Generation Z Global Citizen fighting for the future (Citi. Gen Z+)

Team of students: Antigoni Maragkaki,Nancy Oikonomopoulou, Despina Panigiraki

Global citizen prespectives

A) HOW MANY HAVE ACHIEVED WELL-BEING?

It goes without saying that there are countries which have reached a high level of well-being, but on the other side, there is another part of our world where people suffer from unhappiness and bad living conditions. Specifically, the 10 countries with the highest levels of well-being are:

1. Panama 53.0%
2. Costa Rica 47.6%
3. Puerto Rico 45.8%
4. Switzerland 39.4%
5. Belize 38.9%
6. Chile 38.7%
7. Denmark 37.0%
8. Guatemala 36.3%
9. Austria 35.6%
10. Mexico 35.6%

And the 10 countries with the lowest levels of well-being are:

1. Ghana 5.6%
2. Haiti 5.3%
3. Benin 4.8%
4. Ivory Coast 4.5%
5. DR Congo 4.1%
6. Tunisia 4.0%
7. Togo 3.9%
8. Cameroon 3.1%
9. Bhutan 3.0%
10. Afghanistan 0.0%

WELL-BEING FACTS

1. At least 400 million people have no basic healthcare, and 40% lack social protection
2. By the end of 2017, 21,7 million people with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy. Yet more than 15 million people are still waiting for treatment.
3. Every 2 seconds someone aged 30 to 70 years dies prematurely from noncommunicable diseases (cardiovascular disease, diabetes etc.)
4. More than one to three women have experiences either physical or sexual violence at some point in their life.
5. 7 million people die every year from exposure to fine particles in polluted air.

     (facts from the united nations development program- sustainable development goals)

B) ENVIRONMENT

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary environment is “the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (such as climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival.” So, as we can see, the importance of the environment in human life is essential as the survival and happiness of people depends on it. Unfortunately, in our days, environment is facing a huge crisis.

Pollution-Facts

• 1.1 billion people lack access to water and 2.4 billion don’t have adequate sanitation
• More than 400 areas around the world have been identified as experiencing eutrophication and 169 are hypoxic.
• Pollution is one of the biggest global killers, affecting over 100 million people. That’s comparable to global diseases like malaria and HIV
• In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that ocean-based sources, such as cargo ships and cruise liners had dumped 14 billion pounds of garbage into the ocean
• Over 1 million seabirds and 100,000 sea mammals are killed by pollution every year.
• People who live in places with high levels of air pollutants have a 20% higher risk of death from lung cancer than people who live in less-polluted areas
• While children make up 10% of the world’s population, over 40% of the global burden of disease falls on them. More than 3 million children under age five die annually from environmental factors

Over population-Facts

• There are now more than 7,700,000,000 people on planet Earth
• It took until the early 1800s for the world population to reach one billion. Now we add a billion every 12-15 years.
• there was a 41.7 percent increase in the nation’s population between 1974 and 2007. The amount of energy consumed increased 37.1 percent leading to a rise in the number of fuel spills and release of greenhouse gases

Over population-Facts

• There are now more than 7,700,000,000 people on planet Earth
• It took until the early 1800s for the world population to reach one billion. Now we add a billion every 12-15 years.
• there was a 41.7 percent increase in the nation’s population between 1974 and 2007. The amount of energy consumed increased 37.1 percent leading to a rise in the number of fuel spills and release of greenhouse gases

Global warming-Facts

• Average sea level around the world rose about 20 cm in the past 100 years
• by 2050 sea levels are expected to rise 30 to 100 cm, enough to flood many small Pacific island states, famous beach resorts and coastal cities
• within the next 100 years, if not sooner, the world’s glaciers will have disappeared
• The productivity of rice, the staple food of more than one third of the world’s population, declines 10% with every 1⁰ C increase in temperature.
• The developing world will add 3 billion people by 2050, developing world food producers must double staple food crop

