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Comenius 2015

For the Comenius project the research question was: “How do you

think citizens can get more sustainable?” As a problem solver at

heart, I quickly wanted to find the root of the problem. And seeing as

Comenius is an international project, I thought I’d take it to an

international level. I asked my fellow alumni from Camp Rising Sun, (a

summer camp I attended two years ago) my research questions. The

fact that these people experience their own bit of durability in their

country makes for very interesting results. The people in question all

have different countries of residence, from Japan to America, and

from Peru to Bulgaria.

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Next to this, I managed to secure an interview with Nick

Goedeking, an energy efficiency legislator who is currently in

India, where he went to a conference with Al Gore to discuss

how to build political pressure for the UN climate change

conference in December in Paris.

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Having met Nick twice in the past, in Hungary and in Germany

at CRS reunions, I knew he was the perfect person to

interview for this project. After obtaining his Skype, I started

the interview.

What would you say the greatest issue concerning a

sustainable environment is?

“There are various aspects connected to a sustainable

environment, some say a sustainable development is too

expensive. Anyway, the most important aspects of 

development are:

food security including water security (everyone needs these

resources to simply survive)

then access to health care and education to allow people to

take control over their lives

electricity plays into these fields as food and water security

can often only be assured once one has the corresponding

infrastructure (which often uses energy)” Nick says,

“Water and food are also very important politically, people

will reject a government if there isn’t enough food. Look at

Amartya Sen’s theory on famine: ‘people don’t starve

because there isn’t enough food, but simply because they

don’t have access to the food which is available.’ In other

words, there isn’t enough food, but the poorest don’t get

any. The Governing class and the military on the other hand,never starve.” Nick States with a face full of confidence.

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What are recent some developments that strengthen

sustainability?

“That’s a difficult question” are the first words that flop out

of Nick’s mouth.

“I'd say the biggest potential for sustainability are the energy

and agriculture sectors, because it is actually very straight

forward to improve. In fact, every hour the sun projects

enough energy on to the earth to supply earth’s energy

demand for an entire year that's a lot of energy!

the great thing is: sustainable energy would also drastically

improve the life quality of billions, the city where I’mcurrently residing New Delhi, for example, is the world's most

polluted city. The air quality is terrible!

But if one starts using more sustainable energy resources,

then the air becomes better which is not only good for the

planet, but also for the people. Better air will reduce

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healthcare costs and free resources for investments into

infrastructure or education.

And this is the recent trend: financial investment into

renewable energy resources is at an all time high at the

moment. So as a conclusion, there are a lot of improvements,

but also a lot of challenges.”

After this we wished each other the best for the future and as

I was still in the process of thanking him, he already hung up.

I almost forgot, he is a busy man.

(Nick in India->)

Taking all of this into account, it is obvious

that this is a worldly issue, and mostdefinitely not a local one. We need the

efforts of all the countries in the world to

make a change happen. Countless treaties have been accepted, and

there’s still struggle around the world.

In my opinion, we need to capitalize on the efforts already made

now, for example, according to my research, a lot of people recycle,

which is a good thing. Taking that into account we need to use that as

our building blocks, because people are more likely to continue doing

something, or to pick something up if all their peers are doing it.

Change comes gradually, and we need to accept it, but we shouldn’t

take it for granted, because if we do, we will lose all our

development. The problem needs to be solved from the bottom to

the top, meaning we have to solve the small issues first, and then the

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large issues will be easier to solve. How do we do this? We have

everyone start at a local level, for example, in Emmen, Wildlands, the

new zoo, is in the process of being built. And we all know the new

tunnel dug in Emmen, the clay harvested from the operation is now

used for the construction of Wildlands. Apart from that, Wildlands

has bought the Floriade bridge, normally it would be destroyed, but

Wildlands has decided to re-use it. That’s durability.

So to summarize, we need to start acting fast, we need everyone’s

coorporation and we will succeed. And the most important medium

is us. And that is what this project is all about.

Now, as for my execution of the project and the way I have drawn

attention to it, I had a farily simple strategy. My first idea was to

make a post in the Facebook group of alumni, but as I checked it, I

saw the community was inactive. (This was confirmed by the fact that

after I made my post, it got three total replies and one like over the

next day). So I resulted to a different approach. The direct one. I saw

who was available and I sent them a message, I explained the context

and asked them my research questions. After getting what I needed, I

asked the person to reflect on their habits of durability. (Reflecting is

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a common thing in the CRS mentality.) This is one of the main

reasons I asked my second question. It’s good to know what people

are doing well, but better to know what people are doing wrong. To

quote one of my favorite artists: “Criticism is worth more than

compliments.”

After one ‘interview’ I got lucky, one of my German friends referred

me to Nick, which you have read about previously, and he really

helped me bring my whole project together. He even wanted to

know my opinions and said he was going to impliment more of the

opinions of younger people!

“Because young people are

the future, who am I to ignore

the future?” As Nick said.

Overall I am very proud to say

that I have impacted the

habits of my peers, and I hope

they will keep up the durable

lifestyle. Here are some of 

those conversations:

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