Australia: Sustainability and Environmental Action

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I have become inspired to take action to help protect the Earth and have acquired the tools to do so. I don't think it is possible to go through this program and not have the desire to take action and make changes.

-- Kerstin Johansson, Spring 2010, University of Colorado - Boulder

Acquire methods, tools, and different perspectives on how to make our societies more sustainable.

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The Australia: Sustainability and Environmental Action program is designed to empower students to make a positive contribution in building more sustainable societies. Students gain critical knowledge necessary to make informed judgments about environmental issues. They learn how to apply the principles of sustainability, not only in their personal lives, but in any career they choose from accounting to fine arts.

Join students of different majors committed to addressing environmental problems.
The program is based on the philosophy that environmental issues, such as global climate change, are so important in today’s world that all students, irrespective of major, should be ecologically literate. Students from diverse fields such as fine arts, business, sociology, anthropology, and political science are inspired to believe they can make a difference and are motivated to act on environmental challenges.

Learn from academics, practitioners, and Aboriginal elders onsite extraordinary settings.
The program includes numerous field excursions and workshops with leading practitioners. Learning is conducted within remote wilderness areas, national parks, and onsite sustainable housing projects. The program spends a week on the beautiful and sparsely populated island-state of Tasmania. Students also undertake a camping trip with Aboriginal elders.

The emphasis on environmental policy and action is what distinguishes this program from other SIT environmental programs, which place more emphasis on natural ecology.

Australia: A model of sustainability
Learn how Australia’s successes can be applied in the US and in your daily life.
There are few places on earth where the environment has had a stronger effect on both the traditional indigenous and contemporary societies than in Australia.

Australia possesses:

A climate governed largely by El Nino, rather than by the seasons;
A geologic history devoid of extensive glaciations or volcanism, which has resulted in very poor soils;
A unique assemblage of marsupials and plants that have Gondwanan origins;
A human occupation of the land extending back 50-75,000 years (earlier than the first humans in Europe);
Two centuries of ecological and social upheaval following the continent’s settlement by the English.

As a result of these characteristics, Australia began to suffer serious impacts from global climate change well before other developed nations and, therefore, environmental problems have a higher profile than in the United States. Australian economic, social, and political structures are similar enough to the US that it experiences many of the same sustainability issues, and solutions are often relevant to both countries. Students learn how Australia’s successes can be applied in public policy as well as in their own lives and communities.

Byron Bay: An Extraordinary Place to Study Sustainability
Northern New South Wales—where the program is based—is acknowledged as the leading area in Australia in sustainability. The Byron Bay region, where tropical and temperate Australia meet, is renowned for the following features. Learn more by clicking on any of the links.