Our Project - Environment and Transportation – A link between cultures.
When the theme Mobility was given to our Delegation by the organization of the YMP, we gathered together and started by asking ourselves: What is the biggest mobility problem in Lisbon? After thinking long about it and taking in consideration the place we live in, Lisbon city, and the major environmental problems of today’s society, we concluded that the excessive use of private cars and the traffic jams and pollution which result from it were an important issue to be explored.
Lisbon is a European capital, dominated by automobiles, where driving is a nightmare, and where you can take a walk in the most polluted artery of Europe, the Avenida da Liberdade. Acknowledging that the transportation sector contributes significantly to the total of emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, finding new ways of moving around in a big city is a priority.
Because the subway of Lisbon is fast, less expensive mean of transportation, which consumes electrical energy and presents a network system which reaches already some suburban areas of the city, we chose it as the most comfortable and environmentally friendly alternative of moving around in Lisbon.
We then asked ourselves: How can we raise the awareness of citizens to the problem of the greenhouse gases (GHG) released by automobiles, leading them to understand the benefits of public transportation?
Being too difficult to approach car users directly, we thought of using a more positive and rather reinforcing strategy. We decided we would approach those people who already use the subway and tell them how they contribute to the lowering of the emission of GHG and, consequently, to the improvement of life quality of all citizens of Lisbon.
To show the subway users, the majority of whom come from lower economical groups, that the use of the subway should not be strictly linked to a lower income but to a conscious citizen who cares about the environment, we would exhibit in one subway station the exhibition “The future of our climate”, designed by the Institute of the Environment (Instituto do Ambiente).
Moreover, because a lot of users belong to ethnic minorities groups, we would offer them a series of ethnical dancing performances, which would also serve the purpose of calling the public’s attention to our exhibition and to the different cultures living in the city.
To evaluate the impact of our action and to discover what kind of people would stop to look at the exhibition, we would make small inquiries to the public.
We thought that combining Environment, Mobility and Multiculturalism would help us contribute to a more Sustainable Development and Future.
Methodology
1. Search of information about the following topics: climate changes, means of transportation in Lisbon, the company Metropolitano de Lisboa, namely about its users and philosophy, in order to prepare ourselves to the writing of the proposals to the subway company.
2. Establishment of a first (informal) contact with the entities participating in the project to evaluate their acceptance to the project and to get informed about how to present the proposals in a formal way.
3. Writing and sending (by email or fax) of the proposals the various entities.
4. After the acceptance of the proposal by the subway company, we started sending emails publicizing the event to friends, teachers, family and newspapers.
5. Preparation of materials for the event and contacting friends to help us.
6. Event.
7. Analysis of the data obtained in the inquiries and evaluation of the event considering the opinion of the public and our own too, with the purpose of seeing what went wrong or well, what could be improved in a future action.
8. Making of the Dubai presentation with the use of video and photos from our city and the event itself.
9. Writing of a blog space to tell people about our experience and results.
The event
Results
Considering the amount of people that circulate in the station where the event occurred, only few people stopped to watch the exhibition. The dancing presentations attracted a lot more people.
The analysis of the inquiries showed us that the majority of the people who stopped to look at the exhibition were Portuguese between 21 and 30 years old, had a high level of education (secondary or superior education) and had already some knowledge about the theme of climate changes. These results show that the public interested in the exhibition was already sensitized to this problem and therefore the main part of the public understood the purpose of our exhibition.
Some people shared their concerns with us about the theme climatic changes. Here are some quotes:
“I belong to the generation that has destroyed the environment” (man, 62 years old)
“I think a lot of people don’t know the gravity of the situation concerning the emission of greenhouse gases”
“I’m very pessimistic about the future”
To the question: Do you think these kind of performances contribute to the integration of ethnic minorities?, the majority of the public said Yes and expressed their preoccupations regarding the acceptance of minorities in our society. Here are some quotes:
“These actions are important, but the education in schools is even more important.”
“The integration of the brazilian people is easier because of the language, religion and similar political system” (brazilian man, 37 years old)
“Lisbon has a very closed society.”
The public that stopped to watch the dancing performances was a lot more diverse and a lot of them were immigrants. This shows us that the public that was interested in the exhibition was not the same that stopped to watch the dancing presentations.
Conclusions & Suggestions
First of all, we noticed that we got in contact with two different publics: the one that stopped to look at the exhibition and the one that only stopped for the performances and showed little or no interest in the exhibition.
The first one was already sensitized to the problem of climate changes and showed social concerns regarding the integration of minorities in Lisbon’s society, as we saw from the results of the inquiries. From several informal conversations we had with the public that stopped only for the performances, we could notice that the public interested in the exhibition was not the same that was interested in the performances. To conclude with, the dancing performances did not call the public’s attention to our exhibition, as we predicted in the beginning.
So, what needs to be improved in our action??
Maybe we should plan different actions for different subjects, one to sensitize people about the topics Mobility and Environment and another for the Integration of ethnic minorities. Or maybe we should use different strategies for different target groups, because they have different concerns, ways of acknowledging the world and contribute differently to the problem of the emission of GHG. Or maybe we should continue with our motto Environment+Mobility+Multiculturalism=Sustainable Development, but dynamize it differently…
The thing is, we should definitely continue with this project and try other approaches in order to find the best way to reach the various groups of our society and pass the message that the use of public transportation, instead of private cars, will diminish the pollution levels of our city.
Some suggestions for others who want to follow our steps:
• It is possible to organize an interesting event with practically any money!
• Work as a group!
• Plan the publicity strategy in advance and stick to it!
• Evaluate your project to improve future actions!
• Keep the contacts you establish!
• Give continuity to your project!
This project would have never been possible without the support of the following entities and persons:
Teachers Odete Cruz, Teresa Reis, Céu Tarouca and Helena
The future
After receiving so many compliments about our work from so many people in Dubai, we are now planning the continuity of our project! We’re sure we’ll have some news about it very soon…
posted by AFR @ 12:42 am
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