Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Taking care of nature!




Today I feel like talking about how to protect our nature, wich is quite a simple task. In fact it is all about balance. To take care of our world you don't need to abdicate of nowdays products or technologies, just don't start to consume spontaneously, have some self control.
   
Also before throwing something away, think about donating, recycling, updating! Trash insn't the only destiny for stuff you don't use anymore.
   
Learn to adimire the beauty of the little things around you, that may create an inspiration to do even better things!

And last but not least, always remember the 3 R's: Recycle, Reuse and Rethink.


Monday, November 17, 2014

A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter

No matter how small, all actions matter. That's what we can conclude from the video below. It's a short TED talk by a volunteer firefighter called Mark Bezos. He shows us, in a very simple and clear way, that we can always affect somebody's life. It's up to us. All we have to do is pay attention to the small things. Don't look away just because you wanted to do something big.

His talk was an inspiration for our movie and we hope you enjoy it!


On TED's website there are over 40 subtitles for the video. Check it out: http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bezos_a_life_lesson_from_a_volunteer_firefighter

Glass Recycling in South Africa: A Good example!

The website below shows a CEO talking about a company that recycles glass and is managing to do the recycling of glass packaging in a way that has consequently increased from 18% to 40%, in five years, this kind of recycling.

The company invested in a marketing tactic with the help of another company, TGRC.
TGRC installed over 2000 glass banks in 2006 and provided an SMS service for people to know the nearest bank to their region. Moreover, TGRC helps in education of children about recycling.

South African glass recycling rates are coming close to the ones in Brazil and Australia
(Image taken from the website below).

It is a nonprofit corporation that manages donations to purchase some glasses manufacturers, and manufacturers have invested more than R320,000,000.00 in colors processing plants that automatically break the glass by color. This has made it easier for consumers to dispose of the glass because there isn't the need for glass to be separated into the three colors. Returnable glass bottles can be reused at least 21 times before they have to be sent for recycling.

For more information, check out the link below:
http://urbanearth.co.za/articles/glass-recycling-south-africa

Water Pollution: Prevention

Hey!

The link below is about what you can do to prevent water pollution. It's new ideias that you can put in your routine, and you can pass for your friends. There are many ways they teach you, so now you can do all the things to help. With small actions you can change a lot ;)
http://eschooltoday.com/pollution/water-pollution/prevention-of-water-pollution.html



Here there is a link also talking about what is water pollution, if you know nothing about what I am writing!
http://eschooltoday.com/pollution/water-pollution/what-is-water-pollution.html

Finally,  we have here a link about other types of pollution, like: ar pollution, light pollution and land pollution!
 http://eschooltoday.com/pollution/air-pollution/what-is-air-pollution.html  (air pollution)

http://eschooltoday.com/pollution/light-pollution/all-about-light-pollution-for-children.html (light pollution)

http://eschooltoday.com/pollution/land-pollution/what-is-land-pollution.htm (land pollution)

On ALL these links there are other links talking about what you can do to prevent, types of pollution, solutions, effects.....

Get informed and be part of the change!

- Malu ;)

Air Pollution



Air pollutions is a big issue, it is a big problem. This video shows many pieces of information about this problem, such as statistics, causes, effects and solutions.

Many curiosities are about the countries that have a big gas emission, like the USA, which is responsible for 30.3% of the world's gas emissions. Or that 33% of Chinese people live in such polluted cities, that the air they breath is equivalent to smoking 2 packs of cigarretes a day.

Check it out!

Happy Day P.F

Happy day P. F. is a Social-Evangelizing action realized by Catholic Association Porta-Fidei, which is afilliated to the Parish of Graças. Two times a year this group does a Social-Evangelizing action. A very interesting thing about this group is that on the Sundays that precede the big day of the meeting, the volunteers go to traffic signs around the city to raise money. 


The last action happened on October 3 and gathered 2,000 kids and teenagers, and about 500 volunteers. I'm glad to have been one of them. It happened in a partnership with Mirabilândia park. 
For more information, visit the institution. You can make the difference in the day of a kid too.




