Referring to Robert Marshall Axelrod, who is best known for his interdisciplinary work on the evolution of cooperation, Martin Nowak explained why we need each other to succeed. He makes the case that cooperation, not competition, is the defining human trait: … This is the property of being nice, which is to say never being
Continue reading...
On Tuesday 2 November James Lovelock, the 102-year-old originator of the Gaia theory and independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist, wrote in The Guardian: … I don’t know if it is too late for humanity to avert a climate catastrophe, but I am sure there is no chance if we continue to treat global heating and
Continue reading...
For every euro paid for the production of plastic, society pays another nine for the damage it causes. In 2019, according to estimates worldwide, there were 2.8 trillion euros in so-called external costs that are not included in the price of plastics [Smit 2021]. This was the striking and alarming introduction to Pieter Hotse Smit’s
Continue reading...
British chemical company INEOS was awarded the 2020 Exceptional Investment Trophy Flanders’ Minister-President Jan Jambon presented this singular trophy – which has never been awarded before – to CEO of Project One at INEOS John McNally. “Last year, INEOS announced the construction of a new production site at the Port of Antwerp: an investment of
Continue reading...
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are no laughing matter Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous, highly degradation-resistant contaminants. They are numerous and no one is exposed to one single PFAS molecule. In my previous communication, I wrote that the number of identified PFAS largely exceeds 4000 different molecules [http://lc-office.be/are-forever-chemicals-fueling-a-public-health-crisis/]. My American colleague immediately sent me
Continue reading...
The Flemish newspaper De Standaard published an article under the surprising headline “3M draagt een verpletterende verantwoordelijkheid (3M bears a crushing responsibility)”. The article referred to the frightful contamination in Zwijndrecht by per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Clearly, we have not heard the last of this. Minister Demir announced in the Flemish Parliament that 3M
Continue reading...
It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man (Henry David Thoreau) Can we finally replace conventional pesticides with harmless ones? The use of conventional pesticides is the subject of fierce debate because of their potential negative impacts on the quality of the ecosystem as well as
Continue reading...
Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called “insecticides”, but “biocides” [Rachel Carson]. Think twice about using pesticides Glyphosate is the active ingredient of broad-spectrum glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH), which are now
Continue reading...
More than 10 years ago, Rockström et al. [2009] came up with a particularly chilling message. They proposed a new approach to global sustainability because they assumed that anthropogenic pressure on the Earth System had become so high that an abrupt global environmental change could no longer be excluded. The biggest contribution of their research
Continue reading...
Gorrasi et al. [2021] evidence that the chaos and urgency induced by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to massive fossil fuel-derived plastic production and utilisation, thereby largely ignoring the recent environmental policies. They conclude that society issues can no longer be solved by the “painkiller approach” [Lichtfouse et al. 2010], but require instead a new
Continue reading...