Secured Sustainable Development : Will the UK reach this goal?

Binge drinkers, lazy and laid back are phrases I have heard before describing people of the UK, focusing on the younger generation (16 – 30). The attitude of people in Britain today has become very individual, and there has been a decline in community spirit for many years. As the younger generation live life, having sex (more open relationships), drinking large amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes with the attitude, I only care about what affects me, I see sustainable development being hard to achieve.

The ageing population in Britain also presents another attitude towards sustainable development. The fairly new term and concept is something that the older generation lack enthusiasm due to lack of education.

“Sustainable development means a better quality of life now and for generations to come.” (Directgov, 2009) People in the UK are generally fairly happy, although, compared to 50 years ago, we are considered less happy! As people stay happy, and focus upon themselves, especially as the younger generation look to prosper in their careers, not much thought is given to the next generation and so on. Teaching and encouraging people, that sustainable development will reap major benefits, is hard, as the benefits are, hard to see, hard to measure and likely not to occur for a long time. Therefore people sometimes take the attitude; well there is nothing in it for me, so I will not bother.

Without council’s increasing the frequency and range of recycling that they will take, people are going to be less encouraged to do so. The wider variety of gods collected to be recycled, the more choice people will have to be aware and good citizens. The likelihood is that the lazy attitude many people present re-cycling with, is from a culture of having no time, and life moves at a very fast pass. But also, the separation of plastics and paper can be easy, but some people may find it confusing, especially as many councils have different lists to what they do and do not collect, the state the material must be in etc. This can easily confuse someone, especially when a council collect certain plastics and not others.

The government initiative to create sustainable communities currently has not changed many aspects of modern community life. “At the national level, the strategy sets out the framework for changing people’s lives through improvements in public services and providing opportunity for all.” (DEFRA, 2004) The goal the government has set, may indeed work, but with an attitude that they plan to change people’s lives, it is very hard to measure. There is no single thing that can occur and make everyone happy, although several differences could cause good effect. Many people are resistant to change, as it is purely something new and different, this resistance could hold up sustainable development or even securing sustainability altogether.

“The increasing stress we put on resources and environmental systems such as water, land and air cannot go on forever. Especially as the world's population continues to increase and we already see a world where over a billion people live on less than a dollar a day.” (DEFRA, 2008)

Sustainable development is never going to be something that is one day going to reach its equilibrium, as keeping an environment sustainable is a constant challenge for anyone. The goals that the UK government have to be a sustainable developed country maintaining that way of life is going to take years, even if in the decade of sustainable development by the UN, education is increased, time is going to play a huge role to the completion of the goals.

With the current economic climate, people are going to be losing jobs, homes, and mostly everything, as the depression really hits home. To an extent this may help the push on sustainability, but the likelihood that, goods such as fridges, freezers and even clothes will be recycled among households in communities, like in the last UK depression, but actually encouraging people to take a dive to live in a more sustainable manner may be hard.

The idea that is occurring, is sustainable development in the UK will progress, only when an attitude change with the population occurs. When people want to strive to, allow following generations to have just as many resources as ourselves. For my children’s sake, I hope that this earth will become a more sustainable environment, allowing people to see the wonders of the earth, and experience natural resources.


References
What is Sustainable Development
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Greenerlivingaquickguide/DG_069735
What is Sustainable Development
http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/what/index.htm
What is the government doing about Sustainable Development
http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/gov/index.htm
Sustainable Development Commission – Definitions
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/definitions.html
Population Estimates
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=6
Are we happy?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/4771908.stm
Securing the Future
http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/publications/uk-strategy/documents/ExecSum.pdf

Am I apart of a SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY?

