Caring for a Common Future

Czech Materials presented in Cividale, take two

2007-07-04T12:38:00.001+01:00

I tried posting this a few weeks ago, but apparently it didn't work. Here we go again..

These are the Powerpoint presentations from the Czech team that we showed in Cividale:

http://www.alej.cz/comenius/Summary_Prague_Now_and_Then.pps

http://www.alej.cz/comenius/Individual_Eco_Footprint_of_Comenius_Team.pps

http://www.alej.cz/comenius/Preparation_for_Our_Green_Day.pps

http://www.alej.cz/comenius/Summary_Prague_Now_and_Then.pps

http://www.alej.cz/comenius/Water_Quality.pps

2007-06-08T17:54:00.000+01:00

Dear Comenius Partners

Since there were so many things that we have done this year the Slovenian team has decided to create our own webpage.

Here is the link to Comenius 1.2 project and all the PP presentations, actions and charts.

http://www.druga.org/~comenius/

Enjoy reading it.

Best wishes.

Polona

link

2007-06-07T10:26:00.000+01:00

Dear all, here's the link for the Italian group materials!
Unbelievable, Italians are in time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I wanted to underline it)

http://www.cnpd.it/progetti_internazionali/07_comenius/comenius_caring.htm

Hear you soon

Cividalians

aftermeeting

2007-05-24T12:51:00.000+01:00

dear all,
here Comenius Team Cividale writing.
So at last we had our meeting! first of all we want to thank you all for the nice days we spent together, and underline how italian families were surprised by your kindness. many parents told me: it was too short.
i know there is a questionnaire going on, but i'd like students to write comments to this post with their main impressions, good or not, so that we can better things for the next time. i'd like also them to write anonimously (that's my idea), so everybody can feel free to write what he really thinks. we need that.
hear you soon!

Ecological campaign, part I.

2007-04-02T06:08:00.000+01:00

Hi!

With quite a delay, I'm posting here the review of first week of our ecology project.

Monday, 27.3.2007
The beginning. Unfortunalely, or maybe luckily, but if I'd be telling you now about exciting expectations and unbearable curiosity, I'd be lying. But the thing is, a project like that cannot just "begin" and "end". What we have now is just the product of our common work during this year and so this blog should be correctly addressed as "Ecological campaign imposure and results review". However, on Monday, the true implication of our work begun. We recieved carefully edited plans of this two week of hard work and we made a deal on cuts of duty :) The material for project was already at home, waiting for us in our folders, and so the action could begin swiftly. Yet the next day ...

Tuesday, 28.3.2007
Sadly I have to admit - only the second day, but already we hit into some problems. Let me explain you the situation: our school is a Slovene school, it neither bilengual nor international. Our project is ofcourse in English due to international nature of the subject Slovenia in the World and our exchange, which could hardly be done without English as the official language. So all our work for the project was done in English. Now the bad news - it is however wrong for puting all around the school english leaflets, stickers, placards, announcements. And we found out that when quite a lot of our material was already pasted. So Tuesday passed in fury of corecting our material and translating it into our mother tongue.

Wednesday, 29.3.2007
This day there wasn't much external work, we were still working on correction of our material. Many of catchphrases were frankly unuseful when we literaly thanslated them in Slovene and so we had to invent new. For example Obi-Wan Kenobi says: "The recycling is strong within you," might be and excellent slogan, but unfortunately in translation sounds quite lousy. However, even though we were sceptic about success at first, we finally managed to do our work properly and next day we started to paste the new material.

Thursday, 30.3.2007
Now the material was OK, we made an official announcemet via school radio. I think most of the students heard it but since that was also an exchange week for french students we shall repeat it once again on Tuesday, if I'm not mistaken (so that everyone could hear it). The announcement was also an invitation to all the activities going on with our campaing, and on of those is also an ecological movie evening, with the film The Inconvinient Truth. I really can't wait - this movie is not just an Academy Award winner for the best documentary, but also very renowned and very shoking tale about human blindeness, as I heard. I hope this will be an oppurtunity for ecological englihtment for many of us.

