Have a cup of coffee with Günter Pauli
A tall, handsome man walked through the corridors of the Faculty of Business and Economics in the middle of July. All of the participants of the Blue Economy Summer Course of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the UP were curious about his lecture and there were even more people from the town, who came just to hear the inspiring speech of the famous professor.
The smiling stranger was Günter Pauli, one of the honorary doctors of the University of Pécs.
He warmly greeted everyone, asked for a cup of coffee and begun his speech. After emphasizing the importance of thinking in a system, as a first step of his not at all formal speech, he asked the participants to tell about their breakfast. It seemed to be quite a weird question: professors usually don’t make inquiries about things like this. But come on! He is Günter Pauli. The students began to itemize their meal: eggs, cereals, milk, tea, bread, fruits, orange juice… and coffee.
“What’s the pH of coffee?” – asked Günter Pauli.
Only a few students knew the right answer. It’s 5.00 pH, which means that coffee is an acid. The body's pH level influences its health. The acid-base balance of blood is significant for normal daily function, healing and digestion. A value of 7.0 means the pH is neutral, the optimal acid-base balance is a pH of 7.35 to 7.45, which indicates that the body is slightly alkaline. A slight deviation from this range to either side can result significant health problems. In the event of acidosis or alkalosis, neutralizing your pH is necessary.
He suggested that we can alter the way we eat by refocusing on foods in a smarter and healthier way. What is more: nutrition is just a starting point. We can even run our industrial processes and tackle resulting environmental problems, shifting from the use of rare and high-energy cost resources to solutions based upon simpler and cleaner technologies instead. He wrote a book about it; the 2010 Report of the Club of Rome. The Blue Economy: 10 years - 10 innovations - 100 million jobs highlights potential benefits by connecting and combining seemingly disparate environmental problems with open-source scientific solutions based on physical processes common in the natural world, to create solutions that are both environmentally beneficial and which have financial and wider social benefits.
But let's start with our own body. Can we remain healthy without thinking about it as a whole? “Have you noticed that I put something in my coffee?” – asked Günter Pauli. At that point, most of us recalled the quaint move he had made before he took a sip from his cup. In fact, he put some cardamom into it. Using this spice he changed not only the flavor, but the acidity as well: coffee became good for his body.
This is system-thinking. The essential idea of the Blue Economy manifested in a tiny porcelain cup.
Éva HARKA (UnivPécs)
Photos: Szabolcs Csortos (UnivPécs)