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statistics for
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January
2021 - December 2021:
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Visitors: 85.000
Riane
Eisler:“Both the mythical and archaeological evidence indicate that
perhaps the most notable quality of the pre-dominator mind was its recognition
of our oneness with all of nature,which lies at the heart of both Neolithic
and the Cretan worship of the Goddess. Increasingly, the work of modern
ecologists indicates that this earlier quality of mind, in our time
often associated with some types of Eastern spirituality, was far advanced
beyond today's environmentally destructive ideology.”
Abhijit
V. Banerjee:
"Our reaction to the other is closely tied
to our self-confidence. Only a social policy founded on respect for
the dignity of the individual can help make the average citizen more
open to ideas of toleration."
Lead Article
Chasing the dragon
By Peter
van Gorsel
"Chasing
the dragon" is a metaphor for the pursuit of the ultimate high
in the usage of some particular drug. If gambling is an addiction for
a lot of people this expression could very well stand for the lottery
and gambling. Across the globe millions of people spend money on lottery
tickets, scratch cards and (online) gambling. A gambler may be the second
oldest profession in the world. Gambling is one of mankind's oldest
activities, as proved by writings and equipment found in tombs and other
places.
Gamifying the industry
Every self-respecting city has a casino. Online gambling has grown from
a minor industry on the Internet to a substantial global phenomenon
taking full advantage of the Digital transformation and the possibilities
to gamify the industry.
National lotteries
Lotteries are found in nearly half of the world's countries, with annual
worldwide lottery ticket sales topping $115 billion. National lotteries
have been around for so long that they seem to be an integral part of
the financial landscape. The Dutch State Lottery (Staatsloterij) has
been around for almost three hundred years.
Reward system
Gambling means that you're willing to risk something you value in the
hope of getting something back of even greater value. It stimulates
the brain's reward system much like drugs or alcohol can and do often
lead to addiction.
Skewed systems
Lotteries are open contests by virtue of the game of chance rather than
skill or knowledge. As any lottery is skewed towards the negligible
aspect of winning unimaginable prizes, more tickets are bought by those
that should know better. But knowing is not the same as behaving as
such. Promoting their financial future at the expense of the present
transforms people into "jackpot chasers or dragon chasers''.
Failure or chasing
No one in their right mind enters a lottery, scratches a card, visits
a casino or goes to one online with a chance of striking it rich. But
failure matters less than chasing the dragon. The dazzling prospect
of all that money in your bank account blinds the average player, triggers
his biases and disturbs his already weak sense of rationality. Does
it make financial sense to play in lotteries or gamble in is very dubious.
Have you ever met someone who knew someone who knew someone who won
the jackpot? This has not put people off spending on lottery tickets
or casino tokens for a carefree future. This is about as likely to happen
as a black swan arriving at your door with a very large check in its
beak.
Daydreams of desire
Lotteries are designed as "daydreams of desire" but also as
an unattainable status position. Lotteries and gambling rely on a potent
behavioural mixture of biases and gamification. Gamification is all
about customer retention. It is the application of game-playing elements
to the industry. Common gamification elements include leader boards,
points, timers and badges. Prizes big enough to override any scepticism
and small rewards nice enough to keep you hooked to the dream and the
hot breath of the dragon. When the top prize is very large, ticket buyers
appear indifferent to the fact that their chance of winning is minuscule,
states Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and slow.
Plucking the Goose
If raising tax money is all about plucking the most feathers off of
the goose with the least amount of squawking, the lottery is the best
way to do that. It's a disguised way to collect private money but governments
like it because it's one of the only ways you get people to volunteer
to pay. There are of course the comfort zone biases that a part of your
wasted money goes to cultural and good causes, relieving the Government
of that task.
Cognitive bias
The root cause of gambling addiction starts at an emotional level, wherein
addicts use gambling as a means for coping with daily life stressors
and pressures. Gambling in any kind of form is riddled with biases of
which we only discuss a few. Cognitive bias plays a big role in gambling
and is an error in thinking that affects the decisions and judgments
that people make. Meaning that a series of losses will not necessarily
act as an incentive to stop gambling, as the pathological gambler will
believe they will eventually win.
