World Soil Day - December 5

Land as a Finite Resource

Land is now considered to be a finite resource under significant threat from farming, industry and development.  The basis of land is of course soil which provides us with our food, fodder for livestock, fuel, fibre, building materials, and much more.  It is key to all ecosystem services and to human wellbeing.  Soil also harbours a significant portion of global biodiversity and is a key component in the carbon cycle and the storage and sequestration of carbon dioxide. World soil day has been celebrated each year since 2002 to raise awareness and to support action to protect and enhance soil quality.  The FAO are now the key organizers of events all around the world to celebrate World Soil Day.

Here is a message from FAO Land & Water Division Director, Moujahed Achouri

For more information: http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/world-soil-day/en/

For more information about FAO World Soil Day contact Professor Nick Gray (nfgray@tcd.ie)

Seminar: Is biodiversity a driver in the health benefits of green space?

A  Special Seminar will be held on Friday 14th February 2014, 2-3 pm in the Botany Lecture Theatre  by Dr Jenny Roe, Senior Research Leader for Health and Wellbeing, at the Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York.  The talk

 'Is biodiversity a driver in the health benefits of green space?'

examines the effect of green space on wellbeing which is a hot topic just at present. Find out more about Jenny’s research  at  http://www.york.ac.uk/sei/staff/jenny-roe/

http://www.eco-business.com/news/green-spaces-boosts-

wellbeing-urban-dwellers-study/

Quality v. Quantity: Mindful Living...or Frugality often gets a bad rap.

 Frugality often gets a bad rap.

Why is it that so often living “frugally” is often linked mentally with want, deprivation and hardship?  Mention the word and immediately people conjure up archaic images of teabags drying on radiators, cold showers and penny-pinching, when in reality frugality is essentially a means of achieving a quality lifestyle and fulfilling the needs of the individual in society, whilst leaving minimum negative impact on community, the planet and its resources. Admittedly, the word frugal itself is hardly the most onomatopoeically-endearing of the English language, but it does certainly does lend a solid air of reality which encompasses the essence of what frugal living is about.  For me, being frugal is a means of directing the materials and resources available to me towards a goal which I want to achieve, enabling me to complete such tasks in a less wasteful, more efficient and thoroughly-considered fashion.  In no sense do I consider there to be any level of deprivation; in fact I think cutting the clutter and distraction from ones life allows for greater clarity to shine through, enabling one to visualise plainly what are the real essentials in life and how best to go about maintaining these.  In the overwhelmingly materialistic, consumer-driven society in which we live, more and more excesses of all has lead to a devaluing of quality in favour of inferior quantity.  Here frugality can act as a life raft in the sea of superfluousness, a wake-up call forcing us to examine what matters.  Giving a brief run-down through this topic does not do it justice as by its very nature greater depth of thought is required, but frugal living can be broadly addressed in three main sections:  the why, the how and the outcome.

Frugal living is a sustainable way of life and can be viewed as a way of guaranteeing, to the best of one’s ability, that the life one leads is truly meaningful.  My own personal definition of sustainability would run something like: “Sustainability is the thought process behind mindfully living a considered life, endeavouring to maintain an equilibrium between personal development, integrity, and responsibility, such that the needs of future generations are not compromised through mismanagement of the earth’s resources by present generations.”  Lofty ideals you may think, but unless one strives toward an upward goal there would certainly be no motivation to continue on.  In the case of any goal that requires longevity, soundly-founded motivations need to be established before anything is ventured and frugal sustainability is no different.  We need to ask ourselves “Why should I do this?  What are the benefits to me personally and what are the benefits to the wider community?  Am I ready to accept that my personal decisions can and will have a large impact on those around me?”. If these questions can be answered honestly and solidly there will be sufficient motivational undercurrents to sustain one through the practical implementations of frugal living.  Starting small and incorporating small changes on a day-to-day basis, great success can be accomplished through the setting of many small, realistic and achievable goals. 

Avoiding procrastination is a definite requirement for living the frugal lifestyle, but once this reality is accepted as a hitherto-unrecognised benefit, the sky’s the limit for the creative ways in which frugality can be lived out, making your time, money and resources work hardest for you.  From practical applications such as reducing waste in the home, buying less consumer goods and increasing productivity by utilising goods to the very end of their product-life, to more fun and unique approaches such as going on self-imposed spending ‘diets’, enjoying frugal freezer-food meals and trying out ‘Meatless Mondays’.  Certainly we must realise that there is no one magic-bullet, simplistic route to achieve these goals, but we need to take every small avenue available to us, making numerous small changes.

