Who are we?

Marion Smith

I’m a writer, musician and Master’s student at the University of Manchester studying Ethnomusicology (that’s basically the anthropology of Music). You might think that this has little to do with climate activism, and you’d be right- I would consider myself much more of a concerned citizen than an expert. I’m just an individual who is very frightened about climate change, and who is trying to do what they can to help on a local level!

Pooja Kishinani

I’m a final year Politics, Philosophy and Economics student at the University of Manchester. As an aspiring policy maker, I’m interested in understanding the role of justice and equity in designing climate policy. Like Marion, I’m alarmed about climate change, and this handbook is an attempt to channel my negative emotions into something constructive that benefits the wider student community. 

We are also members of the organisation Climate Emergency Manchester, a local group of volunteers trying to get better local policies, and better action on climate change in terms of energy, transport, food, democracy, among other areas. We’re witnessing the positive effects of climate activism first-hand, and we wholeheartedly believe in making this movement as diverse and accessible to as many people as possible. 

As hard as it may be to believe, we as authors of this handbook are only human- we make mistakes and fail a lot of the time! We certainly do not have all the answers (pro-tip: run away from anyone who claims to know it all!). We struggle to make sense of the mess in front of us: government inaction, big corporations infiltrating every aspect of our lives, mindless consumerism, etc. This handbook tries to bring together resources for students like us who are keen about climate action but may not know how to deal with setbacks along the way. 

Our hope is that this handbook encourages you to examine your own emotional response to the climate crisis. We hope that it motivates you to start conversations around climate grief, and raise the topic with friends and family who may be unfamiliar with the concept. The resources may be useful for you to figure out how you can maintain morale, and persist even in the face of bureaucratic resistance. It contains practical advice for you to examine your own skills, and your groups’ skills as well. After all, only when we are aware of our limitations can we know how we can improve. 

No handbook can be exhaustive, and this handbook can never truly be “complete”. There will always be more ideas, suggestions, comments, questions and improvements. That’s why we strongly encourage you to get in touch with us at studentclimatehandbook@climateemergencymanchester.net . Share your thoughts with us – let us know your thoughts on the handbook, and if we’ve missed something important (which we’re sure we have somewhere!). We hope that you find this handbook helpful.

You can download this section of the handbook as a pdf.  You can also download the whole handbook as a single file (32Mb).