Sostenibilidad

It’s 4 a.m.

Until recently, if I were asked to imagine ship-breaking operations, I would automatically think of one of those documentaries where skinny barefoot children crawl around inside beached and broken ships, pulling and cutting off the salvageable material, including scrap metal for recycling. For their efforts they receive only pennies plus a host of injuries and ailments. The leftovers, many dangerous and toxic, are often discarded with little regard for human safety and the environment.

In Latin America, 13 million child laborers can be found selling goods alongside the roads, working beside their parents on farms, as domestic workers in homes, and doing hard labor in hazardous industries. Globally, however, the number of children involved in child labor has declined by one third since 2000, from 246 million to 168 million children.

A few weeks ago, I represented the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BIO) Program at the first Natural Capital Summit in Stockholm. While the meeting’s attendants were few, they were strategically selected and the event is likely to have a significant impact on the future agenda of a community working to incorporate natural capital into development decisions.

It’s not every day that big players from the public sector agree on a plan of action for resilient development with private-sector heavyweights.

(In English & en Kreyol)

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Nine year old Gregório refuses to shower. Yes, you read that correctly! He absolutely refuses to shower, not because of childish stubbornness, but because he is fully committed to helping his 20 million neighbors in São Paulo find creative ways to conserve water during the unprecedented drought that has plagued the city over the past year. Gregório is adamant about his “shower strike”. In order to save water, he explained to his mother that showering just once a week should be more than enough under the present times of hardship.