Garbage Island

These videos really impacted me.

How are we going to deal with all the garbage that we are producing? And what are going to be the consecuences of all the waste that we are generating?

The consumerism that the american lifestyle is selling us will end because fortunately there is a limit in the quantity of waste that we can generate as well there is a limit in resources.

But I ask myself, will be this end too ugly too live through it? How much harmfull our waste will be?

Goofy and the City

Curious first 1:30 minutes…

How since the ’40s the model was already creating problems.

The American model of spreaded city based on the personal transport and its individualistic lifestyle has had too much weight in this easily influenced world.

Nowadays this fruitless model is widespread and it is time to start fixing it.

 

What’s Sustainability?

For me, sustainability is to maintain de cycle. The life cycle on Earth.

We are not owners of the world, we are not the most important species here, we are just one that has taken advantage of its situation and has forgotten how to live in harmony with its environment.

Have we been living in harmony until recently?

Some people think that the problem has been the Industrial Revolution but I think that we have not limits until is too late. Humans do not are used to prevent but to be sorry.

On the other hand, human beings usually finish improving our situation at the end, so I still have faith in the future.

Poo2Loo

Behind this bizarre video there is a great UNICEF campaign in India supporting poo-free streets. Here their web and Facebook. In addition, UNICEF has an international campaign to provide toilets not only in India. Here.

2.5 billion people around the world do not have access to a safe and clean toilet. In India, half of the population has to do it in streets and surroundings. This is not only a huge health issue,  but a security issue as well. Every year, thousands of girls (women and children) are raped, and sometimes murdered after, when they were going to the ´toilet´. Here one of the latest cases.

In developed countries the sustainability is now focused on how to consume or need less energy, and sometimes materials, but in other countries there are bigger issues, issues that involve health and security. Big developing countries, such as India or Brazil, where big cities are growing rapidly but where simple actions can have a life-changing result should be the main objective of international programs.

If we want a sustainable and democratic world we should start being democratic with the people living in it.

 

Image from facebook.com/poo2loo

Climate Change

Some people argue that Climate Change does not exist, they are called Climate Deniers and there are some interesting webs that list the most famous or important of them. Here and here for instance.

The problem is that these deniers are generally supported by big companies and industry lobbies that are directly related to great CO2 emissions. So it is in their convenience to misinform the general public.

Even if this influential and powerful group of people is trying to present studies and data to prove their beliefs, the reality is that all the new studies presented by the IPCC or the US Global Change Research Program, for instance, found that the Earth is warmer than before and that this will produce consequences in the global climate.

Global Change has released their findings in a report last month and some of their graphs just talk by themselves:

Global Temperatures and CO2 Concentration

Natural & Human influences on Climate Change

Past & Projected change in Global Sea Level Rise (1ft=33cm/4ft=1.20m approx)

Past & Projected Sea Ice Decline (RCP=Representative Concentration Pathways)

Acidification of Oceans

Its projected changes with a rapid emissions reduction:

Global Temperatures

Annual Precipitation

Its projected changes if the emissions increase in the actual trend:

Global Temperature

Annual Precipitation

I think that the findings are scary because I do not trust in a big change in a short-term and the consequences will transform our world, our life. We are going to live in a changing world full of challenges.

*All graphs and images from nca2014.globalchange.gov/report