Learning languages

I've always been crap at learning languages. But I love languages! Maybe it's because I'm bilingual, I appreciate it so much when someone makes an effort to learn my language. Everytime when I travel, I try to learn some words and phrases in the local language. So now I'm trying to learn Portuguese, again... I found these blogposts related to the issue. This made me remember that I learned the Hungarian numbers with a ten year old. A guy in my Portugues class just told me about Livemocha, but I'd forgotten what it was called! Luckily I found it here, together with a lot of other good, and free, stuff!

I just found this today (22.2.2012): a 20-year old guy that speaks 11 languages! Wow! I'm so envious! Allthough, I find the languages he has chosen a bit weird. I mean, Dutch and Afrikaans? Come on! There are better ways to throw away your time :D  

Maybe you could help me with my task of learning languages and tell me what "delicious" is in yours?
In Finnish it is: herkullista!
In Swedish it is: jätte gott!

Tyhmät sanonnat

Tuli toista blogikirjoitusta lukiessa mieleen että maailma on täynnä tyhmiä sanontoja. Tässä niistä muutama:

Joukossa tyhmyys tiivistyy. (Ei totta, joukossa on enemmän voimaa kuin yksinäisessä ihmisessä!)
Rakkaudesta se hevonenkin potkii. (kasvatammeko lapsiamme hyväksymään väkivaltaiset suhteet?!)
Älä nuolaise ennenkuin tipahtaa. (Mistä tämä tulee? Eikö nimenomaan kannattaisi nuolla ennen kuin tipahtaa, sen jälkeen on jo myöhäistä?)

Tuleeko muita mieleen?

Ilmastopolitiikan yhteisöllisyyttä etsimässä

12.8.2011
Tämä kirjoitus julkaistiin taas alunperin Leo Straniuksen blogissa.

Ilmastopolitiikan yhteisöllisyyttä etsimässä

Ilmastomuutoksesta puhuminen on out. Mutta yhteisöllisyys ja elämän pienistä iloista nauttiminen on in! 10:10-kampanja haluaa tuoda ilmastomuutoskeskusteluun positiivista, together we can-asennetta.

10:10-kampanjaan sitoutuneet lupaavat vähentää ilmastopäästöjään kymmenellä prosentilla vuodessa. Samalla he liittyvät maailmanlaajuiseen verkostoon, joka auttaa ja tukee tavoitteen toteuttamisessa! Ilmastoneuvotteluja dominoiva uskonpuute ja syyttely saavat luvan väistyä, kun kaikki ottavat vastuun siitä, mihin itse pystyvät vaikuttamaan, eli omista valinnoistaan.




Sisälämpötilan alentaminen, lihan syönnin vähentäminen ja suihkujen lyhentäminen vähentävät päästöjä. Mutta mitä muuta voisimme tehdä? Itse olen luvannut tämän vuoden aikana tehdä kolme asiaa: lisätä talvipyöräilyä, keksiä vaihtoehtoja juustolle ja sohvasurffata matkoillani, myös työmatkoillani.

Talvipyöräilystä on jo kirjoitettu monta hyvää blogitekstiä, mm. Leon blogissa sekä Cycleinhel-blogissa. Uusi musta -blogi taas esitteli juuston vaihtoehtoja.

Myös sohvasurffauksesta kirjoitettiin vastikään City-lehdessä. Liityin itse couchsurfing.org palveluun vuonna 2008, mutta aloin käyttämään sitä aktiivisesti vasta muutettuani isompaan asuntoon. Lainaamalla sohvaani matkaajille vähennän tavallaan myös asuntoni suuresta pinta-alasta johtuvaa hiilijalanjälkeäni. Matkustaessani jalanjälkeni pienenee asumalla asunnossa, jonka ensisijainen tarkoitus ei ole palvella minua, ja jonka pyyhkeitä ja lakanoita ei pestä joka päivä.

