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Dickinson to Durban » Climate Change

Durban: A Reflection

Durban: A Reflection

By Sam Pollan, ’14 The conclusion of our South Africa adventure was bittersweet. After spending several weeks sharing my pictures and experiences with friends and family, looking back on the conference and the incredible experience of walking through rooms with such noteworthy people, it was sad for that series of events to conclude. The same goes for my time in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. We met some truly amazing people who devote their lives … Read entire article »

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A Walk in the Woods Should Never Be Overlooked

By Sam Pollan, ’14 A walk in the woods should never be overlooked. Our ventures outside of the classroom have proved to be some of the most valuable experiences of the semester, even if they did not directly relate to our studies. While some field trips, such as our lab where we examined the sediment record at Gettysburg, did provide pertinent information for our studies, other trips offered alternate benefits. Our hikes in the Drakensberg National Park, Hluhluwe Game Reserve, and Krantzkloof Nature Reserve gave us a chance to step back from our hectic time at the COP and with Makaphutu and take a breath of fresh air. While the first few weeks at the conference covered an incessant whirlwind of activities from daybreak until well after sundown, there was still enough … Read entire article »

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My Week with Makaphutu

By Sam Pollan ’14 Working with the Makaphutu Trust in the week following our time at the COP was an incredible experience. After two weeks of dawn-to-dusk attendance of the conference, I was expecting things to slow down in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. This, however, was not the case. Our time and manpower was put to work at the Makaphutu Children’s village where we efficiently sorted dozens of boxes of clothes and food for distribution. In addition to the sorting, which would have taken days had only the Makaphutu employees been working, we also painted a building that was going to be a new dorm for the children. And of course, throughout the process the children were hanging all over us. Although it wasn’t quite the same time commitment … Read entire article »

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58,250 Meal Later…

  My curiosity as to the “aftermath” of the conference is still peaked. After we spent (a few Dickinson undergraduate students in the grand size of the conference!) two weeks and I look back at the number of paper coffee cups I went through to stay caffeinated, I can’t imagine the total paper and plastic waste from this conference. I understand that a huge component of hosting the COP at the ICC in durban was the center’s planned “Green Programme,” which would effectively make the event carbon neutral. This ambitious goal from the start had me skeptical, even when I was in attendance at the conference seeing the huge garbage bins fill up day in and day out. I found the article “Durban ICC Delivers a Top Quality COP17 / CMP7 Conference … Read entire article »

Filed under: Climate Change