Students:Lucie Hadáčková

Hello!

My name is Lucy, I'm 23 and I study geography at the Faculty of Science, UJEP in Ústí nad Labem. I'm going to enter the 2nd year of the master's program with a specialisation in landscape and GIS (= geographic information system). I'm from Lovosice, which is an industrial town located about 65 km from Prague and 20 km from Ústí nad Labem. The landscape around my town is very nice because it's surrounded by the river Elbe and the hills of the Central Bohemian Uplands - this scenery is really breathtaking over the whole year!

I like spending time outside, so my favourite hobbies are hiking, travelling abroad and geocaching. Occasionaly I go running, roller blading or swimming, I also like parties, reading and eating (Italian cuisine is my favourite. :)

As for my future job, I would like to do anything that is related to my studies. Geography is a very broad field that includes science as well as economic, political, cultural and historical geography, ecology, tourism, GIS, the basics of administration and organisation of the EU. I don't know yet what direction I should choose, but what is really important to me is that my work must have meaning and some goal. I have to feel that I'm useful and my work brings results and improvement.

What sustainability means to me. Sustainable development is a term that has gained in imporance quite recently as people started to be aware of negative consequnces caused by uncontrolled population growth, intrusive agricultural / industrial production, massive exploitation of natural resources and so on. It's defined as a progress which is in harmony within environemntal, social and economic levels; as a progress that allows us to satisfy our needs without limiting the next generation's needs. There have been many conferences held in order to solve these problems, they resulted in conventions accepted by more of less developed countries. Although many particular stepts have been taken, the way we are living now is still not sustainable. According to me, any single step wouldn't work without a complete change in human thoughts. We all have to realize that there is something wrong with our priorities, consumerism and reckless behaviour towards all living on this planet (including mankind itself). We have to take responsibility for our actions and simplify the current pointless system as much as possible to be in tune with natural processes. Sustainability should be an important part of our lifestyle, it should be something obvious for us. Maybe after all of this we might finally speak about the real sustainable development...