From November 25 to December 1, 2024, representatives from 175 countries gathered in Busan, South Korea; the fifth and final round of negotiations on a global treaty on plastics pollution. One of the main questions being: will the treaty include binding targets … Read more
According to RethinkX, our society may be heading towards clean disruption. Meaning that in the coming two decades, old and wasteful industries will disappear and new and clean industries will dominate. RethinkX predicts that technology disruptions in just three sectors … Read more
Solar photovoltaics, onshore wind power and lithium-ion batteries (SWB) will displace fossil fuels and conventional nuclear power during the 2020s. This will create an entirely new business model – SWB Superpower – that will disrupt and transform our energy sectors … Read more
Pressure on the electricity grid gets heavier all the time. Many corporations and organisations aim to get more sustainable. But there are bottlenecks. Because at times, there is a glut of sustainable electricity (mainly solar and wind power), and at … Read more
Green hydrogen has been an expensive fuel, so far. Producing it by solar or wind energy (and electrolysis) is now three to four times as expensive as producing ‘grey’ hydrogen from natural gas, releasing CO2. And there are the technical … Read more
New technologies require new instruments. That is also true for distributed energy resources (DERs), predominantly renewable energy. So far, their disadvantages could be eased out in the net. But now, in some locations these resources become the dominant source of … Read more
Renewable energy, mainly solar, wind and hydro, is going to take over global energy supply. But is its development fast enough to prevent global warming beyond 1.5oC? Global annual renewable energy capacity additions are on a record track. In 2023, … Read more
Solar energy continues to astonish the world. In 2024, new developments will ensure continued growth; both in generation and in storage. Largest source of electricity generation Present developments indicate that in 2025, renewables will become the largest source of electricity … Read more
Change.inc devoted an article to thermal industrial heating and cooling (in Dutch). Long neglected in views on the energy transition. Even though there is a lot of energy involved. But now, this has been analysed by analysts of Rubio Impact … Read more
Is the Earth entering a new and more dangerous phase in climate change? Where global heating will accelerate instead of slow down? This may be the case, says Jack Marley in The Conversation. For indicators like global heating, sea-level rise, … Read more
The electricity grid is being overburdened fast. Local production, mainly through solar and wind energy, produces an uneven distribution of demand and supply across the grid. Leading to the need to transport major amounts of electricity across large distances. In … Read more
Phosphorus is essential for life on Earth, says Chris Slootweg on his profile page of the University of Amsterdam. It is an essential element in global agriculture. It plays a prominent role in modern science and technology: organophosphorus compounds have … Read more
After many years of unashamed scepticism, the International Energy Agency finally published a positive report about renewable energy; in their World Energy Outlook 2023. But with a warning: we need to step up in order to restrict global warming to … Read more
Proteins are essential to feeding the world. Malnutrition from protein shortage is widespread; ca. 10% of the global population suffers from it. Whereas the world produces more than enough proteins for everyone. But they are unevenly distributed. What can we … Read more
Recently, we argued that we are near ‘peak energy’. Global energy demand has slowed down a lot; it will probably peak within a few years. But solar and wind energy are in the middle of a take-off. What are the … Read more
The invaluable Knowable Magazine recently ran an article by Sandy Ong on plastic eating microorganisms. They might be the solution to a problem that looms for long already but hasn’t been solved so far: the growing pile of plastic waste. … Read more
As a human species, we are caught in a permanent struggle with nature. It disturbs our careful agriculture and grows weeds; they adapt to our herbicides: resistance. Moreover, nature reverts to resistance as we develop smart methods to fight illness. … Read more
Already in our 2016 energy forecasts, we foresaw a much more favourable development of renewable energy than authoritative organizations: energy companies, the oil industry and international bodies like the IEA. Finally, from 2021 onwards, they start revising upwards their forecasts. … Read more
The World Health Organization WHO expects antimicrobial resistance to become a persistent problem. A growing number of people develops resistance against antibiotics. In 2050, this might cause an additional 10 million people to die. What can we do to prevent … Read more
Nature Communications ran an interesting article on the future of our food system; and specifically on the potential of micro-organisms (bacteria, yeasts, moulds) to develop new foods and food ingredients. Our food system grapples with unsustainable practices, land degradation, and … Read more
Optimistic messages on renewable energy abound. According to a major scientific article, ‘a greener, healthier, and safer global energy system is also likely to be cheaper’. Much cheaper. But official policies and official forecasts still stay on the ‘safe side’. … Read more
Apparently, there is a major obstacle for the energy transition: cost. We don’t always have solar and wind energy at hand, but there always is demand for electricity. Growing, as well – ongoing, as we will install more electric heating … Read more
Can climate change bring food crises? Consider the course of deviations in temperatures from annual averages in Germany between 1881-2021. This helps to understand the importance and seriousness of the work to be done. Originally posted on the site of … Read more
Renewable energy continues to grow spectacularly. Investments grow faster than in almost any other economic sector. Prices comes down all the time. It has such a success that a new problem comes to the fore. How do we going to … Read more
So far, many analysts expected high-renewable energy scenarios to be beneficial to the global climate; but maybe a bit expensive as well. A recent study argues that this too pessimistic. The green energy transition will in fact be much cheaper … Read more
