The last one

Will we reach our sustainable goals? What do we need to do?

“Creating Sustainable Communities means putting sustainable development into practice. Sustainable Communities must combine social inclusion, homes, jobs, services, infrastructure and respect for the environment to create places where people will want to live and work now and in the future.”

Rt. Hon. John Prescott MP,
Deputy Prime Minister, February 2005 [online] http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/publications/uk-strategy/documents/Chap6.pdf (1999)

So i gues what Prescott was trying to say was, we all have to come together and work together in order to have a longer and hopefully happier future. But what must be achieved by us in order for our world to become more sustainable. More imporatantly, why might we not reach our goals?

The summary in chapter 6 of DEFRA, states that at a local level, the government is trying to improve neighbourhoods, creating healthier communites and getting everyone involved in helping to improve our own homes/areas. Firstly, ecologically, where will the resources be aquired from? But also, economically, where doe the governement think they will get the money from to improve each individual local area across the UK. Furthermore, how do they expect to bring whole communities together to be more sustainable, if the people in the communities don't get along?

Also, with space in the UK seeming to run low (for building purposes) how are neighbourhoods going to be improved when there is no spacve to expand into. More people want a healthier looking environment, and with that means that their homes will need to be improved, so they can last in the furture.

DEFRA (1999) states that priorities for sustainability in the future for local communites include:
create attractive and welcoming parks, play areas and public spaces

• engage and empower local people and communities
• improve the physical infrastructure of places
• make places cleaner and maintain them better
• make places safer and tackle anti-social behaviour
• improve health by encouraging and supporting healthy lifestyles, and
• tackle inequalities and support the needs of children and young people.

Engaging people and communities may be quitre difficult, with many people afraid of going out thier front door for the fear of crime awaiting them may prevent quite few people socailising with their neighbours. To make their home safer though, it is believed that anti-socail behaviour can be dealt with when communities work together to produce solutions to criminal behaviour (The Online Journal, 2009) [online] http://www.journalonline.co.uk/News/1006375.aspx

At a national level, the government focuses on equal opportunities for all, which means everyone has the right to improve and reach their full potential in life. But some people do not have the facilities avaiable to them in order for them to reach their potential. Either because public services are too far away, or the price of living has just become too great.

At a global level, the Millenium Development Goal was established to abolish inequalites throughtout the world by 2015 (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/The%20Millennium%20Development%20Goals%20Report%202008.pdf)

In the report, it explains how the goals are not being met due to adverse affects from not focusing onsufficient matters from the past (MDG, 2008), explaining that lack of funding to agriculture and rural development in LEDC's means that hunger is now an increased threat. It goes on then about climate change,

"Climate change would be a less immediate threat
if we had kept pace with commitments to sustainable
development enunciated again and again over
the years."

(MDG, 2008)

We have been very unsustainable throughout history, and have caused major damage to our climatic system; our world is heating up, even more problems have risen. Goals are not being met, prolonging the time it will take to save it by being more sustainable.
Sustaniablity can be a very hard thing to accomplish and understand. We all need to try and work together not only to save the environment for the future, and by future i mean for whe WE are older, not just future generations. But we also need to save ourselves, work together in communities, help each other, by doing this, economically, ecologically and socially, we will eventually become more equal than we are today, and so can sustain our world and enjoy it just that little bit longer.

Lumbertubs...sustainable?

I've lived in Northampton for as long as i can remember, and in Lumbertubs since i was about 3. Though i can't wait until August to move out, i'll always have good and bad memories of this area. The community spirit developed between me and my neighbours over the years, the unfortunate cutting down of trees throughout my neighbourhood, the many many council houses.

I researched into some statistics for my area, to try and understand the population which live here. Depending on what the people are like e.g. employed, qulifications, can help to exlplain whether or not my community if sustainable or not.

Using the National Office of Statistics i was able to find out some useful information about Lumbertubs. [online] http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadHome.do;jessionid=ac1f930c30d7e14947527f424ebc91268339c3727cf0?m=0&s=1235561163626&enc=1&nsjs=true&nsck=true&nssvg=false&nswid=1003

Currently, there are 1527 residents in the area which occupy 660 houses. 256 of these residents live on their own, and 21 of the houses in the area are currently vacant. 186 houses are classed as council houses, which i found quite weird, ever since i was a kid i always thought that most of the people in my area lived in council houses. But this is probably due to the stereotypical view i developed of people in my neighbourhood and so assumed as a child that people like this were from poorer areas within my community.
Shockingly, 406 have no qualifications at all, but somehow 719 are employed. With a lot of the community having eother low or no qualifications, i can guess that it would be rather hard for people to change the way they live in order to be more sustainable.

