TUNZA: The UNEP Magazine for Youth

In February 2003, the Governing Council of UNEP adopted a long-term strategy for engaging young people in environmental activities and in the work of UNEP. The strategy was entitled the TUNZA Youth Strategy.

The word “TUNZA” means “to treat with care or affection” in Kiswahili (a sub-regional language of Eastern Africa). The overall TUNZA Concept, therefore, is built around this theme. It is an initiative that is meant to develop activities in the areas of capacity building, environmental awareness, and information exchange, with a vision to foster a generation of environmentally conscious citizens, capable of positive action.

Important by-products of this strategy include the annual TUNZA International Youth Conference, Tunza Advisory Council, TUNZA magazine, and the book "A Time for Action" provide up-to-date information and resources that support the environmental empowerment of young people.

Contents:

Editorial 3
Letting in daylight 4
Technology can help 4
Call of the wild 6
TUNZA answers your questions 8
Small is controversial 9
Standing together 10
Material values 11
Capturing carbon 12
Taming the sun 12
Virgin Earth 14
Great ideas 15
Greener cleaners 16
Biofuels 17
Perennial dilemma 17
Designing the future 18
Green... so this year 19
Earth works 20
Pressing issue 21
Seven ancient wonders 22

Download Tunza Vol. 5 No. 3: Technology and the Environment

ENGLISH. PDF format, 2.68MB, 24Pages.

Editorial:

Technology is one of the things that separates humans from animals, and it has increasingly shaped our world. From earliest times, people have applied their knowledge to making tools and machines that serve their purposes – from the wheel to the computer. Some now laud technology as the foundation of all prosperity, and believe that few constraints should be put on its development.

Others condemn it as the cause of massive environmental damage, and call for strict controls. But the truth is that it is both and neither. Technology has both helped bring wealth to much of the world, and been the instrument of much of the harm done to the planet and its life. But in itself it is neutral; its effects, for good or ill, are down to what we make of it.

As our scientific knowledge, and our ways of putting it to practical use, rapidly increase, we need to ask two questions. Technology for what? And technology for whom? Everything depends on the answers. It should be used for development, not destruction, it should benefit humanity as a whole rather than just the already wealthy few and, rather than be used to promote economic growth at all costs, it must continue to be underpinned by the vital services provided by a healthy planet.

One key is to ensure that technology is appropriate: empowering to the people that use it, suited to the places where it is applied, and – above all – designed to promote the sustainable development that eliminates poverty while safeguarding the Earth and its natural systems. Another is to ensure that it is widely shared, so that as many people as possible benefit from it. There are many cases where technology has fulfilled both these goals; more often, however, it is not even intended to do so. Our generation must redress the balance and concentrate resources and effort on developing technologies suited to our age, and to our fragile, interdependent world.

Visit Tunza for Youth Website

for young people · by young people · about young people

Cool & Cooler

COOL: Wildlife-watching: birds, bears, dolphins, butterflies…
COOLER: Getting involved in wildlife surveys. Contact your local council, or national or regional environmental organization, find out what surveys are taking place in your area, and volunteer to help.

COOL: Energy-saving escalators. Escalators and moving sidewalks are handy. But continuously running motors consume enormous amounts of energy. Automatic stop/start escalators stop moving when they sense no one is using them, and turn on only when approaching riders walk though a barrier linked to a power switch. Some escalators and people movers are configured to use less energy by moving slowly when carrying a lighter load, and speeding up when more people step on.
COOLER: Taking the stairs – while helping that little old lady with her bags.

COOL: Clothes made of hemp.
COOLER: Surgical gowns made of bamboo. Bamboo contains a substance that kills bacteria, so researchers in Coimbatore, India, have used its fibre to make a highly absorbent garment that reduces the risk of infection during surgery.

COOL: Recycled rubber tyre swings. Econostalgia: be a kid again, spinning under a tree.
COOLER: Recycled rubber tyre sandbags. Sandbags used to control erosion often disintegrate. Recycled tyres are now providing a sturdier substitute, and using them – instead of dumping them – takes pressure off landfills. Eco-Blocks made from tyres can be interlocked, stacked, and glued or staked into place, and can be reused for up to 10 years.
COOLEST: Recycled rubber tyre houses. Earthships, the brainchild of Michael Reynolds of New Mexico's Solar Survival Architecture, are houses made of stacks of recycled tyres rammed with dirt, packed with mud and plastered with adobe or stucco. The company teaches people how to construct them, and offers demonstrations to officials in disaster-relief areas like Mexicali, Mexico, and La Paz, Bolivia.

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