Paris Cool Buildings With River Water & How Liberal Democracy Works | WEF | Top Stories of the Week
Channel: World Economic Forum
Date: 2023-09-16

This week's top stories of the week include:

0:15 Paris is using its river water to cool buildings - The city draws water from its river to special underground cooling stations, where the river water acts as a refrigerator, chilling more water. Which is then pumped through 80km of pipes in Europe’s largest cooling network to chill offices and public buildings from the Grand Palais to the Louvre. Having absorbed heat from the buildings, it’s pumped back to the cooling stations where Seine water chills it again.

1:46 This is how liberal democracy works - Is globalization offering promise for a better future or fuelling geopolitical tension? Robin Niblett has observed its ebbs and flows in the fifteen years of his tenure as Chatham House director.

‘There’s a lot more sand in the gears of globalization,’ he says. And the role of think tanks is to figure out how to navigate them.

So, is the notion of globalization still useful today? Watch the full episode to find out.

3:23 Palau's reefs are becoming heat resistant - Reefs on the Pacific island have increased their ‘thermal tolerance’ which means they’re likely adjusting to a hotter ocean. It’s one example of how resilient ecosystems can adapt in some situations. Although global warming remains a dire threat to the ocean, causing harm ranging from acidification to habitat loss. 

Healthy coral reefs are living communities and create crucial ecosystems, protecting coastlines and providing food and medicine. But as the ocean heats up due to climate change, corals are vulnerable to bleaching which is when they lose the algae living inside them.

5:15 25 countries have halved poverty in the last 15 years - Success stories include Cambodia, China and Viet Nam, India and Indonesia and Honduras, Serbia and the Congo.

India has seen the most remarkable progress. It lifted 415 million people out of poverty from 2005 to 2021. China did the same for 69 million people in just 4 years from 2010-2014. Despite the gains, 1.1 billion people remain below the poverty line, 18% of the world’s population.
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