Students:Kristýna Sosnovcová
About me
I´m studying International Development at UPOL in Olomouc and I´m in my third year. Furthermore, I´m studying English at the Faculty of Art (2nd year), but it is only subsidiary subject due to which I have to prolong my first studies next year. During my free time I´m trying to contribute to development through volunteering in a Fair Trade group and other occasional projects. Besides that I love to travel, therefore I usually spend as much time as I can by travelling - travelling in recent years on a low budget. Other hobbies are playing sport at a non-professional level, hiking, and trying more and more to do things against the current. My future ambition is to work for an international organization which deals with the environment or working on agricultural or environmental projects in poor countries.
Sustainability
Being a student, I have no real power to change the understanding of the masses, so my current concept is to focus on my own life and my nearby surroundings such as roommates and friends. I´m thinking daily about the impact which my life as an ordinary student has on nature and I´m slowly trying to find the path I will go down in the future...having my own eco-farm, living in a sustainable community, living faraway in nature, etc. For example, right now I´m concerned with food. I hope that the trip will help me to better understand our possibilities for a sustainable life in Europe because I´m not sure there is a way of maintaining the standard we live at and simultaneously how to take care of nature. Moreover I have learned about such technologies theoretically on my Erasmus stay in UK so I want to see it working in practice.
Day 0
I was first at the bus station which was quite stressful because I wasn't sure if I had missed the day or hour :-) Later other people came and as usual the first impression was that they are rather strange (unknown). During the journey we got together little bit more and after arrival we got to know at least our names. Before I departed my family frightened me that it will be raining and there will be floods...fortunately we were lucky! Till now I have just described what we did because the only thing which is absolutely connected with the topic of the field trip was our discussion about the concept of sustainability we had that first evening. I really appreciate the different views and quality of contributions from other people. A good beginning.
Day 1
The day continued the good beginning of the previous day. Luneburg really impressed me with its typical German architecture which I had never seen before, but what's more, there was so much green space!! On the other hand, the city seemed to me to be quite small and calm but later the university increased my interest in the place. From the afternoon, I remember more of a "students' perspective of sustainability at university" presentation because it is naturally closer to me and can inspire me to do something right now in the area I'm in. At least I will follow Prague Oikos.
Day 2
With great satisfaction I found two green hairs on my head in the morning so that the process of greening had started :-) The tour around the university campus was so short that I'd love to see more sustainable places so that I can get some experience what my university is missing and can improve. During the tour, a charming lady called Irmhild also spoke about students' projects and the possibilities which students have at the university. Even though the effect is not usually so great as they expected, students can at least try to really work on their own project and get it to work; that is what I'm missing at Czech unis...but maybe it is only up to us students?
For some people this was D Day because we visited THE LANDFILL. Well, it was really perfect and I'm pleased I could see it for myself. I enjoyed the walk on the municipal waste dump without seeing or smelling it and I liked the way Mr. Wolfsteller presented his "child", but it wasn't so new for me because I had had a course about waste at university in UK so I had seen it before...in pictures only. Actually, I am more thankful I could stand so close to a wind mill so that now I know a little bit about how pleasant or unpleasant it is (in the short-term of course).
Hamburg has such a unknown atmosphere that I cannot find the right words for a description of it. All the industrial buildings, cranes, ships, docks, bridges under the river basin looked enormous and incredible. Another memory is the super modern lift on the St. Michaelis church tower...(which caused the death of my two green hairs).
Day 3
A D Day for me!! Pretty interesting talk with Susanne Eilers about environmental education and the involvement of the public in sustainability projects. I really appreciate that they have focused on working with the public because it is the lifestyle of ordinary people which is mostly unsustainable and should be changed. After that we had a nice but short walk around Luneburg heath with the most colorful field I had ever seen (the one everybody took a photo of). A flock of sheep reminded me of the same view I saw in Romania, but it wasn't extraordinary and a shepherd was a more common job there. It is quite funny that the area of the heath that is actually unnatural for this latitude is protected now. It is similar in the UK were vast areas of moors are designated as natural parks just because of special ecosystems which had been created by human activity. Then I wonder what exactly should be protected and what is the task of humans in nature.
For lunch and to spend the afternoon we went to Baukhof, an organic biodynamic farm. First of all I have to praise the lunch which wasn't large but very tasty and nutritious and I believe healthy as well. During lunch with Eliska we had to sit at the next table because the table for our group was not spacious enough, but finally we were lucky because we sat with farmers and all the people working there so we could smile at them and speak a little English with them. And I think that it was an especially nice atmosphere during lunch which set up my overall good feeling from the farm. Later on we went with Ralf Weber for a tour and saw some of the farm production. It greatly interested me because it is one of my plans for the future to live on or start such a farm. I also like the idea that the youth from a high school come here for two weeks' "vacation" and, as I hope, improve their relationship toward nature.
