Threads to sustainability

Firstly I will admit that sustainability is rather difficult to define as there are so many areas to think about and consider.

I prefer the standard quote from the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in that sustainability is 'meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.' However Hall (2006 p156) states that this definition is “idealistic and somewhat impractical definition of sustainable development”.

I also think that there are threats to how we can secure sustainability in the future and in particular this country

1) Education- Several areas including that of the school curriculum does not really address what sustainability and how people can try to be sustainable. Also it has taken too long to get the issue onto the school curriculum and in my case not learning about it until in higher education.

2) Cost- Trying to be sustainable can cost considerable amounts of money, such as new recycling schemes or trying to combat climate change with the aid of wind farms and solar panels. This can put off a lot of people such as small companies that may not think the benefits outweigh the costs.

3) Ignorance- Some people may choose to ignore the need to be sustainable in that they may only be thinking of the present and not what the future entails for future generations. We know for instance about how we should import goods locally cutting down on greenhouse emissions but instead we want the latest electronic goods from Japan or a different variety of tomato.

4) Culture- We are a country that wants everything and wants it now, with no regard for the environment new car ownership being one. Hall (2006) states that as a nation our government tries to ensure economic growth, this in turn increases living standards and therefore increases personal consumption.

5) Financial worries- We are officially in a recession so everyone is tightening their belts. With these times people are less concerned about being sustainable and are more concerned about where the next pound is coming from. Also with the added worry of the recession this can affect people’s health in the long and short term affecting employment levels.

6) Lack of government action- The Prime Minister admits there is a threat to the long term issues of sustainability however states that these long term problems occur over several political time scales so may be on different agendas of different political parties. This can be a threat in that issue’s can be left behind in favour of other issues unrelated to sustainable development.

There will always be threats to how we can secure sustainability for the present and for future generation, however these threats can be overcome with a bit of planning and forward thinking.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page3073

Hall, T. (2006) Urban Geography. 3rd ed. Routledge: Oxon

Sustainable Communities

For the purpose of this week’s blog I intend to look at how sustainable my home town is and to what extend if any is it not sustainable.

At home I live between two places however for the purpose of this blog I intend to look at the town of Redditch in North Worcestershire. Although I have mentioned this town in a previous blog I will just outline it again. The town is classed as a new town the same as Milton Keynes. The town lies roughly in the middle of three motorways networks those being the M5, M42 and the M40 making commuting from the town relatively easy. Looking at the super output area (SOA) of where I live there is a population of nearly 79,000 with 32,000 dwellings according to the census of 2001 with the population density being 15 people per a hectare.

The Sustainable communities: Building for the future (a national plan of action) wants to change the approach to where people want to live and creating sustainable communities that are:

♦ are 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;
♦ are effectively and fairly represented and governed, with a
strong sense of community.

In terms of looking at the above criteria when compared to information that has been collected by census and other methods the estimated social grade for this area of Redditch puts its majority of residents in the C1 category: Supervisory, clerical, junior managerial / administrative / professional (17,000). So does that mean Redditch is economically prosperous? I think it depends which way you look at it. This area of Redditch is near to the town centre where a lot of retail premises and office complexes are. If this was compared to another area of Redditch then the figures could be completely different for example the north nearer the M42 motorway network.

Another criteria of above to consider is that of safeguarding the countryside, Redditch although a large town and is obviously urban it is surrounded by quite a considerable amount of countryside, This countryside is well protected and several areas of it are owned in part by the national trust. Also with Redditch being an industrial town there are plenty of brownfield sites and these tend to be used over the surrounding countryside.

Other aspects to which can be considered in terms of sustainability is that of deprivation levels. For this area the number of young people not staying in higher education is 48%. Another deprivation statistic is that 33% of working adults have no or little qualifications.

Redditch always has always had dwellings and in 1964 became a new town and its population shot from 30,000 to 80,000. The town centre and main infrastructure to the town was knocked down and rebuilt also with numerous industrial and trading estates being built. Due to this 40 years on some of the main buildings within the town are starting to fall into disrepair and look very outdated.

In terms of being sustainable I do think Redditch is partly sustainable however there are room for plenty of improvements. The infrastructure to get in and around the town is excellent with barely any traffic during busy rush hour periods. I personally believe that there isn’t that much of a community in the town, due to there being different areas split off by main dual carriageways. Also from 2004 Redditch was one of the main areas in the West Midlands that had a large influx of East European workers which segmented the town even further. Also the average age of someone living in this area is 45, this means that unless in the future there are more young people moving into the area then the area will become more unsustainable as there will be more people of retirement age than of working age.

