It was never as simple as now to be up to date. A short look on your smart phone, your laptop or other digital device and you know what is happening around the world. Do you know this feeling of being overwhelmed by a fact that you found in the internet and you have a desperate need to share this information with someone to be convinced of it? But how can you be sure of the truth of what you read? 

Even in YouTube are many videos and contents on climate topics that go against the scientific consensus on climate change. At least one out of five users will receive misinformation in this and many other disputed topics. Influencer and advertisers try to convince the audience that there is no relation between human activity and global warming, or they even do climate denialism. As YouTube’s algorithm “helps” you finding the next video with the “up next” feature it is more likely to be guided on a track full of misinformation. This is a very dangerous source, and harmful contents are spread instantly over the world wide web. There are claims against YouTube of profiting by spreading misinformation and intentionally placed ads alongside these videos. Public’s pressure let YouTube change their policy in December 2019 but as this giant of a concern structure is quite un-transparent of their doings it is still not clear how many harmful contents are spread. [1]

It is not only YouTube that influences our lives, there are so many more negative influences, fake news and conspiracy theories going around in the internet, in the media and even in the news. There is a huge danger in denying  climate change, especially as it takes a great part in political affairs which have a global impact. Two famous denialists of climate are the U.S. president Donald Trump and Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison. [1][2]

Australia’s latest summer heat broke every historical record, it has been the most intense bushfire season ever. Many animals died or lost their homes and hundreds of thousands of Australians experienced the largest mass evacuation in the history of their country. This tragedy changed the perspective of many Australians and they would probably vote in the next election for a prime minister who cares for the environment. [2]

Denialism is about not being insulted as denialist, Freud explained it as they have taken the private sickness of denial and turned it into public dogma. But denialism is very closely linked to what humans do on a large scale and it is rooted in what we do on  a small scale. [3]

Opting out!

As solution for scientifically inaccurate information spread by YouTube, advertisers, institutions, companies and individuals should put pressure on concerns like YouTube and online media to take more action on climate denial content. This success is depending on the company’s leadership and their political “will” to do so. In addition, YouTube has now strict ad policies where ads are allowed and also give the advertisers tools to opt out of unaligned content. Furthermore, there is an urgent need for “political consensus” in all countries about climate change. [1]

Denialists are excluded from scholarly journals and academic conferences. But as they are still there and denying the obvious climate change it is necessary to unmask them. Unfortunately, in a democratic society it cannot be beaten legally yet.

Collective Consciousness
Nudging for the truth

It seems that denialism is insuperable, and the awareness of global warming will never reach a consensus.
Therefore, YOU have to contribute your part: if you find any news be cautious and critical, check all the background information and do some further research. Be aware of your privacy and data policy by using YouTube or any social media. 
It is also advisable to be self-critic for not being denying our collective ability to understand the world. We should not wait for another catastrophe to happen, for realizing that we need to take care of our mother earth. If you have the chance, speak up! Educate your friends and family by nudging for the truth. Do not deny the humans dependency on earth.

The world is changing fast, so sustain on the right train. Porter already established a business model where social and community needs are more important than profit, it is about conscious enterprise emergence with shared value creation through expanded conscious awareness. [4] You can also become a member of a collective awareness platform for sustainability or social innovation projects. For more detail klick here: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/caps-examples

Sources

[1] https://time.com/5765622/youtube-climate-change-denial/

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/08/australia-climate-disaster-denial-bushfires-online-rightwing-press-politicians

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/03/denialism-what-drives-people-to-reject-the-truth

[4] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-013-1726-y

This mountain is the world’s highest peak and attracts hundreds of people year by year. It is situated in the Himalaya and is more than 29,000 feet above sea level at it is peak has been an elite climbing destination for decades and hundreds of climbers from over the world visit each year to attempt to summit the peak. In 2019 was exceed the record of 807 people who climb this magnificent Mount.

Tourism and trekking in the valleys below Everest have grown significantly in the last 30 years now reaching over 35,000 visitors per year. The increased tourism has led to an increase in trash and plastics and landfills now dot the National Park. Consequently, Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) was created to manage waste in Khumbu region that includes the Everest trekking area. SPCC has been working to keep clean this park through development of appropriate waste management infrastructures, check climbing permits, monitor illegal climbing and implement waste management strategies at the base camps of the Khumbu area’s mountain.