The afternoon, evening and night were also great because we had the chance to go to the city center before the shops closed. With a small group we were also introduced to some famous and popular students' places so we could see another side of German students' life! Thank you guys that you opened the door.
Day 4
I'm happy we were there only so few days because writing the diary takes so long... I woke up that morning more easily than I expected and I also remember the first lecture again at university even though the topic wasn't my cup of tea (not during the morning). At least we refreshed the situation of our Green Party and discovered some aspects of success of German one. Later two people from NGO DialogN came and spoke about what they were doing. It was the only NGO we spoke with so I'm happy for that. Unfortunately the NGO is fully dependent on support from projects, so is very limited in long-term aims that could be even more influential.
During the afternoon we visited the IBA in Hamburg...the topic of sustainable houses also interested me so I was really curious what is "IN" in Germany. To be honest, the time dedicated to the visit was too short because it was based on informational panels in the IBA center it seemed to be quite a complex concept for cultivating an industrial part of the city. I'm glad we visited the energy bunker because the idea of rebuilding a grey depressive bunker into an energy generator and as a point of tourist interest and a local lookout tower.
Day 5
The last day. To be honest I was pretty tired in the morning so the lecture about Leuphana Innovation Incubator was too difficult or maybe too impersonal, so I hardly paid attention. The second part of the morning was better because the PhD projects may be up my alley but mainly because the girls had interesting topics. The third part was the best...that is what I'm missing at Czech unis - the participation of students, creating by themselves under a supervisor, leading and least but not last thinking! It was great to try to be a speaker of one topic and coordinate the result on paper but it meant that I could not cooperate with others on the next two topics. So for next time on the last day it should more relaxing and refreshing because it is clear that the last night must be special.
The way back home was fine. Except the first hours in Germany when it started to be hot in the traffic jam on the highway. The rest of the time went quite quickly because we played games at the back of the bus:-)
== A personal reflection ==
My overall opinion about the field trip is very good. Not only were we an interesting group of people but mostly the program was great, fresh and varied. I really appreciate that we have been to several places and each of them was different but still green. Everybody could find his/her own area of interest. Of course the outdoor trips are easier to remember but the lectures were important as well. For example, the lecture of Mrs. Alexa Lutzenberger which majority of other participants found rather useless was worthy of being listened to for me.
The topic is in general greatly relevant to our country because of several factors. First, Germany is a powerful member of the EU and therefore it plays an important role other than in policy making. For now the EU has adopted Directive 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from Renewable sources (RS) where the target is to achieve 20 % of energy (electricity, heating, transport etc.) from RS in the EU by taking individual national goals. The Czech Republic unsurprisingly accepted the low target of 13% because our starting position in 2010 was rather weak (we had only 9% energy from RS) but also because our government doesn't like to be challenged. The situation in Germany wasn't much different - they adopted only 18% goal from the 11% starting level in 2010. After the Fukusima catastrophe it changed and now Germany is working on 100 % energy from RS by 2050. The idea looks very nice - instead of burning fossil fuels they will use never-ending sources of energy. It means that Germany can be a pioneering country which can show the others whether it is possible to go this way and how sustainable RS is. Furthermore, thanks to government support there will be intensive research into technologies which, as I hope, will lead toward higher efficiency and new possibilities - another thing which is necessary to do but not popular because it doesn't bring money now but in the long-term.
On the other hand, after listening to the lecture on the topic it seems to me that Germany first made the target and after that started to count whether they can fulfill the limits. It is clear that Germany cannot stop all its nuclear power plants and replace them by RS so at the beginning they have to buy energy from their neighbors (e.g. Czech), energy which is produced from fossil fuels. Besides that, renewable technologies are quite materially demanding, even though it is improving, and it also matters where these materials came from, how they were mined or where e.g. where wind turbines were produced. If Germany doesn't consider all the consequences of its 100 % policy, it would exploit other countries and wouldn't reduce CO2 emissions but only transfer responsibility to different states. I would say that similar problems occurred with the promotion of energy from biomass in EU by the Biomass Action Plan 2005: a target was set and subsidised but no one had thought about the land use change it would cause, high GHG emissions by transporting biomass from Latin America to Europe or the loss of biodiversity due to the farming of monocultures.
One other thing is that one country can afford to try such a change but if a huge number of countries follow Germany where they will find the resources and what consequences will it cause? Fortunately, the Czech public doesn't sympathize with RS after the PV issue and green topics are not popular in political discussions, therefore the Czech Republic is secure for several years.