During the Geen Week in Brussels we had a great opportunity to see the new documentary called The Age of Stupid. Its a move directed and written by Franny Armstrong, a nice lady who after the movie also gave a small talk.
For me it was the best documentary I have ever seen. Documentaries tend to be just a bit boring movies that aim to pass on the message in a very neutral way. So did this movie, but in a whole new way. The narrotor, Pete Postlethwaite was the last human being on the world (year 2050) and he just wondered, what happened that it all ended up like that.....
Its not the Greenpeace wale saving mission kind of movie, its a movie that makes every single person realise that jeopardising our whole planet because of a "ruined view" is just not worth it. (Theres a very interesting part in the movie about the wind turbines in some northern English village I believe, where the local people fight against sustainable ways of producing energy because the wind turbines are diminishing the values of their view. Really!!).
I really do recommend to see the movie!!
But even better, take your sceptic friend with you and show them the movie! I think its a great movie with which we can illustrate our point.
See the trailer at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZjsJdokC0s&feature=fvst
July 8, 2009
June 28, 2009
SuFu meeting in Brussels
SuFu is having a midyear meeting in Brussels at the moment.
We took this opportunity to evaluate our progress so far, plan for our upcoming events (they're going to be utterly cool, so stay tuned!!) and last but not least enjoy and improve our team spirit and try the combination of Dutch asparagus and Belgian peas in a risotto. And as it was the EU's Green Week in Brussels, we also visited there.
Because someone tried to poison our highly successful SuFu project manager, SuFu panda had to come to save the day. Naturally, we used this opportunity to make a video about all the adventures this brave panda had in AEGEE's headquarters. Of course we will share this with you soon :-)
At the meeting we had a lot of creative sessions, defined the work to be done in the future and planned how
Because the network commission was present at the CD house too, we did a European Night together, which started with a bit late, but utterly marvelous pizza dinner made by Olya and Thomas. After that we did the presentations about each other's cultures and tasted from the nice food and beverages coming from all the different countries. The Estonians (Tiit in particular) really put their effort in it with building a genuine Estonian Sauna in a tent in the garden. Of course it took some Dutch ingeniuty to realise this Estonian project, but the end result was marvelous. And so SuFu kept it's tradition to introduce the merits of Estonian sauna to yet another member of the Comité Directeur (and all other people present).
Stay tuned for more information about our upcoming events, there are a lot of nice things coming up: Activities in the Danube project in the Danube Delta (Romania) and Bratislava (Slovakia), SuFu in the city in Madrid (Spain).
June 15, 2009
Universities going green around the world
Last week I had the luck to be present in 3rd international sustainable univeristies' conference, taking place in Lausanne, Switzerland, organised by International Sustainable Campus Network. It was amazing to know that so prestigious universities like Yale, Harvard, Cambridge, etc are also taking direction towards becoming more sustainable. It was also nice to see that there were universiti
es present in the conference from almost all the continents.
Unversities seem to be seeking sustainability in mainly 2 directions:
1) reducing the negative environmental impact of their buldings through energy efficiency, reducing water use, amount of waste, CO2 emissions, etc;
2) creating environmental awareness, involving students, scientists, management and local communities into common actions towards sustainability.
Listening to different presentations, taking part in workshops and just discussing with different university leaders,
there was one clear message: students are seen as key part towards change. Universities are looking for different ways how to involve students more, as in that way it's also easier to convice other parties to contribute to changes. Also, this year, first 2 awards for sustainable universities (construction and impact award) were given out, but there is plan to create more categories, one of them being award for student initiatives. And btw, representative from Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement in UK seemed to be quite interested in cooperation with AEGEE ;)
So I think that there is much that we as students and AEGEE memebrs could do to spread the idea of sustainable universities in Europe, to make our own universities more sustainable. There are so many good examples to show already in the world, we just need to make our voices heard. After all, universities as education and research centres can play so important role in turning whole society towards sustainability.