Natural Resources Depletion-Facts

• by 2025, 1.8 billion people will have no water to drink.
• In 2011, it was estimated that we have enough coal to meet global demands for 188 years
• there is 188.8 million tons of oil left in the known oil reserves as of 2010, enough to supply the world demands for the next 46.2 years.
• As of 2010, the known reserves of natural gas were estimated to last 58.6 years 

Waste Disposal-Facts

•  50m tones of electrical waste globally every year
• We throw away 7.2 million tons of food every year, and more than half of it’s perfectly edible, while, 1 in 7 people across the world don't have enough to eat.
• Between 20% and 40% of fruit and vegetables are rejected by supermarkets before they even hit the shelves.
• At Christmas, as much as 83 square kilometers of wrapping paper will end up in bins
• Humans now buy a million plastic bottles a minute. By 2050, the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than fish.

Climate Change-Facts

• The concentration of carbon dioxide_{​​​​​​​} in our atmosphere, as of 2018, is the highest it has been in 3 million years
• Seventeen of the 18 warmest years have occurred since 2000.
• Eleven percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans are caused by deforestation
• In the Amazon, 1% of tree species sequester 50% of the region’s carbon.
• Eleven percent of the world’s population is currently vulnerable to climate change impacts

Loss of biodiversity-Facts

• An estimated 80% of the original forest that covered the Earth 8,000 years ago has been cleared, damaged or fragmented
• the rate at which species are becoming extinct at 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the natural rate would be.
• 12,259 species are known by IUCN, the World Conservation Body, to be threatened with extinction
• Currently, every fourth (24%) mammal and every eighth bird (12%) is facing a high risk of extinction.
• Across the European continent, 42% of mammals are threatened, 15% of birds, 45% of butterflies, 30% of amphibians, 45% of reptiles and 52% of freshwater fish.
• Tropical forests are vanishing at an annual rate of 4%.
• Only 10% of the world's biodiverse areas and 1% of the world's oceans are protected

Deforestation-Facts

• Between 1990 and 2016, the world lost 1.3 million square kilometers of forest
• 46 percent of trees have been felled
• 17 percent of the Amazonian rainforest has been destroyed over the past 50 years
• 250 million people living in forest and savannah areas depend on them for subsistence and income

Ocean Acidification-Facts

• each year the ocean absorbs approximately 26% of all the CO2
• Ocean acidity has increased by about 30% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, this rate of change, is faster than anything experienced in the last 250 million years
• Business as usual scenarios for CO₂ emissions could make the ocean up to 150% more acidic by 2100
• The ocean absorbs CO₂ from human activities at a rate of 22 million tons per day

Ozone layer Depletion-Facts

• The “hole’ that was discovered in Antarctica was over 29 million square kilometers – larger than Russia and Canada combined
• Global Ozone is expected to revert to its 1980 thickness in the next 55 years.
• The scientists have observed reduction in stratospheric ozone since early 1970’s
• a lot of the ozone-depleting substances allowed to go into the atmosphere in the previous 90 years are still on their journey to the atmosphere, which is why they will contribute to ozone depletion
• 5-9% thickness of the ozone layer has decreased, increasing the risk of humans to over-exposure to UV radiation owing to outdoor lifestyle
• One chlorine atom can break more than 1, 00,000 molecules of ozone. Bromine atom is believed to be 40 times more destructive than chlorine molecules.

Acid Rain-Facts

• Acid rain has a pH of 4.3 while pure water is perfectly balanced at 7.
• 95,000 lakes in North America have been damaged by acid rain
• A 2013 report from the Government Accountability Office said, 88% of the Great Lakes were impaired by acid rain around 550 premature deaths each year occur due to acid rain

C) POVERTY

Poverty is a major cause of social tensions and threatens to divide a nation because of the issue of inequalities, in particular income inequality. This happens when wealth in a country is poorly distributed among its citizens. In other words, when a tiny minority has all the money.