Monte Carlo fallacy
The gambler's fallacy, also known as the Monte Carlo fallacy, is a deep-seated
cognitive bias that can be very hard to overcome. It's the incorrect
belief that, if a particular event occurs more frequently than normal
during the past, it is less likely to happen in the future (or vice
versa). The fallacy is associated with gambling, where it may be believed,
for example, that the next dice roll is more than usually likely to
be six because there have recently been fewer than the usual number
of sixes.
Gambler's conceit
Gambler's conceit is the fallacy described by behavioural economist
David J. Ewing, where a gambler believes they will be able to stop a
risky behaviour while still engaging in it. This belief operates during
games of chance, such as casino games. The gambler believes they will
be a net winner at the game, and thus able to avoid going broke by exerting
the self-control necessary to stop playing while still ahead in winnings.
This is known as "I'll quit when I'm ahead."
Quitting while ahead
Quitting while ahead is unlikely since a gambler who is winning has
little incentive to quit, and is instead encouraged to continue to gamble
by their winning. We all tend to remember or seek data that supports
a hypothesis we have already and forget or disregard details that contradict
our hypothesis. This is called confirmation bias, and it has led many
gamblers astray.
Hindsight bias
Hindsight bias is probably the most fun bias of all of these, and it
is exactly what the name suggests. It's looking back after the fact
and identifying all the things that should have been so clear to you
now that you know the outcome. The last bias is preference reversal
that causes individuals to deviate from their seemingly rational choice
and take more risky decisions. In certain circumstances gamblers and
investors will choose a second option which differs from their original
rational first choice.
Keep an eye out for our
next journal which looks at the question: Do investors share biases
with gamblers in their risk-taking behaviour?'.
The
Ocean Economy will eclipse $3 trillion by 2030
By CaspianReport
The oceans are in the worst condition they
have ever been, but the Blue Economy seeks to link economic growth with
sustainable ecosystems.
The 'Blue
Economy' is an emerging concept which encourages better stewardship
of our ocean or 'blue' resources. ... Similar to the 'Green Economy',
the blue economy model aims for improvement of human wellbeing and social
equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological
scarcities.
At least half
of Earth's oxygen comes from the ocean.
Scientists estimate that 50-80% of the oxygen production
on Earth comes from the ocean. The majority of this production
is from oceanic plankton — drifting plants, algae,
and some bacteria that can photosynthesize.
Ocean acidification is
mainly caused by carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere dissolving
into the ocean. This leads to a lowering of the water's
pH, making the ocean more acidic. ... Currently, the burning
of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas for human industry
is one of the major causes.
Source: Google
Ocean acidification is expected to
impact ocean species to varying degrees. Photosynthetic
algae and seagrasses may benefit from higher CO2 conditions
in the ocean, as they require CO2 to live just like plants
on land. On the other hand, studies have shown that lower
environmental calcium carbonate saturation states can have
a dramatic effect on some calcifying species, including
oysters, clams, sea urchins, shallow water corals, deep
sea corals, and calcareous plankton. Today, more than a
billion people worldwide rely on food from the ocean as
their primary source of protein. Thus, both jobs and food
security in the U.S. and around the world depend on the
fish and shellfish in our oceans.
If we all
know what is happening with the world, and if we see how fast the changes
are taking place, why are we so slow in responding?
Annegien Blokpoel addresses in this short presentation what are some
key blockages for faster introduction of (impact) innovation to the
global economy. She proposes some tricks to break through the current
paradigms in investing, part of solving (pieces of) this complicated
puzzle.
Credits
Annegien Blokpoel
Catalyst investor, venture builder, strategy and management advisor
Founder & Managing Partner, PerspeXo
the Netherlands https://perspexo.com
A silent revolution is happening in
investing. It is a paradigm shift that will have a profound impact on
corporations, countries and pressing issues like climate change. Yet
most people are not even aware of it.