Unversities seem to be seeking sustainability in mainly 2 directions:
1) reducing the negative environmental impact of their buldings through energy efficiency, reducing water use, amount of waste, CO2 emissions, etc;
2) creating environmental awareness, involving students, scientists, management and local communities into common actions towards sustainability.
Listening to different presentations, taking part in workshops and just discussing with different university leaders,
So I think that there is much that we as students and AEGEE memebrs could do to spread the idea of sustainable universities in Europe, to make our own universities more sustainable. There are so many good examples to show already in the world, we just need to make our voices heard. After all, universities as education and research centres can play so important role in turning whole society towards sustainability.
Labels:
external,
opinion,
sustainable development,
universities
June 6, 2009
SuFu panda visited Ljubljana on his EDE journey
When the official part of EDE event was over, it was of course time for the unofficial part, so we went together to the eco party, where AEGEE-Ljubljana board members, SU Ljubljana team members and some of the participants of the event joined us and had fun with us.
Panda hugs from AEGEE-Ljubljana EDE team ;-)
Photography by Blaž Šteblaj
May 29, 2009
Let's get "Sustainability" in the Spanish Dictionary!
I want to share something with all of you... I found out an iniciative that links to some prevoius post fo Kadri, and it is quite interesting idea: someone found out that in the Royal Academy of Spanish Language Dictionary there is not a definition of Sustainability.
They used the technologies that are now available and created a website to promote the inclusion of the word with a proper definition; but not only that, they are also asking people to propose definitions, to arrive to a common place for such an important word nowadays. Because, if lacking a definition is bad, a bad definition would be much worse.
Here is the webiste just for you to look at (if you understand Spanish would be much better):
http://www.sostenibilidadaldiccionario.com/index.php
In the Galeria link, you can find other kind of definitions: videos , pictures... people is quite creative on definitions!
But I want to see that AEGEE people is also creative, so you can send definitions here or you can even send videos there to that website. I will translate the best ones and send them to the website, so we gain also visibility for our project!
They used the technologies that are now available and created a website to promote the inclusion of the word with a proper definition; but not only that, they are also asking people to propose definitions, to arrive to a common place for such an important word nowadays. Because, if lacking a definition is bad, a bad definition would be much worse.
Here is the webiste just for you to look at (if you understand Spanish would be much better):
http://www.sostenibilidadaldiccionario.com/index.php
In the Galeria link, you can find other kind of definitions: videos , pictures... people is quite creative on definitions!
But I want to see that AEGEE people is also creative, so you can send definitions here or you can even send videos there to that website. I will translate the best ones and send them to the website, so we gain also visibility for our project!
Labels:
external,
General,
opinion,
survey,
sustainable development,
think tank
May 23, 2009
Danube Project, a Rich Source of Inspiration!
The Danube Project has just received a YiA grant for both of its seminars, one in The Danube Delta and the other in Bratislava taking place in august and september!
So, now, long preparations are being made in order to make these events trully remarkable!
The first seminar will be held in the Danube Delta, from 15-21 August.
The SuFu team has already prepared an adventurous program with study trips to local villages, to the famous Letea Forest, boat trips, workshops as well as practical activities like clean-up sessions, eco-friendly art, photo exhibition and many more to come...
But why choosing the Danube Delta for our project?
Danube Delta is literally a migrant birds paradise! Being declared a UNESCO heritage and a reservation of Biosphere the wonderful delta was formed as the Danube River reverses itself into the Black Sea.
There are around 331 species of birds, 83 species of fish, 2244 insects and 42 species of mammals, from which thousands of swans, pelicans, wild ducks and sturgeons. A very diverse flora with around 2000 types of plants has grown in the surroundings made up of channels, ponds, flooded areas and lakes as well as beaches and salt water areas. The flora also includes the famous Letea Forest, with climbing plants, elm and oak trees.
