Getting on track: a student's perspective

“Now, I wouldn't just think, oh, ‘this is too faffy, I'll just fly’. Now I wouldn't do that. I would always choose to get the train or bus or just not go.”

William McFarlane Smith is a fourth-year PhD student at the Centre for Climate Repair. Based in the Department of Engineering, he’s using computer modelling to study how Marine Cloud Brightening might affect different climate systems.

But like the rest of his team, he doesn’t believe geoengineering is the way to stop climate change.

“It’s not a done thing that we’re definitely going to use it. It’s an emergency thing. We might need to use it but it doesn’t address the problem - it just puts a plaster on.”

The real cure? Taking “radical” steps to address the underlying issues.

No shortcuts

Last summer, Will presented his research at a student-led conference in Barcelona. Having taken part in the Flight-Free Pledge, he opted out of the two-hour flight in favour of a more sustainable solution.

With air travel often being cheaper and faster than train travel, the industry is booming. You could fly from London to Barcelona next weekend for under £60 return; the Eurostar just to Paris costs about the same for a one-way trip. If you can handle an overnight bus like Will, you could break even, but the cost of sleep might be unfeasible for some.

Previously, Will had flown when other options seemed too inconvenient. But now it’s different: “I wouldn't just think, oh, ‘this is too faffy, I'll just fly’. Now I wouldn't do that. I would always choose to like get the train or bus or just not go.”

This time, Downing College’s MCR was able to provide a subsidy for those not wanting to not fly.

His route had its perks, too.

“Because I’d never been to Spain or France, I thought I might take a bit more time getting there and spend a bit more time there as well.”

He started with a Flixbus overnight to Paris; with a day in the French capital for the first time, he got to visit some iconic spots. 

“And then I got a sleeper train from Paris down to Perpignan, in the south of France.

“I stayed there for a couple of hours, and then it was just a two-hour bus through to Barcelona. That was a very nice, very scenic trip through the mountains in the south of France.”

At the conference, he introduced the topic of geoengineering. “It's nice to present my research to a non-technical audience, because I usually present at conferences where everyone knows more than me about geoengineering - that's more intimidating. But I like introducing the idea to new people.”

Will’s research is on the mathematical modelling of Marine Cloud Brightening - how this geoengineering idea might impact different systems. In Michaelmas term, he collaborated with TU Delft, who took the Eurostar to visit us earlier this year.

On his way home, Will stopped in Germany for another climate endeavour. 

A bite of…

Plant-Based Universities is a campaign that calls on universities to move away from catering reliant on animal agriculture. Founded in UCL, there are now branches in around 80 universities across the UK and Europe.

While he was in Bonn, Will helped at a summer training camp for new European members of the campaign.

This is another action he believes people can do to tackle climate change.

“It doesn't need any new technology. It doesn't need any radical infrastructure changes. You just need to change what you eat. And it's like, you've got that for free – that's 20% of emissions gone and loads of emissions sequestered.

“People can think, oh, people won't do that or it's not popular, but people are too quick to say no to things. Then that just perpetuates it not happening, rather than people being accepting of things and just starting to do them.” 

One step at a time

Many people argue that individual actions don’t really matter, as long as governments and corporations keep funding fossil fuels. Is it worth it?

“I find that as well. But companies are serving customers. When you say, oh, these fossil fuel companies produce 70% of emissions or whatever, those are people’s emissions, you’re just sort of counting them twice.

“I think in climate change, there’s individuals, governments, and corporations and they all kind of think the other one needs to do something first. But really, they just need to act at the same time.”

Is geoengineering the answer?

“Climate change isn't just a physical problem. You can’t just hit it with a hammer and fix it – I think a lot of people see it that way and see geoengineering as that hammer.

“But it's much more. First of all, the climate is much more complicated than that.”

Will’s research is aiming to understand those issues, as are new NERC-funded projects on the cooling potential and risks of other solar radiation modification ideas.

“Secondly, climate change is a symptom of bigger social justice problems – it's just the first large-scale existential problem that rich people are also going to be affected by.” 

Traveling back to UK by train from Milan. View over Lago Maggiore this morning. The mobile office has great views. ⁦@RepairClimate⁩ ⁦@GirtonCollege⁩ ⁦@Cambridge_Eng⁩ pic.twitter.com/GfAuIHnGi0

— Shaun Fitzgerald (@DrSDFitzgerald) December 11, 2024

In the window seat

It’s commonly noted that the biggest polluters, and those with the most power to make a positive impact, are not the ones facing the worst effects of climate change.

Watching from the window seat, there’s little urgency to take radical action.

“People in the global North are causing climate change. People in the South aren’t but they’re the ones who are most vulnerable to it. I just think that if the people causing it were the same ones being affected by it, we would have dealt with it decades ago - or at least not put off dealing with it.

“I think we can still deal with climate change without needing something like geoengineering, we just need to be much more radical in how we do it.

“I say that’s why I don’t fly. Planes are only two or three percent of global emissions. Only less than 20 percent of the entire world population have ever set foot on a plane and in a given year, it’s less than 10 percent. The aviation industry is obviously trying to constantly expand, so if it had its way and the whole world was able to fly, it would be much more than two or three percent, it would be a huge amount. I think we just need to be more radical and understanding of our place in nature as well.

“It’s not a done thing that we’re definitely going to use [geoengineering]. It’s an emergency thing. We might need to use it but it doesn’t address the problem - it just puts a plaster on. It’s important to understand [the problem] as a whole and not view climate change as just a physical problem. There’s more to it than that.” 

After two days of camping in Bonn, Will got a train to Antwerp and, from there, a bus back to the UK.

“One of the things I really like about not flying is I would never choose to visit Antwerp, but it’s a really pretty town and I’d just never be there otherwise.

“I had quite a long time to spend there so I found a vegan restaurant and chilled in the park for a little while. I chatted to this couple who were super friendly.

“It’s a really nice place and I just would never go if I’d just flown to Barcelona or Bonn or whatever.”

“Radical” steps to tackling climate change don’t look like not ever seeing the world. Will’s radical steps look like seeing more of it, more slowly, and, hopefully, for many more years to come.