Along the beach of Marina di San Nicola, near Rome, at the foot of the Odescalchi castle, one of the favourite places for filmmakers, a group of volunteers with gloves and rubbish bags worked to meticulously clean the beach.

They were joined spontaneously by some citizens, who chose to celebrate World Mother Earth Day in this way. Favoured by the good weather, despite the fact that the beach looked clean, they collected a rather rich ‘booty’: about fifteen bags of rubbish (mostly plastic material), a television satellite dish, the entrance of a dog kennel, an anchor, various ropes, wooden planks, skittles, etc. In short, rubbish of all kinds, on a relatively short stretch of beach, as pointed out by councillor Filippo Moretti, who encouraged and supported the initiative, also taking care of the logistics of waste disposal. However, there is still a lot to be collected, especially near the beautiful Castle, due to the difficulty of reaching it, if not on foot, and the position that makes it a silent receptacle for the dirt carried by the sea waves.

These ecological activities are promoted in several cities, where there are New Acropolis centres: in the Bulgarelli Garden in Bologna, in the Parco del Sole and Collemaggio in L’Aquila, on the Tiber in Rome, in Milan, Turin, Genoa, Verona, Pescara and several cities in Sicily, along with conferences, theatre and experiential workshops.

But what does philosophy have to do with ecology? Many believe that philosophy is just a subject taught in high school, bound between the pages of a heavy (even physically heavy) book. Instead, it teaches to look for the cause of problems, to solve them, avoiding standing still and complaining about the effects caused. It is easy, in fact, to argue about man’s laziness, the dirtiness of our streets or beaches, the inertia of generations X, Y and Z. It is more difficult, on the other hand, to educate young and old in values such as respect for places, to promote abstention from judgement and barroom opinionism, to encourage unity in work and cooperation in effort, and to act without expectations of reward or gratification useful only to increase one’s own vanity.