The population living in this area is quite small, the region being one of the least inhabited in Europe. There are around 27 villages in the region, in which the people usually live on what the Danube provides, by fishing, subsistence agriculture or local tourism.
The main sources of pollution come from pesticides, industrial and city residuals from the rivers that reverse into the Danube. Other source is garbage disposal form the local villages as well as from tourists.
That is why ecotourism and sustainable development are key-issues...
This is also why we have placed our project in this wonderful area!
This ...along with a possible weakness for "danubian" and romanian traditional cuisine, culture, all in an aegeean atmosphere...
The Danube Project has just received a YiA grant for both of its seminars, one in The Danube Delta and the other in Bratislava taking place in august and september!
So, now, long preparations are being made in order to make these events trully remarkable!
The first seminar will be held in the Danube Delta, from 15-21 August.
The SuFu team has already prepared an adventurous program with study trips to local villages, to the famous Letea Forest, boat trips, workshops as well as practical activities like clean-up sessions, eco-friendly art, photo exhibition and many more to come...
But why choosing the Danube Delta for our project?
Danube Delta is literally a migrant birds paradise! Being declared a UNESCO heritage and a reservation of Biosphere the wonderful delta was formed as the Danube River reverses itself into the Black Sea.
There are around 331 species of birds, 83 species of fish, 2244 insects and 42 species of mammals, from which thousands of swans, pelicans, wild ducks and sturgeons. A very diverse flora with around 2000 types of plants has grown in the surroundings made up of channels, ponds, flooded areas and lakes as well as beaches and salt water areas. The flora also includes the famous Letea Forest, with climbing plants, elm and oak trees.
The population living in this area is quite small, the region being one of the least inhabited in Europe. There are around 27 villages in the region, in which the people usually live on what the Danube provides, by fishing, subsistence agriculture or local tourism.
The main sources of pollution come from pesticides, industrial and city residuals from the rivers that reverse into the Danube. Other source is garbage disposal form the local villages as well as from tourists.
That is why ecotourism and sustainable development are key-issues...
This is also why we have placed our project in this wonderful area!
This ...along with a possible weakness for "danubian" and romanian traditional cuisine, culture, all in an aegeean atmosphere...
May 18, 2009
EDE competition!
We are glad to let you know some news for European Day of Environment!
Join a photo/video competition "Renewable energy" from May 25th till June 12th!
"Sustaining our Future" team has formed a partnership with the connect2earth initative, run by WWF and IUCN, and powered by Nokia!
1) Make a short video or photo series in the topic of renewable energy - how it could fit to our everyday life, what good can it bring, what is the future of renewable energy, etc.
2) From May 25th to June 12th, upload it to www.connect2earth.org site and remember to put your antenna name and "EDE" in the description of your post. Details how to upload your photos/videos, can be found here.
3) On June 19th, a jury composed of one member from WWF, IUCN and the SuFu team will select the winner, who will be awarded an environmental mobile phone solar charger and get a special highlight on the connect2earth site!
4) All the uploaded videos and photos will also compete in the overall connect2earth competition lasting throughout the year, with the final prize of participation in the UN Climate Change Negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
You can already check out the site now: www.connect2earth.org
Join a photo/video competition "Renewable energy" from May 25th till June 12th!
"Sustaining our Future" team has formed a partnership with the connect2earth initative, run by WWF and IUCN, and powered by Nokia!
1) Make a short video or photo series in the topic of renewable energy - how it could fit to our everyday life, what good can it bring, what is the future of renewable energy, etc.
3) On June 19th, a jury composed of one member from WWF, IUCN and the SuFu team will select the winner, who will be awarded an environmental mobile phone solar charger and get a special highlight on the connect2earth site!
4) All the uploaded videos and photos will also compete in the overall connect2earth competition lasting throughout the year, with the final prize of participation in the UN Climate Change Negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
You can already check out the site now: www.connect2earth.org
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