Submitted by Jorge Hernandez on the 2019 winter session program in Australia sponsored by the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering…
The second week of study abroad has concluded and there have been a variety of additional things that I noted. There is much larger stress here in certain areas toward sustainability than I have seen in the United States. There is a plastic bag ban and the only bags you get are reusable ones or recyclable. There is also a much lower use of air conditioning, many campuses and buildings do not have air conditioning, and it seems to be in an effort to conserve electricity. Even the outlets have switches to stop the flow of electricity to that specific plug. These little things make me wonder how difficult these strategies would be to implement in the United States in order to push for more sustainable practices. These things feed well into one of my course “Introduction to Sustainability Principles” and our discussions on climate change. The longer I am here, the more I see certain policies that could help the United States curve its own energy expenditures. That being said, I have visited the less urban state of Tasmania this past week and it seemed like the ecological mindset in Melbourne is there as well. The cabins did not have air conditioning and there are still switches on the outlets. We even saw a small tent at one of the markets selling roasted crickets, which me and a friend tasted, advertising them as a more sustainable source of protein. These are interesting things that I will continue to notice throughout the rest of my study abroad.