King’s students are raising awareness of environmental issues life on Earth is currently experiencing.
Climate scientists are warning Australians that we must start taking climate change seriously. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report states that Earth will likely heat up by 1.5°C by 2035 if changes are not made, describing this as a “code red” for humanity. Temperatures are increasing due to human activity, such as burning fossil fuels, transportation, deforestation and animal agriculture. These are changing the pattern of weather, land surfaces, oceans and ice sheets over time.
As the world’s population is constantly increasing, it is more important than ever to work towards creating sustainable cities and communities. Not only will this benefit the planet by using natural resources to develop alternate sources of power, but it will also create resilient and affordable cities, improve our health and create economic opportunities.
When leaders take action
The King’s School’s Year 10 Industrial Technology Engineering students participated in the NSW Schools’ Sustainability Project Video Challenge. It was a large-scale event with approximately 200 NSW students from 18 schools registered to join. Working in teams remotely, they followed set criteria to create a 1 minute video story promoting one of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Created by 193 world leaders in 2015, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals addresses social, economic and environmental challenges. They are designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”, with the intent to be achieved by 2030.
The students focused their video stories on Goal 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities: promoting safe and affordable housing, creating affordable and sustainable transport systems, and reducing the environmental impact of cities. Goal 13 – Climate Action was also a popular topic amongst the students. This goal aims to improve education on climate change, strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related disasters, and integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.
Mentored throughout the process by their teachers, Ms Laman and Mr Taccori, 8 out of the 15 finalists were students from The King’s School – an excellent achievement! A special congratulations to the following Kingsmen whose videos were showcased in the finals:
Achyuth Kadambi and Alex Wong
Cameron Davey-Webb and Aredith Janarth
Filip Lujic and Aaron Tyers
George Tait and Samuel Hill
Kushaagra Kesarwani and Ethan Tang
Oliver Yao, Cody Mooney and Colin Wu
Praas Shah and Mihran Khan
James O’Neil, Vishal Puvanarajah and Ken Ngo
Unless humans start to take serious action towards climate change and work towards sustainability, we unfortunately will not achieve these Sustainable Development Goals. The NSW Schools’ Sustainability Project Video Challenge has been an exciting opportunity for our students to creatively increase their understanding of these serious issues. With this knowledge, we can make our own changes in working towards a greener future.
Please enjoy the following videos made by our students.