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EESTI ELU reedel, 9. aprillil 2021 — Friday, April 9, 2021
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The evolution… (Continued from page 8)
Estonian World Council Global Estonian NGO Worldwide Estonian Youth Network
Estonian Foreign Policy Virtual Forum for Global Estonians Saturday, April 24, 7 – 8:30 p.m. (Estonian time) An Estonian clay building from @eestimaaehitus NGO’s video “Earth Building in Estonia.”
Low-Impact Housing: Solutions leading the way to accessible sustainability Vincent Teetsov The image of sustainable living makes it harder for it to be adopted on a wider scale. Pragmatically-speaking, it’s not encouraging to think about all the comforts one might theoretically have to give up. Things like taking regular hot showers, getting tasty take-out meals, and purchasing a fresh pair of sneakers. Maybe the austere, sacrificial tone of this way of life is an exaggeration. How then can the average consumer unite convenience, comfort, and low-impact living? For one thing, dwellings can be renovated or built to consume less fuel and raw materials, or reuse pre-existing materials. One example of this is how, starting in 2016, Tartu’s Sovietera khrushchyovka apartment buildings were renovated as part of a pilot project for the EU’s SmartEnCity initiative. When first constructed, the apartments weren’t intended to be longlasting, and many hadn’t been improved throughout their life times. Apartments on the edge of the building couldn’t retain heat at the same level as the rest of the building. So, the leaders of the project wanted to lower heating and electricity bills for residents, making them “class-A” in energy-efficiency. Accordingly, they were fitted with insulation, new central heating units, ventilation, and solar panels. A tablet was also installed in each of these units to monitor energy consumption, which residents say has gone down. Others in the city argue that these buildings ought to have been demolished, because the cost is too high. Gerda Kelly Pill from research and advocacy non-profit AlgorithmWatch has noted that “Almost half the funding comes from the European Union, approximately 4 million euros, with additional contributions from a national support scheme. The rest of the money, around 50 percent, was taken out in loans by the housing associations.” Could rural-style dwellings outside of cities be better than working with old urban struc tures? We have seen it work
with the houses of Earthship Biotecture, started by Michael Reynolds in the United States. The walls of these “Earthships” are made of used tires, often filled with a mixture of sand, clay, water, and straw (called “cob”). The tires are stacked, compacted with soil, and re inforced with drink cans, making a “rammed earth” home. Walls can let light in by being fit with glass bottles. Electricity is generated by solar panels. Rainwater is col lected, filtered and consumed. If residents use detergents and soaps that don’t change the pH of the water, then the “grey water” from bathtubs, showers, bathroom sinks, and washing machines can be used for grow ing non-edible plants or for flushing the toilet. Sewage from toilets and water from kitchen sinks has to be directed to a septic tank; but the goal of the house is to maximize what would otherwise be ignored as waste. These low-impact, low-waste houses have served their pur pose in New Mexico since Reynolds built the first one in the 70s. More recently, his company’s designs have been built in Collingwood, Ontario, southern Alberta, and Golden, B.C. The houses work best in warm climates, but with extra heating, they could adapt to Estonian and Canadian winters. Considering rammed earth structures, there’s a long tradi tion of constructing farm build ings with clay in southern Estonia. Eestimaaehitus NGO have described these old tech niques as including juniper and fir twigs for reinforcement. Adapting classic earth struc tures like these could be a good way to combine widely avail able materials and refuse to make dwellings. But again, maximizing energy usage is still a challenge. An in between solution could be the houses made by Avrame, a company from Tartu. These A-frame house kits are prepared off-site to minimize waste, and can be built to operate off-grid. They’re also intended to be affordable, accessible, and less labour-intensive. There are a dizzying amount
The Estonian World Council, the Global Estonian NGO and the Estonian World Youth Network will host a virtual global Estonian foreign policy forum on Saturday April 24, 7pm (Estonian time). The forum will provide an overview of current important foreign policy issues and ideas about how Estonians around the world can participate in advocacy efforts to advance Estonia’s interests abroad. • Secretary General of Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jonatan Vseviov: o Overview of Estonia’s foreign policy plans and priorities. • Panel discussion: o What can global Estonians do to support Estonia in achieving its foreign policy goals? o Questions Moderator: prof. Andres Kasekamp, Department of History, Chair of Estonian Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto Participants: Marko Mihkelson, Chairman of Riigikogu Foreign Affairs Committee; Karl Altau, Managing Director, Joint Baltic American National Committee (JBANC); Marcus Kolga, Senior Fellow Macdonald-Laurier Institute, President Central & Eastern European Council in Canada; Chair Sirle Sööt, Chairman, Rootsi Eestlaste Liit (REL) Preregistration: email Reet Marten Sehr at reetsehr@gmail.com
Domestic tourists keeping Estonian tourism industry in business ERR, April, 2021 In February, Estonian ac commodation establishments served nearly 100,000 tourists who spent 187,000 nights in total, data from Statistics Estonia shows. The number of visitors dropped by 57 percent compared to February 2020. Analyst at Statistics Estonia Helga Laurmaa said most of the accommodated guests were do mestic tourists and only 13 percent were foreign tourists. “Year on year, the number of
of choices available, and criti cisms can be found for each, including their visual style and ability to be customized. What’s vital to determine is whether these houses have the necessary amenities. With flexibility and creativity in how materials are used, it may be just as feasible to build or renovate one’s ideal house in a low-impact way. These aren’t mainstream projects, but they’ll eventually lead the way to a more accessible model of sustainable living.