However, most of the people around my street and the street down from me seem to all do their bit and recycle, well its a start right? But i can honestly say that i do not believe the community is close knit, or has a community spirit. There is no place for everyone to conjugate and discuss matters involing the area. However, i do not socialize a lot with the people in my community so i can not be sure on this.
A good point is that there are lots of green areas in Lumbertubs, also with a wood right next to it and a local doctors surgery. The number 16 bus is the local transport (unless you have a car or walk) and it comes almost every 10 minutes, so the public transport is pretty good.

But do i think my community is sustainable? No, no i don't. It is part of the reason i can't wait to escape from here. Sometimes it can be scary just walking out of my front door. The economy is not very good in my area, so even having a little money of your own can be dangerous, who knows who might steal from you? They have cut down almost all the trees, which just creates an eye sore, now i HAVE to look at the old, dingy council houses that i have grown up hating, plus i grew up playing outside around these trees.

I don't know my community that well, but from all the fights i can hear, and the ASBO teenagers wandering around the streets, i can't help but not feel like a have a sense of place here.

I'm a little slow, teach us what to do...exaclty

Ok so i will admit that im not the person in class raising their hand with the answers all the time. I'm also not the most sustainable student on campus, and i dont show as much enthusiasm or motivation as i probably should. However, this does not mean that i think we should at least all try and be a tad more sustainable.

I don't know much on how to be resourceful for myself, how to be more enviro-friendly; but this does not mean i don't want to be. Being more sustainable would greatly benefit us all, but i think we actually need to be taught HOW we can be more sustainable instead of being told to just do it, otherwise it makes us resent the cause. Public awareness is only just starting to focus on sustainable development with the help of the UN's proposal of introducing it to "all aspects of education and learning"
(http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27234&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html)

One way in which the UN is bringing awareness was by releasing a media kit to the public headlining the socail and economical effects.
http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=56365&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Whilst researching this topic, i came across the world awareness website, which specified that the main part of "education for sustainable development" is in fact the "for". It is implaying we need to be taught how to live more economically and, as they quote

"enables people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions about the way we do things, individually and collectively, locally and globally, that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet of the future"

http://www.worldaware.org.uk/education/sustain.html

Educateing young people who to think for themselves enables them to learn how to think outside the box and see that they are responsible for their own actions; logically develop their own opinions, and therefore take action.

Although i havent been able to acess the Haigh (2005) article from home (i'll hopefully add more later once read at the library), i do agree with the title, that Geoegraphy is probably the best place to learn about sustainable development, afterall, you do learn about the world in geography...at least last time i checked we did.

Feelings for the module? It gets me thinking at times (and i stress AT) i have to be in the mood to think, and therefore write, but when i do i find it a very interesting topic to discuss, though learning depths about it isnt a strong point in me.

deepest aplogies for being so late...again

time for a change

On a personal note, i can safely say, i hate the credit crunch. But this is simply because i hate my job, and due to the recession there are no new jobs out there, so im stuck being a check out monkey.

However, looking into the issue on a serious note, it would seem the this global recession could in fact be beneficial in the long run for terms of sustaining our world. But who would we be sustaining it for? Is it REALLY helping the environment. I looked into this issue using google and came across a podcast

http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=is-a-global-recession-good-for-the-08-11-13

In the podcast, Biello (2008) explains that if the economy is in downfall, then how are we meant to pay for the improvements being made to the environment and helping to prevent pollution? not only that but as we have seen in history, when people run low on money they become desperate and so resort to illegal methods of extracting resources needed to help provide for themselves. Surely this is more damaging to the environment?

Not only that, but from looking a an article in The Sun (posted 7th Feb 2009) http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2214498.ece

the economic downfall could potentiall kill children! Ok im not going to say it to those measures, but a fair point has been raised. Families will face hardship, which CAN lead to violence, especially towards children, and at the same time, people dont have as much money to donate to charitys anymore. This is very concerning.

People can benefit from this all though: http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/recession/who-benefits-from-a-recession/

Dept collectors pawnbrokers, second hand dealers of all sorts of equipment, but do they really need to benefit off other people misfortune, other peoples misery and sadness? Sure, with pawnbrokers the public can buy "things" for less money, but its second hand therefore the condition of the product might be low standard.

What if standards of living deminish, more people will become sick, who is going to pay for them to get better?

All this being said, i personnally will be walking more often, why waste money i need on fuel consumption, or on food i dont actually want to eat?

lets spend time....counting cars

Ok so last thursday we spent time conducting questionnaire and counting cars (hence the name.)
The questionnaire was carried around park campus and involved asking students what their opinion was of car use, parking and what their attitudes were towards sustainable car use at Park Campus.

We, as our small group of 4, carried out our survey on park campus at 9:30 in the morning for an hour. A very cold and WET hour. Two members of our group stood by the barrier into the main student car park and counted the number of cars/passengers using the car park within 10 min blocks during the whole hour. As we wore high vis jackets, we were a prone target for motorist frustration, much-o fun-o.