The outcome of embarking on the frugal living path is that it allows for greater personal freedom.  Less “stuff” means a reduction in time and energy consumed whilst absorbed in (or perhaps burdened with) said “stuff”. We are afforded more time to reflect and think on our life-goals.  We are mindfully conscious of what we are doing and why we are doing it.  Savouring experiences and enjoying simple pleasures are incomparably more fulfilling than rushing through a series of tick-the-box life goals set up on a scale belonging to the Joneses.  Paring back the excess allows us to appreciate all the more how rich we really are – after all, our attention is no longer divided in multiple different ways but rather we are free to focus and enjoy the delights of a smaller number of better-curated occupations.  Each of us are the cultivator of our own person and our personal development, which in turn is amplified and combined with that of others to create the societies in which we live.  We have the right to enjoy this, but more importantly we have the responsibility to do so - not only for our own sakes’ but for the sake of our fellow man and frugal living is a powerful way to do so.

Aoife Beglin

https://twitter.com/Nickgraytcd

Internationalisation and long-distance relationships : the carbon impact of the ERASMUS generation’s air travels

 Since its creation in 1987, the Erasmus programme has developed into what is now considered a massive success and a considerable achievement in terms of connecting European Universities and people. From a few thousands students in 1987-1988 to about 180 000 in 2007-2009, more than 3 millions students overall benefited from this programme and grants and went abroad to study as Erasmus students. They were thus offered the unique chance to travel, discover new countries, learn about new cultures, mix with new people, in  the hope that, on top of often learning another language, they would create emotional bounds with other places and people which would make them truly internationalised European citizens.

However, as much as internationalising affections and relationships might have the capacity to bring European people closer, it certainly doesn’t shorten the actual distances which separates their countries. By allowing and encouraging young people to go abroad, and to become attached to places and people far from their home, the European Union has participated in creating an even more mobile category of people, whose nomadism is not primarily professional but sentimental. My point here is that such bounds have an ecological cost, particularly in regards to transportation use.

Erasmus students have to deal with two kinds of long-distance ties : those which precede their departure and that they wish to maintain when they’re abroad, and those they create in their host country, which they will attempt to conserve after leaving it. The first category typically includes family and childhood friends, and requires regular visit usually justified by specific circumstances (Christmas, important events, grave issues...). Romantic relationships are even more demanding, since visits are spontaneously expected to be as frequent as possible. They are also likely to receive visits from their friends and family during their time abroad. The second category may involve a girlfriend/boyfriend as well, and more generally friends, from the host country or elsewhere, but most likely not from the exact same place. Some of these people will remain dear enough to be visited later on, and they will perhaps visit too, which means that former Erasmus students will be tempted to travel around to see all their friends, those who stayed, and those who spread out as they went back to their home country.

It is quite clear that such intense travelling would have a massive impact on personal carbon footprint, in which transportation habits play a big part: it is estimated that approximately 56% of CO₂ equivalent per year (CO₂e yr^-1) of the personal footprint derives from travel (1). Let’s take an example to verify and illustrate that. We choose Ireland as host country, which already implies that the vast majority of Erasmus travels (home country/host country) will be airline travels. Now, consider a German student from Koln, coming to Dublin as Erasmus student. If he stays 4 months, doesn’t get any visit and only takes a plane to come and go back at the end of his stay, the carbon cost of his Erasmus experience, in regards to air travels only, is 0.19 tonnes of CO₂e (2). Now, assume he stays in Dublin the entire academic year, and goes back for Christmas and in March to see his girlfriend. She visits him once; his parents come as well, and so does his brother, and two of his closest friends. Overall, his Erasmus adventure will have caused 18 air travels, (9 return trips), resulting in the emission of 1.71 tonnes of CO₂e (assuming all of his friends and family depart from Koln as well). To that, we should add the travels he does the following year to come back and visit his friends still living in Dublin (0.19 t CO₂e), and as he travels to Barcelona to see a friend he met in Dublin (0.22 t). One of his Irish acquaintances also grabs the opportunity to visit Koln during the festival (0.19 t). That will make a total emission of 2.31 tonnes of CO₂e caused by the air travels linked to one Erasmus student – and this doesn’t include embedded costs (construction and maintenance of airports and airplanes, extraction of fuels…). Considering that the Irish mean personal emission is 5.70 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year, it does represent a considerable amount of greenhouse gases – especially if it can be generalised to all Erasmus students.

