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!
Showing posts with label survey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label survey. Show all posts
May 9, 2009
How to define "sustainable development"?
I'm sure most people have heard this term somewhere. Another thing is to actually understand what is meant with it, and moreover how to achieve it and why we would even want it?
The most known and sort of "official" definition says it's "development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the abiliy of future generations to meet their needs". Lot's of broad words, isn't it?
In the survey made in autumn among AEGEE members, we asked the people to define it in their own words. And here's what came out.
Almost half of the answers mentioned that sustainable development is something keeping in mind the future generations, around 1/3 mentioned that it's mainly to protect and safeguard the environment. The 2 other sustainable development pillars (the concept consists of 3 pillars: environment, economy and society) were mentioned less: around 20% put the focus on economical development, and 15% to social welfare.
"Managing the resources" was also the keywords mentioned quite often, whether they were meant as natural resources or some other resources. As activity, desides using the word "development", respondents mentioned "efficient" or "rational resource use", "improvement of life quality" and few times also "technology". What could be also brought out is that the need to sutain our planet, world was mentioned more times than the needs and benefits to human race.
Of course there are always some more creative ways to define "sustainable development" like: "living without messing up the world too much" :)
What can be concluded based on this question? That in general, young people do have some overview what this concept means, the need to preserve our world for future generations and environmental protection as key activity seem to be the most important parts of it.
For those, wanting to read more about sustainable development definitions, click here. Also, a sort of speculation of the "official" definition can be found here.
Give your thoughts: how do you see sustainable development? Is it actually something we should strive for? How far can we actually develop?
The most known and sort of "official" definition says it's "development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the abiliy of future generations to meet their needs". Lot's of broad words, isn't it?
In the survey made in autumn among AEGEE members, we asked the people to define it in their own words. And here's what came out.
Almost half of the answers mentioned that sustainable development is something keeping in mind the future generations, around 1/3 mentioned that it's mainly to protect and safeguard the environment. The 2 other sustainable development pillars (the concept consists of 3 pillars: environment, economy and society) were mentioned less: around 20% put the focus on economical development, and 15% to social welfare.
"Managing the resources" was also the keywords mentioned quite often, whether they were meant as natural resources or some other resources. As activity, desides using the word "development", respondents mentioned "efficient" or "rational resource use", "improvement of life quality" and few times also "technology". What could be also brought out is that the need to sutain our planet, world was mentioned more times than the needs and benefits to human race.
Of course there are always some more creative ways to define "sustainable development" like: "living without messing up the world too much" :)
What can be concluded based on this question? That in general, young people do have some overview what this concept means, the need to preserve our world for future generations and environmental protection as key activity seem to be the most important parts of it.
For those, wanting to read more about sustainable development definitions, click here. Also, a sort of speculation of the "official" definition can be found here.
Give your thoughts: how do you see sustainable development? Is it actually something we should strive for? How far can we actually develop?
January 29, 2009
The (biggest) environmental problem in Europe?
This was the question asked to AEGEE members in autumn 2008, during a survey about the ecological awareness of young Europeans. Now the time has come to start analysing the responses. And here I would like to list the problems that AEGEE'ans consider the most important ones in Europe nowadays.
Out of 145 respondents, there were over 40 different problems mentioned. That shows that indeed we have a lot of things to take care of. Compiling them into topics, here you can see the Top 10:
1) air pollution and greenhouse gases
2) unsustainable production and use of energy, fossil fuels
3) water problems (pollution, shortage of drinking water)
4) unsustainable transport, too many cars
5) waste problems and lack of recycling
6) over consumption and production, using too much resources
7) global warming and climate change
8) pollution generally
9) deforestration, unsustainable use of forests
10) lack of political will and international cooperation to make changes
Other problems mentioned were: nuclear pollution, people's awareness and attitude, problems connected to industries, agricultural production, consuming too much meat and fish, increasing poverty, pollution from cities, etc.
There was no big domination of one opinion (the no 1 problem was mentioned by around 12% of respondents), but it can be seen that many of the listed problems are more or less connected to climate change. This reminds me the poll made by EU in September 2008 showing also that Europeans worry a lot about climate change, BUT most of them are not willing to do much about it. What about us, the youth, AEGEE?
About the survey: The whole survey consisted of questions generally about sustainable development and about consumption patterns. It will be basis for a Master thesis and the overall final results will be published in summer 2009.
Out of 145 respondents, there were over 40 different problems mentioned. That shows that indeed we have a lot of things to take care of. Compiling them into topics, here you can see the Top 10:
1) air pollution and greenhouse gases
2) unsustainable production and use of energy, fossil fuels
3) water problems (pollution, shortage of drinking water)
4) unsustainable transport, too many cars
5) waste problems and lack of recycling
6) over consumption and production, using too much resources
7) global warming and climate change
8) pollution generally
9) deforestration, unsustainable use of forests
10) lack of political will and international cooperation to make changes
Other problems mentioned were: nuclear pollution, people's awareness and attitude, problems connected to industries, agricultural production, consuming too much meat and fish, increasing poverty, pollution from cities, etc.
There was no big domination of one opinion (the no 1 problem was mentioned by around 12% of respondents), but it can be seen that many of the listed problems are more or less connected to climate change. This reminds me the poll made by EU in September 2008 showing also that Europeans worry a lot about climate change, BUT most of them are not willing to do much about it. What about us, the youth, AEGEE?
About the survey: The whole survey consisted of questions generally about sustainable development and about consumption patterns. It will be basis for a Master thesis and the overall final results will be published in summer 2009.
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