Blogs and Opinions
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This see-through film could help save the planet – and you money
Friday 22nd of March 2019
To battle the summer heat, office and residential buildings tend to crank up the air conditioning, sending energy bills soaring. Indeed, it’s estimated that air conditioners use about 6 percent of all the electricity produced in the United States, at an annual cost of $29 billion dollars — an expense that’s sure to grow as the global thermostat climbs.
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Universal moral rules, the myth of flexible jobs and other top stories of the week
Friday 22nd of March 2019
Is morality innate to humans? The seven moral rules that unite 99.9% of us.⇒ Explore: ValuesWhere refugees are going. No Western country even makes the top five.⇒ Explore: Migration
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Your morning cup of coffee contains 140 litres of water
Friday 22nd of March 2019
The next time you casually turn on a tap, fill a kettle and make a cup of coffee, take a moment to consider how important water is to your life. While we are aware of how much we use for drinking, showering and doing laundry, what may be less obvious is the water used to produce the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the lives we lead.That cup of coffee, for example, requires 140 litres of water to grow, process and transport enough beans for a single cup, according to UN Food and Agriculture Organization figures.
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In war, dirty water is more dangerous to children than violence
Friday 22nd of March 2019
Children under age 15 are almost three times more likely to die from diseases due to lack of clean water and sanitation than from violence in countries in conflict, the United Nations’ children’s agency reported on Friday.
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7 key findings about mobile phone and social media use in emerging economies
Friday 22nd of March 2019
The use of smartphones and social media increased rapidly in the past decade in the United States, and these digital technologies have also become common in parts of the developing world. A new Pew Research Center report analyzes public attitudes and experiences related to these technologies in 11 emerging economies – including the benefits and challenges that digital connectivity brings to people’s lives and societies.
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New Zealand women don headscarves to support Muslims after shootings
Friday 22nd of March 2019
Women all over New Zealand put on headscarves on Friday to show solidarity with Muslims a week after 50 people were killed at two mosques in the city of Christchurch.
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This is why economics needs to go back to the drawing board
Friday 22nd of March 2019
Since the 2008 financial crisis, economic orthodoxies have been collapsing left and right. Under conditions of low unemployment, elusive inflation, weak productivity growth, and high profitability, economists in advanced economies may need to go back to the drawing board.
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In Japan, if you’re 76 you’re biologically 65
Friday 22nd of March 2019
People experience the health problems of the average 65-year-old at different ages around the world, with citizens in some countries suffering them 30 years earlier than in others.
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Our most powerful, high-tech climate solution? Our forests
Friday 22nd of March 2019
The latest IPCC report does not mince words about the state of our planet: we must act now to achieve global change at a scale that has “no documented historical precedent” in order to avoid the climate catastrophe that would result from a 2 degree C rise in average global temperature. Climate change already disproportionately affects the world’s most vulnerable people including poor rural communities that depend on the land for their livelihoods and coastal communities throughout the tropics. Indeed, we have already seen the stark asymmetry of suffering resulting from extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, wildfires and more.
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Don’t compare data to oil – digitization needs a new mindset
Friday 22nd of March 2019
We must be able to make the utilization of knowledge and the processes of collective learning more visible in order to be able to operate better in the future. We must also be aware of the biases, weaknesses and blind spots in our thinking. We must improve our understanding of the way our minds work, both on an individual and communal level. Cognitive and organizational ergonomics are the new black in working life and decision-making.
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Is al Qaeda about to reclaim its role as the world’s leading jihadist terror movement?
Thursday 21st of March 2019
This article is part of the World Economic Forum’s Geostrategy platform
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There are more than 1 billion guns in the world and this is who owns them
Thursday 21st of March 2019
New Zealand’s ban on semi-automatic weapons has put guns, violence and regulation back in the spotlight, underscoring the different approaches taken by governments around the world and their relative success.
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4 ways to cyberproof your business during mergers & acquisitions
Thursday 21st of March 2019
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a commonly adopted business strategy in the interest of value creation. Motivation for M&A varies and includes expanding operations, achieving cost advantage through economies of scale, or acquiring new technology, among others. Achieving this growth is not easy, however. M&A is a challenging transformation that requires thoughtful consideration and execution at all stages – prior, during and after completion of the transaction.
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5 things you need to know about water
Thursday 21st of March 2019
Securing adequate supplies of clean water in a changing climate is one of the world’s most urgent social, political, economic, and environmental challenges. World Water Day, an annual UN-sponsored event, calls attention to these problems and the many efforts focused on solutions. Here are five things you need to know about water:
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Why we need a new social contract for data in healthcare
Thursday 21st of March 2019
With advances in data collection, information technology and data science in the 21st century, the prospects of targeted disease prevention and precision healthcare have become a reality in many parts of the world. The principle on which they rely is simple and obvious: namely, that the effectiveness with which we can treat any one person depends upon the quantity, quality and variety of data we can obtain from a great number of other people.
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What the car industry has done to help fight climate change – and what it needs to do next
Thursday 21st of March 2019
Last week, an estimated 1.5 million students from more than 100 countries walked out of schools and into the streets to protest the lack of climate action being taken by their leaders.
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Manufacturing is finally entering a new era
Thursday 21st of March 2019
Manufacturing is in the midst of a period of unprecedented change, as we transition from the industrial age to the information age. The manufacturers that will prove best able to capture value amid this transition will be those who can best manage complexity and embrace flexibility. A new layer of manufacturing software has emerged to answer this call.
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What you need to know about trade in Brazil – in one map
Thursday 21st of March 2019
Brazil’s economy is very closed, and the government is working to open the country to more trade.
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England is set to run out of water in just 25 years
Thursday 21st of March 2019
England is set to run out of water in 25 years due to population growth, poor water management and climate change, the head of the country’s environment body said on Tuesday.
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127 countries now regulate plastic bags. Why aren’t we seeing less pollution?
Thursday 21st of March 2019
There’s a global battle against single-use plastics, particularly when it comes to the once-ubiquitous plastic bag. A new report from UN Environment and WRI found that at least 127 countries (of 192 reviewed) have adopted some form of legislation to regulate plastic bags as of July 2018. These policies range from outright bans in the Marshall Islands to progressive phase-outs in places like Moldova and Uzbekistan to laws in Romania and Vietnam that incentivize the use of reusable bags.
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The share of women in legislatures around the world is growing, but they are still underrepresented
Thursday 21st of March 2019
Women make up 24% of members of national legislative bodies around the world, a share that has ticked up over the past decade but remains far smaller than their share of the overall world population, according to an analysis of data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
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Thinking local could be the key to helping countries develop
Thursday 21st of March 2019
The development debate in Pakistan has moved on considerably in the past 30 years, and local communities are playing an increasingly important role. Their involvement should be welcomed and encouraged, because it is vital for ensuring the acceptability and sustainability of development initiatives.
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These are the economies adding the most to global growth in 2019
Thursday 21st of March 2019
Global economics is effectively a numbers game.
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We must look after forests so they look after us
Thursday 21st of March 2019
Forests are important – most people would agree. But if we had to explain exactly why, many people would be a little hazy. They would mostly likely mention paper and that trees clean our air, but would know little about many of the essential benefits of forests.
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What the Christchurch attacks show us about the global spread of Islamophobia
Thursday 21st of March 2019
When I woke up to the news that 50 people had been killed and at least 20 wounded in shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, I couldn’t help but reflect upon the words of those who refuse to accept that Islamophobia exists. In the UK, the columnist Melanie Phillips has argued that Islamophobia is a fiction used to shut down debate. Douglas Murray called it the Islamophobia “problem”, arguing that it was created by fascists.