foreign tourists fell by 90 per cent and the number of domestic tourists by 22 per cent,” Laurmaa said. 87,000 domestic tourists stayed at accommodation estab lishments and spent a total of 149,000 nights. The largest share of domestic tourists preferred the accommodation establishments of Harju county, followed by Pärnu, Tartu, IdaViru and Valga counties. The biggest number of foreign tourists still came from neighbouring countries – 2,000 from Finland and 1,700 from Latvia. The total number of ac commodated foreign tourists was 12,500. They spent 38,000 nights in Estonia, which is just 16 percent of the nights spent in February last year. Three quar ters of foreign tourists were accommodated in Harju county, 10 percent in Tartu county and 4 percent in Valga county. In February, there were 888 accommodation establishments open to tourists in Estonia, which is 3 percent less than the year before. There were 19,000 rooms available for guests. The average cost of an overnight stay was €30 euros person, which is €4 cheaper than in February 2020. The average cost of a guest night was €33 in Tartu county, €31 in Pärnu county and €30 in Harju and Valga counties.
common Estonian goal had divided into many. And so, she continued to be an active figure and opinion leader in Estonian politics. According to Professor Lauristin, it’s taken three de cades for Estonia to adjust to the change. With the ongoing pandemic crisis and emergency situation rules, she says that Estonians have acted decisively when there is the potential that democratic freedoms might be limited. But at the same time, she believes that reacting against emergency rules is “something very weird because people here understand the need for rational behaviour, not emotional mobilization.” To this end, she has overseen Human Development Reports as an edi tor in Estonia for many years. These reports are intended to be information for anyone to read and consider. Between 2014 and 2017, Professor Lauristin sought to bring knowledge and practical ideas to the European Parlia ment as a member of parlia ment and a rapporteur of e-pri vacy regulation. For all those advancing this regulation, it was determined that “...it’s human freedom and rights that we should protect, not data alone.” Along these lines, there is the potential of sensitive personal data being used to discriminate against people or to manipulate their behaviour. With the upcoming Cana dian-Estonian audience in mind, she looked back in time again and voiced how “In the fight for Estonian freedom, the role of diaspora communities... was really decisive. For example, when we were fighting for the disclosure of the secret proto cols of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, and the Soviets said that it didn’t exist... we were able to get, due to the help of Estonians working in the library of the U.S. Congress, the copies of original documents.” On a cultural level, she speaks warmly of the lifelines that stretched between Estonia and Estonians abroad from the 1960s onward: “When Estonia was occupied in the 40s, Soviet officials wanted to extinguish all memories of the pre-war cul ture... The community abroad really preserved cultural life very much... People got Estonian books from Sweden or America in parcels and letters and so on... When I was a stu dent we could read those books shared by those who had re ceived them from relatives abroad. Culturally, it was like a pair of external lungs when we couldn’t breathe freely in the old country.” Speaking with Professor Lauristin clarifies how much the pursuit of freedom and jus tice has grown in complexity since Estonia re-gained inde pendence 30 years ago. Atten dees at the VEMU fundraiser will receive much food for thought.
