Teaching this New Eagle-Required Badge. Bruce McGurk, PhD, P.H.

Transcription

1 Teaching this New Eagle-Required Badge Bruce McGurk, PhD, P.H.

2 Main Topics Definition of Sustainability Water family usage, sources, drought Food family waste, self-production, regional limits Community model town, interview, housing plan Energy sources, production effects, carbon footprint, reducing consumption, transportation use Stuff log non-food items/week, clean out, effect Life-support systems and effect of stuff on the future Recycling plastic, e-waste, food, World effects species, population, climate change Career opportunities

3 Boot Camps and Pre-Work At the least, MB should be done with a buddy If Boot Camp, limit group to 10, and at least 2 adults Plan for 5-6 hours after Pre-Work is done MB also has After-Work Scouts must have the Work Sheet, with completed Pre-Work before counselor begins If Boot Camp, plan for drinks and snacks, or lunch. This is a 3-month+ merit badge due to the Pre-Work (if past utility bills are used, might be 6 week).

4 Section 1 Dn. Of Sustainability, done as Pre-Work 1. Before starting work on any other requirements for this merit badge, write in your own words the meaning of sustainability. Explain how you think conservation and stewardship of our natural resources relate to sustainability. Have a family meeting, and ask family members to write their idea of sustainability means. Conservation: the careful use of natural resources to prevent them from being lost or wasted wise use Stewardship: an ethic that embodies the responsible planning and management of resources Sustainability the capacity to endure, living without harming the environment or depleting resources

5 Water family usage, sources, drought 2A. Develop and implement a plan that attempts to reduce your family's water usage. Examine your family's water bills reflecting usage for three months (past or current).as a family, discuss water usage. As a family, choose three ways to help reduce consumption. Implement those ideas for one month. Water bills are readily available in most areas, and summer versus winter bills should be examined and discussed. An alternative task is available for families on wells or who never see a water bill.

6 Sample Water Bill

7 Water B or C B. Using a diagram you have created, explain to your counselor how your household gets its clean water from a natural source and what happens with the water after you use it. Include water that goes down the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry drains, and any runoff from watering the yard or washing the car. C. Discuss with your counselor two areas in the world that have been affected by drought over the last three years. For each area, identify a water conservation practice (successful or unsuccessful) that has been used. Tell whether the practice was effective and why. Discuss what water conservation practice you would have tried and why.

8 Water sources, use, and fate

9 Drought California and Austrailia Voluntary rationing in CA somewhat effective 10-20% Incentives in CA to remove lawns, use efficient fixtures Building desalination plants CA and AUS costly, time Use of recycled water on plants CA and AUS takes time Ag. Production reduced CA and AUS - painful

10 Food reduce waste, grow own A. Develop and implement a plan that attempts to reduce your household food waste. Establish a baseline and then track and record your results for two weeks. Report your results to your family and counselor. Scout should use a food bin that all scraps and waste food go in, and record weight or volume daily for a week. Then implement their plan and track the bin. Plan could include use of leftovers for lunches, cooking smaller quantities, freezing excess for later use, etc.

11 Food: B or C, growing own, limits B. Discuss with your counselor the ways individuals, families, and communities can create their own food sources (potted plants, family garden, neighborhood or community garden). Tell how plan might contribute to a more sustainable way of life if practiced globally. Homegrown food displaces industrial ag, locavore idea C. Discuss with your counselor factors that limit the availability of food and food production in different regions of the world. Tell 3ways these factors influence the sustainability of worldwide food supplies. Arable land, water, labor, seed and fertilizer, storage and transport, preservation, some of each in underdeveloped countries such as Egypt, Iran, Honduras, Mexico. Each limits production reliability, quantity, and ability of food to get to market

12 Community: sustainable city A. Draw a rough sketch depicting how you would design a sustainable community. Explain to counselor how the housing, work locations, shops, schools, and transportation systems affect energy, pollution, natural resources, and the economy of the community. Key factors are that housing and work are co-located with shops and schools, use bicycles not cars, public gardens are parks are plentiful. City is dense shops and offices on first floor, housing above, all are topped and sided with solar panels, All buildings plumbed to collect and use gray water, well insulated, use passive solar All these factors affect energy use, pollution, resources

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14 Community jobs & materials B. With your parent s permission and your counselor s approval, interview a local architect, engineer, contractor, or building materials supplier. Find out the factors that are considered when using sustainable materials in renovating or building a home. Building construction uses 60% of raw materials used by US, excluding food and fuel. Availability and cost are two big factors, but drywall, insulation, countertops, tiles, steel, carpet & padding can all come from recycled materials. Salvaged building materials cause huge savings htm

15 Community housing needs C. Review a current housing needs assessment for your town, city, county, or state. Discuss with your counselor how birth and death rates affect sufficient housing, and how a lack of housing or too much housing can influence the sustainability of a local or global area. CA has done a housing needs assessment: allows communities to anticipate growth, so that collectively the region and subregion can grow in ways that enhance quality of life, improve access to jobs, promotes transportation mobility, and addresses social equity, fair share housing needs. Includes population growth projections, ownership, includes 1) existing need for housing, and 2) future need for housing

16 Energy: sources and effects A. Learn about the sustainability of different energy sources, including fossil fuels, solar, wind, nuclear, hydropower, and geothermal. Find out how the production and consumption of each of these energy sources affects the environment and what the term carbon footprint means. Each common energy source has some drawbacks. Gas, oil, and coal are limited, & cause climate change Nuclear is mostly carbon free, but long-lived waste The best hydropower sites are taken, and new ones have ecological drawbacks Wind often happens when not needed, kills owls and hawks, and is often distant from the population centers Solar photovoltaic is great but low intensity, expensive, and uses scarce resources and has a finite lifetime.