The feature of a rich or developed country for example is the presence of a middle class, but recently we've seen even Western countries gradually losing their middle class, hence the increasing number of riots and clashes. In a society, poverty is a very dangerous factor that can destabilize an entire country. 

Poverty-Facts:

• 1/2 of the world’s population, 3 billion people, live on less than $2.50 a day
• 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty, less than $1.25 a day
• 80% of the world population lives on less than $10 a day
• 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty
• 22,000 children die each day due to poverty
• 805 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat
• 750 million people lack access to clean drinking water
• Preventable diseases like pneumonia take the lives of 2 million children a year who are too poor to afford proper treatment
• 21.8 million children under 1 year of age worldwide had not received the three recommended doses of vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis
• 1/4 of all humans live without electricity, 1.6 billion people
• it would take $60 billion annually to end extreme global poverty, less than 1/4 income of the top 100 richest billionaires.
• Hunger is the number one cause of death in the world, killing more than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined

D) PEACE-WAR

Throughout the course of human history, the average number of people dying from war has fluctuated relatively little, being about 1 to 10 people dying per 100,000. However, major wars over shorter periods have resulted in much higher casualty rates, with 100-200 casualties per 100,000 over a few years. While conventional wisdom holds that casualties have increased in recent times due to technological improvements in warfare, this is not generally true.

War has a catastrophic effect on the health and well being of nations. Studies have shown that conflict situations cause more mortality and disability than any major disease. War destroys communities and families and often disrupts the development of the social and economic fabric of nations.

Although war may financially benefit a country and stimulate the economy, it has detrimental effects on politics, economics and society. War causes the foreign policy to change.

TWO EXAMPLES OF THE BIGGEST WARS IN RECENT HISTORY:

World War 1

• Claimed the lives of 6,000 men a day
• Took the lives of more than 9 million soldiers
• 21 million more were wounded
• Civilian casualties caused by the war numbered 10 million
• The two nations most affected were Germany and France, each of which sent 80 percent of their male populations between the ages of 15 and 49 into battle
• helped to spread one of the world’s deadliest global pandemics, the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people.
• 150,000 British soldiers came down with venereal infections.
• At the height of the war the British Army had 870,000 horses
• By 1918 Britain was spending £6million a day on the war. The total cost has been estimated at £9,000million
• Battle of The Somme, July 1, 1916, the British suffered 60,000 casualties - 20,000 dead. It was the worst toll for a single day in military history

World War 2

• 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe
• In 1941, 3 million cars were manufactured in the US. 139 more were made during the entire war
• 20% of the males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 survived the war
• 1 out of every 4 men serving on U-boats survived
• Total casualties were between 50 and 70 million people, 80% of who came from only four countries — Russia, China, Germany, and Poland. 50% of the casualties were civilians, the majority being women and children.
• 8,000,000 French, Dutch and Belgian refugees were created during the summer of 1940
• 180,000 people per night were sheltered within the London underground system
• civilian deaths during the Blitz were around 40,000
• bombing operations over Hamburg and Dresden in July 1943 and February 1945 killed 40,000 and 25,000 civilians, respectively
• Berlin lost around 60,000 of its population to bombing by the end of the war
• German civilian deaths totaled as many as 600,000
• 100,000 mentally and physically disabled Germans were murdered between the start of the war and August 1941
• The Nazi Hunger Plan led to the deaths of over 2,000,000 Soviet prisoners in 1941
• 6,000,000 Jews were murdered in the Holocaust
• 350,000 concentration camp prisoners died in pointless death marches
• The death toll on the Eastern Front was over 30,000,000

All in all, we may believe that we aren’t in danger of war, and that may be the case now, but situations changequickly and we do not know what the future holds for us. That being said, we may be safe from war today, but no one can promise about tomorrow.

E) Gender equality

Women and girls around the world face violence and discrimination, regardless of age, background or country.Every country in the world has laws that treat women and girls as second-class citizens. These systematic inequalities violate their human rights and prevent them from reaching their potential. Gender equality will be achieved only when all women and men share the same rights and opportunities and when all behaviors, aspirations and needs of both genders are equally valued and favored.

