tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35776615739848833962024-03-14T06:30:57.137-07:00Eb blogClimate change, bicycles and changing the worlde66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-33646070529425803042012-08-14T20:53:00.002-07:002012-08-14T20:53:52.494-07:00He opened with Promised Land.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
And everything was perfect. Just as mesmerizing, iconic and moving as I imagined. I know I tell people Bruce Springsteen is mine and Dad's religion, but I didn't know just how true that was until tonight. It's rare that I'm so happy that I weep.<br />
It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.</div>
e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-66234888605970583902012-08-08T08:58:00.000-07:002012-08-08T08:58:06.069-07:00What does a sustainable city look like?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Since I'm still out of the country and missing what I'm sure are some fun tutes for urban sustainability, I'm going to go ahead and do some thinking out loud on the topic from afar.<br /><br />The second question of the week got my attention:<br /><br />Do you think urban living is intrinsically ‘unhealthy’ or ‘unnatural’ for human beings? <br /><br />My first response: I really hope not. I love cities. I love being near other people, being able to come together to create things of beauty and/or purpose. Cities are where humans get creative and do great things. They're where minorities can be majorities in some small space, and where we support each other. The history of urbanization is also the history of technology, education, civil society and government. <br /><br />Aside from all the nice stuff, we need cities if we're all going to fit on this globe. If everyone moved to the country, the country wouldn't exist anymore. There are around 3 billion more people coming onto this planet in the near future, and they'll mostly live in cities. <br /><br />Problem is, the connection between urbanisation and increased life quality feeds right into the fact that when people move to the city, the consume more. More meat, more energy, more fuel, more stuff in general. <div>
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We know that as a society, we collectively need to consume less stuff and start living in ways that don't degrade the earth systems we all depend on. Half of us live in cities, soon to be 70% (by 2050). We consume more than our share and we can take the lead in reducing. That means taking every efficiency opportunity that comes along, particularly with infrastructure, travel, and all the basic services that keep a city going. Beyond that it gets a bit trickier - there's the problem of shaping cities that are by nature efficient, and what that looks like. In the Australian context, I think density is the biggest fight. We all want our backyards and wide streets. Why are we so afraid of apartments? Can we get away with staying in big houses? (I have a funny feeling we can't, but feel free to prove me wrong)</div>
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And what about the stuff we bring into the houses? It's a lot easier to control the emissions and resource use that we see domestically, leading us to focus on water, electricity and so on. But every time I walk into a mall I can't help but think about the impact of all the stuff we buy. Clothes, furniture, electronics - it's all being made somewhere, in most cases not very efficiently and with terrible social and environmental impacts. In the ideal world where life cycle analysis is possible for everything ever (can someone make a smartphone app please?), we'd be able to add the carbon impact of production not to the country making this stuff, but the country consuming it. As long as the USA, Australia and friends keep buying stuff made in China by burning huge amounts of coal, you can bet they're going to keep doing it.</div>
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Moving on to the issue of planners vs architects vs graffiti artists etc in creating a city. The city is a collaborative space, and the experience of Canberra makes me a bit cautious of entrusting it to planners and government alone. So many of my favorite urban spaces are a bit of an accident. I feel like Melbourne's character comes from its more ridiculous 5 way intersections and strange little shopping areas that weren't really supposed to be there. Of course both Canberra and Melbourne are far from being 'sustainable cities', and the challenge of retrofitting an established landscape is huge. Is it possible to do some kind of passive design? Set the boundaries for what resources will be available where, and let people have a say in how a space actually looks? For example, if you're trying to improve a suburb, commit to a transport spine and some parks, and let the residents work out where the shops should go?</div>
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I really don't know. But I do stick by my gut feeling - cities are a collection of people, and like any collection of people, they can be awful or amazing. We have to have some big conversations to decide which.</div>
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</div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-25275245825387053132012-08-05T08:43:00.000-07:002012-08-05T08:43:06.868-07:00Extracurricular activities are fun and now I am sore<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Sitting in the library of a Sunday morn having had a couple of fun nights.<br />
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<b>Friday</b><br />
