In order to better understand the impact humans have made on the environment, one must see instances of undisturbed nature as well as areas of settlement. This shows how humans have changed the environment to suit their needs.
New Zealand and Australia, isolated for thousands of years from a western culture prone to stripping lands of resources, provided great locations where pristine natural phenomena and human settlement coexist very close to each other. With this in mind, 31 students and three adults took the marathon trek halfway across the world to visit four locations in the “land down under” to better understand our role as caretakers of the earth, in a course entitled “Envisioning Environmental Science.”
Learning was not the only focus of the course, however. The focus consisted of teaching what we learned to a third-grade class in a school near Pittsburgh, Pa., through e-mails, sharing pictures online, and live webcasts. The innovative class, led by Professor Kney and Professor Ruggles of the civil and environmental engineering department, sought to inspire a new generation to new levels of environmental stewardship. Our class revolved around seeing aspects of the environment, both naturally-formed and man-made, and analyzing how humans in different parts of the world can adjust their ways of living to help create a better place for life of all types to flourish.
Our first stop was Queenstown, New Zealand, a small tourist town in the mountains, and the self-proclaimed “Adventure Capital of the World.” This town not only provided ample opportunity for hiking up mountains and trying extreme sports such as bungee jumping and skydiving, but it also provided a springboard for our first activity: a boat cruise around the Milford Sound in the majestic Fjordland National Park.
In order to get there, we had to first take a scenic bus ride through the mountains of the park, and as we drove, each turn revealed breathtaking views of white snow-capped mountains with green valleys of rain forests. The park even had streams clean enough to drink safely out of. I don’t know if I would ever trust a stream in the U.S. enough to drink water straight out of it.
With each day came exciting adventures, including zooming around a shallow river bed in jet boats, dodging boulders, and then getting stuck on a patch of shallow rocks in the riverbed and having to switch boats to get back. But more importantly, each day also brought opportunities to really get to know people I might never get to meet otherwise.
I met one person from my hometown, whom I had played soccer against in high school, but never met him in three years on campus. I went on the trip only knowing a handful of people in the group, and with all of our activities and class meetings, I got to know everyone on the trip and meet some really interesting people. While our four open days on the trip resulted in the group of students splitting up and finding their own interesting things to do, it was always fun to hear about the adventures of other people and to see pictures from what they had done during the day.
Our first open day came in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the group split up, with some people going zip lining above the forests of Christchurch and others going white-water rafting. After a short visit to the International Antarctic Centre the next day, we headed to the airport, bound for Sydney, Australia, home of the world famous Sydney Opera House, as well as the behemoth Harbor Bridge.
The entire three-day stay in Sydney was action-packed, as we were able to climb to the top of the arched Harbor Bridge, and then go surfing, both in the same day. On another day, we were able to take a guided tour of the opera house, and some people came back to the opera house to see a show in one of its theaters. A trip to the zoo and a group outing to celebrate the birthday of one of our group members capped off an awesome stay in Sydney.
All the while, we never met anyone who was uptight or unfriendly. Perfect strangers would start up conversations with various members of our group, whether it was on a ferry bound for the beach or even in an internet café. Everywhere we went in New Zealand and Australia, we met people who were laid back, but adventurous and fun-loving.
The attitude of everyone we came across is perfectly exemplified in the phrase “no worries,” which was the standard response to someone saying, “thank you.” I did not hear anyone say, “you’re welcome” for the entire two-week trip, and I am inclined to believe that the people down under actually have no worries. Even in the crowded city of Sydney, I could count on one hand the number of times I heard a car horn blaring over the course of three days. In New York City, one could easily lose count of the number of honks at an intersection within five minutes.
Perhaps the highlight of the trip for me was the last day before we left. Cairns, Australia, (pronounced “cans” as I came to learn) was our last stop, on the eastern coast toward the northern corner of the continent. The reason for the stop in the small city was its location right on the Great Barrier Reef. Five friends and I decided that we wanted to see more of the outer parts of the reef while we had the opportunity, so we used our open day to go snorkeling on the outer reef.
Having seen pictures of the reef, I expected that it would be a spectacular sight, and yet when I got there and saw it for myself, it was even better than I could have possibly imagined it. The colors and the unique forms of life were beyond anything I could ever dream up. The health and relationships between the coral and the fish are so fragile that even the tiniest amount of pollution can severely harm an area of the reef, and seeing the magnificence of the Great Barrier Reef highlighted exactly what it is that we seek to protect. This was a perfect way to end the trip, a true culmination of everything we discussed in our class meetings as well as in our communications with our third-grade partners. I won’t forget the real-life lessons from the trip and I certainly will never forget the memories. |
