The Curve

Hi everyone, hope you’re doing great! Today I am going to focus on a very debated topic: climate change!  I’m not going to enter in details about the science of it but rather I’m going to try to understand, from a psychological point of view, why it is so difficult to talk about it in everyday conversations. Some months ago, Marc gave me a very interesting book entitled Don’t even think about it. Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change by George Marshall : it was inspiring so I want to share my thoughts about it.  First of all, the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) , in its Article 1, defines climate change as "a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods". As the author explains, global warming is a major aspect of climate change: often, the two terms ...

Hi everyone! Today, I'm going to talk about a topic that I personally feel is not discussed enough: women’s period . Why did I choose such a topic? First of all, let me remind you that when we talk about sustainability, we are not simply discussing about the natural environment. Indeed, especially thanks to the promotion of the SDGs, sustainability assumes four dimensions :   Environmental Economic Social Institutional (you can read more about it in one of my previous articles on the blog  “SDGs: how YOU too can make an impact”). Now, environmentally speaking, if you think about menstruation , it is a huge deal: an individual goes through approximately 11,000 disposable pads and/or tampons in a lifetime. Tampons, pads and their plastic packaging generate tons of waste per year, as much as 200 thousands. More than 800 million women menstruate daily. But globally, at least 500 million lack proper access to menstrual hygiene facilities, based on the n...

Happy Sunday everybody! As we have mentioned in some previous articles, between July and August 2019, I attended the  International Summer School  about  “Environment, Energy and Global Changes”  at the prestigious  Tsinghua University , in Beijing. It was my first time in  China : the whole experience was awesome! On the one hand,  getting to know such an ancient culture was a privilege: field trips and extra activities were definitely entertaining. Indeed, I brought back home new knowledge, new friendships and wonderful memories. My class during a day trip to the Great Wall (I still have goosebumps when I think I have actually visited one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World !) On the other hand,  attending the lectures of brilliant professionals  offered me a unique opportunity to learn about the  environmental challenges  China has to cope with, concerning especially soil polluti...

Hi! Happy Easter everyone! Hopefully, you are celebrating with your family, in your own home, enjoying some chocolate eggs. As regards me, I will go back to Rome, my home city, soon. Indeed, at the beginning of December 2019, after an internship in the Italian Headquarters of Bioversity International, IO  focusing on research about agricultural biodiversity, I moved to Sintra , in Portugal . Here, I took part in an environmental preservation’s project, volunteering for the NGO Plantar Uma Á rvore, in the context of Volunteer Escapes, promoted by the European Solidarity Corps.   Here’s their website, if you want to have a look at what they’re doing http://www.plantarumaarvore.org The tasks carried out have been many: mainly, organizing activities with the community, families, privates, companies and other organizations in order to raise awareness about the importance of promoting and preserving the environment for the present and future generations, by rest...

Hello everyone! Welcome to the second (first, for me) post of The Curve. When the quarantine started in Portugal, country where I am living right now, I decided to make profit of the many empty hours. So, I started an interesting course on the Agenda 2030, promoted by ASVIS – Alleanza Italiana per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile - Italian organization focused on Sustainable Development.  Here the link, if you want to check it out https://asvis.it/ . First of all, a brief recap for who is not too familiar with the topic: the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 25 th September 2015. It describes 17 Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ) taking into account all dimensions of human life and aspects of well-being. It deals with education, poverty, hunger, gender equality, climate actions, inequalities, to mention just a few. They can be considered as the outcome that followed the 8 Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs ) adopted by...