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Survival of the Richest

Man has distanced himself from the normal ecological course of events, depleting raw materials, all in the pursuit of acquiring more property. It has long since ceased to be necessary for survival, at least in the wealthy part of the world.For this, homo sapiens has come up with something clever:…

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the species and the system (in the media)

Humans mostly act as if they have nothing to do with reality, that they are free to take as much as they want from the Earth. But that is not how it works. The Earth is not part of humanity, humanity is part of the Earth. It all started and…

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Slow Living: Why Less Speed Means More Future

As human beings, we seem to want everything faster. Or at least, that’s how society and industry are structured—faster cars, fast fashion, fast food (who even peels their own potatoes anymore?), and so on. We call it progress, or prosperity. And we convince ourselves it’s a good thing—mainly because many…

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Raw Materials Are Truly Finite, Biobased Is Inevitable, So Land Is the Limiting Factor

Imagine you’re on a small island (metaphorically speaking, a little ball in the universe), and you theoretically have only one source of concentrated material—a small hill, so to speak. You also have a piece of land just sufficient for growing food, and nothing else matters. Let’s say that hill is…

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Metals are regrowable: 0,7 kg/ha-year

Metals are often said to be “non-renewable.” It’s suggested there’s no other way to deal with it. But we can renew them—though what’s usually meant is reuse or recycling: renewed use of something that already exists. And that, in turn, is called circular. But that’s not quite correct: it’s prolonged…

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We can still pull the plug, can’t we?

It seems that more and more energy is needed to keep the capitalist exhaustion of the Earth going, which also requires more and more material. How did we get here, and where do we go from here? A thought experiment. Originally, however, there was (and is) plenty of energy—solar energy—and…

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Moral Entropy: social thermodynamics…

There is a thought-provoking idea that lingers in the mind: “Societies go from high morale and strong consensus to pessimism and division.” This process has been termed “moral entropy.” The term invites speculation—could the principles of thermodynamics, typically applied to physical systems, also offer insights into moral and societal dynamics?…

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Cats (and dogs): the decadency in land use

The world is getting a bit crowded, and most people have no idea of the real impact of their activities, especially when it comes to land degradation, as the ultimate foudnation for our existence. They might be somewhat aware of their travel behavior (such as flight shame) or their eating…

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Netherlands, end of shelf life is near

elderly homes abandoned, elder people living lonely in too big houses Housing shortage constructions delayed, lost people since corona and will never get back on track. GPs are becoming overstressed medications often run out healthcare system is creaking amount of IC beds decreasing livestock farming is causing various dramas that…

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Where have window shutters gone?

It’s time to shine a light on an old technique: shutters. (No, I’m not following in the footsteps of Lowtech Magazine, but sometimes our paths cross).Shutters are as old as building itself, even predating the invention of glass. There was no glass back then, so how do you keep the…

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