Category: landscape

Categories
ecology landscape

Learning in Place

Samuel Mann with Walter Poleman [ 29:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Dr Walter Poleman is a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Ecological Planning Programme at the Rubenstein School of the Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. He is coordinator of the Greater Burlington Sustainability Education Network which is a United Nations Regional Centre for Expertise for Education for Sustainable Development.

I love to see how things connect – and place is crucial in that.

People and place are inseparable.

We are all the parts connected together in a whole.

The best educators help students see connections

Relearning an integrated whole

Restorative justice and restorative environments are in the same place – healing can occur, and they are both dependent on the health of the whole.

Sustainability: ecological flourishing plus human flourishing

Walter teaches courses in integrated field science, landscape ecology, and measurements and mapping of natural resources. He also serves as the director of the Place-based Landscape Analysis and Community Engagement (PLACE) Program, a partnership of University of Vermont and Shelburne Farms, which provides local residents with a forum for exploring and understanding the natural and cultural history of their town landscape.

Categories
geography history landscape urban

Environmentally engaged students and communities

Eric Pawson

An educational activist…encouraging other people to find out how they can best act in the world.

Samuel Mann with Eric Pawson [ 59:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download


Eric Pawson is Professor of Geography at the University of Canterbury. He has written several books on New Zealand’s environmental history and his recent work concerns biological economics. He is President of the Ako Aotearoa Academy of Tertiary Teaching Excellence – we discuss his approach to “classrooms without borders” and his experiences in community-based teaching and research in post-quake Christchurch.

Talking points

We saw the industrial revolution as a economic process, rather than a series of independent technological innovations.

Working with local schools…adopting the lake shore as a series of outdoor classrooms.

(Success?) Student projects in the residential red zone

How community aspirations might be accommodated around the landscape transformations

Flashpoints can unstick reputations…water quality may be such a flashpoint for us.

(Motivation?) Working with other people on things that are rewarding – that have intrinsic value and a wider purpose. Rather more that information transmission – I don’t believe in an information transmission model of education – I think that education is something that people create for themselves with a certain amount of assistance and guidance. A process of guided self-discovery.

(Activist?) It depends what you mean by activist. An environmental activist in the conventional sense of the word – no. Yes, an educational activist in the senses that I’ve been describing – perhaps less putting myself forward, and more encouraging other people to find out how they can best act in the world. If that’s an activist, then yes.

(Challenge?) I’m retiring – so many exciting things to do, so many exciting places to go. …I will carry on with the community based teaching.

(Miracle?) Not sure I believe in miracles. (the smallest thing that would make the biggest possible difference?) There are an awful lot of people in my home city (Christchurch) who are still in very difficult situations with insurance companies and unmended homes… it is a travesty that after five years we haven’t been able to take care of everybody. I would like us to wave a collective wand and fix this.

This conversation was recorded at the conference of the NZ Geographical Society.

Categories
geography history landscape

Prof Peter Holland

PeterHolland

Peter Holland on Sustainable Lens [ 55:31 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download


Professor Peter Holland‘s new book “Home in the Howling Wilderness: Settlers and the Environment in Southern New Zealand” explores the complexities and nuances of the relationships between early settlers and their environment. Peter tells us of his journey through his career in biogeography in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Africa and back to New Zealand.

Shane’s number of the week: 12.9° The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climatic Data Center reports that 2012 was the warmest year on record in the contiguous U.S. (lower 48 states). The average temperature in 2012 was 12.9 Celsius, 3.2 degrees higher than the average for the 20th century. As well as being the warmest, it was also the second most extreme with multiple “significant weather events”. (There are lots more numbers from this report here).

Sam’s joined-up-thinking: There’s a debate raging amongst our student community about the merits of a new computer suite. But rather than fan-boy arguments about preferred interaction style, the debate centres on multinational business practices and the ethics of IT education. (see more>>>).

Categories
agriculture behaviour change landscape

Dr Janet Stephenson

 

Janet Stephenson - Centre for Sustainability [ 59:36 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download


Janet Stephenson is from Otago University CSAFE.  Janet explores the passions of landscape, the importance and difficulty of behaviour change, the role of the power of influence, and how prosumers are leading the way with visions for energy futures.  With Jacinta Ruru and Mick Abbot, Janet has recently co-edited “Making our Place: Exploring land-use tensions in Aotearoa New Zealand”.

 

Shane’s number of the week:   68.    68% of the biggest 500 companies in the world are taking action on climate change as part of their business strategy.  This information comes from the 10th Annual Carbon Disclosure Project, and compares with the figure of 48% last year.

Sam’s joined-up-thinking: Planning is well underway for the Sustainable Lens Election Focus.

Categories
art landscape

Bridie Lonie

 

Bridie Lonie - Art and Nature [ 58:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download


Radio meets pictures as Bridie Lonie walks us through a trail of art and nature.  Bridie Lonie is from Otago Polytechnic’s School of Art where she researches the relationships between art and social issues.

Here’s some of the ground we covered:

Edward Hick’s Peaceable Kingdom
Komar and Melamid’s Most Wanted
Grizzly Man
Public Smog

Shane’s number of the week: 500 metres is how far away honey bees have to be away from Genetically Modified crops, and the honey contain no traces of pollen from GM  for the honey to be classed as food according to a recent European Union ruling.

Sam’s joined-joined-up-thinking: Intergenerational equity is the cornerstone of sustainability but it is being eroded by use of the term to support municipal borrowing (read on>>>).

Categories
landscape tourism

Dr Anna Thompson

Anna Thompson [ 59:51 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download


This is a rollicking session that has something for everyone: growing up in a National Park; working as park interpreter; renaissance art; visitor surveys; gardening Mt Cook; wilding pines; 1080; the greening of the McKenzie; valuing landscape; the corporatisation of landscape; wicked spirals of land-use; the outdoors; and the future of tourism.

Anna Thompson is co-director for the Centre for Recreation Research in the Otago University Department of Tourism. Her PhD (1998-2004) examined the management of visitors’ experiences of cultural values for landscapes in New Zealand, with a focus on integrating cultural values within interpretation. The research investigated issues relating to natural and cultural heritage management, cultural tourism and visitor interpretation in New Zealand. She has been a visiting researcher at the University of Stavanger (Norway) in 2006. Anna sits on the NZ Mountain Safety Council National Research Committee and is a director of Te Ana Whakairo (Ngai Tahu Maori Rock Art Centre Trust).

Anna has published in the fields of eco tourism, adventure tourism, entrepreneurship and visitor interpretation. Her other research interests include: wilderness recreation planning, sustainable SMTEs and destinations, cultural landscapes and the history of alpine and polar region recreation. From 1999 to 2002 Anna worked alongside Professor James Higham on a nationwide FRST funded project investigating Ecotourism in New Zealand: profiling visitors to New Zealand ecotourism operations. Recent external funded work includes conducting three surveys and qualitative research for the Department of Conservation in the Hakatere, Ahuriri and Ruataniwha Conservation Parks. Most recently she has led a SPARC funded project – ‘Family preferences, experiences and benefits associated with outdoor in Aotearoa’.

Shane’s number of the week: 4.3 is how many people get killed worldwide by sharks each year (average 2001-2010). Meanwhile 100,000,000 sharks are killed by humans.

Sam’s joined-up-thinking: Next week Sam is taking the Live Below the Line Challenge. He will be spending only $2.25 per day on food to raise awareness of extreme poverty.