(The Only) Solution to Desertification?

The issue of desertification is one of the prime issues of our present and our future. Alan Savory gives an excellent TED Talk below analysing what he sees as the only viable solution.

Questions to Consider:
How big an issue is Desertification?
Could there be other solutions?
Is it too late to solve this problem?

Sustainable Management in Lapland

Year 12 students began a single lesson with an outline of how management of Cold Environments works. They then had the rest of the lesson to research an example and fit it into the syllabus framework. The points on Lapland by B.Thrasher and P.Ramsbotham would support an essay on this very well when used with specific locationed examples.

Further work from this class can be found on their blog.


What was the short term gain?

Money from tourists coming to the area and the option to create more infrastructures to be able to sustain more and more tourists each year

What management strategy is being used?

Tourism in Lapland is based primarily on the region's clean and unique nature. Nature has been protected more extensively in Lapland than in other parts of the country. This is an opportunity and richness for tourism provided that protected areas can be and are used for tourism in a sustainable way.

They have started controlling the way in which the tourists interact with the land and the local communities and their objectives have been outlines below:

·         to ensure that the water supply systems of the main tourist resorts in Lapland meet modern requirements by 2007 (This means that there is less water waste)

·         to complete the environmental restoration projects at the tourist resorts by 2007 (To update everything to the most efficient economically and also to use less fuel)

·         to continue to use employment schemes (160 person-years) extensively to carry out work promoting tourism and improving the natural environments

·         to promote the use of protected areas in tourism

·         to encourage the sustainable development of resorts

How does it meet socio economic needs?

A lot of money is still being generated by the ever increasing amount of tourists coming to Lapland to come and see 'Father Christmas' This creates jobs for people in the local communities surrounding areas, e.g. working in a hotel or pretending to be Father Christmas. The money also increases the life style and standard of living for the people affected as a lot more money is being injected into the economy from outside tourists.

How does it meet environmental needs?

All of the dedicated tourist areas have been carefully set up as to make sure that each of them have the most up to date machinery, for example fuel efficient vehicles. Also other aspects have been taken into consideration for example noise pollution and light pollution, where bans have been put in place to make sure that tourists treat the area with care and respect. Here is a quote from a tourist website:

"Mother Nature is our main partner in production and we do all in our power to take good care of her. At this moment over 50% of our snowmobile fleet is equipped with 4-stroke engines which are more environmental friendly than the 2-stroke"

Sustainability Explained

Another excellent video to promote discussion about sustainability. Are these the only aims of sustainability? Do they go too far? is this achievable?

Social Good Summit - get involved

The UN Social Good Summit starts today. There are some excellent ways to follow whats going on:

1) You can follow and watch it live online here:

2) You can follow it on twitter with the hashtag: #sgsGlobal

3) We have also set up a live twitter feed on this site, just click on 'Live News' to the right of this post to watch it update:

The video below is an excellent rundown of what it is about and how you could get involved.....

You can have YOUR say at Rio +20

As the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development approaches next week, you can have your say about what you want to see happen.

Visit the site below to view the 100 recommendations made and to vote on which you would like to see implemented.

http://vote.riodialogues.org/?l=en

Rio +20 Earth Summit starting next week...

The Rio earth summit next week could have a huge impact on our future. You can get acquainted with it using the Storify below as a portal. We will follow it on this blog during next week so come back and see it...

4th Form Student published in the Geographical Times

Well done to R Salvesen for a good accomplishment. Lets hope more boys can follow your example.

Sustainability - The Key to the Future

By Robert Salvesen 4th form.

All of us in our lives have looked at and admired sculptures and works of art in awe. We have been astounded by Da Vinci, and stunned by Michelangelo, but what we do not realise is that the cities we live in are sculptures and works of art, sculpted from concrete. Many people look at cities like Los Angeles and London and think what it is like to design something of that importance.

Recently in our class, we were given the opportunity to design and sculpt our own city. The question posed to us was whether our cities could be sustainable, like Mazdar and Curitiba. We studied how the brains behind these cities had answered the question: How do you make a city sustainable? We studied the natural shade in Mazdar, caused by narrow streets. We looked at the efficient rubbish disposal system in Curitiba and in our groups we started to incorporate these elements into our cities. We studied the three tiers of sustainability: Social, Economic and Environmental and in our groups we researched how incorporating certain elements in our cities, would meet the needs of our citizens, because the definition of sustainability is meeting the needs of people for the present and future generations.

The class certainly responded to the task, producing wind turbines, innovative new transport systems and off sea wind farms. We had underground electric transport systems, pyramids covered with solar panels, recycling stations made out of recycled materials and many more sustainable ideas. After many lessons, the contents of our recycling bins and many rolls of sellotape later our cities were complete, and for a moment, we stood back and imagined ourselves as architects, admiring the new cities that stood before us.

I can definitely say on behalf of the class that our knowledge of sustainability has increased through this productive task, and we all have experienced the question that architects now face: What makes a city sustainable?