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Hi, I'm Sonja Needs and I co-ordinate a number of the breadth subjects at Melbourne School
of Land and Environment.
Melbourne School of Land and Environment is Australia's most diverse faculty. We address
critical sustainability issues and these are things like climate change, water management,
energy use and food security. We aim for resilient global communities, sustainable land and natural
resources.
Why is that important to you? How does it affect you?
No matter what degree you choose, you can choose breadth subjects which will help you
develop insights and experience new ways of thinking, distinct or complimentary to your
main field of study. MSLE has more than eighty and here are a few that I'll explain now.
So if you did the wine track, you would do Australia In The Wine World, Vine To Wine
and Wines Of The World. That would give you a breadth track.
Intensives may or may not have exams. They free up hours during semester particularly
if you have difficult core subjects you are doing. So by doing an intensive during your
break period, instead of doing four subjects during the next semester, you only have to
do three. Even though they are completed in a week, the subject points are the same as
other subjects and they give a good total emersion into that subject.
Food For A Healthy Planet. And you notice it says one, two and three? That's year one,
year two and year three. An interesting fact about Food For A Healthy Planet is, if Americans
reduce their meat intake by 10% freeing land to produce grain to feed people, you could
feed a hundred million extra people.
Introduction To Climate Change. Alaska, Western Canada and Eastern Russia, average temperatures
have increased as much as three to four degrees Celsius in the past 50 years. Climate Change
is a reality. There is no real debate between scientists of its cause or effect.
Fire In The Australian Landscape. MSLE, we study quite a lot about bushfires and bushfires
are definitely a cause for concern particularly in Victoria and since the Black Saturday Bushfires,
we are more aware than ever of the impacts.
With Forests In A Global Context - if you notice this also is a six-day block - this
is studied at Creswick Campus. This subject looks at how we use forests, how we protect
forests and how we are going to manage forests into the future.
Famine In The Modern World. Current world population is around seven billion. By 2050
it will be around nine billion. By 2030, it's expected that 85% of the world's population
will be in developing countries. Population in developed countries is declining from 32%
in 1950 to an expected 15% in 2030. As developing countries become wealthier, there is an increasing
change in their food consumption. They eat more per person and change to a protein-rich
or meat diet. It takes forty-one million tonnes of plant product per year to produce seven
million tonnes of meat per year. This is a major cause for concern and food security.
China In Transition is a really interesting subject. China is Australia's largest trading
partner, with total trade in 2009 valued at $85.1 billion, an increase of 15.1% over the
previous year. This subject looks at the impacts of the political transformation on China's
people and the environment.
Human Behavior and Environments. Explores psycho-social dimensions of human environment
interactions and examines frameworks for understanding landscape perception and environmentally significant
behaviour.
Designing With Plants. If you're interested in architecture, this is an awesome complimentary
track about designing and using plants. It's taught at the beautiful Burnley campus in
Richmond on the Yarra River.
Greening Landscapes looks at how plants are an essential part of our landscape, particularly
in an urban environment and we are very lucky in Melbourne that it is so green with parks
and trees.
If you're interested in animals, Animals In Society is a really great breadth track to
get into. This subject examines and evaluates society's use of domestic animals and highlights
the ethical, scientific and economic impact of human interaction with animals in production,
research and amenity systems. It's very topical when you think about caged hens, sow stalls
and live cattle exports.
Human Animal interactions. This subject looks at the care and management of animals, the
role and responsibility we have when working with animals and it covers companion animals
like dogs and cats, as well as zoo animals and also livestock, so our farm animals.
Food & Water, Global Issues, Local Impacts, also a one-week block. Nearly a billion people
in the world do not have access to safe drinking water. Of the 0.7% of all water on earth which
is readily accessible for direct human use, we use 70% for irrigation and about 22% for
industry, so that leaves us about 8% for domestic use. Of course this leaves us with many challenges
particularly since a lot of the world's water is shared across international boundaries.
Wars are fought over water and water use. This subject looks at some of the issues surrounding
it.