PTECH students recently participated in the PTECH Global Climate Summit. They were tasked with trying to achieve emissions reductions amounting to 8 gigatons of carbon over the next 50 years to stabilize temperature increases to below 2 ̊C above pre-industrial levels.
The summit, which took place at the Allen House on the Fulton-Montgomery Community College campus, mimicked the process and atmosphere of an international environmental summit. Students took on specific roles as leaders of countries in the world. They researched factors in their countries, such as population, carbon emissions, resource access, and economy. Using this information, students spoke about how climate change could affect their country and how their policies could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In the end, the students had to defend their perspective and ultimately decide who had the responsibility to reduce emissions and then set forth to accomplish this. Throughout the project, students learned how Earth’s climate functions and how it responds to change. Additionally, they explored how societies and economies have contributed to climate change and how they can adapt to such change and prevent additional harm.
