Wyatt McKibben on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 9:52am
This trip was an amazing opportunity for those of us who were fortunate enough to participate in it. The events we attended, and the contacts we met with were all exceptional. I was hoping that this trip would help me focus my interests and lead me towards a topic for my senior research next year. Interestingly, its effects were quite the contrary. This trip exposed me to a whole array of fascinating topics and issues that I would love to research further.
Wyatt McKibben on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 9:38am
The London Green fair was a weekend event held in Regent’s park, London. The fair hosted dozens of tents and exhibits ranging from perma-culture exhibits to sustainable funeral services. The event also hosted live music, speakers, poetry and a wide array of food options. While there didn’t appear to be any real criteria for having a tent the majority of the spaces were occupied by some form of environmentally conscious group or business. I wandered from a tent about cycling in the city to a pair of guys who built furniture from reclaimed packing pallets.
Wyatt McKibben on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 9:11am
The EU Green Week Conference was an amazingly fitting and fortunately timed component to our study trip. The event fell conveniently during our time in Brussels and was open to the public. The four-day conference on EU environmental and climate policy was focused on the topic of resource efficiency. Each day dozens of panelists from different organizations and governance bodies presented on a broad range of topics all associated with resource efficiency and EU policy.
Wyatt McKibben on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 9:02am
The Talk London event with mayor Boris Johnson was held in Westminster, an area historic for its national and international politics, this event was strictly concerned with local issues and policy. The mayor took unscripted and unfiltered questions (which was apparent when one inquisitor had to be escorted out for loud and belligerent comments) from the live audience of several hundred and a radio audience of potentially several millions. Mayor Johnson adeptly fielded questions ranging from bus fares, to tickets to the 2012 Olympics.
Wyatt McKibben on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 8:58am
This semester my research with professor Buck’s class revolved around the European Union Emissions Trading System, specifically the method with which they allocate the emissions allowances. One of the conclusions I came to in the process was that this particular policy was better regulated at the EU level. One of the terms they use frequently in the EU is “subsidarity”, in this context subsidarity means that policy decisions should be made on the most relevant governance level. For example Education policy is almost exclusively decided at state and local levels.
Ethan Bishop on Thu, 06/30/2011 - 11:01pm
Our first event on this trip may have been the most inspiring. We entered the European Parliament hearing on their “Rio + 20” as seven Americans who represent the diversity that is modern day American society. Yet the one thing that brings us all together in an unlegislated or government-enforced fashion, to reference De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, is our language. What a thrust into European reality when we looked around and saw an array of translators stacked in front of us.
Ethan Bishop on Thu, 06/30/2011 - 10:58pm
Out of the variety of stands at Green Week in Brussels, the one I was drawn to the most was the European Commission’s “European Green Capital” contest. The wonderful woman running the booth was from Dublin, Ireland. She was a hopeful lady who seemed very enthusiastic about such a competition between all large cities in the European Union, even if no Irish city is yet in the running.
Ethan Bishop on Thu, 06/30/2011 - 10:54pm
Perhaps one of the most fascinating days was that of Thahitun’s excursion. We first visited Brixton in London which is an attempt at a Transition Town, a locally controlled community and grass roots movement covered by her research. The most interesting aspect of this location was its attempt at its own local currency. Perhaps with self-propelled disappointment, this town was not what I thought it would be. But of course it is still, as mentioned to me in a witty response to my disappointment, in “transition”.
Ethan Bishop on Thu, 06/30/2011 - 10:45pm
After three days in Brussels a pleasant break was deserved from the bustle of international politics, although the city was definitely beautiful and charming. Before we took the train to what I would say is the most enjoyable city in Belgium, Ghent, we stopped and discussed environmental politics in Europe further with Brook, a man from the organization Friends of the Earth.
Ethan Bishop on Thu, 06/30/2011 - 10:19pm
My excursion was, for me, a lover of history in its most grand and living representations, the most exciting. It was my idea that we go view the grandest of all castles, Windsor. The amount of space, green space that is, which has been preserved is staggering. It is wonderful to see the ancient role of royal families as the stewards of their ancient dominions still shadowed on the same land of the present day.
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