Photos of the last meeting:
http://www.divulgarecife.com/galerias/0110-happy-day/

Facebook fanpage:
https://pt-br.facebook.com/umdiadiferente

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Recycling Electronics

  
The use of electronic equipment has grown a lot in the last years, changing the way we live and the way we see the world. However, there is a downside to everything and this electronic revolution is not an exception.

Since the productss are not made to last long anymore, there is a constant waste of resources such as metal, plastic and glass, caused due tho the massive discard of products; not just that, but also there is all the impact caused during the production of the electronics, such as energy waste and the impact caused by the toxics in computers, cell phones, etc.

Another enemy of the environment are the batteries. They are made of a variety of chemical products to power up, such as nickel and calcium, which are extremely harmful our's and nature's health. But the worst part is that you don't see a big quantity of campaings warning you about those risks or even a lot of places where you can leave your used batteries to have a proper end.

So, next time you intend to discard some of these materials consider updating its software or hardware and, if that is not an option, try donating it or making the small effort of leaving it at a place specialized in recycling electronics.

And always remember: Small acts, Big impacts.


    Read More Over Here!
    http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es400614y
    http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/
    http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/donate.htm
    http://www.stselectronicrecyclinginc.com/whyrecycle
    https://www.cleanup.org.au/PDF/au/batteries_final.pdf



                                                       
    



Water Shortage in São Paulo


The Water Shortage in São Paulo has been a huge problem for all the population, at their houses and jobs. 

The problem is growing because the water reservoir is emptying out and it hasn't rained for months.  The first thing that the city hall should do is a big project including all the population to prevent water waste because part of this could have been avoided since the beginning if the people had saved water more.

This video can show you the situation of many people who have no water at home because of the shortage:

For more information visit: http://www.citiesjournal.com/sao-paulo-brazil-faces-water-shortage/


Water Pollution




Water - The most simple thing in our lives. Without it, we wouldn't be here nowadays.
It's a pure thing that is becoming more and more sacrificed by us.

The water is slowly ending, but we are making this process get much faster than it should be. It's the water pollution that is accelerating all that. We have to open our eyes to change this, and make this natural resource last a little longer.

Read more about it and the effects caused by it here:
http://classroom.synonym.com/effects-water-pollution-around-world-6456.html

Energy matrix and its problems



Energy waste, nowdays, is a considerable problem for mankind.

Since the Second Industrial Revolution, when the energy matrix became mineral coal, a huge impact in environment and in society has been observed. In the 1970's, new and renewable energy sources were encouraged, on account of a global petroleum crisis.

The produtions of this renewables energies is smallest than the conventional sources, like power plants. This question is an obstacle for the governments to substitute the more pollutant for clean energey.

Nuclear energy is an renewable source and not polluting (you can reed more about it in http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Energy-and-Environment/Sustainable-Energy/), but a failure in a nuclear station could generate an evironmental catastrophe.

In short, you can do nothing to change the actual energy matrix; so, in order not to consume a large and dispensable amount of energy, you can follow this tips found on the website below!

 http://www.buildingtrade.org.uk/articles/green_home.html



Did you know?

     

Hey guys, it's me Alex, I found something really interesting and I want to share with you. It's about one thing we don't even pay attention and sometimes ignore it, but it's something we have no idea how important it is. I'm talking about recycling. We can see the blue, red, yellow and green trash cans everywhere, but usually we don't care about putting the trash in the correct color. Recife has one of the biggest recycling programs in Brazil and I think you probably didn't know it. If you want to be sure check out the link below : 

   
For you to know how important recycling is, you may take a look at this publication :

      
So, please start paying attencion to the important things we have in our city, and not only here in Recife, but all around the world. Let's change our lives and the lives of everyone.

                        "Those who love, preserve. Preserving the environment is preserving LIFE."

Welcome to The Help Project!

Hey everyone!