Facts from all around the globe

• Every year, 12 million girls are married before their 18th birthday, today they are almost 750 million. 1 in 5 girls becomes a mother before that age.
• 7,000 adolescent girls aged 15 to 24 are infected with HIV every week.
• 98 million girls who should be in secondary school are not.
• Women earn 77 cents for every dollar that men get for the same work.
• 35 percent of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence.
• Women represent 13 percent of agricultural landholders.
• Only 24 percent of national parliamentarians were women as of November 2018, an increase from 11.3 percent in 1995.
• The EU employment rate for men of working age was 78.0 % in 2017, exceeding that of women (66.5 %).

Gender equality: example from a European country, Greece

The gender equality indicator consists of six basic sections: work, money, knowledge, time, power and health. A total result needs the combination of all six in one. The scale goes from 1(total inequality) to 100(total equality). It also takes into consideration the condition of each country and its performance in many sections.

The European Union from 2005 to 2017 made progress only with 5,4 points.

In just 12 years Greece increased its points only by 4,4. Specifically, in the work section it collected 64,2 points, taking the second to last place through the EU, increasing its points since 2005 by 1,7. Only the 49% of all women (age 20-64) work while the percentage of men is 70.

In the words of the Communication Officer of the Center for Women's Studies and Research, Natasha Kephallinou, “One more serious issue is the unequal concentration of men and women in many jobs. Many jobs that are considered to be feminine according to stereotypes usually attract 23% of women and only 8% of men while the jobs that are considered to be masculine such as those that revolve around technology, science and math attract only 4% of women and 20% of men.”

Greece scores 71,4 points for the money section, 55,7 for education, 44,7 for time, 24,3 for power and 83,5 for health.

The time management of women becomes worse and worse since the 38% of women are occupied with taking care of other family members at least one hour through the day while the 20% of men do the same. Almost 85% of women cook at home (and other chores) as opposed to the 16% of men.

As far as the power section goes, which is taking part in decision making, Greece scores the least points of all categories and takes the 27^th position of the list of all EU countries with 27,6 points below average.

“The main problem is time management between family and professional life. Today the demands get higher and higher which concludes to the important education of the women of tomorrow.”, says miss Syraggela.

Its of high importance that Greece is one of the 4 countries of the EU where women don’t represent even the 20% of all the parliament even though from 2005 to 2018 the percentage went from 9 to 19.

According to evidence from General Secretariat for Gender Equality, the SOS 15900 phone line got 5.088 calls in 2018, 4.116 of those were for civil violence. The 2.864 calls were from the abused women, the 1.252 calls were from a third person (friends 26%, parents 11%, relatives 10%, sibling 12%, neighbor 15% and other people 17%). From all those calls the 2.519 concerned domestic violence from husband, the 110 sexual abuse, the 28 rape, the 99 trafficking and porn and the 108 other cases of violence. These women asked 1.621 times for psychosocial support, 1.287 for legal advice, 274 for legal help, 281 looking for a home and 22 looking for a job.

F) Quality Education

There’s nothing more important than access to quality education. It transforms the citizens of tomorrow and it gives the right tools to children to “fight” later on to their lives. However, not everyone enjoys quality education and that definitely needs to change.

Facts:

• 124 million children across the world are out of school and 250 million are not learning basic skills as a result of poor-quality education
• 130 million girls are not in education, 15 million are expected to never be
• Girls are 1.5 times more likely to be completely excluded from primary education
• Children with disabilities are 10 times less likely to attend school  than those without. They are more likely to drop out early while the level of schooling they receive is frequently below that of their peers.
• 35% of all out-of-school children of primary age, 25% of all out-of-school adolescents of lower secondary age, and 18% of all out-of-school youth of upper secondary age live in conflict-affected areas
• 103 million youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60 percent of them are women.
• 57 million primary-aged children remain out of school, more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
• In developing countries, one in four girls is not in school.
• 6 out of 10 children and adolescents are not achieving a minimum level of proficiency in reading and math.