Out of 15 Erasmus students studying in Trinity College for the academic year 2012-2013, and randomly picked among personal acquaintances 14 of them had had at least 4 visits from friends and family. They all made the trip home for Christmas, and the majority came back another time during the year. On average, being in a relationship with somebody from home cost 2 extra return trips. They all intended to come back to Dublin for holidays in the future. One of them, from France, had started a relationship with an Erasmus student from Latvia he had met in Ireland. They were looking up the flights and trying to find ways to meet regularly, anticipating for when they would be separated by about 2000 km. When asked what they meant by ‘regularly’, he answered ‘You have to spend some time together at least every two or three months, otherwise there’s no point, it can’t work, you know, you better give it up right away. Three months is already, like, a really long time.’

Of course, the impact on CO₂e emissions will vary greatly depending on the duration of the stay, the closeness of the relationships and individual financial resources. But as a whole, it appears to increase considerably the use of aviation, which is a major component of individual footprint. It can be argued that some of these travels would have occurred anyway, as people grow used to going on vacation abroad. Erasmus students would then draw travels to specific destinations, but not actually cause them. On the other hand, international, uprooted students typically don’t have a car, which diminishes their personal footprint. More generally, we can hope that Erasmus students grow more conscious of global stakes, and that their international contacts and knowledge give them tools to deal adequately with collective issues such as climate change. Yet again, only a fringe of the population is allowed to become internationalised – and is therefore responsible for high emissions of CO₂e due to air travels. Traditionally, internationalisation was reserved for the elite. Now, and thanks to the Erasmus programme so to say, it includes the educated middle-class. Fortunately, most of these ecologically costly international ties are likely to fade away with time, and the impact will thus reduce as years passes. The worst-case scenario in terms of greenhouse gases emissions is then international relationships resulting in lengthy commitments, as they create couples and families built between two countries and heavily relying on air travel. And we ought to hope that such intercultural successes remain scarce.

Marion Lieutaud 

References: 

(1) Kenny, T. and Gray, N.F. (2009), ‘A preliminary survey of household and personal carbon dioxide émissions in Ireland’,  Environment International, 35, 259-272

(2) Calculator Carbon Footprint : http://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3

 

Re-educating the Family

 “Aaahhhhhhhhh….”. The exasperated sigh of a man whose eco-friendly advice falls on deaf ears. As a student of geography I find myself more aware of the current and developing problems associated with the environment in modern life and attempt to do what little I can do (without going completely out of my way, I’ll admit I’m not fully dedicated to the cause) to alleviate some of the stresses I personally inflict upon the environment. The little things such as short showers, flicking the light switch off, ensuring the recycling is done properly and plugging out all unnecessary plugs. As you can clearly tell, I’m not claiming to be the most eco-friendly person that’s ever lived but I’m certainly putting an effort in.

I have tried to instil some of these morals to the rest of my family but they either love to ignore my increasingly persistent advice or simply choose to do the opposite of what I’ve suggested. Each family member has their own bad habits that they just refuse to break. My sister and I have had more fights over her leaving the shower running for 5 minutes, with no one in it, simply to “warm it up” as she says. Apparently it’s different to when I take a shower because when I do it warms up in a matter of seconds. She also is a fan of leaving lights, TV’s and stereos perpetually on. Sometimes I feel that my only job in the house is to turn objects off after her. My Mam seems to have a particular disliking for the recycling. No matter how many times I show her that cardboard, tins and types of plastic go in to the green bin, I’ll still find the aforementioned objects in the kitchen bin when I’m throwing something (within the right category) into it. My Dad has a particular attachment to his car and has been commuting to work for it in years. I can’t remember the number of times I’ve told him to start using public transport at the very least and he has stoically ignored. This is the one place I’ve seen improvement however as one day, out of the blue, he bought himself a decent bike and began cycling to work and has kept it up since. Up until that point I felt my mission of attempting to “green” up my family was futile as no one listened but if I could convince my dad to make a pretty dramatic switch, I feel the rest is within my reach too. I understood, to a minute degree, what it felt like to be an environmentalist in the world we live in today. The majority of your advice is being ignored, simply for convenience purposes, but occasionally you can get through and make a difference. No matter how insignificant it may seem, a drop of water still changes the level.

