FINALS

• The speaker borrowed something from a local farmer and has to bring it back afterwards
• The speaker's number is 2.8, which means that if everyone consumed like them, we would need 2.8 Earths to survive
• The global average is 1.4, so with the current population, we cannot sustain the current Earth and use its resources to survive
• We currently have 7 billion people, and when we have 9 billion, we need to find a solution
• Linear economy


  We take resources, make a product, and dump it
• Circular economy


  We recycle, reuse, and think about the resources we use
• Currently, only 20% of what we consume is recycled, which is not enough
• Composting


  1. Turns the plant back to CO2 and minerals

  2. Excess plant material is turned into methane, a potent greenhouse gas
• Second-generation biofuels


  Using the non-edible parts of plants to produce biofuels, avoiding the food vs. fuel debate
• Producing second-generation biofuels


  1. Scientists found enzymes that can degrade cellulosic material at 60-70 degrees Celsius

  2. The sugars produced are not suitable for human consumption, so they use microorganisms from elephant dung to convert them into ethanol
• This programmable yeast factory can make different products from waste materials, not just ethanol
• For a circular economy to work

  Stakeholders (farmers, consumers, scientists, politicians) need to work together and share the value generated
• The speaker is convinced that we can bring the world's consumption down to a sustainable level of 1 Earth by working together
• Plastic


  Light, waterproof, resistant, tailor-made products at a low cost
• Plastic is irreplaceable, a perfect material at the center of our lives
• The world is drowning in plastic
• Plastic is now an integral part of our oceans like algae and plankton
• Only a small amount of the plastic waste we produce can be found in the seas and oceans
• Scientists are wondering whether plastic is modifying the ecosystem without us being able to measure the consequences
• Cara Lavender Law


  Leads the C-Education Association programs which for 35 years have taught students about navigation and oceanography
• Cara Lavender Law has the most extensive series of samples of ocean plastic going back in time
• The number of bits of plastic on the ocean surface could be up to 50,000 billion pieces
• A good half of these plastic pieces accumulate at the heart of whirlpools of water formed by the marine currents (oceanic gyres)
• The amount of plastic in the subtropical gyres is level, it's steady, not increasing as expected
• The 236,000 tons of plastic found on the ocean surface is only 1% of the amount of waste estimated to enter the ocean in a single year
• In 1950, plastic production was 1.5 million tons per year, today it is closer to 300 million tons per year
• In 2010, 8 million metric tons of plastic entered the oceans out of 275 million tons of plastic waste
• If we do nothing, 10 times more plastic will enter our oceans in 2025
• Plastic has become an indicator when measuring water quality in the European Union
• Gyres


  Zones where more than half of the plastic on the surface accumulates
• Gyres are not "black holes" or "plastic continents", they are rather leaky, with plastic constantly moving between them
• Most of the plastic in the oceans is in the form of microplastics (less than 5mm)
• Microplastics are much more numerous than macroplastics and their ability to enter the environment seems infinite
• Polyethylene and polypropylene are two common plastics that float in seawater
• Microplastics are extremely difficult to find because they break down into pieces smaller than the mesh of the nets used by scientists
• Melting Arctic ice could free 1,000 billion particles of plastics into the water in the next 10 years
• Microplastics have been found in deep sea sediments at concentrations 1,000 times higher than on the surface
• In 2015, scientists had identified 560 species which had either ingested or been trapped by plastic
• The ratio of plastic to plankton in the Mediterranean can be worrying
• Plastic is considered an integral part of the marine ecosystem, it is treated and described like any other natural element that a biologist studies