Parasta on kuitenkin ihmisten tapaaminen! Uuteen paikkaan pääsee paljon nopeammin sisälle, kun paikallinen kertoo, minne kannattaa mennä, ja mitä nähdä ja tehdä. Turistibussin sijaan voi parhaimmassa tapauksessa saada pyörän lainaksi omalle turistikierrokselle!

Sitä paitsi monet sohvasurffarit ovat hyvin ympäristötietoista porukkaa. Kesällä minulla on ollut kunnia emännöidä mm. ympäristökonsultteina työskentelevää amerikkalaispariskuntaa, jotka päättivät tehdä irtioton elämässään ja matkustaa maailman ympäri. Vielä parempi esimerkki on mieskaksikko, joka matkustaa tämän vuoden työkseen, mahdollisimman kestävällä tavalla keräten kokemuksia kestävistä elämäntavoista ympäri maailmaa. Dokumenttielokuvaa matkasta odotellessa voi tutustua heidän kotisivuunsa. Tiedän myös, että monet nuoret, jotka osallistuvat kansainvälisiin kokouksiin, mm. ilmastoneuvotteluihin, hoitavat majoituksen sohvasurffauksen kautta.

Toinen, samanlaista palvelua tarjoava sivusto on Hospitality Club. En ole itse käyttänyt sitä, mutta ymmärtääkseni se on suositumpi USAssa, ja sivuja voi selata eri kielillä, myös suomeksi.

Vielä on kesää jäljellä ja syksyllä alkavat työmatkat. Haastan siis teidätkin mukaan tähän mukavaan toimintaan, joko tarjoamaan majapaikkaa tai sohvasurffaamaan!

Lisätietoa 10:10 -kampanjasta sekä Leon vinkit kestävään elämäntapaan: www.1010finland.fi

Maria Vuorelma on 10:10 Finlandin perustajajäsen ja British Councilin ilmastolähettiläs.

 Blogi löytyy myös 10:10 Finlandin blogista.

Maria at the UN Climate Talks in Bonn

22.6.2011

Maria at the UN Climate Talks in Bonn

One of the main issues discussed in Bonn was the observer organisations participation in the negotiations. After this blog SBI (the Subsidiary Body of Implementation) decided on text that is not as bad as it seemed the day before, but not as good at it could have been either. See the discussion in the closing plenary of the SBI here (item 3e): http://unfccc2.meta-fusion.com/kongresse/110606_SB34/templ/play.php?id_kongresssession=3620&theme=unfccc

Regards,
Maria

5.6.2011

Maria on her way to Bonn climate negotiations

Introduction

So, I’m on my way to Bonn, to represent the British Council at the climate negotiations again. I guess I will be doing the same in Bonn as I did in Cancun, Mexico, ie. support YOUNGO (what’s that? See here: http://youthclimate.org/ ) in any way I can and keeping you guys updated about what’s going on (or what’s not) at the negotiations. I’m so looking forward to meeting all my friends from Cancun again! But of course it’s not going to be the same in many ways, Bonn is smaller, there’s less people there, and the negotiations will not move forward in the same way as in Cancun. But I hope that after Bonn, we would see clearly what to expect of Durban. I will be in Bonn only the second week. But luckily we all can follow the negotiations live on the UNFCCC homepage. So follow what’s going on here: http://unfccc.int/

You can read my blogposts from Cancun here: http://enterculture.org/?cat=5

Trains and planes

I don’t understand why anyone would travel by train anymore. Flying is fast, cheap, easy and convinient. Travelling by train is slow, expensive, complicated and uncomfortable. But I love travelling by train! You really feel that you are travelling, moving from one place to another. When flying somewhere, it takes a couple of days to realise that you’r not home anymore. In the train you have time to go through this mindsetting process. It’s great to see the landscape change outside the window, and follow how the sun creates different lightsettings during different times of the day. In the train you easily find someone to talk to, when in the plane you rarely start talking to the person sitting next to you. And all the backpackers reminds me of my interrail trip I did when I was 18!

When booking my night train from Copenhagen to Bonn, all the sleeping cabins had already been booked. I hope this is because the climate negotiators are walking the talk, and not flying to the negotiations.

