One (last) word: Plastics
A UN report issued on World Environment day showed dozens of nations acting to cut plastic, including a ban on plastic bags in Kenya, on styrofoam in Sri Lanka and the use of biodegradable bags in China. via There’s a backlash against plastics that is ongoing in many not so noticed parts of the world […]
Ecodesign, Ecolabels and the Environment: How Europe is redesigning our footprint on earth
What do chopped fresh green beans have in common with high definition flat screen TV’s? And how does this relate to design? In Europe, they’re both considered consumer products whose journey from raw material to shopwindow requires energy to process—emitting greenhouse gases that can have an adverse impact on the environment—and are considered to possess […]
Book Review: And The Weak Suffer What They Must? by Yanis Varoufakis
Ten years ago, I read and reviewed Making Globalization Work by Joseph Stiglitz – my first Big Econ tome iirc – and my attention was immediately engaged by the eminently readable style of writing. Reading Stiglitz not only raised the bar for my expectations from nonfiction writing but lowered the barriers to my resistance to […]
Innovations in transport business models across Europe
Spotted outside the Zuid Park Business Center in Amsterdam, this is a taxi stand cum charging station for electric vehicles. And its not the only one, as I saw the same taxis waiting at Schiphol airport. They were asking half the price of a regular taxi for the trip to the center of town. In […]
Reflecting on my work here in rural Holland
Wageningen is not your average small town of pop. 30,000 in rural Holland. It has a very well known research university in the Biological Sciences, particularly the needs of agriculture and food. This changes the character of the town’s thinking, being far more aware of the world and what chaos’ butterfly wing in another part […]
Europe could stop fighting it and see if informal economy has lessons to teach
Scanning recent writing on the informal economic activity in the wake of the Great Global Recession brings to light the ongoing struggle to deal with it. Is it good or is it bad? Will it help or is it hindering? Don’t forget the taxes being left unpaid by the economically challenged citizens trying to feed […]
