For some he is “The Steve Jobs of Sustainability” while we call him the “Living Legend of Sustainability”

When we were about to leave the conference hall, we heard someone talking enthusiastically. We sat back on our seats. It didn’t take much time of the speaker to catch our attention. He was Gunter Pauli – the author of the book, The Blue Economy from the United States. We would like to share some highlighting points from his speech.

“Tell people three-minutes stories, they will ask for more.”

Everyone loves stories if we turn the most difficult scientific subjects into stories by using childhood games that we all played outdoor. Children mustn’t lose their fantasy. We need this fantasy to move to a vision. Plus, science should be solid. We can use children’s toys and games to make science concrete for them. For example, we can use kites to teach gravity and ascending force.

“Now it’s time to sell the diplomas.”

We should stop whatever we are doing today, because it seems that it doesn’t work as we can’t save the world as we don’t have any sustainability to the economy with old industrial errors of which the worst is the education. Because we still have mind control at schools. The biggest industry today is selling diplomas. We don’t need to be there; we should change whatever we are doing today.

“We should shift from green economy to blue economy.”

After his speech, we had a chance to talk about his book, The Blue Economy which was translated into 34 languages. In his book, he claims that green economy doesn’t work. Moreover, it is expensive as it doesn’t use what we have in nature. Sustainable economy requires new methods; blue economy which is cheap and responses to the people’s needs by using what we have in nature. We must benefit from our oceans and seas.

İrem YILMAZ (17) and Mehmet ARDAN (16)
YRE Students from Turkey at the 10th World Environmental Education Congress