The summer program held a variety show (like a talent show but chilled) with some super awesome variety. My favorite act has to be the girl in red silk who did slow motion karate/jujitsu dancing to 'Make a man out of you' sung by Jackie Chan. Absolute respect.<br />
I also joined in, borrowing a guitar from a Yalie to play 'Eyes wide open' by Gotye (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyVJsg0XIIk">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyVJsg0XIIk</a>). Due to lack of a second microphone for the guitar, I ended up playing unplugged to about 100 people. The lack of amplification ended up having the nice effect of everyone shutting up for a bit and sitting in almost complete silence as I played. Happily, no ambulances drove by on the main street just outside during my 3min.<br />
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<b>Saturday</b><br />
This is the day that made me sore. Nathalie and I gave up on writing our report in order to go laser-tagging with 28 other people, and it turns out laser tag guns are really heavy. Seriously having problems lifting my right arm now.<br />
Upon getting home I finally found myself some good parmesan cheese (happy day), went and had dinner, watched a one woman theatre piece on urban legends, and headed off to a floating dance party. After an hour of dancing along the streets, we ended up at a non-floating dance party in a courtyard for a while. When I called it quits I was still restless, so I discovered that Gotye's album makes an excellent soundtrack for running at the gym.<br />
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Everything now hurts. Huzzah!</div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-56609486247708498612012-08-03T07:08:00.002-07:002012-08-03T07:08:49.755-07:00Scattered thoughts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So I've been a bad blogger (not a huge surprise) and am now reaching the end of my program at Yale. Some brief observations:<br />
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<li>My class was super fantastic. Had our last meeting yesterday which involved watching around 10 powerpoint presentations; lots of good ideas in a short space of time. It's amazing to see how differently people approach a problem.</li>
<li>I have finally (mostly) mastered the art of not eating too much in the dining hall. The secret: use tiny plates and bowls, and don't use a tray. Your laziness will defeat you and you won't go back for seconds</li>
<li>Lesson for eating out: always ask for small. Even if you're hungry. Even if the 8 year olds are eating a medium. Even if there aren't actually size options.</li>
<li>Each time I've visited NYC, I've become more tempted to live there. I could go to Columbia and design green roofs, we could live in Harlem. It would be epic awesome, and every day would be good food day. </li>
<li>I really want some parmesan cheese.</li>
<li>I still struggle with the merits of bottom-up vs top-down environmental reforms. I think both are important, but I do get stressed by the idea of relying on 'beyond compliance' measures to save the world. It's a rough question in America, but how do we get the government back into the game?</li>
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<li>Related: Perhaps I could one day work at an org that has .com at the end of their url, but I still find it hard to imagine how that would work. To what extent is my mistrust of the private sector just a reflex? (Don't worry. I know to keep mistrusting them, just wondering exactly how much)</li>
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<li>If I can keep up my current one-lecture-a-day program, I will be 80% up to date when I get home. Yay!</li>
<li>My goal to understand the role of the individual was mildly let go due to the need to write about something I have a skerrick of knowledge about. Still wondering what it is that makes people wake up one morning and say "huzzah for being green!". </li>
<li>As I get back into reading emails from home, I become tempted to sign up for all sorts of stuff in the next few months - seminars, conferences, scholarships. Do I pursue my current mad busy trend or wait and see how I feel when I get home? Will future me get mad for having too much to do?</li>
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Looking forward to coming home, but I know I'm gonna get super nostalgic for this place over the next few days. I shall do my best to enjoy them.</div>
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Eb</div>
</div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-20253194442525673592012-07-25T07:20:00.001-07:002012-07-25T07:20:41.989-07:00Giant roll of photos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Some photos from around the place</div>
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Just loved that these guys all dressed to match</div>
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Watching a show put on by the college</div>
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On the way to Baltimore</div>
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In Baltimore!</div>
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Washington DC</h2>
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DC Chinatown</div>
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Corn propaganda in the metro</div>
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Watching people watching planes</div>
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The Vietnam memorial</div>
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Being silly at the waxwork museum</div>
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This really tripped me out. Couldn't work out if it was wax or someone standing still until I saw how 90s the camera was</div>
