Graduate Environmental Program » Articles

The OEP in Manchester

simonbatterbury — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:55:24 +0000

The OEP’s Director Simon Batterbury attended the Society for Human Ecology’s conference at the University of Manchester, UK in June ‘09. He gave a paper in a session on ‘Directions in Human Ecology Education’ using the example of the University of Melbourne ’s OEP, which was set up in the 1990s by Prof. Mark Burgman and others. Some of the challenges to the Program were also discussed, including changes to its institutional arrangements and funding over time, and the difficulties of coordination and management across the University. Nonetheless, with record enrolments the Program is flourishing (over 240 students, and 55 starting in Semester 2 2009 alone) . Other programs with a human ecology focus were introduced by other speakers, for example at the University of Geneva, the ANU, Free University Brussels, Univ. of Strathclyde, and the College of the Atlantic in Maine (which has an human ecology theme underlying all its undergraduate teaching). The University of Melbourne OEP postgrad model appears to be almost unique in offering just two core units (subjects) with freedom for students to choose the rest of their degrees from across Faculties or as supervised research projects. Publications from the conference session may result.

The conference also touched on the many environmental challenges facing (mainly) the northern hemisphere, including energy supply, urban growth management, water resource planning, environmental governance, and international agreements. The abstracts of papers may be found here.

Tim O'Riordan on the sustainable renaissance economy

simonbatterbury — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:58:04 +0000

The current editorial in Environment magazine is by Prof. Tim O’Riordan from the UK, someone our students will have read. In the grip of the global financial crisis, he argues for policies informed by “sustainability science that charts the kinds of opportunities leading to global eco-awareness, betterment, and well-being” rather than “profoundly unsustainable development”. It’s a turning point, folks.
http://www.environmentmagazine.org/May-June%202009/editorial-mj09.html

OEP Environment week 2009

simonbatterbury — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:00:29 +0000

We celebrated ten years of the OEP in March/April 2009 with a week of activities and events. A major presentation was made by Dr Ian McPhail on Victoria’s ‘State of the Environment’ report (2008), with expert commentaries by Peter Christoff, Kelly O’Shanassy and Kevin Love. The Provost of the University, Prof. Peter McPhee, discussed the Program and its achievements, inaugurated our new office sign, and we awarded Sustainability writing prizes. We also held an Environmental Fair, a ‘cycle to work’ morning breakfast, and linked to several other environmental events on campus.

Here is an article written in the University’s staff and student Newsletter about the week.

Paul Sinclair on the climate emergency

simonbatterbury — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:56:35 +0000

Dr Paul Sinclair of the Australian Conservation Foundation serves on our advisory board here at the OEP. In this article, he goes further, and with more personal sentiment, than most commentators in invoking a sense of urgency in relation to global warming.

“We need to keep searching for sources of hope that don’t reside in our political leaders, but are hidden in the ordinary courage our ancestors have shown. Our leaders will have to catch up.”

While Sinclair believes “The earth and its people are worth fighting for”, Prof. Steve Schneider’s talk at the Arts Centre, Melbourne on 16th March 09 was very sanguine about the current evidence that climatic ‘tipping points’ have been reached. For him, the probability that this has already occurred, leading to more rapid change effects, is rising.

Christoff on CPRS

simonbatterbury — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:33:15 +0000

Peter Christoff (Uni Melb) on Australia’s lackluster carbon pollution reduction scheme . The Age, February 24, 2009. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/middle-path-on-emissions-is-like-doing-nothing-20090223-8fxs.html?page=-1

Welcome to the OEP 2009

simonbatterbury — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:30:55 +0000

Greetings and best wishes for all our students, staff, and readers for 2009. My family and I spent the Xmas and New Year break piloting a Prius 2,500km between Melbourne and Sydney, and I kept my eyes open. Several issues will occupy our region this year. Firstly the spread of Melbourne into surrounding bush and farmland, described in the State of the Victorian Environment Report 2008, was very noticeable. This is not dense six-star rated environmental housing, but almost always extensive single family dwellings. This is unsustainable, as the Report highlights. The growing attraction of Melbourne as a major city need not lead to an extension of its spatial area at the expense of ‘compact’ development within its existing boundaries. Secondly, prolonged drought continues to make this one of the regions of Australia most threatened by water shortage. The State is favouring major infrastructure projects for (largely) urban water supply as one response, alongside its longstanding measures to reduce consumption. One scheme, (a desalinisation plant) is potentially very energy intensive, with most of its electricity coming from our brown coal power stations unless alternatives are developed now. Opposition to the project can be seen in roadside banners between Melbourne and Wonthaggi. The Goulburn-Melbourne Sugarloaf pipeline, under rapid construction, is also unpopular with many rural residents since it taps into water that goes to the highly stressed Murray-Darling system. Recycling of urban water, available in other world cities and proposed by some of our staff, has quietly been rejected for Melbourne, while the rainwater storage tank systems found in rural areas are still scarce in the city. Farming communities continue to suffer from rainwater shortages and unreliability, despite rural conservation efforts, and there are changes ahead for government compansation schemes for drought affected farmers. Thirdly, Victoria and New South Wales’s stunning coastlines are already feeling the effects of climatic change (although there is still some scientific debate on this). One property owner on Sandy Inlet, north of Wilson’s Promontory, reported she was now losing 25cm a year to rising sea levels, on a relatively sheltered inlet without much wave action. Coastal property prices are becoming uncertain. Fourthly, the Victorian bushfires of February 09 will have a lasting impact on many families, prompting new planning regulations, a rethink on evacuation plans, advanced fire modelling and emergency response systems, and a long overdue focus on the local impacts of global climate change.

The craziness of the global economic downturn – a fifth driver of changes in 2009, of course- will leave a complex legacy for already stressed environments. It is too early to predict its outcomes, but I hope they will not involve losing corporate, individual, and public responsibility and concern for the fundamental environmental matters that our Program has been focussed on for a decade.

Despite this rather downbeat assessment, the region is blessed with extraordinary habitats and places. Sitting in a fantastic rammed earth house built largely from recycled materials (including soil!) in Candelo, NSW, and then journeying across some of the remoter regions of Gippsland, I was reminded of this. Creating better knowledge and understanding of all of the environmental concerns above - which is what universities like ours are all about -may not always lead to satisfactory outcomes (for science rarely informs policy in an uncomplicated way), but it must help. The trans-disciplinary knowledge promoted by our own Program informs empirical studies of environmental issues, enlarging the pool of knowledgeable students who bring their expertise into professional practice, domestic life, activism, research, and advocacy. For our new students, there is a lot to see, as well as a lot to learn.

Simon Batterbury

Article by M Env student, Jess Fritze

simonbatterbury — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:44:00 +0000

Fritze J, Blashki G, Burke S, Wiseman J. 2008. Hope, despair and transformation: Climate change and the promotion of mental health and wellbeing. International Journal of Mental Health Systems. 2:13

Economics engages with global warming

environment — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:19:29 +0000

A very useful perspective on the need to teach about, and engage with, the primary environmental challenge of the century. http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/01/20/goodstein