Regards,
Maria Vuorelma

ps. Loving the windmills you see along the way and the solarpanels on the roofs of family houses!

Toward a universal sense of purpose

15.12.2010

Toward a universal sense of purpose

My friend and a climate advocate from the UK, Rory Moody, wrote this excellent blogpost about the results of COP16. I couldn´t have said it better myself, so I´ll just post it here aswell Enjoy!

If one was to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of COP 16 (and all those that preceded it) the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) would have been insolvent a long time ago. The deliverables simply wouldn’t measure up.

Yet what emerged from Cancun was, for better or worse, a small step in the right direction. The agreement asserts the need for “urgent action” to combat climate change. To this end, it reaffirms the commitment to raise and disburse $100 billion a year (through a Green Climate Fund) to support developing countries and includes measures to prevent deforestation.

There are, however, two notable caveats. A post Kyoto agreement to set legally binding emission targets was postponed until 2012 and the World Bank (read USA) – to many delegates dismay – secured the mandate to run the new Fund.

Looking beyond the details and the true value of COP 16 will be determined next year. If a post-Kyoto agreement is not reached in South Africa, the US and other global powers might call time on the UNFCCC. A more optimistic scenario would see Cancun as the first pathway to a green economy, maybe even the catalyst to a low carbon future.

The failures of Copenhagen were compounded by ‘climate gate’, an event which undermined the credibility of the IPCC and the wider scientific community. COP 16 has provided an anchor to the weather this storm, restoring trust in the UNFCCC mandate and recasting the debate in the right direction. Most important, it has shown that the value of the UN process extends beyond our political conventions and beyond conventional economic thinking.

Yet the practical implications cannot be ignored for climate change will not be cheap to address. Nor will it be tackled through unilateral action. It requires a global response specifically because its geopolitical consequences extend beyond national jurisdictions.

So if we are to respond we have to shelve our conventional ideas of citizenship and embrace a universal sense of purpose. For the heart of the matter is not within the footnotes of the text nor in the size of the financial envelope. It is in our worldviews where future generations will not judge us by the extent to which we use nature for own ends, but by our ability to preserve its integrity.

By Rory Moody
see all of Rorys blogposts here: http://challengeeurope.britishcouncil.org/index.php/blogs

And for an extra treat, on the same subject, check out this page, http://itsonehumanity.org/GVPP.html founded by another friend of mine, Elliot Verrault, that I met in Cancun.
Listen to a short interview with Elliot, at oneclimate.net: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi7hsEmWUOo&feature=player_embedded

UNfair

6.12.2010

UNfair

One can’t help but to become frustrated here at COP. The slow negotiations is an obvious source of frustration but there is also so much unfairness in the air. The host country, Mexico, is doing a good job at trying to reduce the unfairness of the stakeholoders participation, by having hearings with the stakeholders like businesses, environmental organizations, youth organizations and others that are present at the negotiations and by preparing a review paper of stakeholder participation. Hopefully that helps because right now it feels like our possibility to have an effect on the negotiations are slim to none.

Over the weekend the champions worked as volunteers at the World Climate Summit, the business summit on climate issues. A demonstration was held outside when the summit started against the business presence at COP. But I feel that they are as entitled to be here as the other stakeholders. But I don’t like the fact that just because they have bigger resources for lobbying, their voice is heard louder. That is very obvious in Finland, where for example youth are not included in the delegation nor heard before the negotiations and business lobbyist seem to be in charge of Finlands position in the climate negotiations.