According to the “Times of India” 11 tons of waste was be left in the mountain since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa crowned their summit for the first time 66 year ago. This generated that Nepal implemented a $4,000 rubbish deposit cost per team who want to climb Mount Everest and it is deposit will be refunded if each climber brings down at least 8 kg of waste.  As expressed by the South China Morning Post, only half of the climbers actually brought down the required amounts.

The popularity is generating problems not only in the overcrowding of the routes but also is affecting to the environmental side. As we know, the human impact is oftenly accompanied with climate change and this is what happened and is happening now. John All is a well-known environmental science professor who said the following sentence according to the environmental Everest effects: “Overall, the past 10 years have seen a lot of changes in the mountains, and they all have been for he negative environmentally terms of long term survivability of the glaciers” and he continued saying that “What that means is there a little pieces of pollution that the snow is forming around, so the snow is actually trapping the pollution and pulling it down”.

These human effects are generating many risk not only for climbers who are risking her lives walking on those glaciers that are changing their shape because the pollution but also are generating problems to the local people who live there near these mountains. Environmentalists are concerned the pollution is affecting water sources down in the valley that will generate several problems to these areas.

We cannot deny that Mount Everest is having a real and deep problems that is affecting the lives of local people in Nepal and the overcrowded routes is generating negative impact on the geography of this mountains. The local authorities are trying to solve these problems, putting restriction to climbers and cleaning the garbage that people are leaving on camps. Is important to say that many scientists are worried about this situation and they are trying to alert the population the several negative impacts that the region is suffering. Adding to these regulation, I suggest to implement stronger rules that restrict more the access to these camps and mountains, with the aim of reducing the number of climbers. It is also important to regulate the experience and health of the people who attend, since another issue not related to sustainability and more humane, is the life of each one of them.

References:

https://www.spcc.org.np/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/06/mount-everest-garbage-pounds-waste-human-bodies/

https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20190527/462516769123/limpieza-everest-cadaveres-toneladas-basura.html

https://www.outsideonline.com/2395102/john-all-scientist-climber-everest

The first time I drank water from the tap in Bern, I was shocked. It didn’t taste nearly as good as at my hometown Chur. Quickly I missed the cool and fine water from the mountains. A problem for which I would not find understanding in many other countries of the world.

For example in South Africa. Especially in Cape Town the situation is very tense. In 2018, the metropolis of millions was the first major city in the world to fear that it would run out of water. The so-called Day Zero was predicted. Other cities will also face this problem in the near future. Among them London, Tokyo, Beijing or Mexico City to name just a few.

Although the UN has defined a drinking water supply as a basic right, it will hardly be possible to guarantee this.

Blue Planet But No Water? How That?

If you take a look at our planet from space, you see a lot of blue. Water as far as the eye can see. So how can it be possible, that we are running out of water?

In fact, there is a lot of water on earth. A huge amount of water actually. According to different calculations, there are around 1,386 trillion liters of water on our planet. We have always had and will always have this amount of water. It cannot leave the atmosphere. About 97% of the water is in the oceans and is therefore salty. So undrinkable. Another 2% are frozen or in other unusable conditions. What remains is exactly 1% drinkable water.

In addition, only a small part of this remaining percentage is accessible in rivers and lakes. The largest part is underground.
But even after all these deductions, the remaining water would still be sufficient to meet the UN demands and provide drinking water for all people. The real problem is our handling of water.

We Waste Water

The most water we use, we don’t even see. It is used in production for our consume. Drinking, washing and toilet flushing, account for just 8% of our daily water consumption. 70% is used for agriculture and another 22% for industry reasons.

How much litres of water some of the products from our everyday life use, can be seen on the graph below.

The big problem with water is that there are no substitutions. As a result of which there will be fewer and fewer, future prices could rise excessively. We would have to pay the price anyway. No water, no life!

