Shared Planet 2013

This past weekend (November 1-3), I attended People & Planet's Shared Planet conference in London. It was the largest UK student gathering on human rights, world poverty and the environment! 

Friday was the last night of the Fossil Free UK tour. It featured Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, author, environmental activist for Climate Change, etc.. and Kumi Naidoo, the Executive Director for Greenpeace International! Honestly, I fangirled so hard over the two of them.

The Fossil Free UK tour was about understanding the math behind climate change and getting pumped up about divestment (taking away investments into fossil fuel companies and investing in renewable energy sources). The FAQ on the http://math.350.org/ is very very very informative!

But essentially, three super important numbers:

1. Almost every government in the world has agreed that any warming above a 2°C (3.6°F) rise would be unsafe. 
2. Scientists estimate that humans can pour roughly 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and still have some reasonable hope of staying below two degrees.
3. The Carbon Tracker Initiative, a team of London financial analysts and environmentalists, estimates that proven coal, oil, and gas reserves of the fossil-fuel companies, and the countries (think Venezuela or Kuwait) that act like fossil-fuel companies, equals about 2,795 gigatons of CO2, or five times the amount we can release to maintain 2 degrees of warming.

KUMI NAIDOO IS AWESOME, CAN I JUST BE AROUND HIM ALL THE TIME PLEASE OKAY YEAH.

The Friday event was at the Troxy, and it was pretty cool!

The actual Shared Planet Conference was held at Newvic College. We had lots of amazing workshops and open panels and discussions about the two main campaigns: Sweatshop Free and Fossil Fuel Free!

This open panel pictured below was about youth engagement and barriers for youth. The lady at the right side is Caroline Lucas, the Green Party member of parliament for Brighton! She's the only Green Party member of Parliament in the Westminster government. I just think she's awesome, like Elizabeth May is awesome. Yay for awesome women heading the environmental politics movement.

Can you spot me in the picture below? 

Another open panel discussion! Pretty awesome people talking!

I bought this poster during the conference, and it's kind of hard to read because my phone quality isn't great... but it's an INCREDIBLE poster. If you want to see any part of it more clearly, let me know. I couldn't find an online version of the poster, but it makes me so happy.

All in all, I was SO happy being able to spend an entire weekend about people who care about the environment. It was such a nice atmosphere where people wanted to talk about environmental issues and really get into it.

The most important part of the weekend though? Knowing there are people who are working hard in their respective universities to pursue environmental action and promote sustainability - and being re-energized and motivated to keep keep trying to make our societies more eco-friendly.

Next up: Lewes Bonfire Night aka Guy Fawkes Night on November the 5th! Remember remember...

MTT: Tues in Edinburgh, Wed Hadrian's Wall, Thurs Liverpool

On Tuesday afternoon (like 2pm - 4pm), I made my way up Calton Hill in Edinburgh as part of a hiking adventure with a bunch of other BISC kids. Honestly, the view of Edinburgh from up here was incredible. We originally were supposed to hike up to Arthur's Seat, but there had been some rain the night before and the hill would have been quite treacherous. This wasn't too much of a hike, but it was enough exercise for the most of us haha... 

The hills surrounding Edinburgh are gorgeous. In the few months I've been travelling, I've completely completely realized how in love I am with mountains and hills. (And though I'm in Europe, I often find myself longing to travel Alberta/British Columbia). 

On the very left in the picture below, you can see the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Scottish Parliament building.

The rest of the day, I wandered around Edinburgh and then went back to the Baked Potato Shop for VEGTARIAN HAGGIS on a potato.

It doesn't look super appetizing, but it was delicious. Copied from a website: "Macsween vegetarian haggis contains a hearty mix of kidney beans, lentils, nuts, vegetables, oatmeal, onions, seasoning and spices." Honestly, some of my friends tried real haggis and didn't love it - but I would absolutely recommend this glob of yumminess to everyone. 

 On Wednesday night, Jessica and I (she's shown in the instagram post I made about this) went to Forest Cafe! Here's their description from their website: "The Forest is a volunteer-run, collectively-owned, free arts and events project. We run a vegetarian café and a big block of studios and facilities to provide dedicated space for people to get involved in any creative activity imaginable." I can't really sum it up better than that - but it was a lovely place.

On Wednesday, we headed out of Edinburgh (boo...) and slowly made our way to Liverpool. Our major stop along the way was Hadrian's Wall - a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Emperor Hadrian built it in 122 AD, and a lot of it is still somewhat standing. There were also lots of sheep strolling around.  

When we finally arrived in Liverpool on Wednesday evening (like 5pm, so it was sunny out for an hour!), we found our way to Chinatown and had a cute dinner. This was some pretty architecture along the way.

Albert's Dock, which is one of the main docks of Liverpool, was beautiful at night. I actually found it to be prettier during the daytime though - so those pictures are below.