Another thing I don’t like was how we volunteers where treated at the summit. I found out that racism still exists. We where told that we may have lunch at the summit. Everyone else did not have a problem with this, but when our darker champions from Indonesia and Bangladesh went to take food, they where told that they shouldn’t eat of the same lunch as the attendants who had payed $1.000 for the summit, or they would have to pay for it too. The issue got sorted out later, but left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Another thing that is unfair is that the Least Developed Countries (LDC) and especially the small island states (AOSIS) don’t have enough resources to send negotiators to the COP. Recently the host country announced that no more than 6 meetings are going to be held at the same time, but there are still delegations with less delegates than that. The UNfairplay initiative is doing what they can to help out. UNfairplay is a group of young people that help underrepresented delegations by for example attending sessions and taking notes for them. They just came out with a report of the unfairness of the negotiations and suggestions of how to improve the situation. You can read the whole report, Levelling the Playing Field – A report to the UNFCCC Secretariat by UNfairplay, here.

On this issue I also have to give a hand to Finland, who finances womens participation from the LDCs in the negotiations.

ps. The Article 6 went through, with all the amendements that YUONGO, the youth constituency, whished for! Lots of news on that in Spanish, but haven’t found a good one yet in english. I’ll keep you posted!

Youth and future generations day

2.12.2010

Youth and future generations day

Today (2. December) is the youth and future generations day at COP16 in Cancun, Mexico. This means that during the day there will be a lot of side-events and demonstrations to highlight the youth participation in the negotiations. The day started with a silent demonstration, to point out the fact that youth has very limited possibilities to affect the negotiations. But since some excellent, unexpected good news on Tuesday, this might change very soon.

The so called Article 6 of the climate convention, which deals with education, public awareness and public participation, will be discussed in a contact group, and a COP decision of it might be done here in Cancun. This means that the question will get much more attention than it has so far, and for example more financing will be possible. A great thing is that the draft that is proposed include a lot of the things the youth constituency, YOUNGO, has proposed to the text. Fingers crossed that it will go through! Follow the blog (and Twitter!) for updates on the issue!

Youth in Cancun

29.11.2010

Youth in Cancun

I arrived in Mexico late Saturday evening to participate in the climate negotiations. Not so long ago I did not think that this would happen. Last year, after participating in the negotiations in Copenhagen, I was really depressed about the result of the negotiations, like so many others. I had lost my belief in UNFCCCs power to act and the private sectors readiness and willingness to provide innovative solutions to the climate change.

But one could say that I lost my religion, but found my faith. I found new faith in the youth! In Copenhagen you could see them everywhere (I say them, because in Copenhagen I didn’t participate as a youth delegate, but solely represented my job at the Nordic Council of Ministers). The youth was very engaged and knowledgeable and a positive force in the middle of the nightmare that Copenhagen became. The global youth’s willingness to take responsibility and act is something totally different than you would think that the general atmosphere of the public is when you follow the negotiators, who are not ready to compromise when it comes to so called national interests. But the negotiators fail to see the big picture and realize that the global interest is in everyone’s national interest! Luckily the youth will be in Cancun to remind them of this fact, again!

Maria blogging/tweeting from Cancun COP16

These following posts where originally posted on British Council Finlands blog.

24.11.2010

Maria blogging/tweeting from Cancun COP16

Thousands of negotiators, NGOs, business representatives and heads of states from all around the world will meet in Cancun, Mexico, for the climate negotiations, COP16, starting next week. British Council will provide for 15 climate champions to participate in Cancun. I will be the only one from Europe. Now I need to know what message do you, as the youth of Europe, want me to take to Mexico?!

I will be blogging from Cancun, so follow this page!

My name is Maria Vuorelma and I’m one of the climate advocates of 2010-2011 from Finland. In summer 2010 I was elected to be one out of 17 climate advocates in Finland, under the British Councils Challenge Europe program. I hadn’t heard about British Council before but I had seen an excellent presentation at a seminar of the climate advocates of last year.  I’m 27 years old and work part time for the Nordic Council of Ministers. I’ve studied environmental economics at the University of Helsinki, with social psychology as my minor subject.

I’ve done my internship for the Ministry of the Environment of Finland. I am writing my master’s thesis on CDM, one of the flexible mechanisms about emissions trading under the Kyoto Protocol, for a private consulting company, specialized in emissions trading. Last summer I was involved in a start up that will bring clean technology to East-Africa, in order to empower the local community and fight climate change and deforestation.

