Dear my Commerce and International Relations degree
I was leaving high school with little idea of what I wanted to study and took a chance on a degree that hopefully would fulfil my broad interests. And I’m so glad I chose you.
You were only new to La Trobe. 2017 was the first year you had ever been offered at La Trobe. While I had little idea of what I wanted to study, your combination of Commerce and International Relations was interesting to me.
Just kidding. If I continued like this, it would be a super lame love letter so bear with me. While I’m emotionally attached to my humanities degrees, my love for it is support by facts and evidence of the value of humanities degrees.
This double degree combines business and technology with humanities and has allowed me to challenge either side of my degree and mainstream ideas. I’m going to focus on an especially pertinent example that has been honed by this degree – climate change, technology, and communication.
I think most students are aware that the current Federal Government have massivelyyyyyyy increased the costs of humanities degrees, and subsidized STEM degrees. One way they try to justify this is by asserting that we need more innovative technology in the future to combat climate change and by reducing the costs of STEM degrees, humanities degrees need to balance this change.
Before I continue, I want to absolutely stress that I totally think STEM degrees should be reduced in costs. I just don’t think it should be at the expense of humanities degrees. And moreover, I think education should be more accessible to anyone that wants to study whatever they want – or yanno, make all education free 😊
Back to my point, STEM degrees have been subsidized in efforts to attract more students to the field of study and use these skills to innovate and create new technologies for issues like the climate crisis. In February of this year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison addressed the National Press Club asserting that, “Science and technology will, as it always has in these areas, set the pace and in the developing world this is important because it is in those countries that dominate the emissions horizons.”
Super cool that Scott Morrison acknowledges the role of science and technology in combatting climate change – I agree with him in its importance. But, he places blame on developing countries when Australia’s per capita emissions are among the highest in the world. He also doesn’t act on the current climate science because in the same Press Club address, he was asked by ABC journalist Andrew Probyn if Australia would make solid emissions commitments before COP261 later this year and Scott Morrison replied, “That point in time has not yet arrived.” Now, I’ve learnt in my humanities degree that this point will probably never arrive for Scott Morrison and the United Nations have condemned Australia’s climate (in)action stating, “There has been no improvement in Australia’s climate policy since 2017 and emissions levels for 2030 are projected to be well above target.”
Scott Morrison’s outdated and misguided views are shaping our opportunities and our education. Climate change is quite literally the major economic challenge this entire world faces. Dr Darren Lim2 and Allan Gyngell AO3 who are leaders in their respective humanities fields state in their ‘Australia In The World’ Podcast that, “We really don’t need any new technology… with what we’ve got now we could do [it].” This directly contradicts what Scott Morrison said about not committing to a net-zero target without better technology.
Obviously, there are ongoing discussions about the role of technology in the climate crisis. My Commerce and International Relations degrees have shaped the idea that this assumption that technology will “save” us is – at best – naïve, but I lean more towards dangerous. Right now, it’s unclear how these decisions will be governed and who will benefit from such innovations – sorry Elon Musk, but I don’t think we need more of you in this world x
The Federal Government has allowed for the facilitation of climate denial and by increasing the costs of humanities courses and undermining their value, this fuels this even further. Societies with high levels of education are better able to adapt to climate vulnerabilities.4 Humanities degrees contribute to this education and assist with things like the effective communication of climate change, managing the change process, and advocating for equality and equity – all of which would decrease climate denial and increase climate action.
This degree has given me the opportunity to talk to young people suing the Federal Government over climate change risks5 and MPs fighting for climate technology6 - sharing this with other Humanities students. I went into this degree as a shy, unsure student. And I’ll be leaving at the end of this semester as an advocate for the value of humanities.
Much love,
Ruby Nunns
1COP26 stands for the 26th Conference of the Parties and is essentially a big meeting where nations come together to discuss and produce environmental agreements.
2Dr Darren Lim is a Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University (ANU), with special research interests in international relations, the political economy, and security.
3Allan Gyngell AO is the National President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) and an honorary professor at the Australian National University (ANU).
4Source: Muttarak, R & Lutz, W 2014, ‘Is Education a Key to Reducing Vulnerability to Natural Disasters and hence Unavoidable Climate Change?’, Ecology and Society, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 1-8.
5Katta O’Donnell is a (now former) La Trobe law student who is suing the Federal Government on the risk climate change poses to government bonds. Read more about her here: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/why-this-23-year-old-is-suing-the-australian-government-over-climate-change
6The Hon. Ben Carroll is the Victorian State Minister for Public Transport, driving climate action through public transport technologies, ex. committing that all public transport buses purchased will be electric from 2025.
