I was looking for cartoons to illustrate some lessons I am doing on climate change. This one made me laugh and summed up really what we believe here. Whatever you think about climate change the move to more sustainable living has so many benefits in so many areas. Why wouldn't you want to try?
Monday, August 23, 2010
Climate Cartoon
I was looking for cartoons to illustrate some lessons I am doing on climate change. This one made me laugh and summed up really what we believe here. Whatever you think about climate change the move to more sustainable living has so many benefits in so many areas. Why wouldn't you want to try?
Power to the Pupils
Ingrid reported on the meetings she'd been attending in our partner schools and I was struck by two examples of students being given ownership of projects.
At Mandurah Baptist college students volunteered to adopt vegetable beds. They were told what they would need to do to maintain them and grow their vegetables and now there is a waiting list of students who want to adopt a bed and gardening going on in breaks and after school. This is in contrast to before where 'everyone' was responsible and there were issues with harvesting. This seems like a great step and is testament to how well students perform when given responsibility, real ownership and the chance to prove themselves. Good on the teachers for making this happen, its not always easy to let go fo the reins.
At another school, John Curtin College of the Arts, one of the biology teachers has rewritten the curriculum to allow studetns to support each other via a wiki. A great way to get students to realise that they can all help each other to do well in their exams, that they are not competing against each other for the best result but can share knowledge and ideas, reduce their workload and support each other. Wiki's are shared spaces on the internet which different people (e.g. all members of a class) can edit and add information too. A great tool, if you don't use them elsewhere then start by using them for revision, with different groups preparing notes on diff topics would be great.
http://www.wikispaces.com/ Go here to set up your wiki. Free for K-12 education.
This great video explain how they work and what you might use them for really simply
Wikis in plain english
So Power to the Pupils - get them to help themselves and free up some time for you!
Lucy
At Mandurah Baptist college students volunteered to adopt vegetable beds. They were told what they would need to do to maintain them and grow their vegetables and now there is a waiting list of students who want to adopt a bed and gardening going on in breaks and after school. This is in contrast to before where 'everyone' was responsible and there were issues with harvesting. This seems like a great step and is testament to how well students perform when given responsibility, real ownership and the chance to prove themselves. Good on the teachers for making this happen, its not always easy to let go fo the reins.
At another school, John Curtin College of the Arts, one of the biology teachers has rewritten the curriculum to allow studetns to support each other via a wiki. A great way to get students to realise that they can all help each other to do well in their exams, that they are not competing against each other for the best result but can share knowledge and ideas, reduce their workload and support each other. Wiki's are shared spaces on the internet which different people (e.g. all members of a class) can edit and add information too. A great tool, if you don't use them elsewhere then start by using them for revision, with different groups preparing notes on diff topics would be great.
http://www.wikispaces.com/ Go here to set up your wiki. Free for K-12 education.
This great video explain how they work and what you might use them for really simply
Wikis in plain english
So Power to the Pupils - get them to help themselves and free up some time for you!
Lucy
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Consumption Conundrum
Anup Shah, Consumption and Consumerism, Global Issues, Updated: September 03, 2008
This article really shows how important consumption (as oppsoed to population) in using up the world's resources and degrading the environment. It contains links to articles on particular products and data about how the top 20% of the world's consumers account for 76.6% of the the World's consumption.
This is a quote extracted from the UN.
Today’s consumption is undermining the environmental resource base. It is exacerbating inequalities. And the dynamics of the consumption-poverty-inequality-environment nexus are accelerating. If the trends continue without change — not redistributing from high-income to low-income consumers, not shifting from polluting to cleaner goods and production technologies, not promoting goods that empower poor producers, not shifting priority from consumption for conspicuous display to meeting basic needs — today’s problems of consumption and human development will worsen.
… The real issue is not consumption itself but its patterns and effects.
… Inequalities in consumption are stark. Globally, the 20% of the world’s people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures — the poorest 20% a minuscule 1.3%. More specifically, the richest fifth:
- Consume 45% of all meat and fish, the poorest fifth 5%
- Consume 58% of total energy, the poorest fifth less than 4%
- Have 74% of all telephone lines, the poorest fifth 1.5%
- Consume 84% of all paper, the poorest fifth 1.1%
- Own 87% of the world’s vehicle fleet, the poorest fifth less than 1%
Runaway growth in consumption in the past 50 years is putting strains on the environment never before seen.
