Namibia - Waste Management Research

During a period of 5 weeks between mid October and mid November i had the privelidge to join the local autorities project between the municipalities of Lempaala and Kangasala in Finland and Ondangwa and Keetmanshoop in Namibia.

Namibia found to be beautiful, quiet, untouched country. Simple in many ways. Namibia is also very young country after got independent at 1990 and it seems that they are still trying finding their way as a country.

The project has few fields of research and one of them is waste management and a team of 3 students: Minna from University of Tampere, Pheps from Polytechnic of Namibia and i from TAMK. I will write my thesis based on the field work.

We spent 2 weeks in Keetmanshoop and 2 weeks in Ondangwa interviewing municipality workers, Enterprises managers and Local residents to hear about the current practicies of recycling and treating solid waste in their towns.

In Ondangwa we found a plastic factory which collects plastic bags, recycle them to make irrigation and water plastic pipes. In a town about 60km away from Ondangwa we found a Plastic factory collecting Polypropylene (PP) and forms plastic basins and buckets. These were a very refreshing and interesting sights since other companies just collects the waste and transport it outside to South Africa.

The main problem comes to my mind is the lack of innovation and the careless of act unless any sort of financial benefit is there. We found recycling centers and factories though some strugle for any cent they could save or get.

Many things has to be done, though we tried to explain to everyone we met that it will never happened while people in Namibia get their help from Other countries. It can only happened while the people of Namibia will do it by themselves.

Annual meeting for the Student Club G.L.O.B.E.

Hi all Enves,

I would like to invite you all to participate the annual general meeting of our own student club GLOBE.

GLOBE annual meeting:
When: November 27th at 3 pm
Where: at TAMK, lets meet in the lunch area opposite to the staff canteen
Who: each enve student

A new board will be elected and also some other general issues discussed. If you have anything concerning student activities at enve, please come and share it now. Generally the role of GLOBE has been to organise social and educational events for enve students, including even excursions abroad. GLOBE is a good way to think of applying official finance for projects too, cause its part of registered student union and has own bank account etc.

Please find the protocol of the meeting below. The meeting wont be anything too official and wont take too long although we have the "official" agenda for the annual meetings, wecan chat, have fun and plan everything for GLOBE's future! :)

Best regards,
Aino-Maija
president for GLOBE (autumn 2009)

P.S. GLOBE will have its traditional pre-christmas/christmas party on Sunday 13th December at 5pm onwards in Solu (tamkos saunaplace), mark the day to your calendars already and we will inform you more about that soon!

***

Student Club G.L.O.B.E for environmental engineering students

The Protocol of the Annual General Meeting of the G.L.O.B.E.

Date: 27th November 2009
Time: 3 pm
Place: TAMK, opposite to staff canteen

1. Opening of the meeting
2. The election of the chairman and secretary for the meeting. The election of the inspectors (2) of the records.
(3. Stating the legality and quorum of the meeting)
4. Approving of the meeting agenda
(5. Representing the auditing, annual report and the statement of the accountants)
6. Deciding of the confirmation of the auditing and allowing the discharge of liability for the board and other accountables
7. Confirming the plan of action, estimates of revenue and expenditure and the amount of the joining- and membership fee
8. The election of the chairperson of the board for 2010
9. The election of the vice- president and secretary of the board for 2010. Electing the other members for the board if wanted
10. Open forum (plans for future!) Christmas party, GLOBE blog, projects….
11. Closing the meeting

OUR OWN ECOLOGICAL SCHOOL GARDEN for TAMK planning session

The day is set, the time is set, now it is time for you to set your minds for a

FIRST MEETING FOR OUR OWN ECOLOGICAL SCHOOL GARDEN,

Wednesday, 25th of November, at 17.00 (the place will still be announced)

Absolutely everyone is welcome, you can also bring friends with you if you want, this is going to be fun!

What we are going to do is to plan a school garden where we students, especially the ENVEs but I don't see a reason why others cannot join, will have the chance to grow our very own, ecologically correct food, where we can spend some time outside, where we can try out everything we want (first ideas are rainwater harvesting system, own ecological fertilizer, permaculture, garden on the roof...), where we can relax and follow our roots and dig in the mud. The end of the ready packed carrots and salads has come! No imported food anymore, no unknown chemicals in our meals!

This first meeting will be for gathering ideas, sharing knowledge, and setting up a first timeplan and a strategy. I am more than willing to put lots of energy into this project, but I cannot do this by myself, so I need every single one of you!

The planning period will be during the winter so that we can start in springtime to get into action.

So put your rubberboots on and get ready for next Wednesday!

I cannot wait to hear what ideas you all have!

post by Magdalena, student at TAMK

See also: TAMK's English blog's writing and pictures about this :)

Climate debate about warming still goes on?

I heard the Nordic Climate day @ TAMK went great today, congratulations to all who prepared for it and hopefully the workhop ideas will stay alive still after today. Anyone who attended and follows this blog, please we would love to hear more of what you did?

