A full moon rises over a snowy Aberdeen. The merciful, white blanket covers not only streets and gardens, but also the litter at the side of the road. Last week I found a lot of plastic while running (it turns out this new sport is called plogging), but I can’t motivate myself to go out …
Agroecology
In the past few weeks we have been working hard at our WWOOF location on Chiloé. Freddy has been harvesting giant garlic, Ajo Chilote. These are sold in individual cloves, so the major task now is peeling them. Closer to the house, I sowed new lettuce and chard. The work is almost hypnotic; with each …
Charity or honesty
Two articles in the Dutch newspaper Trouw caught my eye this week. The first was titled “Bill Gates and the British tackle malaria with mega-fund”, about the fact that governments do not have enough budget for international development and are increasingly looking for private money. I have noticed that too in my own work; more …
Cheap labour
In April 2013 Rana Plaza collapsed, a random factory building in Dhaka turned into a name that is engraved in the history of Bangladesh. The day before the disaster it was clear that something was wrong because cracks appeared in the walls. That is why the shops on the ground floor had already closed their …
Forest of Peace
We recently watched the BBC series Planet Oil. An interesting story about the history of oil, but with a depressing ending. Our addiction to fossil fuels has thoroughly disrupted the ecological balance of the planet. It is frustrating to see how slow alternative energy is developing, mainly because nothing happens at the policy level. In …
Darwin at Tahiti
Because today is the birthday of Charles Darwin, I have browsed the essays of Stephen J. Gould to find something to write about. Gould was an evolutionary biologist, with a great interest in the history of science. He is one of my favorite authors. We have one book of him, a yellowed Penguin edition of …