The other 2 memebers of our group conducted their surveys somewhere between the car park, senate building and halls. This was a purposive sampling method (i think), in which they managed to collect 19 completed surveys.

Some memebers of our group felt that there would have been more people car sharing than observed, however, the time of day that we conducted this survey was a period in which most early lectures had already commenced, so not many students would have been turning up.

If we were to carry out this survey again, i think i would personally use a clip board and an umbrella next time, the sheets got soaked to the point where they nearly fell apart. As i was wearing one of the high vis jackets in the car park, i think i would also have a badge on explaining that i am just a student and have no idea where to get a barrier card.

I would also look at future weather forecasts and try to do the survey on a day where it isnt too cold, or raining, we found that not many people want to stop in the rain to participate in a questionnaire about sustainable car use. Also, i would look before hand at what the staff parking ticket looks like, otherwise we could possibly count members of staff as well as students using the car park.

Emily Bradshaw and Natasha Ayres

Me? sustainable?

I try my hardest to do my part and be as sustainable as possible. I recycle tins, glass, paper and i try to never waste my food. I recycle so much paper and tinned items that my recycling boxes get filled up incredibly quickly, and then i find that its not collected quick enough and so i have it accumulating everywhere. This does not make me happy, it makes me feel like live in a mess and that i should just throw things away normally as it will be tidier in my house. However, i can't have that on my conscience, so i continue to recyle, its good in the long run, so who really cares about a bit of mess?

But somehow that isnt enough for people. I have a hectic lifstyle like a lot of people. I try to fit everything in and on top of that do what i can for the environment, but for people like greenpeacce that isnt enough. I could be more sustainable and unplug my chargers are night time or when i dont have appliances plugged in, but as im constanly using my phone, ipod and laptop, i dont think twice about taking the plugs out.

So ok theres another step i can take to be more environmentallly frendly. But i already take the bus to distant places, if the place i need to be is not far, then i'll walk. I'm not polluting the atmosphere as much as some people, i hardly ever drive even though i love too. It saves me money not too and helps with fuel emissions.

My improved arguement (as i did write this first time round on the first friday after is was due) is fairly late i admit, however, i always find that i write better when under pressure. Maybe if more pressure were put on the public to recycle, then more people would do it?

peace out

When first given the assignment brief of having to do a presentation on the sustainable deveolpment strategies o a country, i paniced. When i found out my country to research was Bulgaria, i paniced even more. I honestly had no idea what to do to begin with, thank goodness we were given starter websites to help us all out. however, after learning just how small a country Bulgaira is....i realsied how tuff it would be to find relevant information linking sustainable development and bulgaria together. And you know what? It was.

However, I did find this exercise quite enjoyable and interesting. The major things i learnt from this exercise are the different sustainable strategies carried out across all nations and not just our own, though ours hard very little in any plans for sustainability. Its so small! With such a tiny population, its hard to be surprisd tht they would make to much of an effort, apart from protecing their mountain ranges. Not being able to find much didnt really surprise me, however i was disappointed, especially after being in the debate and hearing all the strategies presented by other countries, i felt that our efforts, well our countries efforts were pretty pointless. I thought that Hannah and Sam did a fantastic presentation on Denmark, they really went into depth on how their countries efforts for sustainable development are far superior to most other countries researched by other groups.

I thought mine and Tristans' presentation went fairly well, we presented the best information we could find on Bulgaria's policies. By the end of the speech i was at a loss for words as i couldn't think of anything else to say...stutter central. The handout given to us was useful as a base for us to build our research on, but personnally i didn't really use it. What would i do differently if i were to do this exercise again? Pick a more ineresting country to research about, it would have been far more interesting to actaully LEARN about a countries sustainable plans then just to learn how Bulgaria wants to keep its landscape clean.

But as i said earlier, i did find this exercise enjoyable, especailly the debate part. I like listening to people and their views, though i wish i had contributed more in the discussion between countries, oh well, theres always room for improvement for next time.

I learnt about Agenda 21! A plan laid down by the UN in which to unite countries and help develop ways to sustain our world for future generations, whether that be for tomorrows generation or one in 50 years time. I also learnt a lot about wind farms and other eco friendly ways in which Denmark are becoming incredibly resourceful. errr...whether i actually learnt anything else about sustainable development from this exercise is not seeming likely at this present moment in time.

I feel that i have learnt how to communicate better with my team memebers so that we could produce a relevant talk to the debate. We found that when research into something very specific about a country, you need to read in depth at a large variety of sources to find useful information. Bullet pointing our work made us actually read our notes, as we had to understand them to present them and therefore were able to focus on the audience.