My first presentation in primary school was about rainforests. I didn’t realize until upper secondary school that not everyone cares about the environment as much as I do! I love skiing and will do everything in my power to keep the winters of Finland snow covered!

More info about the youth climate movement:
http://youthclimate.org/

You can find more info about the Finnish projects and advocates here:
http://www.britishcouncil.fi/projects/climate.htm

Best wishes,
Maria

 

Sluta gnälla, gör något!

Insändare i HBL i juli 2007, som publicerades i sin helhet, men med en annan rubrik. Skall korrigera den till den rätta bara jag hittar den. Jag var ganska stolt över denna, och är det fortfarande. Tyvärr är temat fortfarande aktuellt alltid nu och då på HBLs debatt-sida, men som tur så har diskussionen faktist lugnat ner sej en del. 

Sluta gnälla, gör något!

Diskussionen om klimatförändringens vara eller icke vara har nu pågått på Hbl:s Debatt-sida hela våren, om inte längre. Senast kunde vi läsa Stenmans och Hagelstams bidrag i HBL 27.6.07. Enligt min mening har inte lika många nya argument framförts som det har varit inlägg.

Faktum är, att som bäst dör det folk i extrema väderförhållanden (Hbl 27.6.07).  Då är det viktigaste kanske inte att diskutera om den globala uppvärmningen existerar eller inte. Istället borde vi förebygga katastroferna och hjälpa offren. Visst, Oras Tynkkynen har tagit som sin personliga sak att föra fram klimatförändringen på den politiska agendan. Det viktigaste för mej i hans uttalanden är ändå, att han alltid påpekar att skadorna måste förebyggas och hållas på en rimlig nivå.

Personligen tror jag att dagens väderkatastrofer beror på en alltför lång negligering av klimatförändringen samt en alltför girig användning av naturresurser som t.ex. jordmån. Mycket kunde ha förhindrats, eller åtminstone förebyggts, om flera människor skulle ha gjort någonting istället för att debattera hur saker och ting är eller inte är. Jag kommer ihåg hur jag redan i högstadiet, för cirka 10 år sedan läste en artikel med argument mot klimatförändringen. Liknande argument har kunnat läsas i bl.a. Hbl denna vår. Har dessa argument ändrat på någonting? Har de gjort världen till en bättre plats? Jag är säker på att de lugnat ner skribenternas egna oroliga samveten, men annat har de inte gjort.

På hösten kommer Salutorget att svämma över igen. Borde vi kanske sluta debattera om bagateller och sätta vår energi på att t.ex. fundera ut hurdana överflödningshinder som kunde vara effektivast?

Dessutom, om det nu är så att det är varmare och koldioksiden påverkar det, i alla fall i någon grad, så kan vi då inte göra något åt det? Det finns andra saker vi inte kan rå på, men vi kan minska på koldioksidutsläppen. Dessa åtgärder är också nödvändiga från flera andra synvinklar: användning av naturresurser, undvikande av avfall och utsläpp till luft, lägre energikostnader och mindre beroende av energiresurser från ostabila länder.

Hela världen håller på att vakna för att det måste göras något för att stoppa klimatförändringen. Diskussionen kommer att påverka konsumenter, som kommer att börja välja energisnålare alternativ, som el- eller biodrivna bilar. Om Finland vill vara en föregångare, som Stenman förespråkar, så gäller det att vara först i den här utvecklingen. Endast på det sättet undviker vi att råka på efterkälken jämfört med andra länder. Det lönar sej för industrin att vara bättre än lagen förutsätter. På detta sätt har man som första nytta av innovationerna. I denna utveckling har det ingen skillnad om klimatförändringen verkligen finns eller inte. Det som räknas är vad människor tror.

Maria Vuorelma, studerande

First post

So I've been thinking about starting a blog for a longer time now. I'm gona start by putting up some stuff I've done before. Hope you like it!



Will try to blog mostly in English, but an occasional text might be in Swedish or Finnish, my mother tongues.