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It was maybe 31 degrees. This impressed me.</div>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<b>NYC</b></h2>
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A green roof at Columbia - helps lower city temperatures</div>
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The kind of statue that can only come from a dream</div>
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Guggenheim</div>
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Wandering Harlem</div>
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Lots of green spaces hidden around the place</div>
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Epic dinner</div>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
Back at Yale</h2>
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Touring the Yale teaching farm</div>
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Wandering about</div>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
Boston</h2>
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One of my favorite parks</div>
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(Liz insisted)</div>
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The Italian North End</div>
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Phew. way too many photos. Consider this the big photographic catch-up!</div>
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<br /><br /></div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-46620771672564439582012-07-24T06:36:00.000-07:002012-07-24T06:36:03.769-07:00Beyond eco-efficiency: sustainability for its own sake as a budget item?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As we set sail this week on seriously researching for the big essay (working in pair - new experience!), the notion of going beyond what's easy has centered around cost. A lot of what organisations do in the name of the environment is pretty easy to sell to the boss, as it also saves money (think energy efficiency, any kind of waste reduction). The hard part is going beyond the low-hanging fruit and doing things that actually cost more. How do you justify that, and will any organisation ever do it without huge public pressure?<br />
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I was pretty downcast when I asked someone from Yale Facilities whether the uni might ever spend extra money purely because of sustainability. I'm going to paraphrase, but basically: never, ever, ever. Or at least not in this post-GFC austerity.<br />
This bugged me for a couple of days until I realized something. Yale is already spending money on sustainability stuff. How? It's not new money. When they save money through environmental measures, they don't splurge on a department car, but instead spend it on the more expensive environmental items. This is most prevalent in Dining, where savings in food waste can be used to buy local and organic produce.<br />
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So turns out Dining is way ahead of me. But as far as I can tell, this all happens pretty quietly, since if they trumpet their savings they might find their budget reduced. So new focus questions:<br />
- How do you make sure the money you save doing sustainability gets spent on sustainability?<br />
- What motivates people to spend the money that way, as opposed to redirecting it to other things?<br />
- Is it worth publicizing these choices, or will that just result in the money being taken away?<br />
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<br /></div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-1097690005568702572012-07-14T06:47:00.001-07:002012-07-14T06:47:50.549-07:00Sustainability (big word) and what institutions can (should/will/won't) do<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Time to talk a little about the actual learning I'm doing at Yale in between my mad rushing about (currently on a train to Baltimore).<br />
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The course I'm taking is called Sustainable Institutions. Using Yale as a case study, we are looking at sustainability and sustainable development (as per Bruntland Report and similar) and the role of institutions in going beyond 'greening' to true sustainability.<br />
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What at first glance may seem an odd topic has become more appealing to me over time. As global as our environmental problems can get, we experience them and their solutions locally. We interact with institutions (or organisations as the policy jargon goes) every day. Our workplaces, schools and governments are the places we go to make change - what exactly do we want them to do?<br />
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Our teacher Julie, Cynthia and Noris</div>
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As students, we are an international and eclectic bunch, with representatives from the US, China, Japan, Denmark, Singapore, Switzerland and Australia. We bring very different views from home regarding the role of government and of educational institutions. One thing that strikes me (and the Danes) about Yale's approach is the grassroots, bottom-up focus that avoids any reliance on government intervention. Given America's climate politics, an emphasis on private leadership and first movers makes a lot of sense here, and may offer helpful lessons for Australia (sigh). But for the Danish and Singaporean students, government has the ability to take a far more forceful role, for better or worse.</div>
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Pil, Ippy, Nathalie, Kerr, Snow, Jessica and Ayako</div>