Home Address: Fareham, Hampshire, PO15 6JB
Ward: Fareham North-West
Super Output Area: Fareham 003E

Defining a sustainable community is not easy, as it encompasses as many aspects of sustainable development as possible, so the definitions could just keep on being written. Sustainable Communities in the East Midlands: Building for the Future’ (ODPM, 2003) state:
‘These communities should:
• Be economically prosperous;
• Have decent homes at a price people can afford;
• Safeguard the countryside;
• Enjoy a well-designed, accessible and pleasant living and working environment; and
• Be effectively and fairly governed with a strong sense of community.’
My home area is not a sustainable community, based on my own experience related to the ODPM, 2003. Firstly houses are not at an affordable price, there is little economical prosperous, the country side is being built upon and there is no sense of community.


The area I grew up, used to see all the children of the street playing together outside, and now, the younger children in the street aren’t even seen playing in their back gardens let alone together. Recently, a middle-aged neighbour died, this was a big shock, and upset many of us as she was a lovely woman. But, we all pulled together for the funeral, and that was it, I fear in a few years time, if someone dies it will just be like gossip.


House prices have just risen beyond belief. This is good, in the sense that my parents could get over double what they paid for the property, but they would not be able to afford somewhere just as big and with a big garden!


As much as I would like to see Fareham as a sustainable community, I doubt this will ever become realistic. Although my ward, is more likely to achieve being a sustainable community, as the area includes a couple of small villages.


Fareham North-West according statistical data, have affordable homes £165,314 (mean), but the reality of finding a nice house, in a good location with 3/4 bedrooms, you would be looking at £225,000 from experience when my parents considered moving. (see a.)


It is incredibly difficult to measure communities, community spirit. Therefore, there is no data relating to whether Fareham North-West is not a sustainable community, as on the website (see b.) , there were no indicators that determined the economic status etc as no figures were supplied.

Whereas Fareham 003E seeks well to be economically prosperous, as there is high employment levels in the super output area. This would indicate that the community could be more prosperous one, as employment has the possibility of expanding further. (see c.)

But Fareham003E is worse than my current residence in Northampton. (see d.)

This air quality is actually slightly worse than my current air quality whilst living in a hall which is, 1.09, rather than 1.25. (see e.)


I would hope that with development both the ward and super output area could become more sustainable, but this may take years, especially due to the economic recession currently.

References

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4ADBR_enGB293GB293&q=PO15%206JB&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

a.http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=3&b=6096376&c=PO15+6JB&d=14&e=7&g=450560&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1236634573533&enc=1

b.http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadAreaSearch.do?a=3&r=1&i=1001&m=0&s=1236631188743&enc=1&areaSearchText=PO15+6JB&areaSearchType=14&extendedList=false&searchAreas=Search

c.http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=307102&c=PO15+6JB&d=141&e=9&g=450560&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1236634071130&enc=1&dsFamilyId=21

d.http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=307102&c=PO15+6JB&d=141&e=46&g=450560&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1236634309395&enc=1&dsFamilyId=1066

e.http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=311600&c=NN2+7AL&d=141&e=10&g=473555&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1236633764148&enc=1&dsFamilyId=1066

Education ... Is This The Key?

For any form of development, education plays an important role. To be able to become better, or understand, a level of education is required whether that be from parent to child, amongst friends or in a school environment. Every day people experience encounters of education, whether it is relevant is then the question.

Encouraging people to become less reliant on non-renewable resources, and maybe reducing their carbon footprint, can be like talking to a brick wall at times! Although, some people I have spoken to about in the past have been of the opinion that why should we care about what we use on earth, life is too short to worry. This opinion from people is where education can encourage individuals to think of their own impacts on the society and environment for other people.

Without a solid foundation of education, sustainable development could be miss-interpreted, or the message could be somewhat watered down over time. It is clear that simple adverts in the media can make people aware of the point to re-cycle, share bath water or even use public transport. This education may not tell someone everything about sustainable development, but make them aware, that there are other ways to chuck out cardboard, or even that sharing is caring (in the likes of bath water!).

