Students:Jitka Jurníková

About me

I'm 24 years old. I study International Development Studies at Palacky University in Olomouc and I started to study social work last year. This field is really close to me and I want to work as social worker after school. Because of my master programme I'm interested in development, environment, sustainability, global problems..I come from a village near Prostejov, I love the countryside with nature all around. I really like sitting in the garden and reading. I also like poweryoga, cooking and travelling. I'm very happy for the opportunity to participate in this trip. I'm looking forward to know new people and places.

Concept of sustainability

I learned a lot about sustainability, for example I passed the subject called Sustainable Development. Me for is sustainability about responsibility to our planet, about respect for nature and its limits. People should thinking about future generation and what is our legacy to them. Our planet has some limits, it can't grow forever. Society demands goods, money, growth but unfortunately we don't consider harm caused to the nature. I like the concept of sustainable development but it is necesary all counties speak one voice.

Diary

Day 1 (9th June)

Thirteen young people and two leaders met near the main station in Prague. After some minutes of waiting and loading luggages, we hit the road. Our aim was the city of Lüneburg in the Lower Saxony. It was a long and tiring journey but after 8 hours, we arrived to Lüneburg. We accommodated in the lovely pension. Reward for the long travelling was delicious dinner. After dinner, we got to know each other by playing name game and discussed some topics regarding sustainability.

Day 2 (10th June)

We woke up to the beautiful weather and our day started with a city tour around Lüneburg. The city has nice atmosphere, the streets are peaceful and clean. I really liked bike paths and many people using them. We saw nice parks and typical houses of bricks. We learned about history and present of the city. Interesting information was that under the city there are resources of salt, which is still mining. It caused sinking of the city. Afterwards we moved to the Leuphana University, had lunch and lecture there. Nice students from the Oikos organization spoke about their activities at the university field. We had to think about our home university and its sustainability. I realized that in Olomouc there are still lot things to improve concerning sustainability.

Day 3 (11th June)

We spent awesome Tuesday, the program was full of interesting experiences. We listened about German plan to produced 100 % renewable energy in the morning. I think it is very ambitious plan that would be difficult to achieve, but I liked their concept- every German region has its own strategy how to achieve this target. According to their possibility, the regions use some types of renewable energy. Then we had an excursion to the former landfill in Neu Wulmstorf, which is nowadays used for electric production. It is very inspiring project that could be transported to the Czech Republic too. I liked the landscape that was relaxing and no one would guess what hiding under surface. We went to Hamburg in the afternoon. I was amazed by the harbor, which is one of the biggest in Europe. We had some time to spend in the city so we walked along the pier and to the city center. Nice experience was going under the river Elbe. There is 500 meters long tunnel

Day 4 (12th June)

On Wednesday we stand up early and went to small village called Schneverdingen. There we visited Alfred Toepfer Academy for Nature Conservation. We heard the nice woman who was speaking about sustainable education, communication between scientists and public and work with community. Then we moved to the Lüneburger Heide where we had guide tour. The most interesting experience was for me to see sheepdogs in action. After the shepherd whistled, two sheepdogs started to chasing sheep to the other location. I liked the lunch which we ate at the organic farm in Baukhof. Pumpkin soup and apple pie were very tasty. Then the farmer organized a tour around his farm. We saw cows, hens, fields with grains. And the farmer gave us many information about his work. Work at the organic farm is much more demanding than at conventional farm. At the end of tour we could buy some products in local organic shop.

Day 5 (13th June)

The day started with lecture about Green Party politics and then we saw presentation about DialogN, which is nongovernmental organization acting in the field of participation and education for sustainability. They said us many examples from their practice, especially how they work with community. But their future is unsure because they have money only for the one-year project which is now almost at the end. After lunch we went to Hamburg to see housing exhibition of IBA (international building exhibition).

Summary

This field trip was great experience for me. I learned new information and ways how to be sustainable. I think it’s going to inspire me in the future. I want to learn more about concept of sustainability. The whole trip was perfectly organized thank to Dana and Andrew. The program was chosen well, because we did not attend only lectures but also practical excursion. I appreciate that there was enough space for our free time, so we could discover Lüneburg and Hamburg.

The most interesting experience was the visit of former landfill, which is currently used for electric production. The company owning the landfill did a lot of work, because now it isn’t obvious what is hidden under surface. They used modern technology to avoid leakage of contaminated water and methane. Modern pipelines capture gases, then they are used for production of electricity. There are windmills and solar panels on the landfill. Whole environment is green with trees and meadows full of flowers. I think that is it good place to walk and relax, but people don’t have access inside landfill because of safety.

This is a good example for Czech Republic how to deal with waste. We have almost 200 landfills in the republic. Some of them can be potential threat for the environment. The problem is that waste management isn’t priority for our politicians. It isn’t only matter which have to be solved in policy, but civil society have to participate and be interested in solving the problem. Many young people recycle waste and they could influence older generation that is not involved in recycling. If most people start to recycle there won’t be needed so many landfills or waste incinerators. I asked my chief (in the cantine where I work) why they don’t recycle at least plastic cups. He answered that it would be more work to do and the customers wouldn’t respect it. Bad excuse, the containers for plastics are 100 meters far away from the cantine. I think that government should issue orders that can force entrepreneurs to recycle (for example in the form of tax benefits). Waste management isn’t priority for government but it should be, because in the future we’ll know consequences of current disrespect for nature.