Werner Bosmans shares his view on the call for action. The most important issues he points out are:

• the important part should be resource efficiency
• the call shows the urgency of problem
• it lacks solutions

For more detailed  comments, please visit our video.

People who win the lottery only initially report themselves to be happier than before. This effect wears off latest after one year.
We are inefficient where our happiness is concerned! We put an emphasis upon product consumption, or rather the means of purchasing them, namely income or: Money. However, other factors would be ever more effective in our aim to lead a happy life.Read more...

 
While everybody talks about growth they often do not point out what they actually mean by it. Growth in GDP and physical growth are not distinguished but rather implicitly taken as synonyms. From my point of view an academic debate deserves more accuracy.
After the workshop on limitations on resource consumption Dennis Meadows responded to my question on his understanding of growth:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEFLHAGllHM
(Unfortunaley the embedded video doesn't work for mysterious reasons)Read more...

Asked whether they are happy, 94% of Bhutan people answer yes. In Japan, level of life satisfaction has slightly deteriorated during the last years. Life satisfaction of Germany and the UK is high, but not higher than the one in Costa Rica or Vanuatu. And yet, Japan, Germany and the UK, along with most “Western” countries have experienced continuous growth and income increase over the last decades. While a country like Bhutan has placed much less importance on the question of growth. How is this possible?Read more...

What factors influence resource consumption more – is everything solvable by technological change, do we need lifestyle change, or is population growth the real evil? In this blog post I will concentrate on the two latter factors.Read more...

After the UNEP Resource Panel session I got the chance to ask Mr. Bringezu (Director of the Research Group on Material Flows and Resource Management at the Wuppertal Institute) about the role of recycling within the sustainability debate.

Have a look at the two following videos: Read more...

Some curious visitors have already discovered the little colourful pictures tagged to the entry door of the theatre hall. They evoke astonishment, surprise, interest – and on most of the faces a little smile. Reinhard Kuchenmüller, the creator of these mini-masterpieces, explains what is behind the idea of visual recording.

 Read more...

A minute after the end of UNEP Resouce Panel, I have spoken to Kristine Koch and Regina Kohlmeyer from Umwelt Bundes Amt in Germany.Read more...