Experiencing the simulations : an open door for solutions...

Sep 19, 2016 by Rachid Benkhouja

(Team Morocco is so sorry for posting about this activity after the video conference).

       I liked the simulations, because they brought us closer to our main topic which is Climate and Water problems, and to the possible solutions that we can work on to resolve or reduce the intensity of the difficulties we are facing in this field.

       1. J. ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR

I couldn't do this simulation because i didn't find my country in the map.

       2. CLIMATE CHALLENGE

I loved this simulation because it gave us for some minutes almost the same responsibilities that chiefs of lot of countries have, and allowed us to come up with our ideas to resolve problems and elaborate strategies. I worked on reducing the number of factories that produce lot of gas, and also build my strategies on natural and nonpolluting energies , such as the sun and water, i thought of taking care of forests and the environment too. It was efficient in the begining, but i ended up fired because i didn't manage my popularity.

The idea of how the strategy cards represented resources was brilliant, i hope it could be appliable in the world and all teenagers can do the simulation and see how we could manage to save our world, because the strategy cards would indeed have the same impacts in real life, as long as it involves energies, factories, programs and lot of realistic facts that we face every day. I am sure that if we start just with sharing this experience with our surroundings, it would be just benefitial.

Negociations were one of the important and best parts of the simulation, for the reason that it includes the principle of votes, and also the ways to convince. I see that investing in green economies of other nations as to encourage them is a good idea, because it involves collaborations and a universal result, not a nationnal one, as long as the nations manage their financial situations and study the project deeply before applying it in the field.

       3. WATER FOOTPRINT CHALLENGE ( SOUTH SCHOOLS )

 Concerning this simulation, i found it interesting and brilliant to have such staitistics about our consumption of water, mainly because we use water a lot in our lifes, and this simulation was an occasion to take a look at how much we use in meals and fields. My water footprint is 4757 m3 per year, and i wasn't surprised a lot of what i consume, because i know that i eat meat and cereals a lot, but the average for cereals was a little bit surprising.

I found out that my water pootprint is a little big, and i found incredible numbers for example in USA and Netherlands according to waterfootprint.org and the studies that were done in the Department of Water Engeneering and Management in the University of Twente in the Netherlands, where a comparison between Morocco, which is a big consumer of water, and Netherlands in 2007.

After getting my statistics, i see that i should reduce a little bit the consumption of cereals, but i see that i don't need to reduce others such as vegetables or fruits or dairy or meat, because they work on the healthy body i am having, maybe in the category of others the likes of candies and lot of chocolate...should be reduced.

       4. CONCLUSION

All the simulations i could do were so relevant to the situation of my country and the whole word concerning Climante and Water problems, it gives us more ideas and a closer view to my community's situation. It is important to mention that strategies we found in the second simulation and statistics that were given in the waterfootprint simulation can do nothing but open our eyes to possible solutions to the struggles in climate and water. In addition to that, the simulations made me think of deeper solutions and introduced me to new ones.

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