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Exploring the stories of companies who 'go green' voluntarily has been encouraging - we see cases where environmentalism has become the sensible thing to do, with unexpected players like Coke putting a lot of effort into auditing and reducing their water use. I'm torn between being pleased and unimpressed. No matter how efficiently they do it, Coke is still a company that takes up water and arable land to sell sugar in bottles to people who can't really afford it, or the health problems that follow. If we're aiming for true sustainability (as opposed to just 'greening'), does Coke have a place in that picture? Do 'the needs of the present generation' really include softdrink (or soda, as it's called here)? Might the day arrive when their CEO says "You know what? The whole soda thing really doesn't make sense from a truly long term, holistic viewpoint. How about we just focus on getting bottled water to drought-stricken regions?"? </div>
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We'll see. In the same way, I wonder about the big picture of sustainable universities. Of course Yale, ANU and countless others can do good by saving water, buying organic food and building the most energy efficient buildings possible, but in my crazy ambitious mind, a truly sustainable institution is one where all outputs and work form part of a sustainable future. This leads me to the uncomfortable area of teaching and research, which I doubt the office of sustainability has a say in. But does it really matter how well insulated ANU's new Economics buildings are if the lessons they teach inside are all about maximizing short-term revenue without looking at the bigger picture? Or if the lecturers persist in saying "IF you're worried about climate change, people breathing out CO2 and all that stuff" (they really do say that.)?</div>
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That's ambitious stuff, and it goes way beyond chatting with your coworkers about printing on both sides and not using styrofoam cups. I personally have never worked in a big organisation and tried to have conversations about radically overhauling the values and guiding principles that define everything we do. It occurs to me that with my intention of working in organisations that already share my environmentalist worldview, I may not find myself in that position anytime soon, but it must be a common one. Most of us work in organisations that are way part of our current economic and social systems instead of fighting them. Most of us (I hope) do worry about the environment and the kind of future we are creating for ourselves. Now I'm just making stuff up, but my guess is that people don't feel like they can take those worries to work, and that saying 'sustainability' in a typical office will lead people to a talk on recycling bins.</div>
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So in light of all this, I'm mulling over the focus for my final essay and I'm tempted to study something super messy and confusing. I'd like to hear the stories of people who try to introduce sustainability to their organisations - both the recycling and the bigger picture. What's their battle plan? Who do they talk to? Is it awkward to be tagged as the environmental nut? Why are they doing this and how did they get the courage to reach out and talk to people about their worries?</div>
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So there's my research question so far. How does an personal journey of sustainability become an institutional one?</div>
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If anyone has any thoughts, I'm eager to hear them.</div>
<br /></div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-30178858719913682262012-07-11T19:39:00.001-07:002012-07-11T19:39:13.124-07:00How I'd missed the waves<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Just another holiday update (I really should get to work now!) - some extremely organised Swiss students hired a car, told me to be out front at 7.45am on Monday and we were off to the beach! Feeling relaxed and sore after letting the waves toss me around most thoroughly.<br />
Photos: <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; line-height: 11.199999809265137px; text-align: center;">https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151909016665646.875969.763875645&type=3&l=7e6f1f01a9</span></div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-3458126408531355412012-07-08T11:54:00.000-07:002012-07-08T11:54:16.333-07:00Wandering the city<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So classes have started and I have lots to say on that front, but first indulge me for a classic travel blog - the day in New York City.<br />
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Facing a Saturday with nothing much planned, I decided a day in NYC would be fun (pretty obvious). I skipped the classic tourist route a bit, since I'll be back with the group later. This is where I wound up:<br />
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NYC public library - an exhibit on the history of NYC's lunches, including the old Automat machines<br />
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NYPD Museum. </div>
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Housed in the first ever police station on the island, the museum is a nice quick tour of policing history from the days when people mistrusted the citizen's watch so much they weren't allowed weapons. </div>
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The noise makers patrols used to clear the streets of miscreants</div>
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Frances Tavern Museum</div>