Andrew Garland

Eco Gyms - Generating Your Own Electricity?

A photo of The Green Microgym in Portland, Oregon.
(image from: http://www.thegreenmicrogym.com)

The other day I was working out at my gym and I looked around at the rows of people moving along to the rhythms of their various ellipticals, treadmills, cycles, and stair masters, their store-purchased water bottles perched atop the blinking electronic dashes of their machines; I took note of the row of large televisions that constantly blare at the front of the room; I thought about the lights turned up bright, despite the sunlight flooding in through the wall of windows; and I thought: “This seems wrong!” I was surrounded by consumption and wasted energy. All of the cardio machines, TV sets, fans, stereos and lights in this gym are plugged in and running all day long from open till close. Fitness centers, particularly in the United States (my home country) use an extraordinary amount of energy and water. Treadmills alone require about 1500 watts of energy to power and most machines and equipment in gyms are left on all day long (1).Stationary bikes lose about 90% of the energy they use in heat while only 10% is used to actually power the machine (2).  The gym would appear to be the ultimate antithesis of an environmentally friendly institution. It seems silly to be on machines that are reproducing motions that our bodies should be able to do on their own. Our lifestyles should, in theory, be supporting our health, right? We should be out in nature, running and walking and cycling and lifting every day items and we should all be in perfect shape. Gyms, in a perfect world, should be entirely unnecessary. But that is not how it works. We are endlessly confronted with the paradox of the developed world’s endless struggle with fitness. None of us are strangers to the epidemic of obesity that struck America and moved its way over to Ireland (and in a big way, might I add!)

Our world cannot become sustainable if the health our population is slowly deteriorating into a big lump of overweight consumers. Many gym enthusiasts will never give up their memberships in exchange for a jog outside, and many unfit or unhealthy individuals may have to rely on a gym as a way to find support and assistance in their efforts to become healthier.

So, are gyms just a necessary evil that will go on producing emissions at remarkably rapid rates, and we should just turn our heads the other way? It doesn’t seem so entirely hopeless! I started doing some research into the topic of sustainability in gyms and quickly found that I am not the only person who is troubled by the vast amount of water and energy wasted by gyms, particularly in the US. There is a wealth of information about the inefficiency of gyms and health centers, but there is also an incredibly interesting new trend of what are called eco gyms. Eco gyms operate on the idea that they can capture the energy that is expended while working out and use it to power their facilities, in theory rendering the building self-sustaining. Like gerbils spinning around a wheel, humans in a gym are in essence doing little else beyond producing energy in the form of burning calories. One of the many gyms that I read about was from Portland, Oregon (my hometown!) and uses incredibly low levels of energy by using specially designed machines that are and hooked up to DC generators that produce energy to power the facility (3). The gym also uses refurbished and sustainably manufactured equipment (even mountain bikes made of bamboo!) and the bathrooms use special water heaters and eco-friendly cleaning products. Eco gyms are becoming increasingly popular around the globe (4). They also include lower levels of lighting, relying more on natural light, more eco-friendly water usage, and sustainable cafes in their lobbies. There are, of course many problems, such as the high costs of “greening” an already existing facility, and the fact that many gyms are too small to actually produce enough energy to run their own machines, but these ideas seem incredibly helpful in moving the fitness industry in the right direction (5).  Of course, the only real way to eliminate emissions issues with gym facilities would be to move everyone’s workouts outside, but it would be great to see more facilities at least attempting to institute some of these practices or even for cities to start adding incentives for companies to do so so that our health and environment can become more sustainable. Some of these products, such as cardio equipment that captures and stores usable energy could even be useful in the home, producing power to fuel your ipods and cell phone chargers. You could offset your own footprint to some extent with your own human watts! I love the gym, but I am going to be more conscientious and start taking my workouts outside whenever the weather permits.

Katie Gourley

(1) http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/treadmills-suck-kilowatts.html

(2) http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsArticles/Green-Building/Gyms-Get-Sustainable.html

(3) http://www.thegreenmicrogym.com/
(4) http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsArticles/Green-Building/Gyms-Get-Sustainable.html

(5) http://www.everyjoe.com/2008/09/23/health/green-gyms-talk-about-powering-through-your-workout-663/

https://twitter.com/Nickgraytcd