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The Thinking Watermill Society podcast
22 APR 2024 · Hi everyone! I'm Lorenza, a master degree student, who would like to add more positive news on this very special day.Do you know that Norway is the first country in the world to ban deforestation? Norway gave $1 billion to Brazil to protect the Amazon back in 2008. This helped cut Amazon deforestation by 75% in 7 years.A few years later, in 2016, Norway became the first country in the world to ban deforestation. The Norwegian Parliament pledged that the government's public procurement policy will no longer use products linked to deforestation.The pledge was part of Norway's Action Plan on Nature Diversity, which also requested that the government's investments avoid harming biodiversity.Norway's action plan follows its partnerships with countries such as Brazil, Liberia and Guyana, providing billions in funding to help preserve their forests. The partnerships are part of a UN initiative to reduce emissions by avoiding deforestation.Norway is also working to restrict gas car sales by 2025. Gas cars face significant taxes, while EVs enjoy exemptions, making them more economically appealing.According to the Norwegian Automobile Federation's analysis, gas car sales have consistently and steeply declined, with less than 10% of new car sales being non-electrified.I hope you enjoyed this environmentally-friendly news. The best way to celebrate Earth Day? Show more care about our planet.Thank you
22 APR 2024 · Hello everyone, my name is Cecilia. Today the world is celebrating Earth Day, a 54-year annual event and the largest environmental movement on our planet.Before sharing some GOOD news in favour of our ecosystem, I must thank the Thinking Watermill Society for inviting the Parioli English School to the podcast.On a positive note, we are 2 students who deeply believe in this project and would like to raise awareness as well as spread the results of some amazing initiatives as follows.Do you know that The ocean cleanup is a non-profit organisation that develops technologies to clear the oceans from plastic pollution?This year’s goal is to clean the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or GPGP) by optimising the System 03.The GPGP is the biggest accumulation of floating plastic on Earth (triple the area of France). It is located between Hawaii and California and it contains 100.000.000 kilograms of plastic. Cleaning such a vaste area requires ten cleanup systems.Therefore, in 2023, the association tripled the size of their system so as to achieve their goal.The system 03 is long 2.5 kilometres and it is able to clean an area of ocean equivalent to a football field in 5 seconds.Until today the ocean clean up has removed a total of 345,000 kilograms of plastic, which represents only a third of a percent of the mass of plastic in the GPGP. Even though it is not a huge percentage, these results demonstrate that this system is working.They aim for System 03 to achieve 100 kg/ hour of plastic extracted from the GPGP. For example, in 2023 this system reached a level of 75kg/hours of plastic removed, an all-time high for us in the GPGP.In order to improve the performance of cleanup systems they consider both the amount of plastic they extract in kilograms per hours and the uptime the system is actively cleaning (not including transit, extraction, etc.).In conclusion, they believe that in 2024, by increasing the uptime, capture efficiency and by improving the ability to target the high plastic density areas, they will achieve their goal and show the world that their solution for Great Pacific Garbage Patch is real and effective.
25 MAR 2024
22 APR 2023
22 APR 2023
25 MAR 2023 · Today, the 25th of March, is Dantedì, the day dedicated to the great poet.
Today it is more than three years since the world has been hit by the covid crisis, and even new pandemics are feared.
Today it’s more than one year that Ukraine has been invaded and the world is under the threat of a global war, possibly a nuclear one.
Humanity goes through a hell of darkness and fear, nobody is safe.
So we would really like to say the verse of the Poet, while he concludes his journey through hell.
"And then we went out to see the stars again".
Stars which are witnesses of atrocities, but also symbols of that sky mankind prays to or interrogates about its own being. "And then we went out to see the stars again". A verse of hope that we wish we will all be able to say soon, a verse about resurgence and the end of fear.
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Oggi 25 marzo è Dantedi, il giorno dedicato al grande poeta.
Oggi sono sono ormai più di tre anni che il mondo e' stato stravolto dalla crisi del covid e si temono ancors nuove pandemie.
Oggi è più di un anno che l'Ucraina è stata invasa e che il mondo si trova sotto la minaccia di una guerra globale e perfino nucleare.
L'umanità passa attraverso un inferno di oscurita' e paura, nessuno può dirsi al sicuro.
Allora vorremmo proprio potere dire il verso del Poeta mentre finisce il suo percorso nell'inferno
"E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle"
Quelle stelle testimoni di atrocità ma anche simbolo di quel cielo cui gli uomini si rivolgono quando pregano o si interrogano sul proprio essere.
"E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle"
Un verso di speranza che ci auguriamo presto si possa dire noi tutti, un verso di rinascita e fine della paura.
8 JUN 2022 · 1. DAVIDE REDIVO
Hello everyone, my name is Davide. Today we are celebrating the World Oceans Day so I would like to share with you the importance of raising awareness of how much the oceans represent a unique and indispensable resource not only for mankind, but for the entire ecosystem. Before anything else, I must thank the Thinking Watermill Society for inviting the Parioli English School to the podcast. We are 3 students who deeply believe in this project for the protection of the marine environment.