But even a slight increase in water prices would make all products more expensive. On the one hand, this could perhaps reduce the consumption of meat for example. On the other hand, even basic foodstuffs would no longer be affordable for everyone. For some even not the water itself.

Fortunately the example of Cape Town shows that it can be done differently. They have managed to do the right actions. The whole city has started to rethink and reduce its own water consumption. With the simplest of measures, day zero could have been prevented. It has not arrived until today.

What to Do!

Here in Switzerland we have enough drinking water (even if sometimes better or worse). However, we are to a large extent responsible that other countries dry up. Our consumption makes the whole system work.

In order to change this, we must be much more conscious in our purchasing. Especially when we buy clothes or meat, it is worth looking twice. We can reduce our consumption and if you still want to eat a piece of meat sometimes, regional products should be preferred. Also your neighborhood farmer will thank you.

Better we start yesterday than the day after tomorrow. Because water has just no value as long as it is available in abundance.

Side Note

Check out your own water footprint. So you can see where you have to improve your lifestyle! See the link below:

https://www.watercalculator.org/wfc2/q/household/

Sources

• https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/human-rights/
• https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/2018/feb/03/day-zero-how-cape-town-running-out-water
• https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/how-much-water-there-earth?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects
• “Explained” – The World’s Water Crisis
• https://data.worldbank.org/indicator
• https://www.watercalculator.org/footprint/foods-big-water-footprint/https://grist.org/article/cape-towns-day-zero-water-crisis-one-year-later/

It would be nice if everything healthy was also cheap. Whether butter, ready meals as well as cosmetic articles like creams. In our time everything “healthy” or “good” has become too expensive. 

People are stressed out and can hardly cook themselves, which is the reason for the preferred purchase of ready-made products. 

It is the same with make-up. Every woman has to look well-groomed at her work and the consumption of cosmetics every day becomes expensive in the long run with “good” products that are also “good” for the environment. But what exactly does this mean for our environment and our health? And why is it probably better to spend more money on soy or rapeseed oil than on the cheaper palm oil?

But firstly, why is palm oil so popular with consumers and producers, even though it only has disadvantages for the environment? 

For producers, palm oil production is more effective because, unlike other types of oil such as soya or rapeseed, it yields 3.4 tons of oil per hectare of land. 

Another reason is that nowadays people hardly ever cook for themselves but prefer ready-made meals. Because they are stressed by working and have hardly any time to cook. Also, in the field of cosmetics they choose the cheaper alternative, as it makes no difference to most people, but a big difference to the environment.

It is not that there are no products in the supermarket without palm oil.

You just have to read the contents of the products properly. It is easier with the seals. By buying palm oil-free products, every consumer in the various industries can show that unsustainably produced palm oil is no longer cool. In products from Dr. Hauschka, Alnatura, Lavera, etc. you can be sure there is NO palm oil in them.

When using products without palm oil, you will notice that they feel much better. Because the consumption of palm oil can cause stroke, heart disease and cancer. Palm oil is also a thickener! 100 grams of fat are contained in 100 grams alone.

For more information, watch these videos below 🙂

Palm oil – just as important for Switzerland

Palm oil is an important export product for Switzerland. How important this oil is for the country is also illustrated by the interest of tariff dismantling. This important product comes from the palm oil producers Indonesia and Malaysia, which account for almost 80% of palm oil production worldwide. 

Air traffic with its CO2 emissions has the greatest impact on the climate. This is a particular burden on the environment.

Doing without palm oil for your own health and the environment

It has become part of everyday life to always reach for cheaper products in order to have a little money on the side. Although perhaps with the 2-5 CHF you can protect the environment and the animals affected by it, such as the orangutans. Because of the monocultures the soils are very eroded. Palm oil as well as corn and coffee are cultivated/planted anew at the same place every year, which leads to the eradication of the rainforest and the flight or even death of the animals. What good is a little more money if the environment is destroyed by our consumer behavior?

I hope that the next time you go shopping, whether for cosmetics or food, you will pay attention to this and ask yourself: “is my health more important to me or just the few extra Franks I invest in rapeseed or soybean oil?