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadAreaSearch.do?a=3&r=1&i=1001&m=0&s=1236082578436&enc=1&areaSearchText=b98+8rn&areaSearchType=141&extendedList=false&searchAreas=Search

Blog 8

I think education for sustainable development is extremely valuable. The threat of problems such as climate change, running out of renewable sources and over consumption are modern problems and this needs to be addressed. By teaching people it makes them more informed and therefore enabling them to make informed decisions and help us to become sustainable.

A United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development was developed for the years 2005-2014. This was created to start getting people to have respect for their planet and the environment around them. Also for us to be challenged in respect of the way we behave and how to change our behaviour for the future. This is by doing things such as thinking ‘holistically’ or looking at the whole picture and not just certain elements. Also to begin to be critical and not just memorise information all the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk7u0fZpqzU

I will be the first to admit I had never heard the terminology sustainable development till I started studying geography and maybe that is the problem. We have been slow to get off the mark in teaching others just look at the fact that our university didn’t even have a sustainability officer until a few years ago.

I am kind of down the middle of whether geography is the best subject to deliver the curriculum. I think it should not be focused in only one subject but across several such as the sciences. When I was at school I do not have any recollection (bear with me it was five years ago) of learning about anything that we have covered this term. So in that respect I neither agree or disagree with Haigh (2005) as there are obvious advantages and disadvantages to both arguments.

I have enjoyed this module considerable so far, in particularly the fact how it looks at the present and the future. A lot of the other geography modules concentrate on theories and things in the past. I think it is a good change to look at how we as “future geographers” can make a difference to the environment in the near future. In regards to assessment I am happy with the alternative approaches such as in the use of blogs and debates. I feel that this module has stretched me in using different assessments rather than just doing time constrained tests and assignments.

References
http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=23279&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Credit Crunch bites!

I believe that global economic downturn will be a positive thing in terms of the sustainable development goals in that people will consume less, waste less and use less of our non renewable natural resources. However I think sustainable issues will be the least of peoples worries at the moment due to other factors such as employment and financial concerns. Although I think people will not be too concerned about "saving the environment" at a time like this. I think people will start to make an unconscious effort to be more sustainable such as buying second hand goods such as furniture and cars.

If we look at the car industry we know that as a whole they are really struggling at the moment. This is quite good for sustainability in that the demand for raw goods in less, this has various implications. By not requiring as many raw goods we save energy or fossils fuels and require less lorries on the road transporting the goods to the car factories. Also with less cars coming onto the market there are less vehicles requiring fuel and emitting carbon emissions into the atmosphere. However this means that people are put out of work, have wages docked and businesses of any size go under.

Environmentalists and other campaigners fear that sustainability and wider
corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues are falling off the boardroom
agenda as businesses tighten their belts in the face of turbulent stockmarkets,
the credit crunch and a looming economic slowdown.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/mar/06/greenbusiness.creditcrunch

I think the main good thing to come out of this economic downturn is that as a whole people will consume less and waste less. This will ultimately cause people to make use of what they have and not consume goods or even services.

However sustainability issues should not be ignored at a time like this. Companies and the public should be thinking about the wider picture and thinking about how being sustainable can help them during this period.

But it’s not going to go away – awareness of climate change is
high, and if you look beyond the short-term economic downturn and the difficult
period it has brought, you’ll find the environment will once again become a
major public focus.

http://www.endsdirectory.com/index.cfm?action=articles.view&articleID=200904

Travel Plan

Last Thursday we completed our research between 12:30 and 1:30. During this time we split our group into two halves, one completed the traffic count standing at the barrier and the other stood outside the Senate building asking for people to fill in questionnaires.

The data collection at the barrier was quite easy to collect as all the cars had to stop at the barrier so it was easy to count the number of people in each car. The results were quite variable throughout the hour with the majority of cars appearing in the first half an hour and only having one person in them. We didn't find it too surprising how many people travelled alone compared to those who had car occupants.

The questionnaire collection was quite hard as people weren't keen to stop no matter how polite we were. Also because of the time of day and the weather there were not many people around to ask. We were quite surprised by the number of people who lived more than 15miles away and commuted daily. Often these people travelled alone with no other car occupants. Also not many people were concerned about their effects upon the environment.

If we were to carry out this sort of research again we would choose a better time of the day, where there would be more people about to question, such as morning rush hour. It would also have been good to cover more days so as to get a more representative view of the weeks car useage.

By Emma and Cat