Each world trip has its own theme! For some, it can be meeting NGOs, meeting pupils in different schools and explain the project to the pupils, tasting the different national foods,…as for us we decide to focus on a topic which is very important currently according to us, the sustainable development, ecologically, culturally and how people, communities or companies try to change t world and improve the future we will leave to our children! Indeed, many challenges are in front of us now and we wanted to discover how persons, alone or together, decide to face them to bring together economic development, ecological protection and cultural specificity.
A new global ecosystem
Our world trip will be the opportunity to meet people, coming from different backgrounds, who seek to answer today’s challenges, the problems of sustainable development, protection of the environment and economic growth in a period of intensive changes, where globalization and capitalism are the pillars of our connected world. Indeed, as the demography is growing very quickly now, measuring the ecological footprint left by anyone is becoming a very sensitive question. That’s why we want to enjoy as much as possible the trip of lifetime, from Asia to Latin America and Oceania, and discovering new ways of thinking and tackling urgent economic and environment issues. A good learning from us to understand what problems they are trying to resolve, using which means, and what is the final goal they are trying to reach. That’s why we found it interesting at this period of our lives, beginning our our thirties, to do a break from the frantic pace of our professional and personal lives to focus on deep problematics the world is currently facing and how people all over the world try to tackle them.
The ides is not to say everything is bad or black. Today technological development, progressing with an incredible speed, bring amazing solutions and possibilities to solve problems we could not even think about in a recent past. Instantaneous communication all over the world, an access to the knowledge easier than ever, and a mobility which has never been experienced at this point. This new global village now allows people, even remotely, to connect around common ideas, passions and interests. But many problems are now raised by this fast-changing world where the transparency highlighted and praised by social networks still face corrupted systems, at different scale. The economic development at all costs to enrich an extremely limited number of people is going against the human well-being and protection of the environment in many regions. The fact is the world has never been richer, but it also never been that unequal. It is now becoming urgent to think globally, where everyone is able to make his own contribution to build a better world for our children and for our loved Earth, Gaia.
“Be the change you want to see in the world” Gandhi
Huge but fascinating challenges
Many challenges have to be raised and tackled in the coming years. Each and everyone of us can improve our daily life with elementary actions. We found out that people are bit more focused in Europe than in Asia-Pacific where we’ve lived the past years but are now becoming global. What are the challenges at stake?
- Sustainable development: This well-know concept is now conveyed by more and more people and companies, on advertisement or social networks, as its final goal is to create more wealth for the local population in order to improve the quality of the daily life while protecting the environment and preserve cultural specifities.
- The energetic transition and the development of green energies, respectful of the environment. With the energy needs growing every year for a world population which is growing at a very fast-pace, while caring about global warming and its dramatic consequences on fauna and flora, it is now urgent to focus on the transition of energy. What are these ones? How reconcile bigger needs with respect of the environment?
- Forecast industrial and natural risks: How to react against disasters which seem to happen much more often than before?
- A new economy based on organic agriculture and respectful of the environment, such as permaculture and the ocean economy, while taking care and the marine biodiversity and the urgent need of the cleaning our our blue planet.
- A better development of more reliable and eco-friendly public tranports. Today needs for better public transport are an absolute priority in order to answer needs of a growing population as well as decreasing the impact of polluting individual cars. It also represents an obligation from an economic point of view in more connected globalized world than ever before.
- Protective measures in favor of biodiversity and fauna/flora. Indeed, everything is connected and animals as well as plants have to be in the center of our concerns. Every life, animal or vegetal is extremely important and bring the level of diversity required by our Earth, Gaia. World is made to be diverse, not similar everywhere.
- Change of mentalities and the way of seeing the economic growth. Unlike the economists and the government, why do we always have to grow economically every year: +1, 2, 10% ? This conception of a finished growth, and stop seeing the economic growth as sine qua non condition for the development of a country, are still not very developed in the common opinion, but it represents however a king of modesty, sobriety and temperance that need to be conveyed in the future.
- The protection of the local architectural, linguistic, cultural heritage in every region is also one of the biggest challenge of our era, as globalization tends to vehicle a unique way of thinking and an eradication of cultural differences. It is very important however to protect architectural heritage and not forget original roots of the population.
“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.” Albert Einstein
Pragmatic and kindly answers
Therefore, we will pursue two goals during our world trip: of course travelling and enjoying our trip to discover magical places we were dreaming of since we were children and benefit from immediate contact with local people and new culture, but also to meet “game-changers”, these ones who fight to improve the world we live in and ensure a better future for our children. The goal is to place again the human being in the center of the economic development while protecting the environment and the local cultures. Of course, finding these solutions does not mean living with nothing and just dreaming about inadequate and non pragmatic possibilities but on the contrary, take advantage of new technologies, mixing them with audacious entrepreneurial spirit and build state of the art or more traditional solutions to reach a fairer and healthy future. Be happy, let’s see the opportunity in the change rather than the risks and let’s adapt ourselves. The technological revolution is an opportunity and we have to embrace it. Ambition, motivation and passion are the best fuel in our will to make a better world tomorrow.
“Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” Kenneth Boulding
Local associations, movies to watch, books to read
Finally, first steps can also be taken where you live, or at home, just reading books or watching documentaries made by passionate people! Of course, in France you have the Colibri association, created by Pierre Rabhi, which inspired the wonderful movie “Tomorrow”, realized by Cyril Dion and Melanie Laurent. Another example, the “Ferme d’Avenir” (farms of the future) tour in 2017 in order to promote the idea of an organic agriculture in France.
Thus, inform yourself, go and meet these associations, read interesting and inspiring books (and with e-books, you can take anywhere you go!) and you will discover a whole new world, new ideas and infinite possibilities of improving things to head towards a better future.
“Trust firmly in your luck, cling to your happiness, and dare to take risks.” Rene Char