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The site of early rebel meetings, the formation of the Chamber of Commerce and Washington's meeting place after the British retreated from Manhattan. The building has gone through many incarnations before being restored to resemble the tavern it once was.</div>
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My guide enthusiastically reads out an old proclamation the British posted declaring the revolutionary army illegal</div>
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Staten Island Ferry</div>
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The touristy bit of my day, checking out the skyline</div>
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Coming off the ferry, I found myself watching a street performance by some seriously confident dancers</div>
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And then I just wandered north through Manhattan eating ice lemon.</div>
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Winding up in Washington Square Park, where someone had pushed a piano half a mile so they could do this:</div>
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I also discovered how people cool off around here - made me feel much better (It's 28C every day here)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhN0sGmFkQ6vaDJO0xQ0Z6F56nwS6NZpFKdO_eZKOexB0JX10C9kT5vQQo32l85AK_Or1BICj7gd7KuGOZWXVNjwsxJezr83ds2v_YCPTFREE7llfzvZuntbh2AyUoLAPOf64oxZSQA0/s1600/IMG_8604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhN0sGmFkQ6vaDJO0xQ0Z6F56nwS6NZpFKdO_eZKOexB0JX10C9kT5vQQo32l85AK_Or1BICj7gd7KuGOZWXVNjwsxJezr83ds2v_YCPTFREE7llfzvZuntbh2AyUoLAPOf64oxZSQA0/s320/IMG_8604.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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This park was how parks should be - full of life</div>
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I finished my day with one of the most awesome meals I have ever eaten. That sandwich is pulled pork, beans and rice with some kind of BBQ sauce so magical that I wandered the streets grinning like a fool afterwards. Sheer food joy achieved. Also cornbread is awesome and Australia needs it.</div>
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I then jumped back on the train, making to New Haven in time to attend a moving silent disco - everyone uses Ipods to listen to the same dance track and we dance through the streets, sharing music that no bystander can hear, with this result:</div>
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<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx_afpoK9oDnI6bpMPQNAwuZj7JJtXDsWQvEE69YtteKPU5MXYvVdrLV_eZX76t9RIcibrgaC1-gOMGw2urIA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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For the full context, download this song <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?d47k6t2aui6m8dn" style="text-align: left;">http://www.mediafire.com/?d47k6t2aui6m8dn</a> and listen along. It's an incredibly joyful experience to do something like that for sheer absurdity.</div>
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I then slept. Heavily.</div>
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<br /></div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-57632829850958688652012-07-03T07:58:00.002-07:002012-07-03T07:58:53.037-07:00Settling in to Yale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've now been at Yale for 2 days, but it feels like longer as I get used to the routine. Here's what's gone on lately:<br />
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Rob, Liz and Maeve delivered me to my college room after a couple delightful days of doing nothing much and catching up on relaxing time. We had lunch with Liz's siblings Mike and Barb, Connecticut locals who I will see around town, and then walked around the giant campus trying to find housing check-in and my room. The place makes much more sense now that I'm not carrying luggage around whilst exploring!<br />
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I found my way to the dining hall and was reminded of the contrasts between Australians and Americans when every announcement or introduction at the meeting was greeted by exuberant cheering and clapping; anything done here is done with enthusiasm.<br />
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We went on the standard historical walking tour yesterday and learned the tricks of the campus. I feel quite comforted by the fact that the ye olde gothic buildings were actually built in the 1920s by a guy who liked an old time feel - he aged the slate in a river, poured acid down the walls, chipped corners off bricks, and cracked and soldered the window panes to get an authentic 'been standing for centuries' look (a nice touch: all the window cracks are done in a Y shape). The architecture is less intimidating when I keep that in mind.<br />
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The same mad architect contributed to Yale's churchy feel by deliberately building a church, sorry, a library. Apparently he wanted to add a cathedral to his portfolio, but Yale didn't want one, so he offered to do the library instead. The facade has burn marks (from 16th century fire/ 20th century blowtorch) and empty nooks where statues should go (stolen by Vikings, 14th century/never there to begin with) and there's a circulations desk under a picture of 'Mother Yale' instead of an alter under the virgin Mary. Complete with the largest collection of secular stained glass art in the world, it's the ultimate (not a) cathedral.<br />