Quality Education: example from a  European country,  Greece:

The 32% of adults has graduated high-school. The 31% has gotten a college diploma. Having a degree has rose in the last decade from 28% (2007) to 42% (2017). Foreigners that come to Greece probably don’t have high education. Their 39% hasn’t finished high school. In 2015 refugees were the 19% of those from 18 to 24 years old. In the contrary, they were the 9% of those who made it into college. People who didn’t attend high school or education of that sort are more likely to be socially unaccepted and unemployed while they also have fewer chances of leaving to another country for better employment as opposed to their peers.

From 2007 to 2017 employment lessened for 12% for those that graduated college and 14% for those that graduated high school while 17% for those that only had the mandatory education. While for those born in Greece graduating from college lessens thechances of being unemployed this doesn’t mean the same for foreigners. The 52% of them that graduated college have a job, that’s 20 less than the natives.

The social acceptance for those that graduated college is 40%morethanthosethatjustgraduatedhighschool.

Women in college are the 50% as opposed to men’s 35%. Contrary to that, men that are employed after graduation sum up the 75% while women only the 63%. Women are socially accepted less than men for 20%-30% in all graduation levels.

Melina Marinou

Air Pollution

Analyzing of the problem

Air pollution can be defined as a change in air quality that can be characterized by measurements of chemical, biological or natural pollutants in the air. The air pollution problem is concerned with the undesirable effects which are produced by excessive atmospheric pollutants. The effects are three basic types: (1)nuisance (2)economic and (3)health[1]. Therefore, air pollution is essentially the release of pollutants that are harmful to human health and to the entire planet or abnormal increase in the proportion of certain components of the atmosphere. It is increasingly recognized that air pollution is transported on mid-latitude westerly winds from Eurasia to the Pacific Ocean basin and across to North America. This trans-Pacific pollution reaches North America and may have substantial impacts on ecosystems and climate in the entire Pacific region. In their Perspective, Wilkening et al . report from a recent meeting where researchers attempted to synthesize and evaluate existing knowledge about trans-Pacific pollutant transport. It is divided into 2 species:

 A) Pollution of the outdoor area includes the exposure of pollutants outside the built environment. Particles produced by the burning of fossil fuels, harmful gases, soil ozone and tobacco are examples of outdoor pollution.

(b) Indoor pollution includes the exposure of particles, carbon oxides and other pollutants transported by indoor air or dust. Carbon monoxide gases, radon, chemicals, building materials (asbestos, formalede), allergens, tobacco, mold and pollen are examples of indoor pollution. In some cases, outdoor pollution can be turned into indoor pollution through windows and ventilation.

Although official efforts to control air pollution have traditionally focused on outdoor air, it is now apparent that elevated contaminant concentrations are common inside some private and public buildings. Concerns about potential public health problems due to indoor air pollution are based on evidence that urban residents typically spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors, concentrations of some contaminants are higher indoors than outdoors, and for some pollutants personal exposures are not characterized adequately by outdoor measurements. Among the more important indoor contaminants associated with health or irritation effects are passive tobacco smoke, radon decay products, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, asbestos fibers, microorganisms, and aeroallergens. Efforts to assess health risks associated with indoor air pollution are limited by insufficient information about the number of people exposed, the pattern and severity of exposures, and the health consequences of exposures. An overall strategy should be developed to investigate indoor exposures, health effects, control options, and public policy alternatives.

