Climate change will alter all aspects of our lives in profound ways. Binghamton 2 Degrees is a proposed campus-wide initiative to engage everyone in Binghamton University and the larger community on the central motivating question of: What will it mean to live in Binghamton under two degrees of warming, and what can we do now to prepare?
Our mission is:
To make climate change present and pressing under the hypothesis it will help activate practical, local solution
To help Binghamton thrive under two degrees of warming
To create a membership organization of communities to help each other thrive under two degrees of warming
To coordinate, facilitate, foster, and support research and creative activities around all applied missions
Binghamton Two Degrees can take a number of actions, centered around an idea of action research: We as a community will participate in this joint scientific venture into a new world that could look radically different from our own. We will figure out how to navigate it together, using our best minds, voices and hands. We will document what we learn and teach it to others.
Here are some actions
Localized resilient and sustainable energy production
Localized resilient and sustainable food production
Productions of art. Helping us develop and tell the stories of this grand transition
Conferences, papers, books, journals and special issues.
Authentic research experiences for students
Model and document the "Two Degrees" initiative for our peer institutions and communities to emulate
All-campus events to practice the experience of two degrees of warming. "2 degrees C warmer in summer." Or "Under two degrees of warming, experts tell us that foods X, Y, and Z will not be available. For one week, we will be eating like it was 2 degrees warmer"
Mutual Aid. How can we reliably take care of each other?
In the short term, our goal is to emphasize the immediacy and urgency of climate change, operating under the belief that this will inspire practical, local solutions. Over the long term, we aim to develop social and physical frameworks, as well as initiatives, to help the community adapt to the challenges of a warmer, more volatile climate.