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Oh and Rob, that mad white building with no windows? Turns out it's all windows, we just can't tell - it's the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and the walls are made of marble at 1.25 inches thick, letting in light but no UV rays. I'll go in at some point and check out the ancient collections, including one of the Gutenburg bibles.<div>
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I'm still adjusting to the college life; there's something magical about not cooking but so weird that I can't have food when I want - dinner closes at 7 and I have no fridge access!</div>
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On the other hand, I have a free membership the Payne-Whitney gym, another building that looks like a church and is the largest indoor gym in the Western world, complete with at least 2 pools (that I've seen). That's pretty sweet.</div>
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We haven't actually started class yet, that happens today. I shall report back on that aspect soon!</div>
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cheers</div>
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Eb</div>
</div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-14341136086154184402012-06-27T15:43:00.001-07:002012-06-27T15:43:19.049-07:00Parting thoughts on Rio+20<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm leaving Rio, leaving behind a great city and a conference that tends to evoke an uncertain range of grimaces from people when spoken of. The uninspiring outcome of Rio+20 provokes different reactions depending on expectations and personality. I myself never expected much from the actual document. I came to find out how the bottom-up approach makes use of international meetings and how the local relates to the global. I learned a few things:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Policy based side events are incredibly dense.</li>
<li>You never quite know who you'll meet around the corner or what they'll be talking about.</li>
<li>Human society is experiencing challenges in the urban environment that are daunting in complexity and scale:</li>
<ul>
<li>In the next 40 years, we will spend as much on urban infrastructure as we have in the past 4000.</li>
<li>One billion people live in slums right now. By 2050 there will be 3 billion.</li>
<li>In 2009, we passed the halfway mark: more than 50% of people now live in cities, and it will be 70% by 2050. Factoring in population growth, the number of people in cities will double.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<span style="background-color: white;">There's some good news: with all of the huge technological, planning and management challenges cities face, we actually have the capacity to handle it. The technology is there, the planning methods have succeeded in some cities already. We can do it. What remains is finding the political will and organisational capacity to get it done. If we can get ourselves sorted out, we can actually improve quality of life while making cities more environmentally sustainable and economically productive. The power of town planning to shape good, healthy lives is incredible.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">As I begin to ponder the importance of strong, functioning local governments and their ability to implement sustainable planning and services, it seems entirely appropriate that I'm bound for a course called Sustainable Institutions. I look forward to examining the role that people and social networks play in shaping a sustainable institution or organisation, and considering how Yale's experiences can help me back at Australian National University and in future organisations.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">I get the feeling that a lot of what can go wrong in an organisation comes from the role of human fallacy and unexpected social patterns. I'm still not sure whether the helpful response is to resist this or embrace and cooperate with it. Human enthusiasm and social empathy can be great forces for good, and I like to think this doesn't stop in a work setting, and that the right workplace can support these drivers for the kinds of phenomenal outcomes we need.</span></div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-86174045717295568622012-06-27T04:53:00.000-07:002012-06-27T04:53:08.537-07:00Photos begin!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Click here <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/56162016@N06/sets/72157630296304298/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>56162016@N06/sets/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>72157630296304298/</a> to see some photos from Rio</div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-71060924481261139302012-06-20T07:39:00.004-07:002012-09-23T16:35:24.557-07:00A typical Rio+20 day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white;">I now consider myself settled into a pattern in Rio; I have gotten used to sleeping in the hostel by simply burning the candle at both ends so when I fall into bed at 1am I’m out like a light!</span><br />
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It’s a pretty surreal world here. I get up in the morning at 7am, get ready in the dark and try not to drop stuff and wake any fellow travellers. I suit up and walk down to the fancy UN shuttle bus, grabbing a juice on the way from one of the many juice bars. The streets remind me a lot of Athens; the varied building quality, the crazy traffic, the people sitting in 24 hour cafes.<br />
