Today, 22 April, on the occasion of Earth Day, Inter will put their colors at the service of planet Earth, to shine the spotlight on the climate and biodiversity crisis which are the main threats of our time. Demonstrating great sensitivity, in fact, the Nerazzurri club has decided to support the WWF Italy campaign “The Panda is Us” by bringing into play the “Ext1nction Numb3rs”, i.e. the numbers that unequivocally explain the natural crisis we are experiencing.
On the occasion of the Milan derby, a patch will be applied on the sleeve of each shirt of the Inter squad which tells a fact or a mobilization message linked to the number of the player wearing it. The objective is to raise public awareness of the environmental emergency that characterizes our present and risks compromising our future in an increasingly impactful manner.
We start, for example, with the number 1 of goalkeeper Sommer, who explains how “We only have 1 planet available” to move to the number shirt 9 by Thuram who will talk about the 9 hectares of forests that are destroyed every minute while the 10, worn by Lautaro, indicates that over the last 14 years there has been an average decline of 10% in biodiversity. The 23 of Barella will denounce how the illegal wildlife trade is worth 23 billion dollars, while the 20 by Çalhanoğlu highlights the 20,000 deaths in Europe due to extreme heat in 2022. Together with Thuram, Asllani and Pavard are the protagonists of video co-produced by Inter Media House and WWF to give life to an even more impactful narrative of the project: their numbers will tell stories 28 tons of plastic dispersed in the Mediterranean every 12 hours and of 21% of the total shark meat sold in Europe.
There is nothing that conveys the impact of our actions on Earth more clearly than numbers. In 2022 the presence of environmental pollutants has exceeded the planetary limit, beyond which there is no longer any certainty that ecosystems guarantee conditions favorable to life. We risk contaminating terrestrial and marine food networks, without being able to go back: this happens with plastic but also with pesticides, used for approximately 1/3 of agricultural products globally. The impacts of the climate crisis, pollution and indiscriminate exploitation of resources are evident: in the last 50 years alone, the populations of vertebrate species have fallen by an average of 69% (Living Planet Report WWF 2022), an unprecedented loss of biodiversity, which has direct effects also on the health of each of us. It is estimated that every second 12 people are poisoned by pesticides and in 2022 alone there will be 20 thousand premature deaths in Europe caused by extreme heat, while there are around 70 microplastics that we ingest every minute, through food consumption or from the air. These data aim to raise the alarm but also make people more aware: acting for the planet means protecting our health and our future.
The one on 22 April is the first activation of this type carried out with a football club, and for Inter it represents a new and important stage in the path that has made the Nerazzurri shirt a tool for brand positioning and engagement with its stakeholders. Furthermore, “The Ext1nctions Numb3rs” is the Club's first social responsibility campaign on the issues of climate change and respect for biodiversity.
Nerazzurri Vice President Javier Zanetti wanted to express the Club's support for the initiative: “We are very proud of this collaboration which allows us to act as a sounding board on a very important topic. The language of sport, its universal values, manage to promote change and reach the hearts of millions of fans. We are certain that this appeal will not go unheard.”
In the days following the Milan derby, some signed shirts with the exclusive patch dedicated to the campaign will be auctioned with the support of Nerazzurri partner eBay. The proceeds will help support WWF Italy's Our Nature campaign which aims to protect key habitats and species in Italy and around the world.
“The climate and biodiversity crises affect us all. They concern our present and they concern our future which risks being extremely different from how we imagine it. Science tells us how our lives risk changing in the coming years, with numbers that unequivocally describe how we are compromising our natural systems. We are happy that Inter has chosen to make its shirt numbers available to communicate with us in a simple and direct way, through a major sporting event, the impact of our lifestyles and our production models that are sending Nature and the services it freely offers us are 'bankrupt'. Becoming aware of this and becoming part of the change is the starting point for saving the habitats of our planet, together with the species that inhabit them. Even the human one, which too often forgets that it is itself nature”, declares Alessandra Prampolini, General Director of WWF Italy.
Countryside #ThePandaWeAreUs, launched by WWF Italy last October, aims to change public opinion regarding the environmental crisis we are experiencing and highlight the serious danger facing our species. The challenge we face today requires new awareness and responsibility: protecting nature is a vital imperative for humanity itself.
Even though science now warns us daily about the consequences of our lifestyles, our production and consumption models, we continue to inflict very serious damage on the planet, on our health and on our very future on Earth. The power to write a sustainable future is in our hands, in our choices, in the small and large actions we can take every day. Through them, we have the possibility not only to reduce our “ecological burden” to a minimum, that is, the environmental impact of our actions, but also to mobilize to forcefully ask for that change that can preserve nature and, consequently, guarantee us a future on this unique and wonderful planet of ours.
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