In a traditional investment fund, the
decisions about where to invest the capital of the investors are taken
by fund managers. They decide whether to buy shares in firms like Saudi
Aramco or Exxon. They decide whether to invest in environmentally harmful
businesses like coal.
Yet there has been a steady shift away
from these actively managed funds towards passive
or index funds. Instead of depending on a fund manager, passive
funds simply track indices - for example, an S&P 500 tracker fund
would buy shares in every company in the S&P 500 in order to mirror
its overall
performance. One of the great attractions of such funds is
that their fees are dramatically lower than the alternative.
In 2019 there was a watershed in the
history of finance. In the United States, the total value of actively
managed funds was
surpassed by passive funds. Globally, passive funds crossed
US$10 trillion (£7.7 trillion), a five-fold increase from US$2
trillion in 2007.
The second consequence relates to the
companies that provide the indices that these passive funds follow.
When investors buy index funds, they effectively delegate their investment
decisions to these providers. Three dominant providers have become increasingly
powerful: MSCI, FTSE Russell and S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Steering global capital flows
With trillions of dollars migrating to passive funds,
the role of index providers has been transformed. We traced this change
in a
recent paper: in the past, index providers only supplied
information to financial markets. In our new age of passive investing,
they are becoming market authorities.
Deciding who appears in the indices is not just something
technical or objective. It involves some discretion by the providers
and benefits some actors over others. By determining which players are
included on the list, setting the criteria becomes an
inherently political activity.
Especially relevant are the dominant emerging markets
stock indices, particularly the widely tracked MSCI
Emerging Markets Index. This is a list of large and medium-sized
companies in 26 countries, including China, India and Mexico.
MSCI sets the standards for countries to qualify for
inclusion. Above all, they have to guarantee free access to domestic
stock markets for foreign investors. If a country is included, massive
amounts of capital will flow into their national stock market almost
automatically. As a result, MSCI and the other big three providers'
rival indices are now effectively steering global investment flows.
For example, when Saudi Arabia was recently added to
the list of qualifying countries for these indices, it was
predicted to trigger inflows into the Saudi stock market
of up to US$40 billion. And when Saudi Aramco, the largest global oil
producer, went public last year, it was fast-tracked by the same three
index providers into their emerging markets indices. Millions of investors
around the world now unknowingly hold shares in this controversial corporation
- either through owning emerging markets index funds or having pensions
that hold such funds on their behalf.
When China was added to the key emerging market indices
in 2018, reportedly after heavy
lobbying from Beijing, the capital steering effect was expected
to be larger by an order of magnitude. It was
estimated that the long-term inflows into Chinese stocks
would be up to US$400 billion.
The future role of index providers
The three dominant index providers' income mainly derives
from the funds replicating their indices, since they have to pay royalties
for the privilege. The providers are therefore currently enjoying a
fee bonanza. For 2019, MSCI
reported record revenues and said the assets tracking its
indices were at all-time highs.
Our research suggests that these providers' brands are
so well established that competitors will struggle to take away that
business. This suggests that MSCI, FTSE Russell and S&P Dow Jones
will increase their role as a new kind of de facto global regulators.
Arguably the most important aspect of their private
authority for the future of our planet pertains to how corporations
tackle climate change. BlackRock recently
made headlines with plans to divest from firms that make
more than 25% of their revenues from coal. Yet this only applies to
BlackRock's actively managed funds: most of its funds track indices
from the major index providers, so they
will keep investing in coal until the providers remove such
companies from their indices.
Similarly, BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street all
recently announced they will increase their range of so-called
ESG funds, which profess to exclude the worst performing firms according
to environmental, social and governance criteria. Again, these criteria
are increasingly defined by the index providers, using proprietary
methodologies. As The Economist has
noted, the providers often decide which companies to include
based on whether they go about their business sustainably rather than
what business they are actually in.
