TEXT: MARTA LÓPEZ IMAGES: ISTOCK
Reality, denouncing the suffering of children living in war-torn countries
Within the commemoration of its centenary and its global campaign Stop the War on Children, Save the Children has made the short movie Reality. This is a continuation of Stories to Keep You Awake, featuring the Spanish actors Lydia Bosch and Dani Rovira. With this project, the organization wishes to engage the spectator in the defense of children suffering firsthand the horror of bombs and gunfire. The overriding goal is to improve national and international legislation to protect children living in war zones.
“In the world today there are 420 million boys and girls living in areas of armed conflict. We must be capable of empathizing with that pain if we want to put an end to it. Never before have there been so many children who are war victims. They urgently need us,” declared Andrés Conde, CEO of Save the Children Spain.
For this reason, Save the Children wants this campaign to give a voice to the boys and girls who are currently suffering from the ravages of armed conflict. In addition, the organization has made a renewed appeal for states not to sell arms to parties involved in armed conflicts, whenever children may become targets for the warring parties. In 2017, thousands of boys and girls were left alone or separated from their families as a result of armed conflicts, and many of them proved to be highly resilient, with a tremendous capacity for fully recovering if given adequate support. To view this short movie, visit the Save the Children Spain website: https://www.savethechildren.es/
Drones for planting trees
The world loses more than seven hectares of forest each year, around 27 soccer fields per minute, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Trees are essential for storing greenhouse gas emissions, filtering the air and water, nourishing the soil, providing food and shelter, and fostering ecosystems.
Because of this, the British company BioCarbon is already using drones to plant tree seeds in devastated forests and, according to the company, may be able to plant a billion trees each year. A figure that would undoubtedly help to compensate for the rate of industrial deforestation nowadays.
The knife that reuses plastic bottles
Climate change and the increasingly worrying levels of pollution are forcing us to really sharpen our wits in order to recycle or reuse the vast amount of plastic we throw away to landfills or the sea. Created by a new company based in France, this utensil is called Plastic Bottle Cutter. It is a knife that converts plastic bottles into strips of plastic several meters long. This is not classic recycling as we still have plastic, but it is what is known as upcycling, or creative reuse. The resulting plastic strips are so tough they are capable of towing a car without breaking. If they are heated, they melt and so they can be used to bond wood or other materials. They can even be used for decorative purposes
Producing water in extreme conditions is now possible
Enrique Veiga is the creator of a machine capable of producing 3,000 liters of drinking water a day, even under the most extreme conditions, in the middle of the desert. This machine can mitigate the lack of water in extreme situations such as refugee camps and natural disasters, with water that is free of contaminants.
Its operation is very simple: it extracts moisture from the air and causes it to condense. The result is water droplets that fall at nearly 30° C and a relative humidity of 17 percent. Thanks to the in-built filters, the water can be made drinkable and then stored in a tank ready for consumption.
The government of Namibia, a country with serious drought problems, has commissioned the production of 1,500 units.