Throughout my time in compulsory education, I remember there being an emphasis on walking to school, cutting down car fumes etc. I have grown up knowing, and understanding that today’s resources will not be completely available in the future. But like all, I have trouble visualising this, and thus find it difficult to completely grasp, that unless we stop living foolishly, and be more sustainable, then we will ruin the earth for our children.

Therefore, I think sustainable development, should be included in more campaigns and education nationwide, so that people can constantly be aware of the point, sustainable living is best!

The United Nations, have dedicated the decade of 2005-14 to Education for Sustainable Development.

"The goal of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014, DESD), for which UNESCO is the lead agency, is to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning.This educational effort will encourage changes in behaviour that will create a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations."

This goal has not been forgotten in anyway, and on January 21st 2009, a conference was held in Scotland. This was to focus on the strategies Scotland have implemented to try and achieve this goal, in preparation for the 2009 World conference in Bonn.

Although, educating sustainable development is the key, we are faced with the question, how? Haigh (2005) writes with the view, that Geography has a large role to play in education of others in sustainable development, especially at a school level.

“Geographical education has the capacity to raise its sights above the merely human to help
all humanity live with the Earth and the fellow creatures of their life support system. In
other words, it could help: “To shift from a human-centred to an Earth-centred norm of
reality and value.” Haigh (2005 pg179)

I heavily agree that the subject geography can play a huge role in the education of sustainable development, but whether they are solely responsible, I believe not. Sustainable development does not affect geographers alone, it of course is about all humans, and therefore should be across a curriculums teaching. Science... English... R.E.... History... – All of these subjects could teach an element about sustainable development, and with this broad education, it would help develop that sustainable development and re-cycling isn’t just what those geographers do!

TeacherNet has established many resources in the last couple of years, to promote and educate staff at schools, how to make their school environment a sustainable one. This makes it possible for many aspects of compulsory education in the United Kingdom, to be a sustainable one, as discussed above.

“TeacherNet is designed to support schools on their journey to sustainability, introducing the principles of sustainable development and offering guidance on how to embed these principles into the heart of school life.”

Hopefully, the goal of the United Nations will be met, and all humans, can look forward to a sustainable developing world in years to come.

Since September, I have been studying Bsc Geography, as a part of my degree; I take the module ‘Sustainable Development’. I thoroughly enjoy this module, as it doesn’t only educate to the issues of sustainable living, but encourages you to think for yourself, develop your own opinion and stand on sustainable development. As Greg (Lecturer at University of Northampton) said once in a lesson, that it is thought that you (student) won’t just learn the module, but hopefully live it too. I feel this is true, especially through the assignment of blogging. I am a lot more passionate about re-cycling now, and trying to find another use for something rather than just throwing something away.

I would hope that one day, all development will be sustainable. :)

Refrences

Haigh, M., (2005), Geography and the 'European Year of Citizenship through Education. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 29, 173-182. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=16&sid=62a6c82e-5225-4c35-b837-6a0f5895075c%40sessionmgr8

http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27234&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools/

'Daddy ... can I have this please? ; ) '

None of my friends and young people in the UK today, have experienced something like this, and NO I am not talking about the snowy weather, but the economic crisis. Having officially been labelled that we are in a down turn in our economy, and as the depression starts to hit our every day lives, will people really think about sustainability?

As people stock up and lock up the food cupbords with asda smart price, rationing at each dinner the amount of food we will consume, the electricity to cook it should take a downturn. As electricity bills are posted through the letter boxes, televisions and wii's will be switched off earlier, and the good old monopoly board will make an appearence on the family dinner table. All these bonuses will not only better famalies and society, back to hopefully eating together and being a whole family unit, but also living a more sustainable lifestyle.

If you asked an average family to get rid of the television box, of which their living room is centered around, they would appose strongly. But, re-visit them in 6, 9 or even 12 months, when they may be unemployed, they have morgatge re-payments in their ears, and they are already turning the tv off to save electricty, I imagine they will be happy to sell the tv to you! This only shows, that people in this current time, have not bothered about the actual environment issues they should have been. This could all change in the new era.