Friday, 31.3.2007
And so we rested on fifth day. :) The material was posted and the school was alerady aware of the recycling and separate rubbish collecion actions that will occure next week and so everything we had to do was to wait for feedback. I have to mention here one thing, which is not really connected with our school campaign. On Friday evening I went to our biggest local shoping centre, and I've seen they have there a separate trash cans for every kind of rubbish. I have to tell you that I was suprised, but also very pleased. Maybe the people finaly put greed aside and started to think about our future! :)

THEN and NOW results--Prague

2007-03-05T07:30:00.000+01:00

http://www.alej.cz/comenius/comenius_project.ppt

http://www.alej.cz/comenius/comenius.ppt

http://www.alej.cz/comenius/River_Of_Time.ppt

http://www.alej.cz/Comenius/Changes_of_Stodulky.ppt

http://www.alej.cz/Comenius/Reclamation_of_Former_Mines.pps

http://www.alej.cz/comenius/Prague_changes.pps

THEN and NOW task

2007-03-05T07:28:00.000+01:00

Students were asked to find historical photos of locations in their area and compare them with the same places today.

WASTE WEIGHING RESULTS

2007-03-05T07:21:00.000+01:00

a table comparing the results at all three schools

http://test.

WEIGHING OUR WASTE

2006-11-29T15:58:00.000+01:00

All three schools have agreed to make Wed, Nov 29th the day when we all weigh how much rubbish we produce in one day.

2006-11-26T17:08:00.000+01:00

AN ENDANGERED LIFESTYLE...........

Today our region is very different compared to a few decades ago. For example, in the past the dominant landscape was the country while now the small villages – especially those on the mountains- have been abandoned and green fields filled with factories and built-up areas.

In the last twenty years, a lot of poeple have moved from the country to the cities for work. Old population has been partly replaced by immigrants from Eastern-European and Middle-East countries.

The landscape was uncontaminated. There was no air and water pollution nor waste from factories and use of aerosol sprays.

Weather conditions have changed – global warming has led to mild winters and very hot and humid summers also in our region.

About 70 years ago, our civilization was mainly composed by farm workers. Every family cultivated their fields and bred animals at home. People used to eat locally grown foods and products which had not undergone any chemical treatment.

There were no factories but only small wareshops where the implements of the farm workers could be repaired.

The streets were dusty and you could hardly see a car, because only rich people could afford to have one. Poor people used to move using carriages, which were more slowly than cars, but less expensive.

The houses were cold and wet and families tried to heat them using wood and coke stoves.

Recycling wasn’t a big concern because most of the rubbish was “recycled” at home . Everything was re-used: even ash was mixed with animal grease to make soap. Organic rubbish was used to fertilize the soil or to feed animals.

The problem of unneccessary packaging was inconceivable at that time. Plastic or monouse containers weren’t used: people used the same containers –usually made of glass- many times.

Newspapers weren’t bought very seldom because they were expensive and often shared with other families (then used to light the fire at home.....)

There were not many comforts as today; life was hard, but perhaps people enjoyed more happiness, peace and quiet than nowadays.

Maribor -WEIGHING WASTE- TASK 2

2006-11-26T15:21:00.000+01:00

Dear all

Maribor team has started with the second task. On Friday we have started with the advertising campaign: one group of students is working on:

the radio announcement
the waste bins signs
posters and advertisements around school

There will be special containers for different waste placed in the main corridors on all the fllors, as well as one rubbish bin for ‘other waste’.

The school authority and the members of the stuff have been informed.

The Maribor team is ready for action , Maribor, 29. 11. 2006

Maribor_TASK 1_THE ENVIRONMENT

2006-11-21T18:32:00.000+01:00

1. Lifestyle in the past and its influence on the environment
Lifestyle in the past was very simple. It was directed by farming, there was less heavy industry, so people had almost no influence on the environment. There were also some other advantages like:
- people did not use cars and computers so the air was less polluted
- no pesticids (chemical products) – traditional farming
- no hairsprays, chemicals
- using of natural resources – healthier life
- no heavy industry so that is way they didn´t need cleaning devices and there were no exaust gasses
- nature was less polluted - bigger cultural variaety

But as we all know in the past they did not have plastic products at all and they had less garbage than we have now.