Unless you’ve been making a superhuman effort to avoid the news recently, you’ll know that the ocean is vital to life on Earth. But why, exactly, is this the case?
First of all, it has the important role of helping us “breathe”.
The Phytoplankton, tiny plant-like organisms that live in the sea, are responsible for at least 50% of the oxygen on the Earth.
Just like land-based plants, they contain chlorophyll to capture sunlight and use photosynthesis to convert it into the energy they need, producing oxygen as a byproduct. They also consume carbon dioxide, transferring about 10 gigatonnes of carbon from the atmosphere deep into the ocean.
In addition, the entire ocean works as a real climate regulator:
In fact, it absorbs huge amounts of heat from the sun. “More than 90% of the warming that has happened on Earth over the past 50 years has occurred in the ocean” according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “More than 90% of the warming that has happened on Earth over the past 50 years has occurred in the ocean”
That heat tends to be at its most intense nearer the equator, with the water nearest the surface warming the most. Sea currents then transport that heat around the world; north and south, towards the poles. As some of the seawater evaporates, it becomes denser and heavier due to its relatively higher salt content. That causes it to sink, taking some of the warm water deeper.
Some currents are directly responsible for specific climatic effects. One example is the Gulf Stream, which takes warmer water from the Gulf of Mexico across the Atlantic to Europe. If the Gulf Stream were disrupted, much of the western part of Europe – including the UK, Ireland and France – could become colder.
Now I would like to introduce Alejandro who will provide further information regarding this topic.
2. ALEJANDRO MURRUGARRA
Hello, I am Alejandro.
Another reason to take into account is that fish is on the menu for billions of people around the world every day and it accounts for almost 16% of all animal protein consumed globally. Of course, there’s more to seafood than fish, crustacea and other edible creatures. A range of algae and sea plants are also commonly used in cooking.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization lists sodium, calcium, magnesium, and iodine among some of the important nutrients in seaweed. Iodine deficiency has been identified as the “most prevalent and easily preventable” cause of impaired cognitive development in children.
Pressure on resources and the environment have led to calls for food production and for people’s diets to change. A cow, for example, produces 2.8kg of greenhouse gas per kilo of live body weight and needs 10kg of feed for every kilo it weighs.
Plus, to get just one gram of protein from cattle, you need 112 litres of water. The oceans, if properly managed and maintained, could form an important part of a more sustainable approach to feeding the planet’s growing human population.
Needless to say, the ocean is not just a source of food. It is also home to an abundance of life. While estimates on the number of species that live in the sea exist, no one knows with absolute certainty what that number is.
According to the US National Library of Medicine’s National Institutes of Health, “91% of species in the ocean still await description.” That’s due in no small part to the vastness of the oceans, which cover around 70% of the planet’s surface and are up to 11,000 metres deep. The number of yet-to-be-discovered creatures living in the sea could easily run into the millions.
Now Enrico is going to put forward another consideration in favour of oceans.
3. THE OCEAN ECONOMY
Hi, i’m Enrico.
Another reason why we all should care for the oceans is that they provide people with millions of job opportunities. Indeed, by 2030, ocean-based industries will employ more than 40 million people worldwide, an OECD report estimates. The biggest share of those jobs is likely to be in the fisheries sector, followed by tourism. As OECD has analyzed, by the next 20 years the economic sectors that will grow the most will be: offshore wind [24.52%] followed by industrial fish processing [6.26%], industrial marine aquaculture [5.69%] and industrial capture fisheries [4.10%].
In addition, the economic health of maritime industries is fundamentally linked to the overall health of the oceans, of course. The ocean economy is of particular importance in developing countries, which are home to most of 3 billion people who rely on the sea for their livelihoods.
However, challenges like climate change, pollution and a simple lack of awareness of sustainable ocean stewardship techniques continue to put maritime resources at risk. That will limit the potential socioeconomic benefits those resources represent for future generations, as well as stifling people’s earning abilities in the present.
The ocean is therefore fundamental for human existence because it regulates rainfall and droughts, holds 97% of our planet’s water, and absorbs CO2, helping keep the carbon cycle in balance. From food to jobs, it’s a lifeline for billions of people, too.
But the ocean is also a beautiful natural environment with an invaluable recreational role to play. And with research showing a connection between spending time in the natural world and lowering your stress levels, that might be something else worth holding on to.
For all these reasons, we have to start acting now. Not only should we try to do our best to safeguard the oceans and their creatures for the future generations, but we should preserve all their resources as well. Every single small act of awareness, such as reducing any waste discarded in oceans or intensive fishing can make the big difference.
And remember to take care of the environment as it were yourself,
Thank you for your attention!
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