Inside the Hourglass

INSIDE THE

ISSUE: SPRING 2023

President's Letter

Mohammed Sultan

Dear readers, Inside the Hourglass

When Warwick Sustainability reached out to us and wanted to do a ‘sustainability’ themed magazine, I was a bit hesitant. I didn’t know how we could adapt this seemingly dull word to our format of the magazine. So I went to our exec team, asked for suggestions, and here we are. “Inside the Hourglass” encapsulates a sense of timelessness, a feeling of fear, an urgency, a call for action. All of our writers and poets and even the recipes found in this magazine are an attempt to deal with this great catastrophe that stands before us. The climate is changing, the earth is warming up, the scenes are apocalyptic. The ice is melting, the waters are rising, everyday we move towards disaster.

This issue exhibits a wide variety of interpretations of this title

“Inside the Hourglass” and I urge you to note your own feelings and thoughts around this title.

Yours, Mohammed

Francesco Gallarotti (Unsplash) | Nathan Dumlao (Unsplash) | Manolo Chrétien (Unsplash) | Georg Regauer (Unsplash) | Karolina Grabowska (Unsplash) | Karsten Winegeart (unsplash) | Elias Tigiser, Rudolf Jakkel, Valeriia Miller (Unsplash)

Green for Go

Nature in balance

Desecrated by not caring

United we stop this

Offspring of parent

Inherits polluted world

Time to break cycle

Advance of humans

Built on unsustainable base

Fix base: safe advance

Gary Stocker

From Warwick’s Sustainability Team

Way to Sustainable

Warwick’s Strategy 2030 commits us to growth and embeds sustainable development into our strategic plans and activities. Our sustainability strategy, which is called ‘The Way to Sustainable’, reflects our collective journey of continuous improvement. Our ambition is that every member of the Warwick community, our partners and our networks join us as we work together to find ways to be more sustainable. We have identified five goals that relate to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These include embedding sustainability in the curriculum, realising biodiversity net gain on our campus, and achieving net zero carbon from our direct and indirect emissions. We will achieve these goals through the four pathways of research, education, engagement, and sustainable operations.

Hedgehog Friendly Campus and other biodiversity projects

We are committed to protecting, creating, and enhancing spaces for biodiversity across our campus as well as providing space for people to enjoy nature and the great outdoors. There are numerous examples of projects that have taken place in recent years including:

• Achieving the ‘Hedgehog Friendly Campus’ bronze award;

• Enhancing Claycroft ponds through revetment creation and planting;

• Regular litter picks and a new Wednesday Warwick Wombles litter picking group;

• Reinstating hedge laying by the entrance roundabouts to create a variety of habitats;

• Planting more than 1,000 trees / hedgerow plants; and

• Taking part in Plant Life’s ‘No Mow May’ initiative and sowing new wildflower areas.

Like what you see? Make sure you’re following us on @ WarwickUniSust and check our web pages to sign up to initiatives like these.

Waste and Single Use Plastics

Warwick is continuing its work to tackle waste and to move towards circular economic practices. For example, we are making it easier to separate and properly dispose of waste on campus through using better signage to direct where waste items need to go and through providing up-to-date lists of waste collection areas outside accommodations on our website. Our ‘Pay As You Feel Market’ and RAWKUS collections also continue to offer staff and students opportunities to get more involved and learn about waste streams.

The Warwick community has begun its journey toward tackling single use plastics. The campus has already done much to remove single use plastics through its events, conferences, and day-today procurement and will continue to push forward to tackle this issue. Did you know that the Students’ Union will also very soon have a plastic free shop offering from its reception desk?

Cut the Flow

Cut the Flow is an inter-block energy and water saving competition across the halls of residence on campus. Two prizes are awarded at the end of each term to the block that reduces their energy and water consumption the most. In term one of the 2022/23 academic year, Arthur Vick 1 (energy) and Emscote (water) were awarded first place

- they will be rewarded a hamper of sustainable goodies from local shop Zero.

We have four Cut the Flow Assistants who regularly visit accommodation to raise awareness of the initiative and share top tips on how you can increase the likelihood of your block winning the next prize.

Ready for the challenge? You can easily save energy by:

• Turning off the lighting even when leaving a room for a short time;

• Turning off equipment (ovens, hobs, laptops etc.) when not in use;

• Only boiling as much water as you need.

Water-saving can be just as easy. Why not try:

• Taking shorter showers;

• Snubbing the tub and avoid baths as they use more water than showers;

• Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing your face?

Green Champions and Green Action Teams

There are over 250 Staff Green Champions at the University, many of whom are involved in Green Action Teams within their departments. These teams help their departments to make green changes, and they also raise awareness of what we can all do to help the environment. There are seven active teams, and we are working to set up more groups in other departments. Laboratory teams in Life Sciences, WMS and Chemistry are also working hard to reduce their carbon emissions and create an environment that supports research quality by joining the global Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) initiative.