— Human Development Report 1998 Overview, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) — Emphasis Added. Figures quoted use data from 1995
Friday, August 13, 2010
The Population Puzzle
I watched Dick Smith's population puzzle last night hoping that would address some issues of sustainability. Personally I found it quite a dissapointing program in terms of balance and really examining the complexity of the issues but its definitely one that could help spark debate, and indeed the debate after was better.
It all seemed a bit reductionist and very 'conservative'. Dick seemed to want to maintain things as they are. Well ok but even so things are not really ok as they are.
He argued that slower population growth would stop areas of land on city outskirts being concreted over and high rise developments. He argued that we did not want to become like Bangladesh. Well there is some way to go to get to that population, they certainly don't have a problem with lack of water but I would strongly argue that their poverty is not due to overpopulation but to their history. On top of that the environmental impact/carbon footprint of each individual person in Bangladesh is a tiny fraction of an Australian's.
Dick seems to want Australia to stay as it is so that we can continue to consume as we are. He did not talk about reducing our consumption, using less water and energy, living more densley in cities rather than continuously exanding in 1/4 acre blocks (they're an accident of history), sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. At my level of consumption I need about 2.3 planets, way too much but probably not as much as some. That's what we need to change. He certainly did not talk about changing his lifestyle. Yes population adds to the problem but if all the world consumed like Bangladeshis there would not be a climate change problem (although the poverty would lead to other envirnmental problems).
We consume too much and if we want to preserve the Australian (and world) environment it cannot continue. Population is one part of the problem but to only look at this totally ignores the enormous complexity of the issue. Increased population does not correlate directly with ruining the environment or decreasing quality of life. This assumes that what we have now is the right way, that this is the best quality of life we can have. Its not, it needs radical ethinking.
Living in a high density city, with areas with a sense of community, where you can walk to work, walk to the shops, know your neighbours (as you don't just get straight into your car), have easily acdessible countryside (as its not covered in suburbs), have hostpitals, libraries, leisure centres etc all close by could well be a better quality of life than living in a suburb with not real centre where you have to drive to the city centre for work, drive to the shops etc. And it is certainly better for the environment .
I could go on and on.
As you can see a great film to start a debate. This is the website for the population puzzle . It has lots of stats and links to other sites. The opinions page is also good with different points of view, good for getting a class debate going. I like comments by Amanda Mackenzie of Australian Youth Climate Coalition. And this is the Q and A website where you can download the program and look at the transcript. I'm with Suvendrini Perera, and there are also good points about the regions and immigration in general. Also global connections, our global responsibility vs responsibility to our own citizens.
Lots to think about over the weekend, Lucy
EDIT - Well I thought a bit more about this over the weekend. What it really highlighted was that we need a plan. I personally think its impossible to say what a sustainable population is as it depends upon how sustainably they live - if they reduce consuption and change agricultural practices etc. it will be much higher than if not BUT if Australia's population will increase (as it will) it needs to planned for. Where will they live, how will they live, how will they be supported, what policies would encourage more sustainble living, what import, export, agricultural policies, planning and trasport policies do we need to make this sustainable? If there is no plan and we don't think about the Austrlia that we want then we can't work towards achieving it.
I think our lesson 'Our Future' in The Big CONsumption gets students considering this. They envisage the future that they want here and then plan a series of steps in different aspects of life to achieve that. Maybe they can help the government with this?? Its a very different approach to to just looking at what is and then projecting the numbers out and working out how to cater for that, which is I think the main point Dick Smith was trying to make.
Lucy
It all seemed a bit reductionist and very 'conservative'. Dick seemed to want to maintain things as they are. Well ok but even so things are not really ok as they are.
He argued that slower population growth would stop areas of land on city outskirts being concreted over and high rise developments. He argued that we did not want to become like Bangladesh. Well there is some way to go to get to that population, they certainly don't have a problem with lack of water but I would strongly argue that their poverty is not due to overpopulation but to their history. On top of that the environmental impact/carbon footprint of each individual person in Bangladesh is a tiny fraction of an Australian's.
Dick seems to want Australia to stay as it is so that we can continue to consume as we are. He did not talk about reducing our consumption, using less water and energy, living more densley in cities rather than continuously exanding in 1/4 acre blocks (they're an accident of history), sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. At my level of consumption I need about 2.3 planets, way too much but probably not as much as some. That's what we need to change. He certainly did not talk about changing his lifestyle. Yes population adds to the problem but if all the world consumed like Bangladeshis there would not be a climate change problem (although the poverty would lead to other envirnmental problems).
