August 1856
Eunice Newton Foote – American scientist and researcher – realized she had made a groundbreaking scientific discovery: in her greenhouse, she demonstrated the role of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Eunice discovered the “greenhouse effect” and the origins of global warming. However, she was unable to present her findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science because of her gender, as women were not allowed to speak before such an assembly.
August 2026
170 years after Eunice Foote’s discovery, we wish to honor this woman, forgotten by history for too long, to remind everyone of the importance of protecting the climate and the voices that accompany it. We invite everyone to join these commemorations by organizing a local event in your community, using shared materials while maintaining the flexibility to adjust your initiatives according to your ideas and networks.
More information will be available on our social media, on this page, and upon request at talent@watertrek.org
Ten volunteers, director Lou Wenzel, and our co-founder Séverine Vasselin gathered for a 10-day residency at the Académie du Climat in Paris to prepare a unique performance : Les Noces d'eau, a theatrical ceremony developed as part of “Paris en Seine” and presented on July 26th, 2025. The program included a festive ritual, a wedding march, and a symbolic communion with the river.
The “Noces d'eau” event - initiated by the Watertrek in partnership with the Water-Seine & Climate Department of the Paris City Hall - is not just a show: it is a symbolic act, a celebration of the reconciliation between Parisians and their river, inaccessible for 102 years, now reintroduced into everyday urban life. For one evening, the city embraces its waterway. White attire is suggested, and a festive spirit is recommended. And you? You are the guests at this wedding unlike any other.
Conceived as a ritual ceremony, “Noces d'eau” invites everyone to actively participate in a form of sensory theater. Everyone is invited to join in the game, to let themselves be carried away by the story, to reconnect with the waters that inhabit us - metaphorically and physically. Beyond the artistic gesture, there is a message : that of a connection to be reinvented with oneself, with others, with all of our interdependencies. The Seine is no longer a border : it becomes an emotional bridge, a source of inspiration, a collective mirror. Exterior and interior align themselves.
The celebration begins at the Académie du Climat, a committed and symbolic venue for Parisian ecological renewal, but also the former City Hall, a particularly appropriate site for this type of ceremony. Guests descend the Degrés staircase to share a toast, punctuated by speeches, testimonials, rants, and musical interludes.
Finally, a wedding march leads the participants to the Seine, as a physical and poetic extension of the ritual that has begun. It is a way of becoming one with the city, together, through a gesture as simple as it is powerful: walking towards the water.
Between theater, ecology, and poetry, “Noces d'eau” is an invitation to rethink our relationship with life, with the community, and with this river that flows through Paris as much as it flows through us internally. A rare event, at the crossroads of art and meaning, to be experienced with your feet (almost) in the water, a test format for the association, which is keen to continue its work in the field of cultural and sensory ecology.
Press: Mairie de Paris & Water-Guette
Watertrek is very pleased to present its musical reading dedicated to water, seas and rivers - Sponge dust - as part of the Paris en Seine Festival which will be held throughout the capital from June, the 21st until September, the 21st, 2025.
The reading - scheduled for Friday July, the 4th, at the City Hall of the 11th arrondissement of Paris at 5pm - will be followed by the screening of our documentary film Detox, and a Q&A with our crew.
Watertrek is very honored to have been able to speak at the Droit de la Seine Mock Trial held at the Théâtre de la Concorde on December 9, with the aim of dramatizing the possibility of the river being seen as a legal personality in its own right.
Our co-founder Séverine - actress and artist - took the stand and reminded us how important it was to change our perspective, to move away from anthropocentrism - that “ultimate myth, peculiar to Man, (...) which leads us to believe that we are masters and possessors of nature, (...) and tells us that the wild world is a huge open-air supermarket (...)”, as Paul Watson explains; to place ourselves at the heart of the living world, within the weave of ‘interdependencies’ and ‘mutual vulnerabilities’ so well described by the philosopher Baptiste Morizot. Séverine then referred to children's literature, reminding us that we all have within us the capacity to change our outlook, our relationships and our points of view.
Thanks to all those who initiated this project: Marine Calmet at Wild Legal, Anne Hidalgo and the teams at Paris City Hall, Elsa Boublil at the Théâtre de la Concorde, and all the experts, witnesses and lawyers who spoke: Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, Mayor of Rouen; Edgar Mora Altamirano, Costa Rican Minister of Public Education; François Molins, Public Prosecutor; Jean-Michel Hayat, President of the Paris Court of Appeal; Julie Couturier, President of the Conseil National des Baraux; Corinne Lepage, former Minister of the Environment; Marion Chapouton, General Secretary of GRIDAUH; Vanessa Bousardo, Vice-President of the Paris Bar Association; Patrick Klugman, lawyer; Laurence Roques, lawyer; Laurent Fonbaustier, Associate Professor of Law at Paris-Saclay and Charlène Descollonges, hydrologist.
This mock trial will evolve into the launch of a Citizen's Convention for the Rights of the River to draft legislation, starting in February 2025.
Photos: Sabrina Aliane
An actress, a sports teacher: Séverine and Stéphane had the opportunity to share their eco-adventures on their paddleboards along the nearby Marne with students from Sainte-Marie middle school-high school in Meaux on December 8th, 2023, and to discuss the importance of protecting water. Several classes of 8th grade, and just over a hundred teenagers, were able to react to the photographs they were shown, which also highlighted the importance of reconnecting with our physical sensations, emotions & imagination, to reflect together on a healthier future.
On October 18 and 19, 2022, Watertrek was invited by Didier LeHénaff to the Etats-Généraux Sport Planète [Sport Planet Convention] organised by insurance company Maif at the CREPS Ile-De-France in Chatenay Malabry near Paris. Our co-founder Séverine took part in a round-table discussion on "Teaching eco-responsibility through sport", reminding us of the importance of imagination and sensitivity behind any personal commitment.
To know more about this event, click here.
The health crisis has forced us to brainstorm on new ways to raise awareness about protecting nature while locked in our houses…That’s how the podcast Waterchat was born, somewhere on a kitchen table.
How does nature shapes our lives, our professional choices, our decisions, our careers? How does it inspire us? Through a series of 40 minutes conversations led by our co-founder Séverine, Waterchat proposes to wander through the experiences and feelings of inspiring personalities and to question our connection - reliance - to nature, to our body and to our environment, enriching our vision with these intimate and singular testimonies, presenting a plurality of commitments and actions and listening to those who work hard to protect it.
Waterchat will be available in French on all dedicated platforms starting September 1st, 2021, and soon in English.
Due to lockdown, Watertrek is launching a series of Facebook live conferences to address environmental issues in times of quarantine. Those lives hosted by our Science & Education Expert Emmanuelle are only offered in French for now, but we're hoping to have them in English soon as well.
Our program:
Join us here Watertrek Facebook.
The first representation of the " Cruising in Anthropocene ", the interactive presentation designed by Watertrek to address the questions of plastic pollution and the climatic disorder with children took place in Cannes on June 18th. 2018. 25 children within the School de la Croisette received our co-founder Séverine. 2 Groups focused on 2 missions: the zero-carbon crew and zero-waste crew developed their own solutions to counter the threats.
This first performance was a good opportunity to test and adapt a message suitable for younger kids. New representations are planned from September, 2018.
A huge thanks to teacher Virginie Kvietkauskas, Ladies Vaillant and Brun in the City hall of Cannes and mister Canonne, Education Advisor.