basic problem

Sustainability & Well-Being

SW Team — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 17:34:00 +0000

Sustainability & Well-Being

The topics listed below explain why SW focuses on Sustainability and Well-Being (rather than ‘Sustainable Development’) and provide a ‘roadmap’ into the complex of issues relating to sustainability and the possibilities for positive action to enhance sustainability and well-being:

Why Sustainability & Well-Being
Sustainability simply explained
What’s sustainability all about ?
What’s sustainable development ?
Transforming our World – the Sustainable Development Goals
Underlying issues of the environment and of society
What we can do as individuals and communities

SW Team Sat, 12/18/2021 - 18:34

Keywords topic 1

Well-being Sustainability

Keywords topic 2

basic problem

THE END OF PLASTIC? NEW PLANT-BASED BOTTLES WILL DEGRADE IN A YEAR

SW Team — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:25:00 +0000

THE END OF PLASTIC? NEW PLANT-BASED BOTTLES WILL DEGRADE IN A YEAR

^{Visit the Guardian to read the original article, 16 May 2020.}

“Globally around 300 million tonnes of plastic is made from fossil fuels every year, which is a major contributor to the climate crisis. Most of this is not recycled and contributes to the scourge of [sg_popup id=12258]microplastics[/sg_popup] in the world’s oceans. Microplastics can take hundreds of years to decompose.”

Beer and soft drinks could soon be sipped from “all-plant” bottles under new plans to turn sustainably grown crops into plastic in partnership with major beverage makers.

A biochemicals company in the Netherlands hopes to kickstart investment in a pioneering project that hopes to make plastics from plant sugars rather than fossil fuels.

The plans, devised by renewable chemicals company Avantium, have already won the support of beer-maker Carlsberg, which hopes to sell its pilsner in a cardboard bottle lined with an inner layer of plant plastic.

Avantium’s chief executive, Tom van Aken, says he hopes to greenlight a major investment in the world-leading bioplastics plant in the Netherlands by the end of the year. The project, which remains on track despite the coronavirus lockdown, is set to reveal partnerships with other food and drink companies later in the summer.

The project has the backing of Coca-Cola and Danone, which hope to secure the future of their bottled products by tackling the environmental damage caused by plastic pollution and a reliance on fossil fuels.

Globally around 300 million tonnes of plastic is made from fossil fuels every year, which is a major contributor to the climate crisis. Most of this is not recycled and contributes to the scourge of microplastics in the world’s oceans. Microplastics can take hundreds of years to decompose completely.

“This plastic has very attractive sustainability credentials because it uses no fossil fuels, and can be recycled – but would also degrade in nature much faster than normal plastics do,” says Van Aken.

Avantium’s plant plastic is designed to be resilient enough to contain carbonate drinks. Trials have shown that the plant plastic would decompose in one year using a composter, and a few years longer if left in normal outdoor conditions. But ideally, it should be recycled, said Van Aken.

The bio-refinery plans to break down sustainable plant sugars into simple chemical structures that can then be rearranged to form a new plant-based plastic – which could appear on supermarket shelves by 2023.

The path-finder project will initially make a modest 5,000 tonnes of plastic every year using sugars from corn, wheat or beets. However, Avantium expects its production to grow as demand for renewable plastics climbs.

In time, Avantium plans to use plant sugars from sustainable sourced biowaste so that the rise of plant plastic does not affect the global food supply chain.

SW Team Thu, 12/16/2021 - 09:25

Keywords topic 1

Pollution

Keywords topic 2

basic problem

The most urgent problems in the world

SW Team — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:59:00 +0000

The most urgent problems in the world

Well, what the world’s most urgent problems are, as in other things, depends on your point of view – whether you are an economist ↓, business person ↓, a priest ↓, a banker ↓, a millennial ↓, an oldster ↓, a volunteer ↓, one who records and ranks diverse topics ↓ … or just someone else ↓ who has a point of view.

Everyone has a point of view on the most important problems we face today, and they’re all different. So how do you choose which are the most important ones ? Do you adopt wht the head of your government says,e.g. President Trump in the United States ? Or in Canada, Prime Minister Trudeau ? Or Prime Minister Solberg in Norway ? Or Prime Minister Modi in India, or Chairman in China ? Or; closer to home, the mayor of your city or town ?

Or, are the most important problems the ones which effect the most people ? But which “most people” ? The ones in your family ? Or in your neighborhood or town ? or in your country ? Or the “most people” in the world ?

Or are the problems most important problems ones which for some reason you’re interested in, understand them and want or can bring a solution to them – i.e. problems on which you can have an impact ?

The millennials’ list of the most urgent global issues (80000 hours)

***Urgent problems, from gvi, volunteers and interns abroad ***

food security
major global health issues:
1. communicable diseases like hepatitis, cholera, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV.
  Communicable diseases now kill 70% of persons and low-income countries are the most severely affected.
2. non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as road traffic injuries and deaths.
3. Besides malnutrition, there are many other issues affecting health on a global scale. In the past, the main topic of focus was global child health and
primary education
the need for gender equality
the overwhelming needs of africa
global environmental issues:
1. habitat and biodiversity loss
2. ocean conservation
3. water scarcity
global issues that require policy solutions

SW Team Sat, 08/14/2010 - 23:59

Keywords topic 1

People - Society

Keywords topic 2

basic problem