Students:Kateřina Racková: Difference between revisions

"Day with mixed results." To summarize, second day brought charming German type men, delicious and healthy lunch at Leuphana University mensa, participative workshop at the university but also boring lecture about sustainability in sub-coma state of mind after lunch when at least half of the students almost fell asleep, a quarter channeled all the energy on trying not to fall asleep and the rest seemed to be engaged :D Unfortunatelly for the students of International Development Studies there was no new information about sustainability which contributed largely to sub-coma! On the other hand some of the students certainly discovered new useful information or were inspired to think about sustainability from different perspective.

Programme on Tuesday started at the Leuphana University with a lecture about renewable energy presented by Alexa Lutzenberger. The lecture consisted of many unexplained graphs and was based on unrealistic expectation that Germany is able to cover its energy consumption by renewable resources up to 100 %. If all the countries in the world followed Germany that would tigger world wars for minerals and hurt developing countries which is definitelly unsustainable and immoral practice. After the presetation we went for a campus tour. Second part of the day was far more interesting, actually it was one of the best and most useful experience during the field trip. Excursion to Neu Wulmstorf landfill offered a new view on use of former landfill. The idea to use former landfill and its surface to produce energy and provide recreation is amazing. Excursion was guided by dr. Tilman Wolfsteller, a real expert who explained how PV panels, wind turbines and gas electricity generation works there. In the late afternoon we visited Hamburg where we enjoyed time as tourists and socialized ourselves :)

"Most enriching day of the field trip, visit to rural areas near Luneburg" In the morning group visited Alfred Toepfler Academy of Nature Conservation at Schneverdingen where Susanne Eilers presented the goals and activities of the organisation. The main goal was to involve public in all sustainability projects as participation is elemental for successful outcome. Participation can be achieved by educating children and youth and by involving local inhabitants into decision making through dialogue. The methods organisation uses for education for sustainability are very interesting. Presenter focused predominantly on games. Truly interactive game is for example fishing banks. Personally I have played this game twice and both times we failed. This simulation game indicates how difficult to solve the situation seems to be in reality...

Afterwards group walked to near heathland. There they were introduced to the management of heathland ecosystem which is unique in many ways in comparison with other ecosystems in the region. Soil is fragile therefore people living there need to treat it carefully. Sheep play important role in heathland as they keep grass short thus contribute to preservation of landscape. Enjoyable moment came when group met a shepard with his sheep and shepard dogs who set direction for sheep by running around them.

The best part of whole field trip took place in Baukhof biodynamic farm where Ralf Weber presented specialities of the farm. Firstly group had delicious organic lunch which consisted of pumpkin soup with home-made wholemeal bread and baked apple dessert. Ralf and his family and other families rent the farm from association who ownes the land. On the farm cows and chickens are breed and grain including spelt grown. Furthermore Ralf explained principles of organic farming: no herbicides, no pecticides, no artificial fertilizers and animals must be fed with own-produced food :)

Thursday morning started at Leuphana University by listening to presentation by local German Green Party member Mr. Sebastian Heilmann. During his presentation students discovered that Green Party is relatively popular in Germany in comparison with the Czech Republic where Green Party has been discredited in recent years :( In Germany Green Party usually wins approximately 10 to 13 % of votes and in Luneburg  the number is even more optimistic: 28 %! Following presentation by NGO DialogueS (Dialogue Sutainability) informed students about goals and activites of the organisation. Its main goal is to ensure participation off all stakeholders in sustainability dialogue at local scale.  

In the afternoon group visited Hamburg for second time however this time students were actively involved in field trip activities. Their task was to appropriately answer questions related to IBA - International Housing Exhibition. As title suggests IBA is the exhibition of newly built modern houses allocated in one of the Hamburg districts along Elbe. It is German attempt to address the most pressing issues of the present: cities and climate change and cosmopolis. Houses use renewable energy sources, methods for saving energy and at the same time they are meant to be affordable for middle income segment of society. On the other hand they are still located in busy parts of the city therefore inhabitants would have to live with noise and polluted air. It is questionable whether such housing is sustainable for the future human health.

Last session of the field trip took place at Lephana University where students had chance to participate in an interactive workshop prepared by local Phd candidates: Sarah, Lotte and Jana. They introduced their research topics: renewable energy, organic agriculture and sustainable entrepreneurship - all at local scale. Afterwards students discussed some aspects of the mentioned topics in a form of world cafe. In the very end Dana and Andrew summarized field trip and its financing and Andrew added another task to complete (in addition to diary).

In the early afternoon group left Luneburg and during ride back home students were thinking about what they learned and how that could be applied in Czech context...