Day 08 Part 1 - Eco-town: Kitakyushu Environment Museum
Day 08 is our last "workshop" day. We actually went outside the lecture room and explored the Eco-town that is Kitakyushu. What best place to learn more about the history of Kitakyushu Eco-town than the Environment Museum.
Even before arriving at the museum, we've already observed some of the energy conservation strategies of the city. One of which is converting car batteries to electricity for the Museum of Natural History and Human History. If you've watched the 3 Idiots, this technology is pretty similar to the "Virus converter". There was also a wind turbine just beside the Kitakyushu Environment Museum.
Kitakyushu Environment Museum
"Whoa! Is this really a museum?" Such is my first thought upon seeing the architecture of the Kitakyushu Environment Museum. I'd imagined a museum to be less like a... warehouse? Hmmm...Well, I guess a bigger name or signage would have helped to identify the museum.
. Our tour guide explained to us that the city of Kitakyushu used to be an industrial city. And that it suffered major water and air pollution. Concerned citizens, specially the housewives, corporations, universities and the government tackled the city's numerous pollution problems. And their efforts payed through. The city of Kitakyushu is now declared an Eco-Model City. The Environment Museum showcases this part of the history of Kitakyushu City.
The Museum is divided into 6 areas.
The first area showed a map of Kitakyushu on the floor. It displayed the natural beauty, and not just the famous "industrial aspect", of Kitakyushu.
Zone 1. The Development of Kitakyushu
This section displayed objects related to the industrial development that occurred in Kitakyushu. This was during the 1900's There are steel train railings, oil, iron and coal from the factories that were constructed here in the past.
Zone 2: Overcoming Pollution
In the 1960's, Kitakyushu faced contamination of water and major air pollution.
Overcoming the pollution was such a big task, but nonetheless seen by the citizens of Kitakyushu, the corporations and the government as critically important. The first efforts for overcoming pollution was by the Tobata Ward Women's Association. A diorama (shown below) told the story of how the housewives thought of standing up against pollution.
The gases and ashes from factories were already mixed with the air everyone is breathing. The housewives were especially concerned for their children breathing the harmful chemicals at school, at home, everywhere. The housewives' laundry too was affected by the air pollution. The clothes hung outside houses were soiled with air pollution. So this group of housewives began studying inspection methodologies with the help from a university professor. They visited council meetings and corporations. They also produced a documentary titled We Want a Blue Sky to educate others about the environment.
The corporations, those responsible for the pollution, then later drastically reduced their waste and pollutants by implementing cleaner production initiatives and switching to resource conserving and energy efficient production processes.
Everyone was involved in this effort of overcoming pollution especially the government. The government played an important role in implementing environmental monitoring and factory guidelines. It formulated an Environmental Improvement Plan , which included dredging the Dokai Bay to remove pollutants, and developing a green buffer zone and a public sewerage system.
And so, through these relentless efforts, the sea and sky were made beautiful again.
Fast forward to the present, Kitakyushu is now bringing the technology and the know-how they've cultivated from overcoming pollution to the world!
Zone 3: The Environment and Us
Here, there are hands-on attractions aka interactive games where you can learn about environmental issues that directly affect humans. The Bottle pyramid below, for example, illustrates how much water an average person in Kitakyushu uses in one day @_@
Zone 4: Green technology and Eco-Friendly Living
This zone featured games about the 3Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - and resource circulation.
And last but not the least, there is this zone featuring the future of Kitakyushu City. Here there are photos illustrating efforts in water business, smart community creation project, Kitakyushu Asian Center for Low Carbon Society, and collaborative environmental activities between the public, organizations, corporations and schools.
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Beside the Kitakyushu Environment museum is the Eco-House. Part 2 will be about that!
