Latin America’s first renewable fuel-powered, trash-trapping wheel is cleaning one of Panama’s dirtiest rivers. A local environmental group led the effort.

The wheel is powered by water and sun energy. It pulls waste out of the Juan Diaz River. Most of the waste comes from the capital area of Panama City, where about 2 million people live. Thousands of kilograms of rubbish flow down the river into the ocean each year.

Robert Getman is the leader of the project. “Cleaning beaches is good,” he said, “but it is more effective and cheaper to trap rubbish in rivers because when it reaches the ocean, the environmental and economic cost becomes too high.”

The environmental group Marea Verde created the wheel, which is named Wanda Diaz, in late September. By the middle of October, Wanda had gathered 28. 6 cubic meters of plastic bottles from the water.

The Juan Diaz River is one of the most polluted in Panama. Waste systems in the area are poor, and land development is not well supervised. The river also passes through Panama City, one of Central America’s largest cities.

Over five years, Marea Verde projects have slowed the spread of rubbish along Panama’s rivers and coastline. Earlier, the group introduced its “Barrier or Trash”technology, a floating device. It caught more than 100 metric tons of waste in the Matias Hernandez River between 2019 and 2020.

“We want to raise awareness that we can prevent the death of this very important river,”said Marea Verde member Sandy Watemberg. She expressed her hope that the wheel will help. But she also pointed to the need for those who use single-use plastics to rethink their behavior. “The most important thing is to achieve a change in habits,” she said.

When it comes to being fit and healthy, we're often reminded to aim to walk 10,000 steps per day. This can be a frustrating target to achieve, especially when we're busy with work and other commitments.

The 10,000 steps a day target seems to have come about from a trade name pedometer sold in 1965 by Yamasa Clock in Japan. The device was called "Manpo-kei", which translates to "10,000 steps meter". This was a marketing tool for the device and has seemed to have stuck across the world as the daily step target. It's even included in daily activity targets by popular smart-watches, such as Fitbit.

In ancient Rome, distances were actually measured by counting steps. In fact, the word "mile" originated from the Latin phrase mila passum, which means about 2,000 steps. It's suggested the average person walks about 100 steps per minute，which would mean it would take a little under 20 minutes for the average person to walk a mile. So in order for someone to reach the 10,000-step goal, they would need to walk about five miles a day, nearly two hours of activity.

Researchers have investigated the 10,000 steps a day target. The fact that some studies have shown this step target improves heart health, mental health, and even lowers diabetes (糖尿病) risk, may, to some extent, explain why we have stuck with this number.

But while some research has shown health benefits at 10,000 steps, recent research from Harvard Medical School has shown that, on average, nearly 4,400 steps a day is enough to significantly lower the risk of death in women. This was when compared to only walking around 2,700 steps daily. The more steps people walked, the lower their risk of dying was, before leveling off at around 7,500 steps a day. No additional benefits were seen with more steps. Although it's uncertain whether similar results would be seen in men, it's one example of how moving a little bit more daily can improve health and lower risk of death.

When I was a child, not many of us grew up with pets in Asia. It was unusual to show sympathy towards animals. We learnt respect for our elders and for our government, and we learnt etiquette( 礼仪）too, but rarely was it suggested that we extend any feelings towards animals, or indeed that animals have feelings. And because of this, many children in Asia grow up considering animals exist to serve us, feed us, entertain us and clothe us.

I co-founded ACT Asia in 2006 with an Asian vet, to support the development of caring societies in Asia. While many nonprofits were already addressing human, animal and environmental concerns with direct action, 1 felt the cultural shock between continents was too great to ignore. We had to accept that change would not happen immediately, and that intervening（(干预）would cause defence. First, we have to help societies understand the interdependence of people, animals and our natural habitat. Instead of stepping in to find fault, we stepped back and considered the cause. Millions of people live below the poverty line, and most left-behind children live without their parents, so it was clear that our biggest barrier was ignorance, not cruelty.

With the future in mind, education is at the core of all we do. We should teach children about respect and kindness, and we see that a sense of responsibility is improving. By doing so, they are developing a keen sense of respect, to each other, for all species and our natural environment, but also for themselves. Given the chance to understand the truth about life on earth, many people-but children in particular-will choose compassion（同情）over cruelty.