Due to climate change and other factors, air pollution patterns are changing in several urbanised areas of the world, with a significant effect on respiratory health both independently and synergistically with weather conditions; climate scenarios show Europe as one of the most vulnerable regions. European studies on heatwave episodes have consistently shown a synergistic effect of air pollution and high temperatures, while the potential weather-air pollution interaction during wildfires and dust storms is unknown. Allergen patterns are also changing in response to climate change, and air pollution can modify the allergenic potential of pollens, especially in the presence of specific weather conditions. The underlying mechanisms of all these interactions are not well known; the health consequences vary from decreases in lung function to allergic diseases, new onset of diseases, exacerbation of chronic respiratory diseases, and premature death. These multidimensional climate-pollution-allergen effects need to be taken into account in estimating both climate and air pollution-related respiratory effects, in order to set up adequate policy and public health actions to face both the current and future climate and pollution challenges.

• . In Xuan Wei County, Yunnan Province, lung cancer mortality is among China's highest and, especially in females, is more closely associated with indoor burning of "smoky" coal, as opposed to wood or "smokeless" coal, than with tobacco smoking. Indoor air samples were collected during the burning of all three fuels. In contrast to wood and smokeless coal emissions, smoky coal emission has high concentrations of submicron particles containing mutagenic organics, especially in aromatic and polar fractions. These studies suggested an etiologic link between domestic smoky coal burning and lung cancer in Xuan Wei. Ambient (outdoor) air pollution is now recognized as an important problem, both nationally and worldwide. Our scientific understanding of the spectrum of health effects of air pollution has increased, and numerous studies are finding important health effects from air pollution at levels once considered safe. Children and infants are among the most susceptible to many of the air pollutants. In addition to associations between air pollution and respiratory symptoms, asthma exacerbations, and asthma hospitalizations, recent studies have found links between air pollution and preterm birth, infant mortality, deficits in lung growth, and possibly, development of asthma. This policy statement summarizes the recent literature linking ambient air pollution to adverse health outcomes in children and includes a perspective on the current regulatory process. The statement provides advice to pediatricians on how to integrate issues regarding air quality and health into patient education and children's environmental health advocacy and concludes with recommendations to the government on promotion of effective air-pollution policies to ensure protection of children's health. Traffic-related air pollution exposure (particulate matter (PM), soot and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)) has been associated with premature skin aging in several independent cohorts. In real life, human skin is additionally exposed to UV radiation, which is known for its effects on premature skin aging. More recent epidemiological findings suggest that (1) associations of PM can be altered by UV radiation with stronger PM associations at lower levels of UV, and (2) there is an association of tropospheric ozone with wrinkle formation, independent of NO2, PM, and UV. The association between traffic-related air pollution and skin aging has been well-established. More recent epidemiological studies focused on the associations with ozone as well as interactions with of ambient air pollution with UV radiation, a research area that is becoming more important with the increase of global warming.

The impact of global air pollution on climate and the environment is a new focus in atmospheric science. Intercontinental transport and hemispheric air pollution by ozone jeopardize agricultural and natural ecosystems worldwide and have a strong effect on climate. Aerosols, which are spread globally but have a strong regional imbalance, change global climate through their direct and indirect effects on radiative forcing. In the 1990s, nitrogen oxide emissions from Asia surpassed those from North America and Europe and should continue to exceed them for decades. International initiatives to mitigate global air pollution require participation from both developed and developing countries.

Mathematical Problems and approaches in air pollution

1) Deaths caused by air pollution by country between 1990 and 2000

i) Find the average of deaths caused by air pollution worldwide in 1995.

ii) Make a single chart on deaths caused by 1990-2000 every five years and by country

2)

2) Find the percentage of the population killed by air pollution

A)China in 1990

B) Indonesia in 1995

C)Brazil in 2000

3) Based on the table bellow, calculate the average of the particle concentration worldwide in 1990, 2000 and 2010.

Palla Maria, Bethani Helen, Mourtou Loukia

Air Polution caused by Transportation

Although humans have lived on Earth for thousands of years, only in the last few centuries since the Industrial Revolution has significant carbon dioxide levels accumulated in the atmosphere, which is the key factor in causing the greenhouse effect. (Armbrecht, 2016) Regarding the causes that caused the widespread disturbance to the ecosystem, it is often argued that human activity and humans are generally responsible for the ecological disaster that is expected to result in an increase of at least 2 degrees Celsius (or 4 degrees Celsius, according to a more pessimistic scenario) of the average temperature of the Earth in the century that we are going through (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 2020).