We recently relaunched our Student Green Champions Network. If you have an interest in sustainability, then becoming a Green Champion opens up other opportunities such as to develop transferrable skills, meet like-minded people, see more of campus and the surrounding area, learn more about how the University operates and how decisions are made. Our Champions can choose from a wide range of activities to participate in - they can raise awareness on energy and water

consumption, advocate for sustainable travel options, engage with plasticfree initiatives, promote sustainability in creative and engaging ways to the wider community, and many more, while earning skill points towards their Warwick Skills Award. Sign up today!

Where can you find us?

After their success in term one, our pop-up Sustainability Stands are making a return – you can catch us weekly across campus and talk about sustainability initiatives and what matters to you. Find all timings and locations in our events calendar.

We are also excited to facilitate Green Week (612 March) on campus for the sixth time. Be sure to check out our timetable in February and engage with a large variety of events from academic talks on circular economy through to visiting the apiary to attending society events.

Want to learn more?

Interested in participating? Got any ideas? Email us sustainability@warwick. ac.uk; visit our website warwick.ac.uk/sustainability/ environment; and follow us on social media @ WarwickUniSust. We’d love to hear from you.

Environmental Sustainability Team

ELEGY

Lizard, United Kingdom. The most southern point of the United Kingdom and a great place of natural beauty. This elegy is dedicated to theCornishcoast,thesouthwestofEngland,andthegreatAtlantic.

I

Karl York II

Old father Praise be Please sir Remain thee.

Old father Arson sweet Please sir Bless me.

Holy desire, a black winged unicorn Black, then green, then green, then white These signs tell me to go back But green turns green and I know what that means.

Colours they fold into the fold, They belong to me. When red turns red I burn thee.

God’s aspiration Beneath me

The holy spirit Receives me.

White turns red, red turns red, red is me. Obsessive about life

A new thirst Grips me.

Grips onto desire, Onto life

This planet I begin a strife.

III

A new diet I thirst I seek Human flesh

A new diet Paves the way Maybe all life Instead.

A new world I can escape to God’s own desire A candle I blew.

I wonder why They don’t fear me

I’m a saint Passion, hot, free.

So I’ll keep on burning

Eating and ravaging

They will come to mourning

On my grinning winning.

IV

I met a traveller from an antique land but he had nothing to say no words to bear, no lives to spare. He looked down at me feverously talked me down incredulously, stick-wounded me insidiously.

In his eyes I saw grey spheres Shakespeare’s tears a dozen-dead men millions of dead-end careers.

In his nose I smelt the deep, warm, humid, decaying, dying corpse.

Anorexia-inducing noise of a bottle of Eau de Cologne from some brand I only saw on boys. Toys, joys, appear, then hoise. White Noise.

That old traveller was a drunkard, a joke undeserving, unknowing, unattentive and then a gun smoke.

That old traveller, desperate and sad, walked past me to a new, antique land.

V An ascension an ending life ahead pending a new world dimension.

We regenerate. We heal. We plan a meal.

Old dictators gone. Life anew. A blue-sun coup. A green yawn.

Old father thank thee.

Please sir accept we.

Old father good night to you

Please sir

Inside the Hourglass

Shreya Krishnan

Killing Time

Felix van Oordt

Mechanically monotonous as a steel hourglass, I stop you again to tie Another tired frayed string to you, smothering and clinging to you, I try to decide the best way to live for you. I know how you lie When I sit across you, your jaded parole officer, in lieu Of your distraction, one not to give a reaction

As you tailor me for my funeral suit. It's an obsessive compassion That, in relentless fashion, I can't risk being late To notice your Empty dinner Plate. Time Is running out. You don't notice, No time to ask why. Don't worry for me, love

I'm your shadow, like a glove

I'll let you stretch me and mould me

And, when push inevitable comes to shove, I'll lay beside you, cheek to cheek, buckle my knee And let whatever rots inside you claw through my skin.

I'll let you consume me, even though you'll throw me up again They won't know where we've gone, just exactly where we've been.

THE THINGS INSIDE OUR HOME

Raahimah Saeed

we are so invested in the things inside our home wardrobe cabinet drawer cupboard smart phone telephone laptop desktop

knife fork plate spoon bowl mug cup glass t shirt trousers dress skirt hoodie handwash shampoo shower gel allpurpose cleaner glass cleaner rubber gloves vacuum cleaner tablet mop newspaper reading book revision notes

we forget about the things inside our home bacteria fungus virus lichen archaea

haddock cowfish stingray shark tuna starfish

aspen birch cedar elder dogwood elm willow

tulip buttercup bluebell rose lavender hibiscus

strawberry banana apple mango lychee melon fig

carrot potato asparagus lettuce mushroom pumpkin

ladybird spider dragonfly beetle caterpillar cricket

parrot pigeon duck swan pheasant dove eagle lark

lion sheep camel deer tiger zebra bear donkey

mountain grassland river ocean pond tundra

sun lightning hail thunder wind fog cloudy

monkey tree frog rough green snake

duck

leech snapping turtle newt

oak pine fern orchid iris

CHEESY COURGETTE PASTA

Ingredients(serves2)

2mediumpeppers

½onion

3garliccloves

30gagaveorgoldensyrup(cansub forsugar)

50mlsoysauce

5gcornflour

200gveganmince

20gginger(rootorpasteisbestbut canusepowder)

125grice

Sticky Mince Stir Fry with Rice!

