Finances Archives - Enlightenment Blog

Can blockchain, a swiftly evolving technology, be controlled?

Posted on August 30, 2020 October 7, 2020 by Emma Jansen

The headlong pace of technological change produces giant leaps forward in knowledge, innovation, new possibilities and, almost inevitably, legal problems. That’s now the case with blockchain, today’s buzziest new tech tool.

Introduced in 2008 as the technology underpinning Bitcoin, a digital currency that is created and held electronically without any central authority, blockchain is a secure digital ledger for any kind of data. It simplifies record keeping and reduces transaction costs.

Its range of applications in commerce, finance and potentially politics continues to widen, and that has triggered a debate around how to regulate the tool.

What economics has to say about same-sex marriage

Posted on August 29, 2020 October 7, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Love and companionship make most people happy and generally represent two of the key reasons why couples marry.

In the economists’ view, love and companionship are a particular type of commodity: they cannot be purchased or traded on a market, but they can be produced by a household to generate happiness for its members.

There are potentially many other of these “household-produced” commodities, including raising children, preparing meals, caring for each other, and achieving economic stability.

Six simple ways to fill your wardrobe with sustainable clothing

Posted on August 21, 2020 October 7, 2020 by Emma Jansen

The environmental impact of fashion waste is overwhelming. Every year the UK alone sends 350,000 tonnes of clothing to landfill. And as the majority of garments are made from oil-based materials like polyester – 22.67 billion tonnes of polyester clothing is produced every year worldwide – they aren’t going anywhere fast. Oil doesn’t decompose, and if burned the material will release harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. There are also problems associated with trimmings such as buttons, zips, studs and interfacing or lining. When buried with other waste in landfill, the combination of metal components, moisture and heat causes gases such as methane to be emitted.

In response to this, and other elements of the fast fashion crisis, the industry is changing. Some brands have introduced recycling schemes to address what happens to their products post-purchase. And the UK’s Environmental Audit Committee recently recommended a penny charge on each garment sold to fund more and better clothing collection and recycling schemes.

How a year of trying to buy nothing made me a smarter shopper and a better teacher

Posted on August 12, 2020 April 8, 2021 by Emma Jansen

It started as a New Year’s resolution driven by guilt and a touch of sibling rivalry – but by the end of the year, it taught me valuable lessons as a teacher, including about the benefits of failure.

At Christmas dinner 2018, my sister declared she would buy nothing for a year. After living in Bangladesh for two years, she had seen how the world’s fashion industry was wreaking havoc on the country’s people and environment.

I decided to follow her lead. As an Australian living in Finland, I still can’t imagine going a year without a flight home to see family. So buying nothing (apart from groceries) would do something to offset all those carbon-costly air miles.

Organic agriculture is going mainstream, but not the way you think it is

Posted on August 10, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

One of the biggest knocks against the organics movement is that it has begun to ape conventional agriculture, adopting the latter’s monocultures, reliance on purchased inputs and industrial processes.

“Big Organics” is often derided by advocates of sustainable agriculture. The American food authors Michael Pollan and Julie Guthman, for example, argue that as organic agriculture has scaled up and gone mainstream it has lost its commitment to building an alternative system for providing food, instead “replicating what it set out to oppose.”

New research, however, suggests that the relationship between organic and conventional farming is more complex. The flow of influence is starting to reverse course.

People before profit: The Degrowth Movement values people, not money

Posted on August 2, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Globalised capitalist economies continue to rely on numbers and economic growth, although they reveal little about inequality and sustainable well-being. How people live is not only a question of chance, but strongly influenced by the people in power. The Degrowth movement deeply questions the ways of living, producing and consuming shaped by the powerful, and asks for a democratic approach. It stands for a realizable reorganisation of values, lifestyles and the economy.

Recognising that endless economic growth is destructive to human well-being, it calls for the shrinking of some economic segments, specifically those that damage the ecosystem. The meaning of Degrowth is to build economies around segments such as education and care. Both are, among others, examples of undervalued contributors to society, which has been highlighted throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Electrified only by renewable energy? Burgenland in Austria shows how it’s done!

Posted on July 30, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

A federal state in eastern Austria has become a role model for Europe: Burgenland covers its entire electricity demand by using renewable energy sources. Furthermore, it produces so much electricity to provide other regions with it. This could be done all over Europe. It only takes political willpower.

