve their recycling message, or a local business green its supply chain.      A great example of this already working is the University of Manchester’s Living Lab. https://www.universitylivinglab.org

All that is needed for these group projects is a rudimentary system to allow people to post project ideas and form groups. (If you think you could help set up such a system, please email help@1in5project.info). To reinforce the point, it is not necessary to set up such a system, it is not a pre-requirement, but for a little effort we would gain a lot through coordination.

What if we could also capture and organise the results of the projects?

The pandemic taught us how much can be achieved when ideas, data and materials are collected and shared.  Even when what is shared is partial, tentative or uncertain.  Currently when a project is completed it is typically filed away and forgotten.  Imagine if there was a climate focused version of Wikipedia, let’s call it Enviropedia, and a repository for materials.  At the time of submission the student is asked to go to Enviropedia, add a two or three line summary of what they have done, and link or upload their work.  Information, ideas and materials would very quickly accumulate.  Enviropedia and the associated materials could be consulted, used or searched by individuals (or computers) in universities and beyond. (If you think you could help set up such a system, please email help@1in5project.info).

By this point you might not be sold on everything that has been described, but hopefully you like at least part of the proposal, and think there is something here worth pursuing.  You may have your own strong view on what needs to be done about environment change - perhaps development of a specific technology, the need to precipitate a change in attitudes, or a change in the law.  Or you might believe that the focus should be on mitigation strategies, or the interaction with habitat / species loss, mental health, global poverty.  You may even be a climate sceptic.  You could participate whatever views you might have.  What is being proposed is a framework, not an agenda, the content of projects is up to supervisors and students. 

You may be sympathetic but think there are flaws in the ideas, or you may have suggestions for improvements.  That’s great!  What is described on these webpages is the best version of the idea we could come up with, but surely it can be improved.  (email help@1in5project.info)

Hopefully you can see how participating could be beneficial and are willing to give the idea a try.  That’s great!   If you supervise projects you could look at offering some related to environment change. If you don’t supervise projects but can think of some other way to help, then please do. If you don’t supervise and don’t think there is anything you can do, then it would be great to have you on board as a supporter.

For those of you that would like to take a more active part, please jump onboard.  There are problems to solve, resources to create, decisions to make, an infrastructure to put together, and an idea to spread.  We hope to set up a forum in the future, but for now you could email help@1in5project.info. 

In conclusion, it is indeed a crazy idea, but it might just work…