Shale gas: in the Cevennes, people stay alert
Most posters against shale gas have disappeared from the streets and the municipal poster sites. Some cars still show them. But resistance has not faded away. Earlier articles on shale gas appeared on 12 July, 9 September, 17 September and 16 October. In the Cevennes, the mountainous area in mid-France, the spirit of resistance still
Oxfam Novib: present developments lead us to act against biofuels
Diederik van der Hoeven appears to appreciate our moral position, but questions the practicality. But it is the practical consequences of the EU’s biofuel policy that prompted us to take a more radical stance on the current blending volumes. So I would like to share some more insight in our activities. Earlier columns on the
Parents, let your children be operators in the bioeconomy
Let nobody accuse the European Commission of not engaging itself in what it calls the bioeconomy. Last month, the Commission held a kind of hearing on the part played by regions in Europe’s bioeconomy. It did not have a fixed idea of it yet, but it was interested in stakeholder contributions. In the end of
The moral judgment ‘food should not be used as a fuel’ is untenable
In two columns on this site I went into the food/fuel problem. Oxfam reacted to my first piece. But they did not answer some pressing questions. Therefore, once more the food/fuel problem and Oxfam’s position. This article appears as Oxfam Netherlands just started a major campaign against biofuels. This is the fourth column in a
Do we need to produce biofuels? Yes, we do!
Recent food price increases have fuelled a new round in the food/fuel debate. They have had a major influence on EU policies, putting a halt to ambitious renewable fuel targets for 2020. But often, the arguments used in the food/fuel debate are false, as I argued in my review of the Oxfam working paper ‘The
Oxfam: better sooner than later
One thing that I have learned in my NGO experience is that it is better to work on investment than on trade. If I would manage to convince a producer to make certain adjustments in their investment policy (environmental and social considerations, site selection) this would be a lot more productive for the company and
Oxfam food/fuel report: conclusions do not follow from evidence
Oxfam working paper 161, entitled ‘The hunger grains’ has had a profound influence on the EU decision to scrap its stricter biofuels mandate for year 2020. But this influence is deplorable: the evidence presented in the report would lead to conclusions radically different from those drawn by Oxfam. Suggestive phrasing The report’s essence on food/fuel
Plastic soup for dummies
‘By now, everyone knows about the phenomenon of Plastic Soup.’ So I am told ever more frequently nowadays. Yet, there are still a lot of people out there who have not heard of it. And even they often do not know in-depth what this phenomenon really means for our world, and for future generations. Increasingly,
