Departmental councilor Paul Vo Van arrives on Youtube to talk about ecology in Lot-et-Garonne

The Lot-et-Garonne Transitions Workshop, led by departmental advisor Paul Vo Van, is modernizing and adapting to a new audience. This think tank, once thought of as an observatory, is led by elected officials, scientists and experts. This involves highlighting local initiatives to fight climate change.

In July 2023, the Departmental Council adopted an emergency motion declaring Lot-et-Garonne a climate emergency. Just a year ago, the workshop teams thought about a more educational way to involve the public. The video format then became obvious.

Paul Vo Van puts on the white coat

“At the rate of three videos per year, we are going to put a web series online,” explains Sophie Borderie, president of the departmental council. “On YouTube, these popularization videos aim to reach as many people as possible.”

“The format is less technical than major scientific speeches, and this transposition is more open to a large segment of the population,” rejoices Paul Vo Van. “At the same time, we have serious lines of analysis and we touch on the very essence of the subject. What can be useful to our territory? Can we duplicate it on a departmental scale? We have resources, you have to know how to exploit them.”

The departmental advisor took part in the presentation game and put on the white coat to host these twelve-minute videos. Brothers Romain and Vincent Inigo, former rugby players and creators of a video and photo studio, film the episodes.

Alongside Paul Vo Van, various specialists are called upon to intervene. The first video in the series was uploaded to YouTube a month ago. With the subject of water quality, the elected official receives Roger Ben Aïm, also a member of the Atelier des Transitions and founder of the Institute of Filtration and Separative Techniques (IFTS). At his side, Roger Ben Aïm addresses, among other things, the problem of bacteria and micropollutants present in water, simplifies the subject and dissects it.

For each video, Paul Vo Van will be joined by an expert. “We have three shoots in advance, the next episodes of the web series will deal with global warming, then waste and its sorting. Jean-François Berthoumieu, director of the Climatological Association of the Middle Garonne (ACMG), will be there for the “episode on the climate. For waste, we will undoubtedly call on Stéphane Gatti”. The latter is co-president of the Cultivons une terre vivant association, based in Laplume. Through this association, he works in partnership with local schools to transform food waste into fertilizer for the soil, what we call “Bokashi”; an alternative to composting kitchen waste.

“We need to make efforts on our waste management,” says Sophie Borderie. Sorting is well established, a lot of work has also been done on waste.” All these aspects of ecology will soon appear in the Atelier des transitions web series.