At first sight, the narrow strip of countryside in the east of Austria, Burgenland, has little in common with Iceland. Flat plains here – rugged cliffs there. The quiet Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland – steaming geysers on the small island in the North of Europe. Vineyards here – moss landscapes there. But as different as the regions may be, both manage to make the most of their geographical advantages and generate energy from it. While Iceland mainly uses geothermal sources, Burgenland relies on wind power.

The Cleveland Model: The city’s flourishing economy has worker participation to thank

Posted on July 29, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Cleveland, USA was once a booming industrial city. When many of the local companies moved to low-wage countries, the city’s economy and social fabric collapsed. Mass unemployment and poverty resulted. Twelve years ago, the first cooperatives were founded in one of the poorest areas of the city. They rely on the participation and co-determination of the workers and sustainable economic activity. Together with the city government, the cooperatives developed a regional economic plan and created the economic upswing. This success became known as the “Cleveland Model” and became a model for cities around the world.

The cityscape of Cleveland in the US state of Ohio is a good illustration of the city’s history. Cleveland is full of old factory buildings and the skyline is dominated by skyscrapers from the interwar and postwar period. That was the golden age of Cleveland, when the USA was the driving force of world industry. The Midwest, with cities like Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland, was the heart of this industrial nation. However, when companies in the region began moving production to lower-wage countries in the 1970s, Cleveland’s economy also began to crumble. The former industrial metropolis became a city marked by poverty and emigration.

First country in the world: Luxembourg makes public transport free

Posted on July 28, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Thousands of commuters travel to Luxembourg every day. Their cars and trucks clog the roads and pollute the air. But in an effort to combat climate change, this is coming to an end. Starting March 1, 2020, Luxembourgers will be able to travel by bus, tram and train – completely free of charge.

Luxembourgers will no longer have to buy tickets when using public transport in the country, and tourists will not pay a cent either. This makes Luxembourg the first country in the world where public transport is free. Just those passengers who want to travel first class will have to pay for their journey.

The whole thing will cost 41 million euros. Furthermore, the state will invest more than 2 billion euros in rail expansion by 2023. The personnel behind the ticket counters and the ticket inspectors are to be deployed in passenger service.

How to live a low waste, eco-friendlier lifestyle – and how you can do it

Posted on July 22, 2020 October 8, 2020 by Emma Jansen

For about a year now, I have become more aware of the huge impact that one family can have on the world, in terms of waste and carbon emissions, and I have been determined to reduce mine as much as possible. After my first year studying Biology at university, I suddenly thought to myself that things had to change.

Looking back on it, I feels as though I had an epiphany of some sorts which made me think about the items I threw “away”, and that my eating meat (which almost seems unreal to me now) was having a detrimental effect on the planet and the animals which I had deluded myself about. I slowly started introducing ideas of ways to be eco-friendlier to my family, which thankfully, they were happy to adopt after learning more about the problems we face.

San Francisco’s Answer to Fast Fashion: A Zero Textile Waste Initiative

Posted on July 20, 2020 October 7, 2020 by Emma Jansen

Fifteen years after the Zero Waste Textile initiative started in San Francisco in 2003, the city has diverted 80 percent of all waste generated in the city away from landfill disposal through source reduction, reuse, recycling and composting programs—the highest rate of any major U.S. city according the Environmental Protection Agency. Although there is still a lot to go before reaching the goal of zero waste by 2030, there are clothing companies closing the loop between the production and recycling of our clothes.

For those uninitiated in the idea of a circular economy, “closing the gap” refers to the practice of designing, sourcing, producing, and providing clothes, shoes or accessories “with the intention to be used and circulate responsibly and effectively in society for as long as possible in their most valuable form, and hereafter return safely to the biosphere when no longer of human use.” In other words, it is the well-known mantra of reuse-reduce-recycle, just applied to our clothing.

Happiness Needs to Be Financed Too – A New Generation of Conservation Finance in Bhutan

Posted on July 19, 2020 April 7, 2021 by Emma Jansen

Nestled among the peaks of the Himalayas between China and India — Bhutan is a land of remote mountain valleys, rich in natural wonders — and with a population less than one million, one of the most sparsely populated countries in Asia.

Contrary to the declines across the rest of the world, flora and fauna populations are showing a reverse trend. For a large number of species under threat in the region, the country has proven to be an important last refuge. Its mountain peaks host some of the few remaining populations of snow leopard and red pandas reside near bamboo stacks in the high mountain forests.