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80 minutes later after riding the bus along the coastline and gazing at the fancy hotels, I hop off the bus at the conference centre, deceptively named RioCentro but located in the Rio equivalent of Altona, next to a brick and tile shop. It’s surrounded by armed guards from the military and police, and today since the highest level part of the conference has started, there are mounted soldiers and groups with riot shields at all entrances. </div>
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I pass through the airport security and scanners, and I’m in – It’s a huge place, strangely semi-temporary with rooms built inside permanent larger buildings, and cheap carpet not quite stapled to the floor. I attend many many events, all of which come down to seeing 5-8 people speak for a few minutes about what they do, what they think about something or what they want. Some are clear and insightful, some really aren’t. The same goes for the audience members who get a chance to speak, depending on whether they actually want to discuss the nominated topic or just promote their cause.<br />
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I go to city related panels mostly, listening out for discussions of how they learn from each other and what they do. Occasionally I ask questions, always a nerve-wracking process, but people seem to enjoy seeing young people at these events (just got called ‘the very young woman’ by the chair of a UN HABITAT panel). <br />
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The people I talk to seem to share my despair of the high level talks leading to anything. Many of the ANU group are keeping a closer eye on the problems in the main document, and taking part in various protest and lobbying measures. The local government officials have for the most part decided to focus on bottom-up action, banding together to do all the good they can. Local government are the implementers of a huge amount of environmental policy, particular regarding climate change. I prefer to work on this level, looking at what we are doing best rather than what nation states are slowing things down. When they come to the party, local government will be ready.<br />
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Sometime after nightfall I run out of steam and the conference runs out of events. With luck I run into a fellow ANU traveller and we catch the bus back into town, eating dinner around 10 and eventually going to bed (again getting changed and packing up in the dark, as the non-ANU traveller in our room is already asleep. Can’t remember the last time I saw my luggage by the light of day!)<br />
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I’m having a great if bewildered time, thinking and talking about big and difficult ideas, and engaging with many different points of view. I continue to seek out good news and good ideas, knowing that to focus on our failures will not bring us any momentum.</div>
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e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-42131233940371174562012-06-17T12:29:00.000-07:002012-06-17T12:29:06.186-07:00Arrival and bewilderment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I crashed into bed last night at the hostel in Rio after 20ish hours of travel, having borrowed a pj shirt from a friend since my bag was yet to arrive (didn't make it onto my second plane). I've spent today at the Rio+20 conference centre, wandering around and trying to work out what i want to do with my time. The jetlag haze is at its height right now (I hope) and I look forward to being coherent in the coming days. In the meantime, I hope to develop my ability to introduce myself to the people sitting near me and become better at that mysterious ''networking' thing we are meant to do in our lives. I do have my cards ready to; now I just need to figure out why someone would want one! Dr Al-daghistani, a town planner for Bahgdad, now has one, as does Dr Mogo of the Nigerian Maritime Admin and Safety Agency. What next??</div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-87480130288888908192012-06-14T23:18:00.001-07:002012-06-14T23:18:19.487-07:00Epic bureaucracy fail<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the past week, I've lost count of the number of call service reps who've politely asked 'and when are you flying out?' only to get super awkward when I say 'Last Saturday, except that you've lost my passport.'<br />
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It all started with the fact that I had to get a study visa for the US, and the fact that I didn't get sent any of the paperwork until 2 weeks before my scheduled departure. I still had just enough time to make it work, provided nothing went wrong. For instance, providing the consulate didn't post my passport to 'Wattle Rd, O'Connel, Bathurst 2971'.<br />
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But they did. I spent a week on hold with Australia Post and the consulate (sorry, the consulate's call centre in Mumbai full of people with zero ability to do anything or call anyone), eating maltesers and being comforted by poor Ellie, even now sitting an exam she was trying to study for whilst looking after me.<br />
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The tale does end well - I had all but given up hope of ever getting to Brazil, and was forming the contingency plan of skipping it altogether and going straight the US, when my passport made a wonderful final hour appearance back in Sydney. It now hangs around my neck in my trusty travel pouch, and I am booked on tomorrow morning's flight. Much thanks to the nice Australia Post workers who did their best to help me out, Pop and Colette at uni for hassling everyone they knew at the consulate so I could pick up the passport today, and no thanks to whatever staff member at the consulate is unable to copy down a postal address.<br />