...

Since it is the Nordic Climate day and I am enthusiastic about climate change I would like to comment or give some links about climate change and something related to current discussion in Finland about climate change..

On Monday at Finnish national TV channel Yle there was a programme about Climate change and how global warming is not real according to the journalist.. well, to start with, the programme MOT and its journalist Mr. Backman have never really been that creadible with their journalism in Finland so perhaps this should not even be commented, but there is a slight problem anyhow. Lots of people trust Yle and its contents in general and me, amongst many others, are surprised that programmes as this (English transcript of the broadcast):
http://ohjelmat.yle.fi/mot/taman_viikon_mot/transcript_english are "allowed" to be shown as such. There is something serious going on in the world and it might be about a time to concentrate on facts and not find alternative interpretations of graphs and so on. Well its a long story and I am not gonna go into that now, but if you are interested I forward here few links that I found useful from my fellow student and that I follow on blog discussions. Some are in English, the blogs in Finnish, but even after the Finnish blogs you might find interesting references to English sites!


http://planeetta.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/ilmastonihilismia-ala-backman/#comment-905

http://ohjelmaopas.yle.fi/artikkelit/tiede/tiede-blogit/ilmastonmuutos

http://tuukkasimonen.blogspot.com/


I heard that films watched at TAMK were the Venus theory and "The Great Global Warming Swindle"
Highly recommend at least the first one mentioned, the other clip I havent checked out yet..

By the way,
Had a chance to see the film "Age of Stupid" last friday and recommend that as well to all of you!

Nordic Climate Day at TAMK on 11th November

Interested? Anxious? Worried? Willing to hear, know or do more?

COME and hear what the very first speaker of the very first NORDIC CLIMATE DAY in TAMK has to say about current climate policy.

Meri Pukarinen, the campaign coordinator of the Big Ask-climate bill campaign (coordinated by the Friends of the Earth) is a young, inspiring and active doer. Meri has already met with the politicians and decision makers, now she will be telling us about the Big Ask-campaign. Should we in Finland have our own climate bill? Meri will also discuss about the United Nation's Climate Conference in Copenhagen in less than a month.

She will be initiating us into the most burning environmental topic of today, don't miss it.

Place: Auditorium D1-04
Time: 10:00-11:30


Other topics of the Nordic Climate day:

From 12:30 onwards, it is possible to hear about Environmental Engineering students excursion to Estonia.

From 14:00 onwards, Environmental Engineering students arrange a workshop about Energy & Ecoefficient Housing.


You are all most warmly welcome!

Tar Sands - the dirtiest way to make oil - lecture in English at Tampere University 9th November

There will be really interesting lecture, see more details below (the lecture is in English!!)

When: On Monday 9th November (9.11.2009) at 4 pm
Where: At the University of Tampere (main building) lecture room: A2B (2nd floor)

Falk Beyer, campaigner and journalist
from Germany, gives lecture on Monday, November 9th at
the University of Tampere. After the talk there is the
possibility to watch the film "Power of Community: How Cuba Survived
Peak Oil" http://www.powerofcommunity.org

Arranged by TAMY's environmental club and
http://luontoliitto.fi
http://www.hyokyaalto.org

Tar Sands - the dirtiest way to make oil

While conventional oil resources are running out the oil industry is
forcing new ?unconventional? sources. In the Canadian province Alberta
nearly all big oil companies of the world currently are working hard to
destroy an area as big as Switzerland - they are looking for the Tar
Sands, a very oil-bearing soil. Alberta provides with the Tar Sands the
second biggest oil reserve in the world. But its a very dirty and
poisonous process to make the bitumen contained by the Tar Sands to an
useable oil. Extracting this unconventional oil resource doesn?t mean
only the destruction of large ecosystems but is also connected with
the continued disregard of indigenous rights and dispossessing of the
First Nations of Canada. The presentation is based on images taken at
the Tar Sands mines in Canada and is the start of a European campaign
against the Tar Sands industry.

picture: http://climateprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/tar_sands.jpg

prospective leaders from threshold and developing countries?

Check this out, interested and belong to their target group?

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's new fellowship programme promotes prospective leaders from threshold and developing countries who are engaged in climate protection and resource conservation in academia, business, government or non-governmental organisations.

Up to twenty fellows are scheduled to be funded annually. They will come to Germany for a year to collaborate with host partners on joint projects which promote the exchange of knowledge, methods and techniques.

The aim is to create a network of German and foreign experts who work together to combat climate change and its global consequences on a sustainable, international basis. The fellowships are funded through the Federal Environment Ministry's (BMU) International Climate Protection Initiative.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is running the programme in cooperation with the Federation of German Industries (BDI), the Centre for International Postgraduate Studies in Environmental Management (CIPSEM) at the TU Dresden, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and the Renewables Academy AG (RENAC). The closing date for the first round of applications is 15 January 2010. The fellowship programme commences on 1 September 2010.

More information: www.humboldt-foundation.de/ICF