Blogs
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Can the world avoid a recession? Top economics stories to read this week
Thursday 30th of June 2022
The Bank of Japan will maintain its loose monetary policy, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda says, citing the smaller impact of global inflationary trends in the country.
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These are the world’s most liveable cities
Thursday 30th of June 2022
Vienna is once again the world’s most liveable city, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) annual rankings.
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How aligning cybersecurity with strategic objectives can protect your business
Thursday 30th of June 2022
Board members and C-suite executives routinely face the challenge of managing business objectives while keeping investors and shareholders happy. Their priorities are focused on business goals, such as increasing the company’s profitability, staying ahead of the competition, looking for the next innovative idea, encouraging employee engagement, and being able to pay dividends to shareholders in a harsh and challenging business climate. Their brains are wired to look at things through a business lens.
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The war in Ukraine is triggering a re-evaluation of global systemic risk
Thursday 30th of June 2022
The world is confronting multiple intersecting geopolitical events with highly unpredictable consequences. Coming in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian war is disrupting global financial markets, food security and real economies. Escalating tensions between the US and China are compelling decision-makers to recalculate everything from their strategic alliances to the vulnerability of their supply chains. Making matters even more complicated, looming threats ranging from cyberattacks to climate change and the mounting possibility of nuclear war, including the erosion of norms and rules around acquiring nuclear weapons, are forcing governments, businesses and international organizations to re-evaluate risk in fundamentally new ways.
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To save the ocean, Web3 needs more scientists
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
The world of web3, from non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to decentralized finance and a whole variety of blockchain-related activities, is expanding from mainstream finance into other sectors. Farmers can securely share data with each other via blockchain. Decentralized autonomous organizations or DAOs, such as KlimaDAO and Toucan have created cryptocurrencies backed not by dollars or euros but by climate assets. Projects like The Regen Network seek out and support activities with biodiversity and ecological co-benefits.
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Agility, resilience and impact: How fintech charted a positive course through the global pandemic
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
When the Global COVID-19 Fintech Market Rapid Assessment Study provided a snapshot of the fintech market’s performance during the first six months of the global pandemic, the indications were that it had fared pretty well.
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Why we need a code of conduct for ocean-based carbon dioxide removal
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
It is becoming clearer with every passing day and with every new high-level report that we need to take immediate and increasingly drastic action to blunt our current climate crisis.
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What’s the environmental impact of blockchain gaming – and what can be done about it today
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
This essay was written collaboratively between Naavik with BITKRAFT Ventures and originally published here.
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Here’s how companies and capital can work together to do good
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Jean Case is a businesswoman, investor, philanthropist, and impact investing pioneer who believes in the power of business to do good. Chair of the National Geographic Society and CEO of the Case Impact Network, Case spent nearly two decades in the private sector, including as a senior executive at AOL, before co-founding the Case Foundation in 1997. She launched For What It’s Worth (FWIW) in 2021 to create a source for new investors looking to confidently invest for both profit and purpose. She is also author of the national bestseller Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose.
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Why this city in Zambia has been nicknamed ‘Amsterdam’
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Thousands of human-powered bicycles crisscross Chipata traffic lights daily, ferrying groceries, passengers, civil servants, and—even a diplomat!
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This AI has learned a new trick: how to do chemistry
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Artificial intelligence has changed the way science is done by allowing researchers to analyze the massive amounts of data modern scientific instruments generate. It can find a needle in a million haystacks of information and, using deep learning, it can learn from the data itself. AI is accelerating advances in gene hunting, medicine, drug design and the creation of organic compounds.
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US economic snapshot: 3 key insights from the Federal Reserve
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Each month, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York publishes monthly economic snapshots.
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Women in science less likely to be credited for their work, study shows
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Women in science are less likely than their male counterparts to receive authorship credit for their work, a study shows.
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On the brink of catastrophe, Somalia is calling out for humanitarian aid
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Somalia is on the brink of catastrophe. A recent assessment suggests that 7.7 million Somalis need emergency aid right now, a similar number to those affected by the Ethiopian famine in 1984, one of the worst humanitarian disasters in history. About one million people died then.
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What is a heat dome, and how are they formed? An atmospheric scientist explains
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
A heat dome occurs when a persistent region of high pressure traps heat over an area. The heat dome can stretch over several states and linger for days to weeks, leaving the people, crops and animals below to suffer through stagnant, hot air that can feel like an oven.
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How are video games inspiring a new wave of climate action?
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Sometime before the COVID-19 pandemic, Cassie Flynn was heading to work on a rush-hour packed New York City subway train.
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The ‘crypto winter’ is here. But what is it and what does it mean for the wider economy?
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Cryptocurrency prices have been crashing this year, with the digital currency market proving vulnerable to the global economy’s wider problems. This has led some in the industry to declare the arrival of a “crypto winter”.
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Women are more likely to live past 90 if they’re optimistic, according to a new study
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Women are more likely to live past 90 if they’re optimistic, according to researchers at Harvard University in the United States, who analysed 26 years’ worth of data from almost 160,000 women aged between 50 and 79.
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7 habits to cut your risk of dementia: The latest health and wellbeing news
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
The World Health Organization said on 25 June that monkeypox is not yet a global health emergency. However, Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “deeply concerned” about the outbreak. It comes as more than 3,000 cases have been confirmed globally as part of the current outbreak.
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What progress is the EU making on ending its reliance on Russian energy?
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine over 100 days ago led to EU demands to dramatically cut the bloc’s use of Russian energy. But what has the European Union actually done since then?
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Microplastics in the food chain: How harmful are they?
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
There’s a growing body of evidence about how widespread microplastics have become, across land, sea and air.
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The roots of sustainability: 5 reasons why cities need trees
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
As most cities and countries continue to report hotter summer days that are breaking 100-year records, indoor cooling can offer only little respite and to the privileged few. The majority outdoors – humans and other beings – continue to struggle in the heat, finding shelter in the shade of trees. And yet these very same trees are being displaced by physical urban infrastructure: buildings, roads, bridges, flyovers. For sustainable, inclusive development, urban trees need to be protected.
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How technology and entrepreneurship can quench our parched world
Wednesday 29th of June 2022
Numerous dystopic predictions have been used to stir the global conversation about the increasing impact of environmental degradation – especially in those parts of the world where the infrastructure is simply ill-equipped to handle catastrophes. Whether it is the world continuously heating up, or the increasing number of people (now approaching one billion) who even today have no access to reliable clean water, or communities that are blessed with supplies increasingly facing dwindling clean water sources: at some point, these predictions are going to start becoming reality.
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How unlocking ‘hidden value’ can help start-ups transition to a circular economy
Tuesday 28th of June 2022
To create a circular economy, it is obvious that we need innovative solutions, which are created by looking at ordinary processes from completely different viewpoints.
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A sustainable path to lasting recovery for Small Island Developing States lies in the ocean and the building of a robust blue economy
Tuesday 28th of June 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic was, and in many parts of the world remains, a major health, social and economic crisis without modern precedent.