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Apathy. Meh.

It’s presidential election week at OUSA, and we’ve gone all political-bonanza on this issue. Inside, we offer full election coverage: from the forum (pg 7), to Qs and As with the candidates (pg 12 onwards), to election analysis with our pundits (pg16). Read it. Ask the candidates questions on the OUSA Facebook discussion thread. And, most importantly, don’t forget to vote!
A prominent theme during the forum was student apathy. “How do we get people to engage with OUSA politics?”, pondered the candidates to a room of around 50 students. But apathy isn’t just restricted to the realm of student-politics. When it comes to environmental issues, as good as people’s intentions may be, sometimes the enormity of the problem frightens people into, well, inaction. The problems associated with global warming are so vast and overbearing we often turn the cold cheek to poor old mother nature and try to pretend the problems aren’t there. Rising sea levels, melting glaciers, extreme weather events: it can all seem a bit much. When it comes down to it, it’s much easier to watch Beauty and the Geek in your spare time than to save the world.
Of course, our environmental apathy isn’t helped by the lack of action and understanding about environmental issues from our leaders. John Key, for instance, seems to be confused about what environmental issues actually entail. In an interview with a British journalist, Key defended the “100% pure” slogan to the bitter end, despite clear evidence undermining the statistical veracity of the slogan. Pollution in the rivers? Nope, we’re still 100% pure. Species nearing extinction? Still 100% pure aye. Good stats bro.
Like addressing student apathy, saving the environment isn’t a walk in the park. Failing some sort of greenie genie appearing, we’ll probably need to make some changes ourselves. Luckily, there are things that we can do, even if they’re not on the grand scale of international agreements or conferences (turn to pg 24 to find some enviro-friendly tips).
So vote, stay warm, and be sure to pick up our last issue of the semester next Monday!
Have fun,
Julia Hollingsworth