5. Summaries, April 9 - April 22 2012   Week 8 - 9 Each class summarizes the answers received from the   Learning Circle partners. The summaries are posted in the Wiki.

 

 

 

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Summary env1, Chavakali High School, Kenya

 

 

 

 

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Summary env2, The Bishop Strachan School, Canada

 

After looking at the various responses from the different schools, we have noticed that there are certain themes that are prevalent in the answers. The responses have focused on the political, economic and environmental effects of a level economic playing field globally. Politically and economically, if all countries had equal economic standings, then financial aid wouldn’t be relevant in the wake of a natural disaster because countries would be able to support and rebuild themselves. This would eliminate the dependence of one country on another and would reduce the notion of superiority amongst countries. Environmentally, pollution levels would increase exponentially because all countries would have resources and means to use them. This would also affect responsibility of this issue because as it stands today, there can be more blame placed on certain countries.

 

We noticed that many of the schools interpreted the concept of an environmental crisis very differently. A secondary question that this raised for us was whether it would be beneficial to have a common definition of what an environmental crisis is. We believe that this would help countries to work to solve environmental issues more quickly and with less conflict because there would be a consensus on the definition of an environmental issue. By having numerous discrepancies of what exactly an environmental crisis it, it is much more difficult for solutions to be found amongst the global community. 

 

Some of the key perspectives we walk away with around sustainability from our colleagues are:

• Sustainability is a cause and effect. In order to live sustainably, we must reduce the effect we have on the environment – meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own.
• A global issue on sustainability is when humans disregard their responsibility and therefore the natural repercussion will ultimately have a negative impact on human life. Living sustainably is insuring that the impact we, as humans, have on the environment is as minimal as possible.
• In our opinion, sustainability can be summarized in one quotation, “leave the environment better than when you found it.” In order to be truly sustainable, global co-operation and participation is crucial. Sustainability is the global issue

In our work and other projects as a class we really struggled and debated back and forth around why the Montreal Protocol was so successful and other's since have not been able to find the same success.  Your insights were similar to the same we shared as a class in a formal debate.  There are five main reasons why international protocols and policies are not being maintained.  Corruption, lack of funding, lack of operational objectives, lack of public awareness and education and regulations. 

 

Corruption:

• Corruption – dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.
• In Kenya bribes are given to leaders in government in order to allow for large companies to dump their waste in water systems or control forest lands such as the Mau Forest. 

 

Lack of funding :

• International policies require a lot of funds to be run but due to lack of adequate funds the people in authority find it hard to carry out this policies.
• In Kenya there is a world water day where people check and clean their water sources but due to lack of funds very few areas participate, mostly in urban areas. 
• The countries may recognize the importance of these protocols and policies but they do not carry out the guidelines and practices of the protocols or policies because of economic turmoil. 

 

Lack of clear operational objectives:

• Many international systems lack central authority, which leaves people confused and able to manipulate the system to fit their own agenda. 
• The poor responses from significant ministries of different countries involved in international policies causes it to fail. 

 

Lack of public awareness & education:

• There are extremely low literacy rates, leaving people uneducated and unaware of global and environmental issues. 
• Ignorance and poverty has created an open and illegal consumption of our natural resources. 
• In Liberia over 60% of the populations are illiterate. They may not understand while sustainability is important, but over time and with enforcement of compliance to International protocol there would be a way forward.

 

Regulations:

• Countries may not endorse the protocols and policies because they are unenforceable. These countries may not be able to meet the targets of the protocols that they signed, Canada backed out of the Kyoto Protocol in late December 2011 because they could not meet targets. Some countries were exempted from the Kyoto Protocol because they were developing nations.

 

There were differing opinions in the answering question 2; therefore it is up for further investigation as no solid evidence sways the answer one way or the other. One group was concerned that if we didn’t tackle all the issues at the same time, other areas would continue to worsen. While one should consider interconnectivity, it is evident that by trying to solve one issue, others will benefit from this resolution. Interconnectivity in terms that all environmental issues are joined together, like a web. An example of this is global warming and pollution, and these two issues negatively impact our environment. By improving things such as the burning of coal and the draining of ecosystems, it will begin to act as a solution for both issues. Due to this example, I wonder if we should consider focusing on one issue at a time, and this could help us move towards a sustainable future. 