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So, not to brag or anything, but I am now an officially qualified story topper when it comes to travel delays. Booyah.<br />
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Watch this space for real travel updates now that I'm allowed to do real travel!<br />
Eb</div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-78301869146929695382012-06-03T20:50:00.002-07:002012-06-03T20:50:55.146-07:00Pre-Rio+20: thoughts and hopes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am lucky enough to be one week from departure for Rio de Janeiro and the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20. As part of the Australian National University delegation, I am going to learn, observe and hopefully bring back some nuggets of wisdom on how good ideas become a great reality.<br />
<br />Briefly:<br />
- I have always been under the impression that we are in a world full of great ideas, but they often don't get used<br />
- I am particularly interested in cities and how they can become more environmentally sound or 'sustainable'.<br />
- Australian and American cities continue to fiddle around with bad bike infrastructure and dodgy PT systems despite the amazing things being done elsewhere<br />
Conclusion: Cities aren't great at learning from each other, especially if they don't feel connected.<br />
<br />
When cities form policy, they do it based on the experiences and knowledge of their policymakers. Those people can only use ideas from all over the world if they have been exposed to them, and Rio+20 is one place where they can do that. The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives or ICLEI will be a meeting of city governments to share and swap ideas at Rio, and I will be there to work out exactly how ideas flow in the policy community, what makes a good idea, and how interested citizens can inspire their cities to get involved in the process.<br />
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I'm forming the impression that policymaking, while hopefully a logical process, is often driven by unexpected factors and always by the human element of government. Hopefully the downside to this (so messy!) can be counterbalanced by the great power humans hold when they become inspired by a good idea and start turning it into reality.</div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-49903901248955970312011-10-06T21:30:00.000-07:002011-10-06T21:30:37.659-07:00Unpopular leadership: the ultimate impossible ideal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The core elements of leadership that I most respect and that many speakers in the course have talked about are pursuing a vision and staying true to your values. It seems like the time when that really involves leadership is the time when it would be easiest to fail – when your vision or your values disagree with the prevailing ideas. This means that in sticking to them, you will show your strength, but no one will like you very much.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If no one likes you, can you still lead people places? Whatever you do will make someone unhappy, but can you reach a point when you’ve made everyone unhappy and you are no longer leading anyone? Is it really leadership to stick to your ideas when everyone disagrees, and all you’ll get is an empty room?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some things are worth standing up for under any circumstances. Some things are worth fighting for, some aren’t. The hard part is figuring out which is which. The next hard part is persuading other people that you’re fighting for something important, and that your vision is one worth following.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A personal example: While I know climate change is a vitally important issue worth fighting for, I don’t know how to persuade others of this. I am often reluctant to engage with people on climate change as I fear being unable to rationally argue my position, struggling with the temptation to get angry or rude. My fear of failure has seriously impeded my ability to lead on this issue at all, and I am still trying to navigate the awkward issue of how to raise such daunting topics with friends and family without alienating myself.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Is it ok to sit your relatives down and ask them to consider solar panels? To drive less and ride more? How would I react if someone sincerely asked me to go vegetarian? Probably not well. Maybe the personal angle is the weirdest of all. Maybe the best thing to do is try to show how such changes can be good by doing them yourself. But I believe it’s time for me to start speaking up on the more broad facts – climate change is real, it’s more urgent than people realise, and our lives are going to change whether we like it or not. The sooner people realise this, the sooner they can grieve for our old lifestyles and start planning for the future.</span></div></div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3577661573984883396.post-26639895454314434752011-09-27T23:14:00.000-07:002011-09-27T23:14:04.163-07:00Starting up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This is a blog for random musings on being a uni student who worries about climate change, wants to live the ideal carbon neutral life and doesn't always quite get there. Life is messy and complicated, and our habits are hard to break. We need to change our lifestyles, and I believe many changes will be for the better, but how do we push through the barriers of habit?</div>e66ahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03470520196990384213noreply@blogger.com0