Welcome to The Help Project! =)

First of all, it's important to say why we're doing this.

During our 2014.2 semester at ABA, while finishing the Teen course, we wrote, shot and edited a short movie called The Help Project. This movie is the final Project of the Teen course. It is part of a competition (as soon as we have it online we'll post it here! ;)) called ABA Movie Awards, which will happen in December.

The theme of our movie is "Made to make a difference". We understand that there are infinite ways of making a difference in the world, but sometimes we think too big and forget to look around us.

Here's a part of the group shooting a scene from the movie!
Our movie shows that small actions can have a big impact if everyone is committed to helping. So we've decided to go beyond the movie and create this blog to show ways of helping in our hometown, Recife, in Brazil, and - why not? - in the world!

We'll be posting not only tips of places and things to do to help, but also news, videos, images and other information we think is relevant. We want to make you think crtitically and reflect upon ways of making a difference in somebody's life.

Enjoy it!!

T86O1

Friday, November 14, 2014

Food Waste

In our movie The Help Project, we have discussed about the problems that scare the world, and one that struck my attention is food waste.
We actually don't see it very often, but the numbers are worriyng and bigger than it looks. During my research I found that the population of richer countries waste too much food, even when everyone knows that there are people without food. Check it out:
Food loss and waste have many negative economic and environmental impacts. Economically, they represent a wasted investment that can reduce farmers’ incomes and increase consumers’ expenses. Environmentally, food loss and waste inflict a host of impacts, including food waste leads to wasteful use of chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides; more fuel used for transportation; and more rotting food, creating more methane – one of the most harmful greenhouse gases that contributes to climate change. Methane is 23 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. The vast amount of food going to landfills makes a significant contribution to global warming.
 Here we have some facts about food waste:

  • Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted.
  • Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes).
  • The amount of food lost or wasted every year is equivalent to more than half of the world's annual cereals crop (2.3 billion tonnes in 2009/2010).
  • Food loss and waste also amount to a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, labour and capital and needlessly produce greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming and climate change.
  • In developing countries food waste and losses occur mainly at early stages of the food value chain and can be traced back to financial, managerial and technical constraints in harvesting techniques as well as storage –and cooling facilities. Thus, a strengthening of the supply chain through the support farmers and investments in infrastructure, transportation, as well as in an expansion of the food –and packaging industry could help to reduce the amount of food loss and waste. 
  • In medium- and high-income countries food is wasted and lost mainly at later stages in the supply chain. Differing from the situation in developing countries, the behavior of consumers plays a huge part in industrialized countries. Moreover, the study identified a lacking coordination between actors in the supply chain as a contributing factor. Farmer-buyer agreements can be helpful to increase the level of coordination. Additionally, raising awareness among industries, retailers and consumers as well as finding beneficial use for save food that is presently thrown away are useful measures to decrease the amount of losses and waste. 
  • In the United States 30% of all food, worth US$48.3 billion (€32.5 billion), is thrown away each year. It is estimated that about half of the water used to produce this food also goes to waste, since agriculture is the largest human use of water. (Jones, 2004 cited in Lundqvist et al., 2008)
  • United Kingdom households waste an estimated 6.7 million tonnes of food every year, around one third of the 21.7 million tonnes purchased. This means that approximately 32% of all food purchased per year is not eaten. Most of this (5.9 million tonnes or 88%) is currently collected by local authorities. Most of the food waste (4.1 million tonnes or 61%) is avoidable and could have been eaten had it been better managed (WRAP, 2008; Knight and Davis, 2007).
  • In the USA, organic waste is the second highest component of landfills, which are the largest source of methane emissions.
 As we can see, food waste is a big problem and we have to change the habits of the destination we give to the food we don't eat. The harm this problem causes is really big and worrying, mainly when we know that there are people diyng in the world without food to eat.

http://www.wri.org/publication/reducing-food-loss-and-waste - Read More!
http://www.unep.org/wed/2013/quickfacts/ - Read More!