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AgriConnect: World Bank platform to transform farming
Agriculture is the beating heart of human civilization; it is what allowed us to stop living the precarious life of hunting and gathering and start building population centers. It is the foundation of all human activity and wellbeing, though we most often overlook and underestimate its value. The way goods… Keep reading ⇢
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When a nation stops trying
What happens when a nation takes the wrong course on risk and resilience, and its subsidies, energy, and infrastructure are designed to follow obsolete standards, and its public institutions stop preparing for the real-world threats facing its people? The first thing is its fiscal resilience outlook suffers. Fiscal resilience is… Keep reading ⇢
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Machines do not know what they are doing
We have become accustomed to treating computer systems as not only analagous to, but alike in kind to our human experience. We talk about computer “memory”. Information systems are afflicted by “viruses” that “spread like wildfire”, and viruses affecting our health “insert malicious code” into our genetic material. “Neural networks”… Keep reading ⇢
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The ‘carbon budget’ is a physical limit
The carbon budget is the total amount of heat-trapping pollution (greenhouse gases or GHG) that can be emitted into the atmosphere before we breach 1.5°C. The carbon budget is often treated as an artificial measure, or a rhetorical strategy, for communicating the need to act with urgency. In reality, it… Keep reading ⇢
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Deep ecology is the structure of reality
The contest of ideas on today’s internet is often so heated, it is creating real conflict in the world, spreading unfounded conspiracy theories, and leading to outright rejection of fact by alarming numbers of people. Political systems of all varieties are struggling with this demotion of truth and what it… Keep reading ⇢
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Nations that advance science live better
25 years into the 21st century, it should be no surprise that nations that advance science—through freedom of information, direct investment in basic research, and support for institutions that operate free from political control—lead the way in shaping the future. The benefits are obvious and pervade society. Such nations have… Keep reading ⇢
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Banned pesticides found in clouds
New research is showing that toxic chemicals used in agriculture can persist in the atmosphere and in clouds, resulting in distribution of chemical toxins over inhabited areas where they are prohibited even for agricultural use. U.S. Right to Know is reporting: Pesticides banned years ago in the European Union are… Keep reading ⇢
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Why do we look for ‘Active Value’?
Many of the words we use to describe economic activity have multiple overlapping, and sometimes competing, meanings. For instance, one can be an ‘investor’ if one buys a few shares of stock one day and sells them a few days later, even though the word ‘investor’ means you have a… Keep reading ⇢
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Can you avoid proportional climate risk?
The debate about ESG investing is not what you think it is. Anyone with assets to protect has to ask how to avoid proportional risk attached to unsustainable practices. The evidence is clear: These overwhelming and pervasive costs are known to economists as “negative externalities”. A business can remain profitable… Keep reading ⇢
