Hello again! Just as an update I am LOVING this unit. Everything we are talking about interests me so much and even better, I am able to one day use it in my classroom to teach my students!
This week our main focus was on sustainability and living green. Mainly how Australia compares to the rest of the world in sustainability ratings, but also looking at ourselves and how sustainable our life is that we are living currently. As reading we looked at ‘Victoria’s Ecological Footprint’, ‘Sustainability at home’ and a ‘Living Green’ booklet. I particularly enjoyed the ‘Living Green’ booklet as it just seemed to prompt me into asking lots of questions. A few things I wondered was that if wind turbines are one of the cleanest sources of energy, why are there not more supplying more of Australia’s energy? It’s only supplying 2% at the moment which I believe over time should be able to rise to a higher percentage.
I also found it very interesting about the statistics on household emissions. Transport is the biggest source, which honestly surprised me. I thought that now with the number of people using the internet for things such as online streaming all over the world, could have increased the power usage a lot more.
Some ideas that crossed my mind for reducing the amount of emissions and waste we produce is to try and minimise food waste by saving leftovers. This can be done so easily but people still seem to be so wasteful with food. This is an issue which really plays on my mind (especially being a uni student who has just moved out of home!) and I have actually chosen to complete another assignment, which includes designing a process, with minimising food waste as my goal.
We had to find our own ecological footprint and see how many planets we would need to survive, if everyone in the world lived how I did. Here are my results!
This week our main focus was on sustainability and living green. Mainly how Australia compares to the rest of the world in sustainability ratings, but also looking at ourselves and how sustainable our life is that we are living currently. As reading we looked at ‘Victoria’s Ecological Footprint’, ‘Sustainability at home’ and a ‘Living Green’ booklet. I particularly enjoyed the ‘Living Green’ booklet as it just seemed to prompt me into asking lots of questions. A few things I wondered was that if wind turbines are one of the cleanest sources of energy, why are there not more supplying more of Australia’s energy? It’s only supplying 2% at the moment which I believe over time should be able to rise to a higher percentage.
I also found it very interesting about the statistics on household emissions. Transport is the biggest source, which honestly surprised me. I thought that now with the number of people using the internet for things such as online streaming all over the world, could have increased the power usage a lot more.
Some ideas that crossed my mind for reducing the amount of emissions and waste we produce is to try and minimise food waste by saving leftovers. This can be done so easily but people still seem to be so wasteful with food. This is an issue which really plays on my mind (especially being a uni student who has just moved out of home!) and I have actually chosen to complete another assignment, which includes designing a process, with minimising food waste as my goal.
We had to find our own ecological footprint and see how many planets we would need to survive, if everyone in the world lived how I did. Here are my results!
Eeeek! This was a bit of an eye opening moment. We would need 2.9 planets Earths to live if everyone lived like me! It is very clear that I need to be more sustainable with my way of living and when sharing results with my classmates, a lot of others need to as well! It is positive to see though that the awareness of our environment is growing and becoming a bigger part of our lives. Jenny included this image in her lecture slide and asked us to interpret what we thought about it.
Personally, I thought that in the 20th Century the economy was the 'big picture' and that was what mattered to people the most. In the 21st Century bubble, I interpret that to mean that we are now more aware of the environment and that it does affect the economy and society more than it used to. There were quite a few different interpretations that were interesting to hear.
In this weeks tutorial we looked at the water cycle, which is something I haven't really done since primary school, it was surprising to see what I could remember and what I had completely forgotten (and that was probably too much!). In pairs, we were instructed to create our own versions of the water cycle by using recyclable materials. And here is our water cycle masterpiece!
In this weeks tutorial we looked at the water cycle, which is something I haven't really done since primary school, it was surprising to see what I could remember and what I had completely forgotten (and that was probably too much!). In pairs, we were instructed to create our own versions of the water cycle by using recyclable materials. And here is our water cycle masterpiece!
Thanks everyone for reading again, I hope it inspired some new thinking for you. :)
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