​It is easy to forget just how many aspects of our existence are infiltrated by the effects of climate change, how closely climate is interwoven with and can impact social constellations. This Trinity Term’s last panel event on Monday, 14th May 2018 aimed to shed light on an area that is often overlooked: how climate change affects women – how women and climate may influence each other. Judy Ling Wong, painter, poet and environmentalist best known as the Honorary President of Black Environment Network (BEN) and Lisa Shipper, Environmental Social Science Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, spoke about their views on this matter. 

​Earth Day began in 1970, founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as a teach-in to educate students, with a wider aim of bringing environmental considerations into the public eye. Nelson had been inspired by the large-scale student anti-war movement across America, and realised that this was a path through which environmental considerations could be brought to the national political agenda.

​Situated in Cowley and open for only a few months (since Dec 17), Happy Friday Kitchen is Oxford’s answer to vegan junk food. Although located a bit of a trek away from town centre, the bright diner aesthetic and incredibly cute dog (follow his antics on their Instagram account @happyfridaykitchen and #hfkdog) are well worth the effort.

Just two weeks ago, Lego announced the launch of sustainable, plant-based plastic figures to add to their collection of bricks, minifigure people and other accessories. Lego produce exclusively plastic products, a material which is not biodegradable and contributes to a large proportion of landfill. ​

​Ecological debt is defined as the level of resource consumption and waste discharge by a population which is in excess of locally sustainable natural production and assimilative capacity. The term was coined in 1992 by the Insituto de Ecologia Politica in Santiago, Chile, wherein the production of greenhouse gases by the developed nations of the north was seen as inequitable. This was exacerbated by utilisation in the north of resources extracted in the south which imposed climatic and social changes not included in the calculations of international debt. Subsequently, a rich versus poor argument emerged, asserting that the impact of exploitation of finite natural resources from these nations had not been fully ‘compensated’ by price, royalties or licensing fees. Surrounding this was a series of ‘debt for nature’ agreements wherein some parts of a nation’s debt was erased in return for the designation of large wilderness areas. However, due to the inherently interrelated nature of ecology and ecosystems, ecological debt has now transcended the physical and political boundaries of any individual nation to become a global phenomenon that involves every person on earth in calculating the suggested debts through collective and individual behaviours worldwide. 

Many people reading this article will have been inundated with information about the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. You may have seen the crashes, the successes and felt offended by how sporty people our age can be. In and amongst this you may or may not have noticed that the UK does rather poorly in the Winter Olympics compared to our summer performances. I’m glad we suck.