17 Energy: B-reduce use - OR B. Develop and implement a plan that attempts to reduce consumption for one of your family s household utilities. Examine your family s bills for that utility reflecting usage for three months (past or current). As a family, choose three ways to help reduce consumption, implement those ideas for one month. Natural gas use can be reduced by lowering the thermostat, using a programmable thermostat, lowering the water heater setting, and doing laundry in cold water, and hang the wash outside to dry. Try these changes, and see if you can lower your bill.

18 Energy: C-fuel for transportation C. Evaluate your family s fuel and transportation usage. Review your family s transportation-related bills (gasoline, diesel, electric, public transportation, etc.) reflecting usage for three months (past or current). As a family, choose three ways to help reduce consumption and be a better steward of this resource. Implement those ideas for one month. By driving slower, using mass transit, not using the AC, and combining trips, you may lower your fuel bill. Try to use the most fuel-efficient vehicle for trips, and bicycle if possible. See if all the changes reduce use.

19 Stuff Log new stuff for 2 weeks A. Keep a log of the stuff your family purchases (excluding food items) for two weeks. In your log, categorize each purchase as an essential need (such as soap) or a desirable want (such as a DVD). Discuss! Learn difference between essentials and wants Be aware of packaging that is discarded immediately Are you replacing items that are not worn out just because something newer came along? Are you recycling and repurposing what you discard? It is far worse to put it in the trash compared to donating and recycling items.

20 Stuff: B-cleanup, C-life effect B. Plan a project that involves the participation of your family to identify the stuff your family no longer needs. Complete your project by donating, repurposing, or recycling these items. Clean closets, garage, dressers if items not used, don t fit, disliked, donate them. C. Discuss with your counselor how having too much stuff affects you, your family, and your community. Include the following: the financial impact, time spent, maintenance, health, storage, and waste. How can you avoid accumulating stuff in the future? Isn t less but better a philosophy worth adopting?

21 Planetary life support - interactions a. Explain how the planetary life-support systems (soil, climate, freshwater, atmospheric, nutrient, oceanic, ecosystems, and species) support life on Earth and interact with one another. Earth is a big, interlinked system moving energy, water, oxygen, nutrients, plants, and animals. Changes to one piece affect other parts all connected Scouts do Leave No Trace in the backcountry, so extending parts of that outlook to more is not hard Tipping point: there is debate about if and when thresholds will be reached that will cause big changes in the function of the planet s systems

22 Materials: production & distribution b. Tell how the harvesting or production of raw materials (by extraction or recycling), along with distribution of the resulting products, consumption, and disposal/repurposing, influences current and future sustainability thinking and planning. Mining, logging, farming, fishing all take materials from the planet for our use, and can have ill effects Many resources are finite and can be used up Sustainable use means recycling, using at the renewable rate, awareness of the system s limits Again, REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE

23 4. Sustainability Issues pick 2, discuss with family, best/worst control practices Plastic waste impact on env t, numbering, vortex Electronic waste lifespan, recycled?, impact Food waste composting, how to start, start one Species decline explain, role of human activities, possible changes, effect on environment World population how does size affect sust. of Earth, discuss 3 human activities that put Earth at risk Climate change find map of temperature changes over 100 years, discuss 3 factors affecting global weather and temperature

24 5. Family meeting, and Oath & Law a. After completing requirements 1 through 4, have a family meeting. Discuss what your family has learned about what it means to be a sustainable citizen. Talk about the behavioral changes and life choices your family can make to live more sustainably. (Post-work) B. Discuss how living the Oath & Law in your daily life helps promote sustainability and good stewardship THRIFTY- less waste, minimize stuff, no disposables CLEAN no litter, aware of result of actions on nature Outdoor Code conservation minded soil, water, forests, minerals, grasslands, wildlife, energy use Leave No Trace applies to more than just actions while camping why not all the time?

25 Careers in Sustainability Learn about career opportunities in the sustainability field. Pick one and find out the education, training, and experience required. Discuss what you have learned with your counselor and explain why this career might interest you. Sustainable agriculture growing crops organically, protect env t, public health, humans, animal welfare Ecologists work to sustain local/global ecosystems Fisheries, hydrology, forestry all can be done with an outlook of balancing systems, sharing resources Coastal zone management lessen impact of land activities on near-land ocean zone and species in it

26 Thank you!