Young Global Changers Blog: Environment

Cynthia’s Story Her father, a suspected poacher, was gunned down by game rangers just 4 kilometers from their house. When I first talked to Cynthia in 2017, she was 12 years old and had never been to school since the death of her father. “He went to work and never … Read more

Since economy and society are embedded in the natural environment, there is an inseparable connection between environmental sustainability and human wellbeing. Awareness of environmental problems and the effects of our daily consumption of products such as coffee is an important requirement for the recoupling of economic and social progress. According … Read more

Minerva Valier Camacho, a Young Global Changer from Mexico, is developing a new solution to minimize the global problem of plastic waste.

When we talk about a paradigm shift, we are talking about a complete reimagining of the systems that exist: social, economic and environmental. We, Young Global Changers participating in the summit, were both surprised and somewhat disappointed at the lack of discourse concerning the circular economy, a system that emanates paradigm change.

Turning waste into value is a challenge many industries and corporations face in their attempts to be more sustainable. A circular economy goes one step further and aims to increase efficiency of primary resource consumption by maximizing the life cycle of (raw) materials, redefining growth and thereby decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources.

Closed cycles can be found in all aspects of life, except in our economy. In nature, the fallen leaves produced from trees nourish the soil with vital minerals which, in turn, serve plants to grow and fruits to form. Natural ecosystems do not produce waste and use all resources as efficiently as possible.