Going through a period where, you have to really work hard to get something and not just ask daddy, or put it on your credit card, will hopefully set people back to ways where simple is best. This may indeed help sustainable goals be meet in the near future, as people cut down on car journeys as they simple cant afford it, so they walk their children to school or get a public bus.

The current economic status will cause many bad situations and tough times, but I look forward to the future, where people have got out of bad habits and are living more sustainably. I hope that not only benefitting from a housing market that will crash, (so I can get on the property ladder after university) I will be able to walk to my local green grocers, post office, butchers, sweet shops and news agents to get most of my food shopping for the week. I hope that people will follow suit in this and therefore reduce the pollution of buying vegetables and meet from foriegn countries (at local supermarkets), which may be cheaper, but causing us ( as humans ) to live unsustainably. It would be great to see people, not having a family car, the wifes sports car, the fathers landrover and the old banger for their teenage son, in their drives, but one, maybe two more energy efficient cars. As people look to being more mean with what they purchase, they may be more mean with recycling, and take the time to seperate the plastic and the cardboard from the house hold waste.

All of these ideas that are streaming through my head like a fast flowing river, and may indeed be the effects of a recession. But, I hold some fear, that this idea of a near perfect sustainable way of living under taken by all, is just a huge bubble, that will burst, especially as times get hard.

I look forward to blogging after the economic crisis, and seeing whether sustainabilty goals are actually achieved.

References

The Four Key Areas of sustainable development indentified by the UK.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Thewiderenvironment/DG_069735

"We're Counting Cars"

In the bleak cold car park, frosty all around, stood our group, not forgotten.

We had to conduct our traffic survey, on Park Campus, University of Northampton. We split ourselves in to two groups, Luke, Brianna and Hannah interviewed people, on a random sampling method, asking those whom they met outside the Senate building to complete the questionnaires on students use of cars on the campus and their attitudes towards other forms of transport. Katy and Mary-Anne stood at the car park 3 entrance, where the new barriers have been installed. Every car that drove in to the car park was counted in the survey, and with the barriers now being installed, allowed for easy counts of the amounts of passengers in each vehicle.

Luke thought that the data he collected through the interviews conducted, came across as random and not a very fair reflection of the situation that has occurred on Park Campus. Where as Mary-Anne believed that the traffic count did record accurate data, reflecting the pattern of traffic on campus. The findings didn’t cause much surprise, as the results were expected. Through the analysis, there may be surprises due to the look over all of the data together.

If the survey was to be conducted again, then it would be suggested that the car count was conducted over a full day, with no gaps in the collection of data. Maybe extend the questionnaires to electronic, to be emailed through the universities email server, to not only save paper, but hopefully question all car drivers and none drivers, but this would be A LOT of data to analyse and synthesis.

Hopefully the data will enable to make accurate reflections and suggestions on the University of Northampton’s Green Travel Plan.

References

Northampton University's Green Travel Plan
http://www2.northampton.ac.uk/estates/home/sustainability/travel-and-transport/green-travel-plan

Every Little Helps

“Every little helps” is a favourite saying from the giant supermarket chain of Tesco. This saying tends to presently be applied to many charities collecting money, but also in related issues, where change is trying to be achieved. Change is needed in the way EVERYONE is living, to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle, to preserve our world for our children’s children.

Many a morning, I will be in the Kitchen, which I share with 5 other girl students, and think to myself, is it that hard to re cycle all our plastic and paper? So many times, I myself will just take the packaging from my food and put it straight in the bin without thinking... the next thing you know you have thrown away an item that could have been recycled. But that one piece of plastic would that help?

Opening my car door, I don’t even think about, why am I not getting on that bus that has just driven past me? As I turn my car key in my ignition, I have just agreed to allow my personal freedom and enjoyment of driving, effect the WHOLE world’s atmosphere, by the release of gases and pollution. But, would just that one bus journey help?

