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On Sunday, May 11th, a talk session was held by Future Creation Department Co., Ltd., which was founded in Atami. The moderator for the entire session was Future Creation Department’s Executive Vice President Tomohiro Mitsumura. In the first part, Future Creation Department introduced the environmental activities it is carrying out on the sea and land of Atami. In the second part, the Future Creation Department introduced the Future Creation Youth Team, which is made up of young people under the age of 29, and shared the details of their activities. In the third part, the activities of the non-profit organization Blue Carbon Network were introduced.
Working on community-based activities and carbon dioxide fixation using charcoal
In the first part, the Future Creation Club explained how they are carrying out various initiatives rooted in Atami’s sea, mountains, and local community to prevent global warming from getting any worse. They introduced the “beach clean-up activity” to collect plastic waste from the ocean as an activity they are particularly focusing on. They appealed that they do not just collect waste, but also analyze where the waste is generated and educate children and local residents so that they can eliminate waste at its source.
In addition to ocean-related activities, activities on land that are closely connected to the ocean were also introduced. For example, in order to prevent the current situation in which thinned wood from mountains and forests becomes industrial waste and sometimes ends up in the ocean, it was announced that the “Future Rocket Carbonizer” is being developed to carbonize waste and unused resources. It was explained that burying the charcoal produced underground contributes to negative carbon emissions.
Young people’s activities to create a sustainable and happy future
The second part of the event featured an introduction to the Future Creation Youth Team. The Youth Team was established as a place for learning and networking for young people who are motivated to “create a desirable future.” Activities are carried out for one six-month term, and it was announced that the seventh term is currently underway. After an overview of the Youth Team was presented, Morita Kaho, a first-year student at Fuji Sacred Heart Girls’ Junior High School, Suzuki Shota, a fish art creator, and Yamagami Ryudo, a blind pianist and shakuhachi player, took to the stage. They talked about why they joined the Youth Team and what changes they experienced as a result of participating, and Yamagami also gave a shakuhachi performance.
Blue carbon connections spreading from Atami
The Future Creation Department is promoting the Blue Carbon Project, which involves restoring and investigating seaweed beds, and disseminating and sharing information related to blue carbon. In the third part of the session, an introduction was given to the NPO Blue Carbon Network, which is responsible for the information aspect of the project.
The Blue Carbon Network was born from a strong desire to spread blue carbon initiatives from the sea of Atami, and after reaching its crowdfunding goal, it began full-scale activities. It was announced that they had investigated blue carbon initiatives around Japan, created a tool called the “Blue Carbon Initiatives Map Connecting Hope” that anyone can use to easily research initiatives in each area, and made it available online. In addition, while there are currently over 150 initiatives in the database, they sent out a message that they believe there must be many more initiatives taking place in Japan, and would like to encourage people to register them. The talk session concluded with the hope that we can prevent global warming even just a little.
▼The event will be available to watch on YouTube’s BLUE OCEAN DOME official channel.
【#027】 Atami Future Creation Department’s initiative to “Leave a clean and fun Earth” (ZERI JAPAN/Future Creation Department Co., Ltd.)