“Smart” cities, big data, “green growth” and 5G
"Unusually in history – the wealthy and most privileged will at first tend to be at most risk", writes Brian Davey.
pollution
The global economy is too big
This short talk given by Brian Davey at the Nottingham Green Festival on September 15 2019 explains why the future economy will need to be based on sharing rather than increased consumption.
Beyond the Obvious: novel podcasts for enquirers
Our pilot podcast series, Beyond the Obvious, was co-organised by Feasta and the European Health Futures Forum.
The hosts, Seán O’Conláin and Caroline Whyte, explored a range of topics with guests from a wide variety of backgrounds. There are six monthly podcasts of 20-30 minutes, released between March 15th and September 17th 2019. (We took a break in August.) Please feel free to comment below.
Topics include:
• decarbonisation
• decreasing energy consumption
• measuring wellbeing
• reviving biodiversity, which is taken to include local culture and language
• drivers of health
• monetary reform
Our thanks to Laoise …
Money through the looking glass
Caroline Whyte argues that the only way to achieve degrowth without crashing the global economy is to change the way that money is issued. Yet, paradoxically, it would be advisable for central bankers to continue to publicly disagree with the Vollgeld and other debt-free-money campaigns’ suggested financial reforms - and for the campaigners to continue their campaigns regardless, not letting themselves be discouraged by the officials' stance.
Significant discrepancies between Irish peoples’ overall well-being and Irish GDP levels during the period 2000-2014, according to new study published by Feasta and FEST
A newly-developed National Well-being Index finds that well-being in Ireland flatlined and even diminished slightly during peak GDP years 2001-2004. The index takes housework, voluntary work, healthcare, education and environmental damage into account.
Submission on the River Basin Management Plan
We propose that the Irish government incorporate tree-planting and soil-building measures into the next round of water framework directive works, in order to shift the focus from Irish agriculture as a net environmental problem to Irish agriculture as a world leader in ecologically sustainable methodologies and practices.
