Pandemics: prevention is better than cure
Our lifestyle greatly promotes the outbreak of pandemics like Covid-19, and this could have devastating consequences. Unless we take action. Says a new report by IPBES, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Policy measures are required. An era of pandemics Pandemics are a modern phenomenon. Large trade networks facilitate a rapid diffusion of
EASAC: burning biomass often doesn’t reduce CO2 emissions
The European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) urges the European Commission to base its carbon accounting on science and the real effects on climate. The present accounting rules favour energy from biomass. Whereas often, burning biomass doesn’t lower CO2 emissions at all. EASAC suggests a standard based on real emission reductions within 10 years. This
Sustainable biomass: a subject fraught with conflict
Sustainable biomass is a subject dominated by strong and enduring disagreement. Michael Moore’s latest film Planet of the Humans is a recent reminder of that. In the Netherlands, always looking for consensus, the government now tries to develop a ‘widely shared sustainability frame’. What is the possible role of biomass in the energy transition? The
Don’t waste the corona crisis
Crises are an opportunity to review our present structures and habits; and to create new ones. Many observers judge that we wasted the 2008 financial crisis: the mechanisms that caused this crisis were largely restored afterwards. Will we wisely use the opportunities handed to us by the corona crisis? The Guardian ran a provocative article
Insects: now it’s the time to cherish our little friends
The decline of insects has been well established now. It concerns both their abundance and their diversity, and spans all continents. If they decline even more, we will run into unknown risks, because we depend on them in many ways, partly unknown. We know enough to act now. Let’s build environments in which our little
Let’s have a better look at job quality, says Dutch WRR
The report The better job (in Dutch) by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) is ground-breaking. For the first time in forty (!) years, there is attention for job quality in Dutch politics. A subject that had been reduced to the point of oblivion by economic crises and neoliberal policies. Jobs, jobs, jobs
The energy transition is a digital transition too
By the end of last year, Dutch Rathenau Institute produced a thought-provoking report on the energy transition (in Dutch). We need artificial intelligence, sensors and other data applications in the energy transition, according to the report. Because we need to switch from a top-down electricity grid to a grid that will primarily be fed from
Nebulised interferon as a COVID-19 medicine
In a small clinical study conducted in April and May 2020, British scientists investigated the effect of inhalation of nebulised interferon-beta-1a (SNG001) on the development of COVID-19 in patients. The results are encouraging and justify further research. Lung infections Being a 71-year-old asthmatic man, I have to take great care not to run into a
on: 27 December 2020