Resources: 

• https://www.regenwald-schuetzen.org/verbrauchertipps/palmoel/
• https://utopia.de/galerien/palmoelfreie-kosmetik-ohne-palmoel/#14
• https://www.balancebeautytime.com/palmoel-kosmetik
• https://www.infosperber.ch/Wirtschaft/So-streitet-die-Schweiz-uber-Palmol
• https://utopia.de/ratgeber/palmoel-beim-einkauf/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvKgnRPThKI
• https://www.prosieben.ch/tv/newstime/panorama/todesurteil-fuer-den-tapanuli-orang-utan-102596
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU1abJMw7cs
• https://m-net.dstv.com/show/carte-blanche/news/palm-oil-the-good-the-bad-and-the-sustainable/news

Palm oil is a vegetable oil, which is extracted out of the meat of the fruits of oil palms.

Nearly every product in the supermarket contains palm oil. Experts estimate that every second product in a supermarket contains palm oil – from pizza to cosmetic products, you can find it anywhere. It is the cheapest vegetable oil. Palm oil is also very heat resisted and is mixing up very well with other raw ingredients. Another big advantage is that it remains solid in room temperature, so that’s the main reason it is used in a lot of food and cosmetic products. Annually, 66 million tons are produced around the world and the product gets more popular every year. Experts predict that the demand doubles for next year! The biggest producing countries are Indonesia and Malaysia. They together deliver 85 % of the world demand of palm oil. It creates a lot of jobs in Malaysia and is the fourth largest industry. But besides of producing oil, there is another rising interest. Palm oil bio diesel, a renewable energy source. It pollutes less emissions than normal diesel. Palm oil bio diesel rises the demand for palm oil heavily. 

Why is palm oil a problem?

The plantation of palm trees uses a lot of space. To get this space, the farmers are simply burning down rainforest, which is crucial for the ecosystem. There is a big loss of biodiversity and the orangutan and other stands as the biggest looser due his territorial loss. There are also other endangered species suffering like elephants and rhinos. The rainforest is also essential for the oxygen production for the world. There is a daily loss of rainforest in the size of 4600 football fields in the world. Because the industry is so big and offers a lot of jobs, everyone wants to profit from it. There are a lot of safety hazards on the plantations and a lot of workers are working without allowance. The Malaysian government is now reacting on the bad reputation of the oil and are starting a sustainable attack. They want to rise the industry standards and only allow the production of sustainable palm oil without the deforestation. The biggest problem with palm oil is, that it is very cheap to produce and you don’t need much equipment! Everyone wants to produce it, because the palm trees are growing very easy and you don’t have to take a lot of care about them. Because it’s so easy money, the farmers don’t care about the negative consequences.

Land grabbing

Palm oil is recently linked with land grabbing due the production expansion. Land grabbing means, that foreign companies buy or rent space from local communities who depend on the land for their livelihoods. The land grabbing can be legal or illegal. In the most cases, the companies are paying a price which is too low. This often leads to conflicts in the region. 

Why can’t we just use other vegetable oil?

The production of palm oil is very efficient. The oil is supplying 35 % of the oil demand in the world and uses only 10 % of the land space. If we would switch to alternative vegetable oil, the problem would get worse. If we would want to get the same amount of oil, we would need much more plantation space with other vegetables than oil palms. The best alternative is if the palm oil is to produce it much more sustainable. But this would raise the price. There are also other alternatives like soy oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil or rapeseed oil. But these plants aren’t as efficient as palm oil. The only option would be to continue to produce palm oil but rise the standard much higher. The production must be more sustainable, without burning down rain forest.

Sources

Rösemeier-Buhmann, J., 2020. Nachhaltigleben.ch. Online Available at: https://www.nachhaltigleben.ch/naturschutz/zerstoerung-des-regenwalds-produkte-mit-und-ohne-palmoel-2564(12.04.2020)

RadioSRF4news, 2019. Malaysisches Palmöl – der zähe Kampf um Nachhaltigkeit, Show from 16.11.2019. Online available at:https://www.srf.ch/sendungen/international/malaysisches-palmoel-der-zaehe-kampf-um-nachhaltigkeit (14.04.2020)

Aliaga, M., 2020. WWF.uk. Online available at: https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil(14.04.2020)

Beyer, R., Duran, A., Rademacher, T., Martin, P., Tayleur, C., Brooks, S., Donald, P., Sanderson, F., 2019. The environmental impact of palm oil and its alternatives. Doi: 10.1101/2020.02.16.951301

Lamba, J., Gupta, B., Dzever, S., 2019. Industrialization and global warming (a brief case analysis of palm oil production: Indonesia). Asian and European Corporate Strategies in the wake of the 2008 Financial Crisis, Barsac. Hal-02265821.