 

Thank you so much to everyone for sharing with us your insights. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Summary env3, Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute, Canada

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Summary env4, Cedarbrae C.I, Canada

 

 

 

 

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Summary env5, Calvary Temple A.G, Liberia

 

 

 

 

 

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Summary env6, Morning Star School Limited, Ghana

 

Hi colleagues,

 

Here is our summary of all that we gathered from our colleague partners for the past couple of weeks:

 

First of all, we would like to thank everyone; especially the organizers and participants, for making the students of Morning Star School have such a wonderful and pleasant experience for being able to interact with different people from different parts of the world.

 

 In the course of this of this learning circle, we have learnt a great number of things. The issue of the environment, how to preserve it for us to enjoy. We realized that there is the issue of pollution which is of global nature. Most countries are grappling with it and solutions are being found to it. Some countries have good environmental plans in place and these are being adhered to whilst others have virtually nothing.

 

 During this few weeks of interaction with our colleagues; we have now gathered a great deal of information when it comes to environmental issues especially pollution, mining activities, dumping of industrial waste into our seas, air pollution and even noise making.

Some of the answers we got from our colleagues were really fascinating.

 

We have learnt that Africa has done little in terms of curbing and preserving our environment as compared to the advanced countries. Some countries have good environmental plans and policies whilst others don’t. We are therefore, calling on governments, international bodies, and non-governmental organizations to help preserve and protect our environment to enable us enjoy it.

 

In a nutshell, it is our prayer that the environment would made friendly for us to live happily on this planet. It is an experience that will be remembered for our lifetime, an unforgettable one.

 

Regards,

env6

 

 

 

 

 

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Summary env7, COLEGIUL ECONOMIC BUZAU, Romania

 

Hello friends!

 We received all of your answers and we were very happy to see that all of you are aware of how our actions can affect the environmental sustainability.

 

 

Like you’ve said, it’s true that Sustainability is hard to accomplish in this moment because we’ve gone to far already with the pollution and use of resources and our planet is very unbalanced ;all this because we behave without thinking about the cause of our actions on the environment !

 

         It was very interesting for us to read about you’re concerns about the future generations too. Our future generations will live in a better world only if we act like we should!

     It’s true that each of us with our everyday choices and decisions -

choice of transport,choice of food and consumer habits, can affect the   environmental sustainability, but doesn’t have to be in a negative way.

 

We can think twice before we consume something, or be more careful on wasting water, electricity, and so on.     

     Even if we are in this situation, and the environmental sustainability represents a problem for us in this moment, it’s good to see that the majority of us are conscious about what this means for our lives. But also it’s true that being conscious doesn’t really change anything..so it’s not enough, we should do something to make a difference.!

 

Let's help our planet to be healthy, and have a very long “life”!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Summary env8, Petrik Lajos Vegyipari, Környezetvédelmi és Informatikai Szakközépiskola, Hungary

 

 

 

 

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Summary env9, Grupul Scolar Tehnic Nehoiu, Romania 

 

Hello, dear friends!

 

     We are glad to see that we received so many answers! From your answers, we understood that you have different oppinions, which is good, because each one has it's own explanation.

     As we saw, your variants are: Recreate, Recreate, Respect, Refusing, Repair, Refill and Recreate. A few of them were not from our variants, which were Recreate, Refuse and Refill, but we are open-minded persons and we like that you found other ones.

     So, we have three groups saying that the 4th R is Recreate, because they think that this helps the environment by bringing up areas which were destroyed, areas which are including areas that have been gone through massive deforestation, polluted areas, eroded areas or distroyed areas by human and natural forces.

     We have one group that says that the 4th R is Respect, because we have to respect our environment since it is our home, one that says that we need to Refuse what makes us harm, one that we need to Repair what's broken and one that thinks that we should Refill, because of the ice age and it's consequences.

     We saw that you added a few links and videoclips and we must say that we are excited of your interest.

     We are also glad because you said that you are using or you will try to use the 4th Rs, to help the Planet. The ways to use them, as you said, are through: recycling electronics, using reusable bags, throwing garbage in special places, keeping computers and cell phones off as long as possible, taking shorter showers, using reusable bottles and so on.

     Thank you again for your answers and all the best from us! J

 

All the best and good luck forwards!

env9, Grupul Scolar Tehnic Nehoiu, Romania