Meeting with Irina Ishan from the inaugural class of Columbia Climate School

Meeting with Irina Ishan from the inaugural class of Columbia Climate School

This fall, Columbia University will welcome the first batch of students graduating from the newly created university. Climate school. Utilize the expertise of the Earth Institute and its internals Many centers, Columbia Climate Institute will become the center of interdisciplinary climate research and education throughout the university, exploring and developing solutions to the most urgent and complex challenges of our time.

This Master’s Program in Climate and Society It is the first degree program offered by Columbia Climate Institute. This 12-month interdisciplinary program trains students to understand and solve the impact of climate change and climate variability on society and the environment. The 97 students enrolled in the program in the fall of 2021 will graduate from the Columbia Climate Institute in August 2022. Interview In the next few weeks, with a few of these extraordinary students.

Below, you can learn about Irina Ishan from Brunei on the island of Borneo. She plans to combine the knowledge she has learned from the Climate and Society Program with local and indigenous knowledge to address Brunei’s climate vulnerability.

Can you tell us something about your background and how you became interested in studying climate?

I graduated from Royal Holloway University of London in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in Environmental Geology. After graduation, I was fortunate to work with other young researchers to realize Brunei’s climate ambitions by drafting Brunei Darussalam’s national climate change policy. Although this experience gave me a better understanding of policy making, I realized that there has not yet been a collective consensus on the impact of climate change on the community level.

This allowed me to establish a relationship with the local indigenous communities in Brunei, my small island nation.Through me and Lombard Murut, Iban and Dusun Tribes, I am well aware that indigenous people have community-based knowledge that can provide sustainable solutions to the climate crisis and better understand our changing environmental conditions. I hope to combine the knowledge gained from the Climate and Society Program with local knowledge to solve various climate vulnerabilities.

Which courses in the Climate and Society Program are you most interested in?

“Managing and adapting to the climate.” Professor Ben Orlove’s research on the traditional prediction methods of the aboriginal people in the Peruvian Andes and the Aboriginal people of Australia is particularly interesting to me because I believe that the core of sustainable development lies in these communities. This course will give me an understanding of how to use climate information for social decision-making, which seems very exciting.

As a resident of Brunei, I know that the local community has many opportunities to unite in response to the climate crisis. Fortunately, during my studies in the Climate and Society Project, I will be able to further hone my analytical and communication skills.

How does the plan align with your career goals?

Currently, Brunei’s work on climate is done by Western expats because of their guidance and expertise. Taking a stand in this area will prove that the locals in the area can also promote positive change. Ideally, I will strengthen the existing climate policy, the quality of research and its accessibility, so that more people are aware of the importance of climate. I also want to extend a similar approach to the center of my hometown of Borneo, where 500,000 indigenous people still depend on the rainforest. I believe I can use the skills provided by the program to make this method effective.

You will be a member of the first graduating class of Columbia Climate School. Did the creation of the climate school affect your decision to apply for the C+S program?

The creation of the Climate Institute is indeed groundbreaking because it has become a central hub for climate research inside and outside the university. This news made me even more excited when I was preparing to apply for the C+S program. Having a dedicated school rather than an additional departmental focus can provide students with opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and expand the scope of my work even more.

When you look to the future of climate schools, what do you want to see?

I would love to see the climate school respond to the climate crisis through the perspective of social justice. Generally, climate research is limited to scientific policy and broader climate change considerations or resource availability, rather than inherent changes in the structure of our man-made society. It would be beneficial to see the combination of these disciplines under the climate school—especially the local communities can contribute to the overall discussion of climate justice in different ways, highlighting the need for national cooperation to ensure that the climate crisis is in a consistent manner. Practical and effective method.