Categorie: policies

On Freedom: and a Short and a Long term government

Our biggest problem is that people, or humanity, do not observe or respect boundaries , to anything, and when facing them, they also want to constantly push those boundaries. And when starting to talk about boundaries, it quickly becomes a discussion about the freedom to choose for oneself. During Corona,…

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Capitalism and Comfort: a segregation of state and economy is needed.

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…

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EU: No Net land Take ?

A new regulation is in the making in Europe: No net land take. PBL ( NL environmental assessment agency) recently organized a meeting on the topic.[1] It’s an interesting approach and wording, but what’s really the point? First, there is the assumption that no more land should be sacrificed to…

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Where to build, and where not to build (in NL)

I was asked that question last year by Thomas van Belzen of Cobouw,[1] and it got me thinking. It was an interview in Dutch, but let me return to it in English and in more detail at the beginning of 2023. The first reaction is of course: why build, we…

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The World of Babel

There is a lot of chatter around, with no understanding of the real issues. I’m sorry, but I’m going to defend this position for once.. The nonsense I hear and see in talk shows, news, or read in newspapers, regarding climate and environment, is really unlimited. What they add to…

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Not a CO2 focus, but a Post-Fossil focus

The Quest in Egypt is actually quite simple: Not look for reductions of fossil, but how to live off the sun, and its derivatives, wind and water power. And where possible make things a little more effective with a little gravity and geothermal power. That’s it, in terms of energy…

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Where to buy 1 ha of sea …

The other day I was thinking, I’m going to invest some money in land, since it has a stable value, or at least, has lasting ‘value’. But then I realized that this has mainly (for the time being) financial value, because the land itself is completely exhausted, exhausted by farmers…

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Forget tech-optimism…

The newspaper article on Saturday on the front page of the economics section of the NRC national newspaper , opens with the headline:  “believing in growth or shrinkage.” With that, I was immediately on the fence. Because it’s not about believing. It’s physics. You can calculate how much energy and…

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Shame

It is popular at the moment, to speak of shame, like for example flight shame. All that CO2 and so on, and yes, that is a consequence and we will have to bear the consequences. It is then misused to suggest to people that they can redeem this, because ,…

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A CO2 budget (limit) for housing

Calculating in CO2 remains a challenge, especially when it comes to the remaining budget. There is in the Netherlands a small action group that is trying to define how we should deal with the remaining CO2 budget for the built environment. How much CO2 may be emitted (invested) per new…

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