Method:

Wash your rice a few times then place it in a pan on a medium heat and cook with 225ml of boiling water and a pinch of salt. Let this cook for around12minutes!

Meanwhile, cut your peppers and onionandfrywithadrizzleofoiland pinch of salt and pepper for around 3-5minutes

Add your vegan mince and fry for another5minutes.

When the mince has gone browner, add the chilli, cornflour, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and agave/ golden syrup.

Serve up with the rice and add some sesame seeds and spring onions as garnish!

WARWICK VEGSOC

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WHY IS BEING ECOFRIENDLY SO DIFFICULT?

The human ego has been a powerful driving force of environmental destruction. Throughout history, almost every celebratory win for human civilisationhasbeenatragicloss fortheenvironment.Theindustrial revolution, which allowed us to reapthebenefitsoftheapogee of technological innovation, has equally allowed for the contemporaryplutocrattomake immeasurable profit, satisfy their self-indulgent corporate needs and fund their lavish lifestyle at the expense of the environment. Theworshipofcapitalintoday’s societyisdrivenbyindividualism: money is sought after because buying and consuming has becomecathartictotheaverage 64%ofall32 billion items of clothing producedeachyearendsupin Therefore, with a rising movement of people discarding consumerism for the sake of the planet, environmentalism can be linked to a certain form of

removing the self interest to insteadpromotetheinterestof the other, the future of humanity, the planet. But then why is it still so difficult for peopletobealtruistic?

Buying an outfit on SHEIN, eating more burgers than we should,andforgettingtobring a reusable coffee cup are all common behaviours, yet these 'habits' have environmental consequences. Meat consumptionisapracticethat has been present in almost everysocietyacrosstheplanet. Asking the average person to stopeatingburgers,chickenor steak could mean asking them toabandonabigpartoftheir diet and lifestyle. Equally, SHEIN, despite its disastrous environmental output, is so incredibly accessible and affordable to the point of revolutionising the online shopping industry, that discouraging people from buyingSHEINclothesprovesto beaverydifficultendeavour.

Itisnotonlythefaultofthese companies who indulge in profiting and neglect their environmental effects, but we are also liable for these impacts as we endorse these industries.Isitreallyworthitto maintainthese'habits'andour acceptance of the environmental repercussions, because we are too lazy to changethem?

As a student, we have been subjecttoflatmatesforgetting to switch the bathroom light off,discussinghowmuchofthe heatingweshouldturnonand being frustrated when the faucetisstillrunning.However, leavingthelightonhassevere implications for our carbon dioxide emissions, heating results in severe energy consumption and leaving the faucetongeneratessignificant amounts of wastewater. We areconstantlyconcernedwith how much electricity will cost us, yet the effects on the environment are frequently overlooked.

We have all been guilty of overbuying and failing to check the expiration dates, unfortunately resulting in discardingitemsthatcouldhave previouslybeensalvaged.26,082 tonnes of food goes to waste everysingleday,primarilydueto ourownnegligence.Over70%of food waste in the UK is generated at a household level, thusindividualsbearasignificant amount of the responsibility for wastage. We have a moral responsibility to understand the implicationsofwastageandtake accountability for it. Small gestures such as reducing how much we buy or composting our food can significantly help, so whyarewenotdoingthis?

Alloftheseexamplesultimately beg the question: why have we, as a society, allowed our home planet to reach such levels of climate devastation and yet still struggletomakeanysubstantial and material difference to mitigate the now urgent circumstances? There is a general conception that humans are innately selfish and only act intheirownselfinterest.Infact, thereisatheorythatgoesasfar back as Pluto, ancient Greece, which states that if all sanctions imposed by the social contract werelifted,humanswouldacton their violent, selfish tendencies withoutregardforothers.

Whetherthishasbeenproven as fact, it is undeniable that everyone has selfish tendencies: we all want to indulgeinthesimplepleasures inlife,whetheritisgrabbinga coffee in the morning in a plastic cup, or getting a new coat because it looks nice, eventhoughwealreadyhavea couple on the hanger waiting to be worn. Even if we are aware of the ubiquitous environmental impacts of unused clothes that end up in landfills,carbonemissionsfrom the shipping, or the exploitationofforeststomake paper cups, they are so far removed from our daily lives that it has become difficult to realise the effects of our actions.

Shifting the blame on the averagecitizeniseasy.They’re only small changes, why can’t all make them and commit to them? It’s easy to say we will lower the heating to lower its environmental costs, but the fact that it is slightly more tedious and laborious to find and slip on more clothes will makeusimmediatelyfallback ontothemoreefficientsolution.

ofthegreatergood.Butinthe current circumstances, only through the painful abandonment of unnecessary and harmful habits, whether it beonadomestic,behavioural or corporate and industrial scale,willwebeabletoseea glimmer of hope through the climatecrisis.

WarwickBoar Climate