2. Lifestyle today and its influence on the environment
Lifestyle today is very different from the lifestyle in the past. People have changed and they also have different habbits and needs. Their influence on environment has grown and nowadays there are a lot of disadvantages like:
- industry and traffic are creating dangerous gasses
- more chemical products
- factories are not using the cleaning devices
- more people - more garbage
- polluted air – change of climate, global warming and increasing of the temperature
- destruction of forests for paper and wood

and advantages like:
- law, which protects environment and natural heritage
- new inventions for cleaning
- some people think in ecological way

3. How do we protect the environment today (government, local authority, industry, organizations, individual houshold...)?
People realised that the clean environment is very important for living on the Earth so they have connected into ecological organizations and they carry out some actions. We also have other possibilities for protecting nature as:
- using of cleaning devices, recycling
- education about human influence on the environment
- public transport or cycling
- protection of natural heritage
- using of natural energy sources – water, wind, sun
- warning people about the demage in the nature
- using harmless products and filter devices
- environmental education at schools

4. What can I do to protect the environment?
There are many things that a high school student can do. Many organizations inform us about ecological behaviour and sure we can try at something to help. Perhaps we can:
- start to recycle rubbish
- inform our schoolmates about collecting the paper and plactics separatelly
- use the public transport or bicycle, walking
- throw the rubbish into the trash bin
- spare with water, electricity and oil or gas
- turn off the lights and televisions when are not in use
- buy products based on environmentaslly friendly packaging
- buy local products and not the imported ones
- not smoking
- do composting

5. Suggestions for the future:
- using water, solar or wind energy – renewable sources of energy
- cleaning devices for all factories
- small changes in our daily behaviour
- education about the meaning of the clean nature
- stricter laws and higher punishments

Summary of Findings from Nad Aleji

2006-11-19T00:04:00.000+01:00

What people did for the environment in the Czech Republic in the past

· Protection of environment was mentioned in the law in 1950`s but national economic interests were the priority.
· Compulsory collection of paper and iron at school.
· “Let`s protect our forests.” motto
· Feeding forest animals (chestnuts, acorns).
· Collection of dry herbs (nettle, rose-hips, Lamia alba,…)
· Collection of dry orange peels
· Planting trees in the forests.
· Collective cleanups within local communities.
· Everything was controlled by communists.
· Youth organizations were involved (Pionýr).
· Composting very common in the country.
· Temporary workforce at harvest. (hops in spring or harvest season, potato harvest, hay season).
· Saving electricity because of lack.

What people do for the environment in the Czech Republic now

After 1989 radical changes of the thinking of the legislature:

Government

o New laws, statutes and directives – local, national, EU
o New institutions to protect environment – Ministry of Environment, Czech Inspection of Environment, etc …
o Added protected areas- national parks, natural reserves
o Stricter enforcement of environmental laws, statutes and directives and encouraging citizens to report illegal dumping.
o Better environmental education of the public.
· By governmental agencies and private groups/individuals and a number of non-governmental organizations (Green Peace, Děti Země = Children of the Earth, Duha = Rainbow, Jihočeské matky = South Bohemian Mothers, etc.)
o Consulting with environmental experts and the public before new construction projects.

Economic activities

o Priority to modernise infrastructure to make more effective.
o New environmentally friendly technologies and approaches
· Filtration of SO2 at coal power stations
o Practical rational Land Use
· Reforesting and returning fields to meadows
o Good public transportation
o Sorting waste – recycling and removal of hazardous waste
o Developing new ways to reuse waste
o Development of renewable resources
o Re-cultivation of damaged landscape
o Anti-flood measures
· Slowing down river current
· Building dams

Activities of individuals

o Sorting waste
o Composting
o Using public transport
o More passengers in private/business cars

Our first task

2006-11-18T23:59:00.000+01:00

At each school teachers asked the students to reflect on what we do for the environment and to write it down. Students also were supposed to talk to their parents and grandparents to see what was done for the environment in the past. Each school summarized the results and here they are.