We consume too much and if we want to preserve the Australian (and world) environment it cannot continue. Population is one part of the problem but to only look at this totally ignores the enormous complexity of the issue. Increased population does not correlate directly with ruining the environment or decreasing quality of life. This assumes that what we have now is the right way, that this is the best quality of life we can have. Its not, it needs radical ethinking.
Living in a high density city, with areas with a sense of community, where you can walk to work, walk to the shops, know your neighbours (as you don't just get straight into your car), have easily acdessible countryside (as its not covered in suburbs), have hostpitals, libraries, leisure centres etc all close by could well be a better quality of life than living in a suburb with not real centre where you have to drive to the city centre for work, drive to the shops etc. And it is certainly better for the environment .
I could go on and on.
As you can see a great film to start a debate. This is the website for the population puzzle . It has lots of stats and links to other sites. The opinions page is also good with different points of view, good for getting a class debate going. I like comments by Amanda Mackenzie of Australian Youth Climate Coalition. And this is the Q and A website where you can download the program and look at the transcript. I'm with Suvendrini Perera, and there are also good points about the regions and immigration in general. Also global connections, our global responsibility vs responsibility to our own citizens.
Lots to think about over the weekend, Lucy
EDIT - Well I thought a bit more about this over the weekend. What it really highlighted was that we need a plan. I personally think its impossible to say what a sustainable population is as it depends upon how sustainably they live - if they reduce consuption and change agricultural practices etc. it will be much higher than if not BUT if Australia's population will increase (as it will) it needs to planned for. Where will they live, how will they live, how will they be supported, what policies would encourage more sustainble living, what import, export, agricultural policies, planning and trasport policies do we need to make this sustainable? If there is no plan and we don't think about the Austrlia that we want then we can't work towards achieving it.
I think our lesson 'Our Future' in The Big CONsumption gets students considering this. They envisage the future that they want here and then plan a series of steps in different aspects of life to achieve that. Maybe they can help the government with this?? Its a very different approach to to just looking at what is and then projecting the numbers out and working out how to cater for that, which is I think the main point Dick Smith was trying to make.
Lucy
Monday, August 9, 2010
Coincidences & landscape
Wow, isn't it strange how things happen.
Yesterday in the car on the way back from Perth I was having a conversation with Dave (he'd just come back from a surveying job in Newman, yes we contrast a bit on sustainability here!), about how mining so radically alters the landscape. How we dig up and totally alter the surface of the earth. Concreting over the earth to create cities is also pretty major but I think for me mining seems even more shocking as we are changing natural erosive processes which have taken millions of years and the material taken out is not going back. We are manufacturing (and quickly) a new altered landscape.
Here's where the coincidence come in..... Today in my inbox i got a news letter from the Green Pages magazine and one of the articles was about photographer Edward Burtynsky. His picutres are about exactly this subject, how industry transforms nature and landscape. Here's what they are about in his own words:
Nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work. I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.
These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. We are drawn by desire - a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times.
Edward Burtynsky
Here are a couple of examples of his pictures from Australia. They're taken from his website.
These pictures are of kalgoorlie and Lake Lefroy in Western Australia.
If you were doing a geography module on consumption these would be great pictures to use as 'Landscapes of Consumption' to compare with the end Shopping Mall 'Lanscape of Consumtption' that we would more often think of. They show quite shockingly the direct affect our consumer choices have on landscapes (i was going to say our landscapes but are they really ours to do this with, often they are other peoples' and always the plants and animals which would have lived here before this).
EDIT
Richard was just saying imagine how the water table and everything is affected all around, probably not just the mine itself but the ecosystems surrounding it for miles will also be changed by it.
Yesterday in the car on the way back from Perth I was having a conversation with Dave (he'd just come back from a surveying job in Newman, yes we contrast a bit on sustainability here!), about how mining so radically alters the landscape. How we dig up and totally alter the surface of the earth. Concreting over the earth to create cities is also pretty major but I think for me mining seems even more shocking as we are changing natural erosive processes which have taken millions of years and the material taken out is not going back. We are manufacturing (and quickly) a new altered landscape.
Here's where the coincidence come in..... Today in my inbox i got a news letter from the Green Pages magazine and one of the articles was about photographer Edward Burtynsky. His picutres are about exactly this subject, how industry transforms nature and landscape. Here's what they are about in his own words:
Nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work. I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.
These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. We are drawn by desire - a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times.
Edward Burtynsky
Here are a couple of examples of his pictures from Australia. They're taken from his website.