On Thursday morning, I had a field study for my Development course to the International Slavery Museum. It was a pretty powerful museum, and though there wasn't very much information, I did enjoy learning about the remnants of slavery still displayed in the architecture/history of Liverpool. I spent a lot of time in one particular area focusing on modern slavery and cotton picking in Uzbekistan.

After the International Slavery Museum, my friend Asheika and I went to "The Brink"  for lunch. Essentially, "the Brink is a recovery social enterprise, which means that all our profits go directly back into the community to fund support for those who have suffered through alcoholism and addiction." They don't have any alcohol on site, which is awesome considering they have a good night life scene (though we wouldn't know from experience because lunch); their menu is based of local ingredients. I thoroughly enjoyed it here.

After lunch, we went on a very quick two hour mission around Liverpool! This is Albert Dock during the daytime.

This is the World Museum in Liverpool (I think... I didn't actually go in).

This is the Cavern Club - where the Beatles first played! There was so many Beatles tourist attractions in Liverpool, and some of y'all will hate me for saying this, but I wasn't super interested in finding Penny Lane or Strawberry Fields or whatever else... The Cavern Club was cool though.

We then headed back from Liverpool to the castle Thursday afternoon to night; there was lots of movie watching on the way - V for Vendetta, Pitch Perfect! I bought a cucumber at one of our rest stops (while the majority of students bought Burger King haha) and just munched on it. It was delicious and I genuinely miss being able to go into my kitchen fridge and eating whatever I want.

So there, that was my Midterm Trip!

On Friday, I went into Brighton to see Ender's Game!!!!! It came out on Oct 25th in the UK but it's still not out in Canada haha. I won't say anything regarding the movie because some of my friends have expressed threats if I do mention any spoilers (kidding, sort of)... but it was well worth a watch! If you have small children, it might be kind of scary to see the attacking monster-like species.

I also got a lovely shot of Brighton's burnt down pier thing before I left. Sometimes I regret going into Brighton because I just spend money on cupcakes oh my goodness delicious but then things like this happen and I realize how much I LOVE the city. I really really feel trapped sometimes because we're in the middle of nowhere at the castle... The travelling is good though!

Class today (Monday) was weird because we hadn't had class for a week and a half... I'm excited to get this week over with; I'm going to Shared Planet 2013 in London this weekend AND I'M SO EXCITED. It's the UK's biggest student conference (300+ students?) on environmentalism and human rights. Everyone there will be 16+, and I've been DYING to meet actual British people. This fake exchange thing is a little off putting at times; being around Canadians 99% of the time makes it hard to feel like I'm living in Britain for so long (2 months down, 6 to go).

Have a fantastic week everyone! 

Midterm Trip: Day 1 (Coach Bus) & 2 (SCOTLAND)

A key part of my ridiculous university program is our midterm trip. We have one each term, after our big assignments and exams for some courses (though I had none) in Week 6. So instead of going to classes for Week 7, we headed off to Edinburgh, Scotland and Liverpool, England. Next term, we're off to France (but that's really far away in late February.) Our adventure started at 4:30am on Sunday morning and we returned back to Bader Hall residences at late Thursday evening. 

On Sunday, we basically just sat on a coach bus for hours and hours. We did all stop at the National Coal Mining Museum though, which was interesting. The tour was a little too long and a tad suffocating underground; I can't imagine how miners do this for years. 

We arrived in Edinburgh (pronounced ed-en-borough) Sunday evening. Within an hour of being in the city, a group of us headed out to pubs. In celebrating our being in Scotland, we had some scotch. Later on in the night, we found a sketchy night club called the Hive.

Monday was more interesting! We started off the day early with a tour of Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament building. This was my first Politics Field Study! One of the NSP of the MSP (members of Scottish parliament) agreed to do a question and answer period with us, which was fascinating. He shot down the one question I asked, which was reasonable, though I would have liked an answer. 

 

Then I grabbed a bite at the Baked Potato shop (which I visited twice during my time in Edinburgh) before going to the Edinburgh castle! I didn't take a picture of the first potato I had (avocado salad). 

Edinburgh Castle was stunning though. Edinburgh is stunning.

It's like, far off to the right.

After the Edinburgh Castle, a few of us visited the Elephant House - where JK Rowling wrote part of Harry Potter. I had relatively good tea there, and the view from the window was lovely (as pictured in my last post). 

We headed back to our Travelodge afterwards, found a super noodle box place for pretty cheap, and went out again that night. 

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is coming up on the next post! Hope y'all are doing well - please leave me comments or email me or contact me in whatever way! Lots of love.

Instagram from Bexhill, Edinburgh & LIverpool

Saw Brave today at the De La Warr Pavillion in Bexhill, UK. Scottish prep before Edinburgh tomorrow! (Posted Saturday, October 19th). 

The view at the Elephant house, aka where JK Rowling wrote most of Harry Potter!

Forest Cafe (blog.theforest.org.uk) in Edinburgh had lovely tea and a charming atmosphere.

Liverpool.

Had a super lunch today at the@brinkliverpool. Love supporting social enterprises!

Just a post to justify that I still occasionally dress well (even as a university student)