Pillar 1 : Systems Understanding - (SILVER AWARD)
Overview
After you have your Bronze Systems Understanding Badge, you can deepen your knowledge through a Silver Badge.
If you are more scientifically minded, you can explore an early chapter from the textbook. If you are more interested in the human sciences, such as psychology, economics, sociology, or other cultural things, then you can indulge a later chapter. Or perhaps you want to do research into an area that is not particularly covered in the Student Book, such as biodiversity loss, agriculture, battery technology, or carbon capture…
Wherever you go to explore, you mustn't lose sight of how these issues relate to the fundamental frame of all sustainability thinking and action - the planetary boundaries. By framing your deeper dive by the science of the planetary boundaries (and the CUTx Index), your teaching or research will be more sharply engaging and relevant.
There are two pathways to gaining the Silver Systems Understanding badge.
A) The Teaching Pathway
B) The Research Pathway
Option A - The Teaching Pathway
It is when we teach something that we learn about it most deeply. So this pathway to the Silver Badge not only disseminates key truths about the sustainability crisis, but it also carries you to a richer understanding of an issue that holds your particular interest.
To obtain the badge, you need to choose a theme or detail from The Climate Academy Student Book and design a session where you teach others about it.
If you are a student or teacher, this teaching will most likely happen inside your school or university. But you can organise something outside of school too.
If you are a university student, perhaps you could invest some of your time in a local school near where you study. Or when you are home from university, organise something with the Secondary School you graduated from.
If you are a Lifelong Learner, your session could be with a group from your community, work, club, friends or family.
Here are some possibilities:
Inside school:
● In a Geography lesson about tipping points and how close they are.
● In an Economics lesson about the limits to growth and the paradox of innovation.
● In a Physics or Chemistry lesson about carbon budgets and why they matter.
● In a Literature lesson about how rational climate anxiety is and how irony can help.
● A History lesson about the ‘3.5% rule’ and how social tipping points can be triggered.
● In a Psychology lesson about ‘motion blindness’, ‘status quo bias', or about ‘the grammar’ of our climate awareness.
● In a Sociology lesson about Dan Kahan’s insights into the public communication of science.
● In an Ethics or Religion class about the injustices exposed by the CUTx Index.
Outside school:
Give a presentation to:
● Your mum’s Tuesday Evening Knitting Group
o Vappu Väänänen (Climate Academy, Brussels, 2019) did exactly this.
o Present the latest science on the carbon budgets and outline the role that Global North consumerism plays in pushing us over different planetary boundaries.
● Your uncle’s place of work
o Present the basic science of climate tipping points and how they expose our limited and misleading media coverage of the crisis.
● A local NGO that is committed to the environment or social justice.
o Present the CUTx Index and how it can really sharpen our understanding of the causes of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Option B - The Research Pathway
This pathway to the Silver Badge gives you the space to explore a topic in depth, before sharing it with a trusted group, teacher, colleague or friend.
If a certain chapter of the Student Book pulled your attention more than the others, this might be a good place to start thinking about which line of further research you would like to pursue. Inside the Explore Section, there are links for each chapter that point to further books, documentaries, research papers, or lectures.
Or perhaps there is a topic beyond those covered by the book that you are motivated to research.
When you present your findings, here are some key questions to address:
o Why did this issue trigger your attention?
o How did the research advance your understanding?
o How did the research confirm or challenge your previous understanding?
o Did the book/paper/documentary/lecture properly recognise the planetary boundaries and the background reality of the CUTx Index?
Supporting Evidence for both Options A and B
A final practical detail: in both pathways, you will need some evidence to support your application. The information about this can be found when you click the “Start” button for the Systems Understanding Silver course on the Home page.