These pictures are of kalgoorlie and Lake Lefroy in Western Australia.If you were doing a geography module on consumption these would be great pictures to use as 'Landscapes of Consumption' to compare with the end Shopping Mall 'Lanscape of Consumtption' that we would more often think of. They show quite shockingly the direct affect our consumer choices have on landscapes (i was going to say our landscapes but are they really ours to do this with, often they are other peoples' and always the plants and animals which would have lived here before this).
EDIT
Richard was just saying imagine how the water table and everything is affected all around, probably not just the mine itself but the ecosystems surrounding it for miles will also be changed by it.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Geography Modules
The Rogal Geographical Society has developed lots of full modules for geography teaching in secondary schools. Lots of these cover themes of sustainability...
You can download resources separately or the whole module can be downloaded in a zip file. Loads of other subjects on there too. KS3 is for years 7, 8 & 9, KS4-5 is for yrs 10,11 & 12.
Geog away, Lucy
Geog away, Lucy
Surfing and Sea Level Rise
This resource allows your students to explore what impact sea level rise due to climate change would have on Sufing on the gold coast. It also makes good use of GIS with Google earth being used to model this. www.juicygeography.co.uk/sealevel.htm.
Have a look round Juicy Geography site, its a blog by geography teacher Noel Jenkins, sharing lots of free resources, he also writes Digital Geography . There are other great google earth resources, sustainability, geography resources like the wind farm location decision making exercise. This explains how students can use google earth to find a suitable windfarm location in their local area gives the criteria they can use to assess it. Students create their own placemarks and can then save them to a shared folder for peer assessment.
Happy Googling, Lucy
Have a look round Juicy Geography site, its a blog by geography teacher Noel Jenkins, sharing lots of free resources, he also writes Digital Geography . There are other great google earth resources, sustainability, geography resources like the wind farm location decision making exercise. This explains how students can use google earth to find a suitable windfarm location in their local area gives the criteria they can use to assess it. Students create their own placemarks and can then save them to a shared folder for peer assessment.
Happy Googling, Lucy
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Geography and Oil Spills
This is going to be a week focussed on geography resources for lots of reasons really. Richard is off to Sydney for 3 days to look into setting up HotRock over in the Eastern States bringing our sustainability Education to even more Australians. Yey. So that travelling is a bit of geography. He's flying but offsetting his carbon, although we can't understand how Quantas can do this for only $12. It seems too cheap, do they plant trees somewhere with very cheap labour??? If you know how this can work let us know.
Then he's talking at the Georaphical Association of Western Australia conference on Sunday (back in Perth), so these reosurces and ideas are for you guys at his workshop.
They're also for me as I'm a geographer so I always get excited about geography stuff.
So first off in a fit of patriotism, let me direct you to the Geographical Association of the UK, which I was a member of before I came over to Oz. A pretty cool association with loads going on and a great website that I often make use of. www.geography.org.uk There's often topical and useful stuff. I like the Think Pieces for helping me with my curriculum development and planning and also the resources section.
A great page up at the moment gives loads of ideas about how to use the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in your teaching. This great quote from Barack Obama starts it off:
Then he's talking at the Georaphical Association of Western Australia conference on Sunday (back in Perth), so these reosurces and ideas are for you guys at his workshop.
They're also for me as I'm a geographer so I always get excited about geography stuff.
So first off in a fit of patriotism, let me direct you to the Geographical Association of the UK, which I was a member of before I came over to Oz. A pretty cool association with loads going on and a great website that I often make use of. www.geography.org.uk There's often topical and useful stuff. I like the Think Pieces for helping me with my curriculum development and planning and also the resources section.
A great page up at the moment gives loads of ideas about how to use the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in your teaching. This great quote from Barack Obama starts it off:
'We (Americans) consume more than 20 per cent of the world's oil, but have less than two per cent of the world's oil reserves. And that's part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean because we're running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.
For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we have talked and talked about the need to end America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires. The consequences of our inaction are now in plain sight.'
- President Barack Obama, 15 June 2010
The page then gives loads of inspirational teaching ideas. Our Peak Oil module also ties in perfectly with this subject, helping students explore why the days of cheap oil are over and how we can adapt to a world with out it
This topic combines sustainability and geography on so many levels. What do we use that contains oil? How are we connected to others around the world by oil? How can we change our communities to live without oil?
I liked this one where you can move the oil spill to anywhere in the World. www.ifitwasmyhome.com/ I put it over Dunsborough where I live and it covers the whole of the cape and up to Mandurah. Quite a powerful image if you're worried about oil exploration off the coast of the SW. Here's the map it creates...
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