Until quite recently, professionals in healthcare tended to look upon body and mind as strictly separated therapeutic entities. And we still don’t treat them a being equal. The notion that all phenomena are interconnected permeates to an increasing number of … Read more
We already went into promises of biotechnology and of biological preparations (a.o. in no.54, If chemistry and biology join forces). Biology makes less progress than hoped for, and its successes remain restricted to a limited number of therapeutic applications. Its … Read more
There are many reasons for use of more solar energy. Most importantly, the climate. Moreover, the world needs to scale down its use of gas and oil quickly. More solar power? We can do that. Even in a densely populated … Read more
An urgent (but often forgotten) issue in our society is that of the limits to healthcare. Its costs have been on the rise for quite some time now – just a bit, each year, but nevertheless. It will have to … Read more
The most important factor continuously propelling and changing society is technological development. Karl Marx would have been delighted to see that present-day society is still characterized by the relationship between base and superstructure as he proposed it, almost a century … Read more
Over the past few decades, our knowledge of bacterial mechanisms intended to circumvent antibiotics, has increased a lot. We know down to the atom where the antibiotics attack the organism; and which defence mechanism the bacterium develops in order to … Read more
The recent RethinkX project expects the ‘20s of this century to show revolutionary developments. Driven by stepwise changes in five key sectors of the economy: energy, transport, information, food and materials. Do we see these changes coming? And how does … Read more
Modesty is not one of the obvious virtues of the RethinkX authors. The subtitle of their report Rethinking Transportation 2020-2030 (May 2017) reads: ‘the disruption of transportation and the collapse of the internal-combustion vehicle and oil industries’. Brought about by … Read more
The second domestication of plants and animals, the disruption of the cow, and the collapse of industrial livestock farming. Nothing could better sum up the pretension of the RethinkX report on food (September 2019) than this subtitle. The disruption of … Read more
The RethinkX report doesn’t fool around. It starts with a clarion call: ‘We are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most consequential transformation of human civilization in history, a transformation every bit as significant as the move from foraging … Read more
Over the past few years, the RethinkX project has made the case for yet another revolution to come. Based on major leaps forward in many technologies; in particular in the fields of information, energy, food, transportation and materials. Five sectors … Read more
The Conversation recently devoted attention to the opportunities of genetic technology for warfare. Sure, there are international agreements overseeing (and restricting) such opportunities. But technology evolves all the time. Nations tend to explore the edges of what’s allowed, so we … Read more
This month, before publication of their NZE2050 scenario, the International Energy Agency considerably upped its forecast for solar and wind energy. Even after the major upward revision already done in its World Energy Outlook 2020. Solar PV is now ‘the … Read more
In an unprecedented move, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published its NZE2050 scenario this month: towards net zero carbon emissions in 2050. Required for a climate strategy that limits the rise of global temperatures to 1.5oC. NZE2050 marks a major … Read more
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 … Read more
It its latest report, Boston-based Lux Research investigates a global and sustainable energy infrastructure. Can areas with high energy demand but not endowed with much domestic wind and solar energy become self-sufficient? Or will they need to import sustainably sourced … Read more
The major pharmaceutical industry is going through a difficult time. Industry should find a new track. Biomedicines could open up a new chapter. This is the third of four articles on the pharmaceutical industry. Biomedicines, yes or no? For over … Read more
The major pharmaceutical industry (big pharma) is going through a difficult time. Industry needs to come on track again. Can the new superpowers India and China lead the way? This is the second of four articles on the pharmaceutical industry. … Read more
Last month, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation completed a series of reports on climate change with a strong message. Don’t just reduce emissions; restructure the economy as well, from a once-through wasteful economy to a circular economy. Or else, industry and … Read more
Pesticide resistance is a brand new phenomenon, historically speaking. It was first reported in 1914, just a century ago. A result of chemical, and later biotechnological methods of pest control. And now already, pesticide resistance has evolved into an almost … Read more
Solutions for global problems tend to become part of a compromise, says Huub de Groot. He is a professor in biophysical organic chemistry at Leiden University and works, among others, on artificial photosynthesis, ‘biosolar cells’. Technology moves into our private … Read more
As the debate on the energy transition heats up, stakeholders now retreat on their original positions, after a phase in which they politely listened to each other. Some call for action to save the planet, with increasing exasperation; others have … Read more
Through biosolar cells, researchers try to improve photosynthesis, the process through which plants, algae and some bacteria capture sunlight. The product of such ‘artificial leaves’ is hydrogen for instance, that can be processed to fuels and chemicals, with CO2 and … Read more
Fifty years ago, the Club of Rome was founded; in its own words ‘an organisation of individuals who share a common concern for the future of humanity and strive to make a difference…. Our mission is to promote understanding of … Read more
What will come after healthy aging? In biotechnology, advances have been so swift over the past few decades, that some scientists have started thinking of ways to tackle aging itself, that ultimate and fatal disease of mankind. Even with some … Read more