On an average Wednesday afternoon, Adrian Barritt, visited our flat as a surprise guest! The purpose of Adrian’s visit was to speak directly with the residents on campus, and see if we are recycling and what we can do to act more sustainably i.e. turning the communal area lights off. During this time, the other girls in my flat, who aren’t the best at recycling etc, did for about 2days recycle, as it was at the front of their minds, but now, back in the ‘normal’ rhythm of life, many of the girls just chuck away recyclable things. Did that one-off visit truly help?

December is a popular month, with the celebration of Christmas, decoration of houses is very popular, even gardens, homes, offices and any where possible with light decorations. This does in fact help many people ‘prepare’ in the time of Advent, but they are knock on effects of the huge amounts of electricity being consumed. In my small room alone, I have a Christmas tree, with fairy lights on, another 2 sets of fairy lights, another set of red heart fairy lights, a lava lamp, a mood light square box, also with my laptop running, alarm clock/radio currently playing radio1, and also daily the use of my hair dryer and GHD straightners. If I was to turn off just all my light appliances, would that electricity saved actually help?

New York, Paris or London ... that is a decision I have to make to decide where it will be best to get the January bargains this year. Would my carbon foot print make any difference to sustainability?

Fruit and vegetables, where would be best for me to buy it today? Will the more expensive food at the local shop, where I would walk to be better to purchase, or get in my car and drive to a large chain supermarket and pay a cheaper price? This kind of daily decision like the above, I face every day, you could say even every hour! But can my decision to act sustainable actually be beneficial? I think that if everyone took one step to being more sustainable in their everyday lives, the impact would be so positive and the effects could be massive. Although I say this, I know that when I return home this weekend coming up, I will drive around the local area, causing pollution, whilst admiring the amounts of electricity being wasted in the forms of fairy lights and Christmas displays! I guess, we all have a long way to go before the UK and the world is anywhere near living sustainably.

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERANCE ON OUR OWN – BUT DO WE BOTHER TO MAKE A DIFFERANCE?

References

'Every little helps.'

http://www.tesco-careers.com/home/about-us/visions-and-values/every-little-helps

Representing Cambodia ...

The assignment just undertaken in the form of a UN debate was an interesting one, and one that I did enjoy. I learnt a lot about group work, and how that government policies are available for public reading (if they exist!). The country that me and Steve were set to work with was Cambodia. Researching information about sustainable development strategies for a majority country was relatively difficult and a hard task. This surprised especially due to the millennium development goals, so before I just assumed every country were pulling out every stop to be sustainable, but in the research this was not the case.

Out of all 14 countries – there were so many varied approaches in this race to achieve the ultimate aim of living sustainably. This was fantastic and great to know, even though many are unsuccessful. It was interesting to hear, from other majority world countries, who on the day to day you would not hear about their sustainable development strategies.

Steve and I’s presentation went fairly well, even though it was slightly unstructured. I was expecting to rehearse previously with Steve, but this wasn’t the case, as he didn’t turn up. This meant that I was in fits or nerves before hand, but when in the UN debate, I was fine. We worked well together, and we created a well organised handout – although we could have put more detail on it – but at the time, we thought that wouldn’t be necessary.

If I were to do this exercise again, I would defiantly rehearse the speech, provide more detail on the handout, maybe dress up and take the role play in to its true meaning! I did enjoy this assignment even though I did stress myself out – but I am good and pleased with our result.
I learnt about the ways that each country in the world, try to tackle the same issue differently, some better than others, but also how much the importance of sustainability differs. I think it helped me to see sustainability on a more national level, that the more developing countries should be bothered too.

I learnt, not to leave things to the last minute, in terms of our rehearsal. The team work between us was well distributed and it was also a challenge to work with someone off campus, as they aren’t just there in the next flat if you need them!

All in all, it was worthwhile and rewarding.

References

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cb.html