Another popular opinion on the ecological problem is that we all have equally contributed in the creation of the crisis, while the effects of the greenhouse effect affect everyone the same, regardless of economic class and country of origin. In fact, as recent World Bank reports show, the poorest 37% of the world's population is responsible for 7% of carbon emissions, while 15% of the population living in developed countries produces about 50% of emissions. These results are expected, as energy consumption per person is ten times higher in rich countries than in the least privileged. At the same time, the main victims of the ecological crisis are found in the poorest countries (Africa and Southeast Asia) and the lower social strata within Western societies (New Orleans case. In the US on August 29, 2005, Cyclone Katrina destroyed New Orleans and New Orleans at least 1,800 people) (World Bank; Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2016). The US government has been trying for years to suppress every global effort to prevent the greenhouse effect. But after the flood of New Orleans, the debate has returned in the most dramatic way.

The dominion of the private car

We knew that the degradation of public transport in favor of the private car causes air pollution, congestion, social inequality and other suffering. (Reality Check team, 2019) Now we have learned that the lack of public transport is literally killing us (World Health Organization (WHO), 2019)! In the US it seems you just don't exist unless you have a car. When the authorities ordered the evacuation of the city, it didn't even cross their minds to care how those without their own means of transport would make it. According to information (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2008), not only was there no public transport evacuation, but in those days buses and trains were not even operating. The only means available to the public were free buses to the now well known 'Superdome' stage! This means that they actually let those who had no cars die (OECD Observer, 2014)!

The problem

The industrialized USA made a terrible mistake when turning to the IX car as a tool to improve urban mobility. The car has caused significant and unforeseen impacts on city life and has become a major contributor to their environmental, social and aesthetic problems. Driving in the city:

• Kills the vitality of the streets

• Isolates people

• Encourages sprawl

• poses a threat to other road users

• It tarnishes the beauty of the city

• It annoys people with the noise it causes

• Causes air pollution

• It kills thousands of people every year

• Worsens global warming

• Wastes energy and natural resources

• Makes nations poorer

Our challenge is to remove cars and trucks from cities while improving mobility and reducing its overall cost.

City driving can only be displaced if a better alternative is available. What if we designed a city that could function without a car? Would anyone want to live in such a city? Is this feasible from a social, economic and environmental point of view? Is it possible to get rid of cars while maintaining the fast and comfortable mobility it once offered?

Public transportation is usually considered a nasty and slow substitute for the car. It should be a more enjoyable experience and obtain the average speed of a car driving in favorable traffic conditions. This can be achieved using proven technology, but high density neighborhoods are a prerequisite for fast commuting and economical public transport. Fortunately, densely populated cities can also offer a better quality of life.

We need to build more cities without cars. Venice, the greatest existing example, is liked by almost everyone and is an oasis of peace even though it is one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world. We can also convert other existing cities to the model of a city without a car over a period of several decades. (Pirolli, 2014).

Design goals

The design of cities serves three main requirements:

