Sedc Coalition EUROPE

The new technologies have radically changed the world as we know it. Even those people who refuse to use mobile devices, or refuse to have social networks, end up falling into the trap of modernity. And it is that today it is almost impossible not to take advantage of the advantages that these technologies bring us on a day-to-day basis. Easier to communicate, wherever we are. Possibility of working anywhere in the world, thanks to Internet connections. Quick purchases, instant information… The cybernetic world has become a second home for many, and even the first for those who almost prefer that reality to ours. You feel comfortable on the Internet, where you can surf anonymously, find everything you need, and have the opportunity to express yourself freely. But there is also a dark side to that coin. The British series Black Mirror, currently on the Netflix streaming platform, has been theorizing for years about the dark side of new technologies.

How they were changing our way of understanding the world, of facing it. The fine line that separates reality and fiction in this series blurs completely as the years go by and we find, horrified, that its scripts only anticipated an uncertain future. Identity theft, for example, is one of the most common dangers found on the Internet today. And it is logical to fear something like this because they can literally steal everything that we are. There are people who have seen their lives come crashing down because of a hacking on their account, because of the theft of their passwords, because of a deepfake video in which they supposedly appeared… They just weren’t. Technology already allows this type of assembly to be carried out at such a professional level that most users would not be aware of the deception. And of course, this has been exploited not only for political purposes, but also for sexual ones. Porn is the great breeding ground for deepfake technology, with millions of videos “starring” celebrities and all kinds of people, who were never really there.  

The environmentalism, far from what many may think from the outside, is not a lifestyle or a trend that has begun to take place recently. Caring for the environment and the environment has been a constant idea in many civilizations, and in fact, most pagan cultures had a great respect for nature. It has been the last few centuries that have made human beings an arrogant species, who believe they are in possession of everything around them, without stopping to think about the risks of changing their ecosystem. The Industrial Revolution was the first turning point in this path that leads us straight to the precipice, if we are not able to stop in time. And we are not talking about going back to the time when it was hardly consumed, but understanding that we must do it in a much more efficient way, if we want to leave the planet to future generations.

The current environmentalism is widely criticized by many sectors who think that it is either useless at this point, or goes against the evolution of society itself. Our capitalist system has imposed a model of constant growth, promoting mass production, which precisely generates the destruction of the environment in search of raw materials. To maintain that system, to maintain our current culture, the wheel cannot stop turning. That is why many look with suspicion at those who advocate reducing consumption, for having a more frugal life, for recycling and reusing instead of continuing to buy without thinking. Environmentalism, care for the environment, is not an ideology, it is a way of living with meaning, of integrating ourselves into a much lighter system for our environment. Thus, it has become a transversal trend that can be defended by production companies, by consumers and by anyone who wants to do their bit. Even in a world where large corporations and governments are reluctant to change the way they work and produce, something can always be done. From the porn industry, the actress and activist Amarna Miller has already tried it, taking advantage of her popularity to launch powerful messages.

The human being is an animal omnivorous by nature , that is, capable of feeding on all kinds of food. In fact, long before we were able to create orchards in which to grow fruits and vegetables, we had to take them from wild trees. At the same time, human beings have always fed on the meats of other animals , hunting them and developing numerous weapons to do so. By pure necessity of subsistence, millions of years before knowing the beneficial properties of meat or fish. agriculture and livestock completely changed the way humans eat, because now we could raise and cultivate everything we were going to eat. We started planting and harvesting, and we were able to settle in one place for a long time, becoming sedentary. At the same time, the first cities were created and culture and society were born as we understand it today.

Over time, humans have been considered an outstanding species, the pinnacle of evolution, in fact. We are the most intelligent animals on the planet, although sometimes we try to prove otherwise. We have been able to capture and subdue virtually every other species , and use them to our advantage. We have killed many of them, by destroying them directly, or by devastating their ecosystems. And all this has led a part of society to reject all this violence against animals, against nature itself. The human being considers himself the owner of the world, when in reality we are one of many species that have passed through this planet. The way in which we have adapted it to our needs, to our desires, has also caused a lot of controversy . Hence, in recent times, ecology and animalism are becoming more and more important currents in our society. Aimed at changing human habits towards their environment, these currents have especially influenced diet, with the appearance of veganism and vegetarianism.

Transgenic foods are foods that include in their composition some ingredient from an organism into which a genetically engineered gene from another species has been incorporated. Thanks to biotechnology, a gene can be transferred from one organism to another in order to provide it with some special quality it lacks. In this way, transgenic plants can resist pests, withstand droughts, or better resist some herbicides. In Europe, not all types of GMOs are authorised, only some of them can be cultivated and subsequently marketed.

Since their birth, transgenics have been the subject of much controversy. There are fanatical followers and unrelenting detractors. For example, Juan Felipe Carrasco, agronomist and responsible for Greenpeace’s Campaign against GMOs in Spain, believes that “industrial agriculture, which is currently being sold to us as one that produces food for all humanity, unfortunately, is also producing a great deal of irreversible damage“.

Why should we recycle at home? We can all participate in recycling, and this will bring a feeling of well-being to the interior of the house and, of course, to the environment. According to statistics from the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change, in countries such as Mexico almost 1 kg of garbage per person is produced daily. Let’s think about the number of inhabitants of the home and the days of the year. Let’s multiply… as a result we have: Just a lot of rubbish!

We produce a lot of garbage, right… but a good part of it can be salvaged. The same report gives encouraging figures, since a good part of the waste generated at home is reusable and/or organic materials (almost 80%), and this is where recycling comes in.

A gesture as simple and everyday for us as opening the tap and getting water, can become a miracle for thousands and thousands of people. The lack of water is an increasingly important problem, we should all become aware of the importance of this and try to put our grain of sand to save all we can, and for this we must take into account simple everyday gestures with which to get it.