Categorie: ecology
Degrowth is currently a topic of significant interest, presenting the idea of “degrowing” as a necessity to address our problems. (this is based on a previous article on Linkedin). The implicit message is clear and seems to point in the right direction. However, it all depends on how we define…
Once upon a time, we crawled out of the sea. Crawled around on land for a while, but there was nothing to do there, so we migrated back to the sea. Millions of years later we went back to look on land, and lo and behold, there seemed to be…
We can develop beautiful so-called scientific methods to calculate all the effects of our impact, but in the end only two data are relevant: energy and material use, and the rest is derived from that: all emissions, to air or water, pollution, disappearance of forests, , and climate warming and…
By now its obvious: the way we are currently dealing with climate, environment, raw materials, food, biodiversity, will not help us prevent disasters. But what then? The struggle and discussion on solutions is in full swing currently. Just look at the energy transition. We do not want fossil fuels anymore:…
Nitrogen levels are too high, as are levels of particulate matter, too much manure, CO2 emissions continue to rise, as does methane emissions, biodiversity drops dramatically, the agricultural land is exhausted, natural gas fields collapsing, heat waves of 40 degrees, lack of cooling capacity in a hot summer, sea levels…
Before going into agriculture, and the available figures for it, I will briefly summarize how evaluate keeping resource loops closed. Fot this a calculation method has been developed, called MAXergy, with Embodied Land as a measuring unit. To close resource cycles, or to keep them closed, a number of conditions…
On land probably we will not succeed. It gets a bit crowded with 10 billion, the available land per capita is decreasing, we resist giving up some of our wealth , our thirst for materials and technology. The battle of resources has started. Even the UN admits this implicitly, as…
And of we go, to Kate Raworth speaking in Rotterdam, about her book and ideas on ‘dougnut economics’. The evening started well: at the entrance I overheard a conversation between two students: One saying: “what a lousy students we are, not going to lectures for half a year and yet…
Richard Attenborough summarized it as follows: ” Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist..” The addiction to profit and money making by economists has simularities with religion fanatics. They are both afraid of the here and now,…
Again and again I come across the comparison of man and nature . And usually the story is that we as mankind approach things to simplistic or to reductionist, , we break down things in little pieces which we optimize, while nature organizes in great complexity and integral. Especially in…
