Intempéries

Grootouders voor het Klimaat overhandigen ‘olifant in de kamer’ aan de onderhandelaars van de Vlaamse regering om aandacht te vragen voor de klimaatcrisis

31.806 personnes composent l’effectif politique belge. Voilà ce qui ressort d’une étude réalisée par les professeurs Jean Hindriks et Alexandre Lamfalussy. Cette étude publiée par l’UCLouvain propose une analyse détaillée des fonctions qu’occupent ces 31.806 mandataires politiques belges. A quel niveau de pouvoir se situent-ils ? Quelle région du pays emploie le plus de mandataires ? Analyse.

Malgré les polémiques, Seb multiplie les contrefeux médiatiques et continue d’affirmer que ses revêtements antiadhésifs sont «sûrs». Pourquoi continue-t-il d’utiliser des «polluants éternels», alors qu’il sait employer d’autres matériaux inoffensifs, comme l’inox ? Vert s’est invité à l’assemblée générale des actionnaires de Seb pour poser la question à sa direction.

Jumping into the future head first, blindfolded, handcuffed, and in darkness

In a previous post, I defined this graph as “the most amazing graph of the 21st century.” It shows how the US oil production restarted growing in 2010, picking up speed and surpassing the historical record of the “Hubbert Peak,” which took place in 1970. It overcame the dip caused by the Covid pandemic and, two years after my first post on this subject, it keeps growing.

You would think that we have more than sufficient troubles caused by global warming, pollution, resource depletion, biodiversity loss, ecosystem disruption and a few more. But there is a problem that’s not directly related to the natural world, but by a purely human construction: the financial market. Here is a discussion by Ian Schindler — maître de conference émérite (emeritus professor of mathematics) at the University of Toulouse 1, France, who proposes that we are close to a financial collapse.

A post for the anniversary of the execution of Sophie Scholl by the German Nazis in 1943

The Goddess is said to be benevolent and merciful, but she may get angry and become cruel and ruthless. We are used to discussing major events that may destroy civilization, or even the whole humankind. Most are related to global warming: tipping points, “hothouse Earth,” famines, tsunamis, and all the rest. Then, there are other human-made disasters, including the nuclear holocaust and homemade exterminations that can be carried out with simple tools such as machetes. Recently, it became fashionable to cite artificial intelligence as a threat to human beings.

Au 1er siècle de notre ère, le philosophe romain Sénèque (en latin Lucius Annaeus Seneca) observe le début de la désintégration de l’Empire romain. Ce processus ne s’achèvera que quelques siècles plus tard mais il était déjà évident pour ceux qui étaient prêts à regarder au-delà de la surface de l’Empire encore puissant.

The new version of the “Seneca Effect” blog on Substack is doing reasonably well, so I thought it was time to prepare a page that explains what the Seneca Effect is and what it can teach us. (image by Dall-E) During the 1st Century AD, the Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca observed the start of the disintegration of the Roman Empire. It was a process that would take a few more centuries to complete, but that was already evident to those who were willing to look beyond the surface of the still powerful Empire.