Plastic consumption is still rising. Versatile compounds! But plastic recycling isn’t well organized. Therefore, the mountain of plastic waste is still growing. The world needs to find a solution to that problem, A subject addressed at Wageningen University. Their goal: … Read more
In a recent series on the invaluable site The conversation, Australian scientists raised the question to what extent we will in the future be able to rely on antibiotics. Resistance to antibiotics is on the rise, all over the world. … Read more
We know that fossil and nuclear energy, and mining of resources, can have most unwanted social effects on local communities. Now this appears to be true for solar projects as well. As is testified to by a Chinese plan for … Read more
Insects as food and feed have a low CO2 footprint, grow quickly, and have rapid reproduction cycle. So says Kees Aarts in the volume Our future proteins, A diversity of perspectives. They easily convert low-value materials into high-quality nutrients. Together … Read more
You might know them – websites and articles with fantastic health claims. But they endlessly postpone the revelation of their ‘secret’. If you are curious, you will be drawn ever more into the story. And always, the revelation of the … Read more
A recent blog by Nobel prize winner Jennifer Doudna in Wired Magazine explores the power of CRISPR – the discovery that lent her the Nobel prize. Particularly with regards to CRISPR’s power to feed the world. Major challenges ahead for … Read more
Knowable Magazine ran an interesting article by Bob Holmes on meat consumption. Would we stop climate change if we stopped eating meat? Yes, we might – but then, from an environmental point of view there is no need to stop … Read more
Recycling consumer products gets much attention. The circular economy calls upon us to cut down on waste and energy use and to stimulate recycling. Plastic recycling is in vogue. But rubber recycling is almost non-existent. Like recycling car tyres, which … Read more
Europe appears to be in a bad state. Poverty and unemployment are on the rise, the rich and the poor grow apart, the financial system is out of control. In the long run countries like China and India tend to … Read more
There will be more local self-supply or even autarky in the new world, for instance in energy systems. But whereas in the past, autarky equalled shortage and even poverty, in the future this will equal a high level of knowledge … Read more
Summing up, we arrive at our vision. New social patterns will be sustained by the development of new technologies, that will primarily promote local and regional economic growth. Sustainability is on its way to become a recognised corporate goal, because … Read more
Energy systems will revolutionise even more radically than industry. The price of solar cells has taken a dive. They are modular in makeup, i.e. they can be applied both on a small and a large scale. Everyone can mount them … Read more
This October, EuropaBio’s European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Biobased Economy (EFIB) brings together a panel of multinational CEOs to discuss the evolution of a world leading EU bioeconomy. The bioeconomy concept has never been higher on the EU … Read more
The environmental movement of the seventies, precursor to the present movement for sustainability, was largely anti-technological. Technology seemed to be inherently large-scale; it produced nuclear power stations and polluting chemical complexes. But technology has taken a turn into the opposite … Read more
Sustainability has been a topic for some time: for forty years (counting from the ‘Limits to Growth’ report), or even for fifty years (counting from Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’). During those years, it has moved from the periphery to the … Read more
In Europe we witness intensive social participation, coupled to increased self-confidence. People often decide to leave government and political parties aside. They seek and find each other in loose alliances, not heavily structured, in order to vent one’s indignation of … Read more
In recent years, males with megalomaniac ambitions have formed absurd conglomerates which require likewise absurd controls for their management. The tops of fantasy organisations that collapsed, carrying names thought up by advertising agencies (in the Netherlands InHolland, Amarantis and Vestia), … Read more
Women play a much larger part in the European economy than twenty years ago. The development is both almost unnoticeable and swift. In the Netherlands, women now have the majority in the judiciary, and not merely in traditional sectors like … Read more