Rulli, M., Casirati, S., Dell’ Angelo, J., Davis, K., Passera, C., D’Odorico, P., 2019. Interdependencies and telecoupling of oil palm expansion at the expense of Indonesian rainforest. In Foley, A., et al. (Hrsg.), Renewable and sustainable Energy Reviews. Golden: Elsevier.

Brink, H., Kusumaningtyas, R., Riemersma, M. and Warmerdam, W., 2017. Deforestation and land grabbing in the palm oil sector – A Fair Insurance Guide case study, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Profundo. 

Disposal of face masks
According to an article published by the Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Practical Preventive Medicine Magazine (2) in China, disposable masks used by medical personnel should be treated as medical infectious waste; masks used after close contact with new or suspected COVID-19 cases should be soaked and disinfected with disinfectant containing available chlorine 10000 ~ 2000 m/L for 20 ~ 30 min, then discard in hazardous trash; masks used by ordinary people are placed in hazardous trash in the classification of household garbage. Despite the official guideline, masks have been still lying in the streets, on the beach, and in the ocean like the issue of plastic bottle.
On the one hand, when masks land in the ocean, it poses a threat to marine life because marine animals will mistakenly have it for food. On the other hand, masks being thrown away improperly will increase the risk of spreading bacteria.
Moreover, being the most essential component in masks, polypropylene and other poly-family are not easily biodegradable due to their stable chemical properties (3). This further increases the difficulty of disposing masks.

Reasonable sustainable solutions
– The demand for masks will not be reduced for a while, but the total amount of medical waste can be reduced. This can be achieved by developing sustainable alternatives. Just when Switzerland was in a predicament of COVID-19, a Swiss company Lanz-Anliker that specializes in technical textiles, has produced reusable masks that are recyclable for up to 20 days. It consists of a basic structure made of cotton and an insert made of fleece (4). The mask must be washed out in boiling water to destroy the germs. Besides, the wearer must change the insert twice a day. Nevertheless, it is only an alternative during the shortage of surgical masks because it does not resist the virus.
Environmentally friendly alternatives like this should be developed and produced so that they can be put on the market as soon as possible.
– The government should increase public awareness of the proper disposal of surgical masks through publicity. Additionally, improving the disposal method of masks for the private user as early as possible, such as setting up a mask disposal box separately.
– Relevant organizations can organize paid activities to collect masks scattered around since no one is willing to do so for free. Meanwhile, adequate protection measures for service personnel need to be provided.

Reference:

(1) Henneberry, B., How surgical masks are made. The TomasNet Blog. Online: https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/other/how-surgical-masks-are-made/ (03.05.2020)

(2) Yin, J., Song, J.N., Gao, Q., Dai, J.B. & Chen, G.Q., 2020. Precise protection: effective use and treatment of masks and respirators. Practical Preventive Medicine Magazine, 1006-3110(2020)04-0403-03. Online: https://caod.oriprobe.com/journals/syyfyx/Practical_Preventive_Medicine.htm  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1006-3110.2020.04.006
(03.05.2020)

(3) Yang, J.H., Biodegradable plastic, degradation in case of water. Scientific American. Online: https://sa.ylib.com/MagArticle.aspx?Unit=easylearn&id=1638
(03.05.2020)

(4) Wirth, D., 2020.
Berner Unternehmen startet aus Not mit Masken-Produktion – und landet damit prompt einen Hit. Aargauer Zeitung. Online: https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/schweiz/berner-unternehmen-startet-aus-not-mit-masken-produktion-und-landet-damit-prompt-einen-hit-137349465 (03.05.2020)