We need to talk about PP. For some reason it’s a taboo topic to talk about anything related to excretion. It’s understandable from a health standpoint to be a little bit concerned about poo. I get that. There are bacteria in poo that you wouldn’t like to have anywhere near you. But pee is an … Read more Urine has what plants crave
“Quality … you know what it is, yet you don’t know what it is. But that’s self-contradictory. Some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. But when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes Poof! – Robert Pirsig, Zen and … Read more Beauty and value in the modern age
“The valuable space around the bed is good for nothing, except access to the bed.” Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language When fulfilling one of our essential needs, shelter, we usually pay money to temporarily (rent) or permanently (buy) use a structure to store our stuff and find a place to sleep away from the elements … Read more Why are bedrooms still a thing?
On rare occasions, governments listen to their electorate. The actual people that elected them and whose wishes they were supposed to uphold against the interests of special interest groups. The EU occasionally asks its citizens what is important to them. Like recently, when an overwhelming majority said they could do without daylight savings. 80% of … Read more Waterframework Directive- explained
When choosing how I eat, I looked at the data and statistically those who eat a mostly vegetable based diet with some fish live the longest of all diets. Also, a plant based diet is good for the planet by reducing the forest area cleared for pasture and enabling other uses for land currently growing fodder … Read more Plant based diet 101
Current farming practices might only be viable for another 60 years, says the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN. One way to mitigate erosion and improve farming methods is agroforestry. In tropical countries the system of agroforestry is already an established method to grow a few high value crops like cocoa. But in more temperate … Read more What is Agroforestry
In the context of the lifetimes of trees or even the planet, human lives are very short. Even doubling our life expectancy in the last 100 years (world average 1900: 31y, 2014: 71.5y) has done little to change the role that the limitation of our time on this earth plays in our lives. Most of … Read more Designing with Time
The “Emscher Umbau” project is a unique river restoration project. The timeframe and budget are mind boggling: 30 years of planning and construction, 4.5 billion € total budget to date. The river runs through one of the most densely populated areas in Europe with long industrial heritage. It’s a project for a whole generation. One … Read more Catchment Restoration of the Emscher
We know now that we need to act on climate change. We probably needed to start acting on it 30 years ago… But at least we have the Paris climate accord since 2016. All countries in the world signed it. The USA, unfortunately, left later because they thought the atmosphere is about “fairness”. Unfortunately, the Paris climate agreement … Read more Tesla & Co: Electric cars and the communist future
This is part 2 in my series on climate change. Find part 1 here: The Generational question _________ Very broadly speaking, the surface of the planet consists of land and ocean. Water in the ocean is salt water (plus ice, which is not salty). Land consists of all kinds of different rocks, biology and freshwater … Read more The role of soil and water in climate change