On 11th April the NFGL community in Lund
arranged the all-day super intensive interdisciplinary training on the topic of
sustainable development and related issues. We had three lectures and workshop at the end.
“HEAT: Understanding and acting upon climate change
induced heat at the local level to meet environmental, economic, and social
sustainability challenges” (by Marcella Samuels)
Climate change is already affecting our living
environments and our societies in multiple ways. It touches on a wide
range of societal issues such as, food and water security, human health,
housing and urban environments, human rights, gender equality, attitudes and
behavior. Heat stress has severe effects on human society, people’s health,
animals and ecosystems. Existing policies and social protection systems
are inadequate to both enhance adaptive capacity and to mitigate negative
climate change impacts. New technical, policy, and behavioral solutions
are needed, particularly in relation to how we plan and develop our societies.
This talk discussed the work of the Heat Research Collaboration at Lund
University, which is a multi- and cross-disciplinary research platform to
better understand and act upon heat challenges at the local level.
“How our monetary
system poisons everything” (by Henrik Davidsson)
Our financial system demands a continuously increased
debt and thus increased productivity and production of goods. This lead us
closer to peak oil and to an economy that no longer can grow. If you think that
a collapsing stock market is the worst case, think again.
“Stay cool without fossil fuel” (by Marwa Dabieh)
Our current heating and cooling conventional methods
are the most energy consuming systems in building operation. If we depend
mainly on fossil fuel in running our buildings that means an annual increase of
CO2 emission which increase the greenhouse gas effect. Not only this, it is
considered a financial burden as well. The presentation tackled the
importance of adopting passive cooling and heating techniques and showed examples on how to reach indoor thermal comfort with minimal or no cost and
with least impact on our environment.
And, of course, lectures worth nothing without
practice. Thus, our very practice-oriented workshop helped us to see how
sustainable development works, to contribute our own knowledge into the team
work and to get new friends.
Many thanks to participants and special thanks to
Maha Shalaby, NFGL coordinator of this event.
More pictures here.
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