Opening Ceremony
Aalborg July 7th 2008.
As President of Caretakers of the Environment International (CEI) I would like to introduce who we are and what we do.
We are a Global Network for teachers, educators and students.
We began in 1987 in tents and caravans in Den Haag, Netherlands. It was a joint concept of Ed Radatz and Isabel Abrams from the USA and Arjen Wals from the Netherlands who met in Chicago. They developed an idea which has grown from strength to strength.
An International Board was set up. This Board invites offers from countries to host the annual conference. It has been in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Central America.
Thanks to Aalborg Youth school for hosting this year.
The legacy of past conferences is one big family with National Branches, ongoing contacts in countries around the globe, RIACA ( a regional network for the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries).
The result is diversity from the 15 countries represented here this year.
But what makes it UNIQUE is you the young people, working side by side with educators and teachers.
There is Unity through a common theme for the conference, the recommendations/environmental statements at the end of the conference and
the Joint Educational Projects such as the Seeds of Biodiversity project and this year the introduction to Threads of Equality.
Some reflections on the Theme.
First, in travelling to this conference, I am reminded of the song title: Trains and Boats and Planes. Our delegation drove to Dublin, took a plane to Copenhagen, then a bus and ferry to Aalborg. All very efficient.
The same wind that is blowing the Viking longboat from its visit to Dublin (a city founded in Ireland by the Vikings) back to Roskilde in Denmark where it was built is the same wind that powers the wind turbines that are clearly visible from the aeroplane window as you arrive into Kastrup airport. This New Energy is visible on every horizon throughout the country.
In 1998, when we hosted the conference I recollect Jose Ramon Casanova (a teacher from Spain) and myself peering up inside a wind turbine on the hills of Northern Ireland. 10 years later, Spain has fully embraced this new source of energy whilst Ireland is only slowly coming to the realisation that it is useful and sustainable form of energy.
Travelling between Aarhus and Aalborg on the bus, I was reminded of similar landscapes I had seen in previous conferences. In 1987, cycling around the island of Texel in the Netherlands and in 1989 on a farm visit in Wisconsin, USA.
The landscape was either flat or gently rolling with red coloured farmhouses surrounded by a windbreak of trees and endless fields of cereal crops. The grain silos and the animal waste tanks by the farmhouse indicated the intensive nature of animal rearing. Nowadays, that animal waste can be used as Biogas.
I would like to finish with an advert that appears on Irish TV.
It is from Carlsberg, the Danish Beer company:
Carlsberg don’t do conferences, but if they did,
they Probably would organise the best in the world.
It is up to our hosts to prove this!
Aalborg July 7th 2008.
As President of Caretakers of the Environment International (CEI) I would like to introduce who we are and what we do.
We are a Global Network for teachers, educators and students.
We began in 1987 in tents and caravans in Den Haag, Netherlands. It was a joint concept of Ed Radatz and Isabel Abrams from the USA and Arjen Wals from the Netherlands who met in Chicago. They developed an idea which has grown from strength to strength.
An International Board was set up. This Board invites offers from countries to host the annual conference. It has been in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Central America.
Thanks to Aalborg Youth school for hosting this year.
The legacy of past conferences is one big family with National Branches, ongoing contacts in countries around the globe, RIACA ( a regional network for the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries).
The result is diversity from the 15 countries represented here this year.
But what makes it UNIQUE is you the young people, working side by side with educators and teachers.
There is Unity through a common theme for the conference, the recommendations/environmental statements at the end of the conference and
the Joint Educational Projects such as the Seeds of Biodiversity project and this year the introduction to Threads of Equality.
Some reflections on the Theme.
First, in travelling to this conference, I am reminded of the song title: Trains and Boats and Planes. Our delegation drove to Dublin, took a plane to Copenhagen, then a bus and ferry to Aalborg. All very efficient.
The same wind that is blowing the Viking longboat from its visit to Dublin (a city founded in Ireland by the Vikings) back to Roskilde in Denmark where it was built is the same wind that powers the wind turbines that are clearly visible from the aeroplane window as you arrive into Kastrup airport. This New Energy is visible on every horizon throughout the country.
In 1998, when we hosted the conference I recollect Jose Ramon Casanova (a teacher from Spain) and myself peering up inside a wind turbine on the hills of Northern Ireland. 10 years later, Spain has fully embraced this new source of energy whilst Ireland is only slowly coming to the realisation that it is useful and sustainable form of energy.
Travelling between Aarhus and Aalborg on the bus, I was reminded of similar landscapes I had seen in previous conferences. In 1987, cycling around the island of Texel in the Netherlands and in 1989 on a farm visit in Wisconsin, USA.
The landscape was either flat or gently rolling with red coloured farmhouses surrounded by a windbreak of trees and endless fields of cereal crops. The grain silos and the animal waste tanks by the farmhouse indicated the intensive nature of animal rearing. Nowadays, that animal waste can be used as Biogas.
I would like to finish with an advert that appears on Irish TV.
It is from Carlsberg, the Danish Beer company:
Carlsberg don’t do conferences, but if they did,
they Probably would organise the best in the world.
It is up to our hosts to prove this!
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