Water we doing?!

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From the course by Erasmus University Rotterdam

Science Literacy - How Solid Science Can Help You Save the World

27 оценки

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Science Literacy - How Solid Science Can Help You Save the World

27 оценки

This course will help you become scientifically literate so that you can make better choices for yourself and the world. Unlike other courses on statistics and scientific methods, we explore global challenges - such as poverty or climate change - and then discuss how key approaches of statistics and scientific methods can help tackle these challenges. We present these approaches in a non-mathematical and easily accessible way. You will leave the course being able to recognize which efforts to do good in this world actually work, and you will have used your science literacy to make some personal changes in your life. Many current attempts to do good in this world are based on good intentions, but don’t work well, or are even harmful. In this course we talk to leading experts from academia, business and non-profit organizations about how we can use science to distinguish bad, good and even better ways of improving this world. We also invite you to change your own behavior to do more good. You will learn how to spot BS (bad science) in the media, how to evaluate whether a social program works or not, and how your career could have a better impact on this world. Finally, you will develop your own plan on how you are going to do good better with science. Guest speakers include Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely, Philosopher Peter Singer, and Happiness researcher Elizabeth Dunn.

From the lesson

Science literacy as a vaccine against the charlatans

We kick off this course by providing some ammunition for what the astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson said: ”Science literacy is a vaccine against the charlatans of the world that would exploit your ignorance.” Here, you will discover that you should be wary of the recommendations that you get from our governments on how to save water, from the media based on new scientific findings, and even from our doctor. At the same time, you will see that a basic understanding of statistics and scientific methods - which you will acquire throughout this course - will protect you against misinformation and bad science, and help you make better choices for yourself and for this world. At the end of this week you will create and upload a short 3-minute video pitch about global challenges and what your own role is in tackling them (if any). Please note that Erasmus University Rotterdam pursues the science of learning. Online learners are important participants in that pursuit. The information we gather from your engagement with our instructional offerings makes it possible for faculty, researchers, and designers to continuously improve their work and, in that process, build learning science. By registering as an online learner, you are also participating in research.

Water we doing?!10:17

Optional video: What Morillio and his team are doing to improve access to clean water4:02

Meet the Instructors

Vera Schölmerich
PhD
Erasmus University College, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University
Kellie Liket
PhD
Impact Centre Erasmus (ICE) - Erasmus School of Economics

[MUSIC]

How big is the problem of the lack of access to clean water in our world?

>> It is humongous.

It's really, really big.

We do not consider that water is very important for us as people.

We use it in the morning, the first thing we do when we get up we brush our teeth or

we take a shower or we drink a cup of coffee or tea or whatever.

And we should take into account that 663 million

people live without access to clean water.

>> 663 million people.

>> That's correct.

On top of that, 2.4 billion people don't have

access to good sanitation >> A toilet.

>> Facilities.

>> Exactly.

So I think these are just a few of the numbers that

indicate that the water problem, it's big.

>> Yeah.

>> In rich countries, like in our country we live in, water's not an issue,

there's enough water and it's clean.

But in poor countries,

it's the really massive problem dealing with access to clean water.

And in the future we need to fix this problem otherwise we'll have

a big problem, even in our richest countries.

>> So what can we do, right?

So I'm thinking I actually waste quite a lot of water.

I take extremely long showers.

>> Hot ones probably.

>> Exactly. I'm never concerned about turning

off the tap.

So maybe I should start doing that because every little bit will help, right?

>> So it helps, yes, to take shorter showers and do these things.

We have to think about how much of a help?

So how big is the benefits?

And, also, what are the costs?

>> Costs? So do you mean the time and the effort it

would take me to think about turning off the tap or taking shorter showers?

>> Yeah, exactly, those things.

And there's, also, another bigger cost.

And that's if you now start taking shorter

showers, >> Yeah?

>> You'll think you're a great person.

And you will stop thinking about what else can I do to save water.

>> Okay, so there are other things that I can do

that are much better solutions than turning off the tap?

>> Exactly, there's something else that you can do to to have a much

bigger benefit.

And actually the solution is in your mouth right now.

>> You mean chickpeas?

>> [LAUGH] No okay I didn't know you were eating chickpeas, actually it's meat.

>> So what's the relationship between meat and water?

>> So let's think about this.

So, well how much water do you consume?

So you probably take a shower everyday?

>> Mm-hm. >> So that cost about 50 liters.

And you go to the bathroom everyday, for maybe five or six times a day, right?

>> Mm-hm.

>> That's another 40 liters.

And you do other things like you use the tap to brush your teeth and

all these kind of things, that adds up to 120 liters a day, right?

