Climate lessons from the Cold Edge: rethinking the University as an ethical ecology

• Purpose
This largely conceptual study draws from the author’s experience of conversations with Svalbard’s educators, lessons for international Higher Education Institutions’ engagement with climate change education and thinking for non-specialists.
• Design/methodology/approach
In-situ discussions with Svalbard’s educators informed the theoretical work of the author towards the development of conceptual conclusions. The theoretical frame employed – ‘Red Biocentrism’ – draws on both radical left and green thought to posit an emplaced, materialist understanding of author’s, participants and place’s intra-related contributions.
• Findings
That, insofar as universities represent nodes in an ethical ecology, they have a capacity to realise that which is obvious in Svalbard – their role as embassies for their learning-places, generative of spokespeople or ambassadors.
• Originality
There is sparse published research into the work of Svalbard’s climate educators, as a pedagogical project undertaken under such extreme and rapidly changing environmental conditions. This article represents the first to reflect on what can be learnt from the educators of Svalbard by Universities elsewhere.