Categorie: economy
It’s enough to drive you crazy while reading the newspapers, listen to interviewers on the radio, or hear news reporters: no one asks fundamental questions or wonders about the hidden effects of partial or optimisticaly presented solutions. Everything remains stuck in well-meaning supportive chatter. “Yes, circular economy, that’s it, we’ll…
After writing about “paying the fish,” it kept on nagging me. [1] Because it remains a search for the true essence of money, or in other words, the essence of compensating each other for labor and services without ruining everything. I’d like to share this here and am open to…
Essay-longread, original: ‘Hub Holland Hub’ It is well known and frequently in the news how Schiphol and KLM defend themselves regarding the impact and number of flights via Schiphol. Especially concerning the ‘hub’ function, meaning that half the world cannot function without us, that if they don’t offer this hub…
I have to admit, capitalism has worked, allowing us, at least in our part of the world, to live in luxury. Even the poorer part of society here with us don’t have it as bad as in large parts of the rest of the world. However, the whole system has…
Loss and damage fund, filled by miljonairs…?- COP28 The first result of COP28 seems to be already there, a loss and damage fund for ‘weaker’ countries. However, there was already an agreed-upon investment fund to help those countries get into transition. But that fund is not functioning, still largely empty,…
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…
A building is usually assessed sec, as a building. Or as a complex of buildings, within the project development boundary, both energetically and financially. See previous contribution. But that is often at the expense of effects outside the project boundary. A few examples can clarify this. Some years ago I…
In projects with students, it regularly clashes between economic and environmental cq climate objectives, and thus also between real estate and building physics tutors. Or between ‘the project developer’ and the ‘energy calculator’. And the battle is fought over the heads of the students ; they have to find a…
On a recent trip, in one of the excursions I was sitting in a bus behind a young couple. The bus had just stopped for a pee and drink break, and as soon as we were driving the guy in front of me turned on the video on his phone,…
This week I was confronted again with CO2 calculations. It was about the (absolute) CO2 budget, the maximum that can still be emitted to keep a chance of staying under 1.5 degrees, and which will be exhausted at the end of next year.[1] The starting point, of course, should be…
