Categorie: policies
I recently was triggered a few times by the term: ‘Energy Poverty’ in all kinds of reports and tweets [1-4] . Usually referred to as having little access to oil, gas and coal, in what is then called the poorer part of the world. But does that exist, energy poverty?…
The Species vs the Individual, in the Built Environment? The Corona lockdown and approach continues to surprise: both in what the government does and how people deal with it. What is particularly striking in this phase of Corona is the response and attitude to some problems with vaccines. There are…
We are bombarded with books that know how to deal with climate and the environment, and especially how we can improve the situation. And yes, I am also participating in that, since last week I published a new book that offers tools for improvement, or rather: suggestions for adaptations to…
Last time, I even forgot one goal: Sustainable development Goal 11, Sustainable cities. Again, the question: what is sustainable? So much has been brought together under that heading, all nice things for people, that it does not really help us very much, when it comes to energy and resources. On…
In recent years we have seen the Sustainable development goals of the UN appear more and more often as a stepping stone for all kinds of initiatives. [1] And that, however well-intentioned, is not always a good thing. I wrote before, along with others, that there should be a certain…
There are many similarities between the Corona crises and the climate crises. But there is 1 difference: there is no vaccine against climate change, after which we can pick up where we left off. That is more or less the first lesson or observation that can be drawn from the…
Last year I wrote about a publication from 20 years ago, in which prominent figures looked 20 years ahead. [1] The result was not that good, the future is always more different as expected. However, a number of reactions wondered what that would be like in 20 years from now,…
Someone suggested recently to think about a new money standard. Well, thats a challenge, so I did. Since money is a virtual unit of trade, not based on any actual value. Not anymore, at least, since we left the barter economy and entered the money exchange economy, somewhere around 1600,…
Before we hurry covering everything with solar panels, let’s reason a bit further, because since my first experiences with renewable energy, many new insights have emerged. Those first experiences I had when building a “Bicycle wheel windmill”, as described in the “Windwerkboek” of the time. [1] ( Wind Work Guide)….
A few years ago, together with colleagues Guillaume Habert from Switzerland and Thomas Lützkendorf from Germany, I started exploring the CO2 budget that was still available, and the consequences for construction. This budget of maximum remaining CO2 emissions to stay below the 1.5 or 2 degree threshold is limited. Science…
