Whether you believe it or not, what you see on the picture below is the Caribbean Sea. What you see is one of the biggest catastrophes in our nature, caused by humans. Caroline Power, an underwater photographer comments the picture with “To see something that I care so deeply for being killed, slowly choked to death by human waste was devastating,”. And this is not a solitary case. Many other seas and oceans suffer the same pain! About 8 MILLION TONS of plastic are dumped into our oceans every year, and it does not seem that it will stop soon.
Still there is hope. There are people and projects which try to avoid this horrible situation. One of these projects is called “Island Föhr- Plastic free is Trend”. Föhr is an island in Germany at the North Sea. Until 2016, it had massive problems with plastic in the sea. Approximately 20.000 tons of plastic are yearly thrown into the North Sea.
The island tackled the roots of the problem by educating the inhabitants about how to clean the ocean. Everyone joined the venture, fishers, dealers, caterers and the inhabitants of the island. Together they tried to use as few plastics as possible for their undertakings. The number of plastic bags being used were reduced, since plastic bags usually are thrown away. People learned to recycle what they had thrown away earlier. Instead of “coffee to go cups”, they are selling porcelain cups.
All in all, it is their goal to integrate as many ideas as possible into the daily life to reduce the plastic their sea. Due to their achievements they serve as role models. The animals and plants in the seas all other the world are suffering. Soon their suffering might turn out to death, and we will lose a big ranch of beautiful species in our world. Hopefully this will not happen, and projects like the island Föhr will continue and help the oceans.
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5 Influencers you Should Definitely Follow on Social Media
In today’s world as well as in future generations, social media is a vital part of almost everybody’s life. While many people use social media platforms like Instagram to keep up with what friends and colleagues are doing, where they are travelling or what they are having for lunch, social media platforms offer a great chance for entrepreneurs to establish a community around their enterprise and build a connection between them, their company and their mission. In our case, social entrepreneurs in particular are taking advantage of the audience, reach, and the ability to connect with their target audience and communicate on a rather personal level, which is one of the key factors for social businesses.
On social media platforms, social entrepreneurs are able to raise awareness for the different problems they are trying to solve with their social enterprise in a direct way and connect this with giving insights into their personal life as founder or supporter of such a business. Moreover, some of these social entrepreneurs on social media also use these platforms to empower and influence their audience to make a change themselves by supporting their business or founding their own idea to solve a problem on our planet. To sum up, Social entrepreneurs are actively making the world a better place not only by taking action, but also by using social media to educate the general public, and to raise additional funds.
But who are the top social entrepreneurs you should definitely follow on social media if you want to get inspired and informed about social enterprises and their development? In the following, you can find the top five social entrepreneur influencers on Instagram.
Number 5:
@itsadambraun; Adam Braun, founder of the non-governmental organization Pencils of Promise.
Founded in October 2008 the non-governmental organization Pencils of Promiseaims at increasing educational opportunities in the developing world, especially for children. Adam Braun’s mission is, to provide access to quality education for every child. His organization is involved in several activities to reach their target, such as the support of building new schools, creating school programs as well as providing school supplies. One focus of Pencils of Promise is building strong structures and sustainable education programs by building long-term, collaborative relationships with communities in the countries the schools are built.
Number 4:
@invisiblechildren
Invisible Children, Inc. is an organization founded in 2004. Its original purpose was to raise awareness of the activities of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) in Central Africa who are known to use children as soldiers and for the purpose of slavery. Moreover, Invisible Children works as a charitable organization selling merchandise and donating money for its cause. With its slogan:
“Invisible Children exists to end violence and exploitation in our world's most isolated and vulnerable communities” it is also represented on Instagram giving updates about recent developments and raising awareness for the problems their organization fights.
Number 3:
@dalepartridge; Dale Partridge, Founder of Sevenly
Sevenly is an organization with a pretty unique business model. Founded in 2011 with the core belief that ‘People Matter,’ Sevenly created a movement and started creating 7-day cause campaigns, inviting customers to buy apparel and accessories that donate to non-profit organizations. Sevenly, was recently described by Forbes Magazine as “Changing the world $7 at a time.” Founder Dale Partridge turned his vision of a business with the sole purpose of supporting organizations that solve problems into reality and is one of the most influential social media entrepreneur with more than one million readers of his blog and more than 70k followers on Instagram.
Number 2:
@laurenblauren; Lauren Pierce Bush, CEO and Co-Founder of FEED Projects
Lauren Bush is one of two co-founders of FEED Projects, an organization that produces bags and sells them while a part of the price of the bag is converted into school meals for children in need in developing countries. The overall aim of FEED Projects is to fight hunger in developing countries. Feed Projects has donated over 100 million meals as of October 2017 through the sale of products and fundraising activations. Lauren Bush has already proven to be a successful social entrepreneur in the past years: Named as one of Forbes’30 under 30 social entrepreneurs in 2014, Lauren has proven that she is one of the world’s most influential social entrepreneur and converts that success into being an influencer on Instagram as well. She counts more than 87k Instagram followers sharing with them her journey developing new FEED projects and sharing moments of her personal life.
Number 1:
@blakemycoskie, CEO and Founder of TOMS
Founded by Blake Mycoskie, Toms is probably one of the most commonly known social entrepreneurship companies worldwide. His company sells different products such as shoes based on the Argentinealpargata design, eyewear, coffee, apparel, and handbags. For every pair of shoes, they sell, a new pair of shoes is given to an impoverished child and for every other product being sold Toms provides goods like water for people in need. Receiving awards such as “Five Best Communicators In The World” in 2013 from USA Today Blake Mycoskie shows that he is one of the most influential social entrepreneurs sharing his path with more than 57k followers on Instagram. He is an absolute must follow for everyone into social entrepreneurship.
Nemo’s Garden and the Question About the Future of Agriculture
Nemo’s Garden is a project that I have been following for a while now. It’s project that was started by Serio Gamberini five years ago. The changing climate makes it more difficult to plant vegetables and fruits in many regions. While on a trip to Noli, Italy, Sergio had the idea to create a garden under water. Working together with the Ocean Reef Group, they created a small green house just below the surface of the ocean.
They did this by creating a dome like structure, filling it with air, and anchoring it just of the shore of an Italian beach. They then filled this with dome with plants to see whether it was even possible for a land based plants so sustain life below the surface of the ocean. The tests were a success.
The domes act like self-sustaining ecosystem, where life essential factors such as water can be provided by the evaporated ocean water that condensates on the side of the dome. This water then drips into the soil of the plant, providing it with fresh water. By locating the biosphere beneath the ocean, it will provide the habitat with thermal stability, meaning the biosphere can be in regions with rapid and frequent climatic changes.
Nemo’s Garden aims to provide food to arid and water scarce coastal regions, such as the middle east. Arid regions like Egypt are wasting large amount of water for agriculture. With the biosphere this could be a thing of the past.
Since 2016 the startup has been working on ways to make their idea more affordable and improve sensors to enhance the monitoring ability of the biospheres. Meaning plant growth can be observed and optimised without having to go underwater. As of 2017 the startup is exploring feasible methods to industrialise their idea, to provide an environmentally and socially responsible method for growing food, with a minimal carbon footprint. I look forward to tracking the progress of Nemo’s Garden and the benefits it will bring to society and the environment.