• High quality of life

• Effective use of resources

• Fast transport of people and goods

Bousiou Chrisanthi, Mitropoulos Stelios, Moschobitis Christos

Water as reneable energy source-The need for clean water

Drinking water is one of the most important goods for man. It is not only a necessary element of survival, but also a factor that has a significant impact on health. In many developing countries, poor water quality is the cause of epidemics and deaths. In 2010, the UN General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation. Everyone has the right to adequate, continuous, safe, acceptable, naturally accessible and accessible water for personal and home use. In developed countries where these problems have disappeared due to industries and agricultural pollution, they reduce the quality of natural water, resulting in consumer health problems. These problems are the subject of intense research. The result of this effort is to produce standards that, when applied, ensure water quality. The problem of degraded water quality is a concern in many areas of the country. Recently, chemical cocktails have been detected in the groundwater of the Artaki-Psachon plain, while the problem with hexavalent chromium in Boeotia or heavy metals in Arcadia is known. Water is not always clean. In our glasses, substances that determine its hardness, show pollution, cause irritation, deterioration or damage to the body, and some of them prove to be carcinogenic. In fact, most are always present in natural waters and their risk is determined by high concentrations. As thousands of Greeks today live in fear, the "water dictionary" from the National School of Public Health can be an ideal first-hand guide to water quality and the dangers we face.

At the same time an even bigger problem is marine pollution. Sea pollution is a global problem that is affected by local and chronic actions. From the very beginning of its existence, mankind has used the marine systems to maintain and develop its societies. Commercial and tourist routes were opened, peoples and cultures came into contact and trading, food and raw materials were extracted from these vast systems, maritime warfare was and will continue to be, dumping of all kinds of waste, facilities and resorts but. The uses of the systems in most cases were unreasonable and based on the assumption that such immense systems could not be easily affected while even in such a case the restoration would be quick and easy and above all by nature. Although this could make sense for substances that enter the marine environment and can be readily degraded without affecting organisms, the rapid development of technology and the use and synthesis of more and more substances have provided the seas with Huge quantities of non- or difficult-to-degrade chemicals that are transported through the food chain from organism to organism and from generation to generation. The sea is an important source of protein for both its organisms and those living in the terrestrial environment.
 So its pollution affects all the organisms and ecosystems on earth and as such has a global dimension. But unlike the pollution of the land that could potentially be taken by the governments of the states facing the problem, the situation at sea is much more difficult or not at all because of its vast extent but also because it does not belong to most of it. in no state. So while activities from all continents burden the marine environment, no state is formally responsible for remedying the problems. Actions are mainly taken in coastal areas where the largest fishing activity is found. It is estimated that 90% of world fish production takes place in coastal areas with the remaining 10% coming from the oceans, which are also described as biological desert.
More specifically, according to UNICEF [3]:
• In 2017, 5.3 billion people safely used potable water management services - that is, they used improved on-site water sources, available when needed and without contamination. The remaining 2.2 billion people without secure service management in 2017 included:
• 1.4 billion people with basic services, meaning an improved source of water on a 30-minute round trip
• 206 million people with limited services or an improved water source requiring more than 30 minutes to collect water
• 435 million people get water from unprotected wells and springs
• 144 million people collect raw surface water from lakes, lakes, rivers and streams.
• In 2017, 71% of the world's population (5.3 billion people) used a safe drinking water management service - that is, one located on site, available when needed and free from contamination.
• 90% of the world's population (6.8 billion people) used at least one basic service. A basic service is an improved source of drinking water on a 30 minute round trip to collect water.
• 785 million people do not yet have a basic drinking water service, including 144 million people dependent on surface water.
• Worldwide, at least 2 billion people use a source of faecal contaminated drinking water.
• Contaminated water can transmit diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 485,000 diarrhea deaths each year.
• By 2025, half of the world's population will live in areas of high pressure.
• In the least developed countries, 22% of healthcare facilities do not have a water service, 21% do not have sanitation and 22% do not have waste management services.
Geographical, socio-cultural and economic disparities persist not only between rural and urban areas, but also in cities where people living in low-income, informal or illegal settlements usually have less access to improved sources of drinking water than others residents.

WHO works closely with UNICEF in a number of areas related to water and health, including water, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities. In 2015 the two organizations jointly developed the WASH FIT (Hygiene Facility Improvement Tool), an adaptation of the water safety plan approach. WASH FIT aims to guide small, primary healthcare facilities in low- and middle-income environments through a continuous cycle of improvement through assessments, risk hierarchy, and specific and targeted actions. A 2019 report outlines the practical steps countries can take to improve water, sanitation and hygiene in healthcare facilities.