>> Okay, that sounds like a lot.

>> But if you look at how much it cost to produce one piece of beef for your

hamburger for example, that costs 3,000 liters of water for one piece of meat.

>> 3,000? >> Exactly.

>> Wow that's a huge difference with 120.

>> Massive difference.

So we can see that if we would just take showers as long as we want.

Even longer than we are currently doing.

But eat less or even no meat.

We could say much morer water.

>> Okay, so you and

I cannot do that because there's no additional impact to be gained.

Your vegetarian, right?

>> Yeah I'm vegetarian.

>> I'm vegetarian, so what we could do is try to find someone else and

make that person vegetarian.

>> Very good. Let's

ask our producer Sies if he wants to join.

>> Hey, were you guys talking about me?

>> Yeah, join us, join us.

Have a seat, have a seat.

>> I heard you say my name.

>> Yeah.

>> What's up?

>> So you're eating a meat burger, right?

>> Yeah, yeah.

I love meat.

>> So we would challenge you to stop eating meat,

during production of this mooch.

>> [NOISE] >> Okay.

>> Okay, but that seems kind of slow right?

Now we are trying to make Sies a vegetarian, and he might convince two or

three of his friends to become vegetarians.

But then it will take forever before the entire world is actually vegetarian.

>> That's true. >> Do we have better ideas?

>> That's true.

We could think about other things like what are our governments doing

to get people to consume less meat, for example, right?

How do we do that?

So, if we look at the European Union or the Dutch government or

the German government, what they're doing is getting a ton of people to take shorter

showers, to turn off the tap when they, >> So

they didn't get this cost-benefit thinking very well?

>> Exactly, they're not applying it very well in their case.

And actually, the only country that I know that's doing this, trying to do this,

is Sweden.

And they're thinking about having a meat tax.

>> A meat tax, so your burger would be more expensive than our burgers.

>> And then you might eat it less, that's the idea at least, right?

>> Well I'm not moving to Sweden, that's for sure.

>> [LAUGH] >> Cost-benefit

analyses help us systematically capture the costs and

benefits associated with a project.

You can use this analyses to decide, for example,

if it's better to save water by taking shorter showers or becoming a vegetarian.

To get a sense at how costly, so how burdensome,

these two endeavors would be, you could ask yourself, how much

compensation would you need to reduce your showers from ten minutes to three minutes.

Or to stop eating animals?

Let's assume you would want to get two euros per day for shorter showers and

ten euros per day for becoming a vegetarian.

This means that your perceived costs of becoming a vegetarian are five times

higher than taking shorter showers.

Note that these estimates, of course, vary greatly from person to person.

Now for the benefits.

If you go from a daily ten minute to a three minute shower,

you will save about 56 liters of water.

If you switch your small, a 150 gram beef patty for

a same size vegetarian patty, you will save about 842 liters of water.

So if we assume that you shower daily and

eat one piece of meat daily, then the benefits of becoming

a vegetarian are about 15 times than taking shorter showers.

We can also put a price tag on these liters of water.

In many European countries, one liter of water cost about 0.0014 euros.

By taking shorter showers you can therefore save 0.08 euro a day.

Or 1.18 Euros a day by going vegetarian.

And now, we can also look at these costs and benefits across a whole year.

Note that these numbers are based on European estimates.

They will, of course, differ depending on where you live.

In any case,

we can say that the cost of becoming a vegetarian are five times higher.

But the benefits are about 15 times higher.

To make this analysis more complete,

we could now also quantify other cost and benefits such as

Your NGO works on trying to improve the access to water for poor people.

But what is the link between poverty and water?

>> Water is an essential condition to achieve basic health.

And if you're not healthy,

if you're not a healthy person, how can you be economically active?

We are pushing governments to commit to this certain obligation.

And more, a lot of governments already committed to obligations so

it's really something that they need to implement.

We really want governments, as it's said in human right terms to

commit to the obligations and to respect, protect and

fulfill the right to heath, basic heath because water is indeed a basic health.

>> So governments are suppose to see water as a human right and

live up to that responsibility?

>> Well, they shouldn't see it as a human right.

It is a human right.

>> Okay, fair enough.

>> But you know what I thought about it and

I won't eat meat for the production period of these videos.

>> Wow, high five.

>> Very good.

>> Awesome.

>> That's pretty good, right?

>> Very good.

>> But I'm going to enjoy this burger first.

So it starts after this burger.

>> Okay, fair enough.

>> Fair enough.

>> What about you?

Are you going to be able to not eat meat for a while?

Give it some thought.

[MUSIC]

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