For instance, Saudi Aramco produces
few emissions extracting oil from the ground. It's a comparatively "sustainable"
oil company, but it's still an oil company. Most ESG indices include
industry leaders in each sector and exclude worst performers - irrespective
of the industry. Consequently, many ESG funds still heavily invest in
the likes of airlines, oil and mining companies.
They are also sometimes quite arbitrary about who qualifies
as a good performer. For instance, the American bank Wells Fargo is
ranked in the top third by one index provider, while another
ranks it in the bottom 5%.
In short, this tightly interlinked group of three giant
passive fund managers and three major index providers will largely determine
how corporations tackle climate change. The world is paying little attention
to the judgements they make, and yet these judgements look highly questionable.
If the world is truly to get to grips with the global climate crisis,
this constellation needs to be far more closely scrutinised by regulators,
researchers and the general public.
This
article is republished from The
Conversation under a Creative Commons
license.
The CORPNET research group uncovers, investigates
and aims to understand global networks of corporate control in contemporary
global capitalism. The five year project started in September 2015 and
is funded by the European Research Council (ERC starting grant). It
is located at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University
of Amsterdam.
Startup Europe strengthens
networking opportunities for deep tech scaleups and ecosystem builders
to accelerate the growth of the European startup scene.
Startup Europe is an initiative of the European Commission to connect
high tech startups, scaleups, investors, accelerators, corporate networks,
universities and the media. It is supported by a portfolio of EU
funded projects and policy actions such as the EU Startup
Nation Standard, Innovation Radar and the Digital Innovation and Scale-up
Initiative (DISC). It is fully aligned with the small
and medium-sized enterprise (SME) strategy of the European
Commission.
The Startup
Europe One Stop Shop offers entrepreneurs, investors and
ecosystem builders trusted information and support on topics ranging
from scaling up, investment opportunities and networking.
The European Commission
and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
launch the Global Gateway, the new European Strategy to boost smart,
clean and secure links in digital, energy and transport and strengthen
health, education and research systems across the world. It stands for
sustainable and trusted connections that work for people and the planet,
to tackle the most pressing global challenges, from climate change and
protecting the environment, to improving health security and boosting
competitiveness and global supply chains. Global Gateway aims to mobilise
up to €300 billion in investments between 2021 and 2027 to underpin
a lasting global recovery, taking into account our partners needs and
EU's own interests.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “COVID-19
has shown how interconnected the world we live in is. As part of our
global recovery, we want to redesign how we connect the world to build
forward better. The European model is about investing in both hard and
soft infrastructure, in sustainable investments in digital, climate
and energy, transport, health, education and research, as well as in
an enabling environment guaranteeing a level playing field. We will
support smart investments in quality infrastructure, respecting the
highest social and environmental standards, in line with the EU's democratic
values and international norms and standards. The Global Gateway Strategy
is a template for how Europe can build more resilient connections with
the world.”
Fossil fuels are inextricably linked to our everyday lives and it'll
be impossible to phase them out in the next three decades. At least
that's what the fossil fuel industry would have you believe. But new
studies have looked at precisely what we DO need to do to rapidly rid
ourselves of the largest historical, and current, cause of the global
climate emergency.
Figuring out how to deal with today's
critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time.
Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary
medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good
life as we have known it.
Immigration and inequality,
globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating
climate change - -these are sources of great anxiety across the world,
from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources
to address these challenges are there --what we lack are ideas that
will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides
us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if
we fail, the potential losses are incalculable.
In this revolutionary book,
renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on
this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained
with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good
Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent
interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect and show
how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social
and political problems of the day. It is an extraordinary achievement,
one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously
balanced world.
Abhijit V. Banerjee
Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee is an Indian economist. He is
currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Banerjee is a co-founder
of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (along with economists
Esther Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan) and a Research Affiliate of Innovations
for Poverty Action, a New Haven, Connecticut based research outfit dedicated
to creating and evaluating solutions to social and international development
problems, and a Member of the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty.
He was awarded 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his
experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. He is also the
recipient of the inaugural Infosys Prize in the category of Social Sciences
(Economics).
Esther
Duflo
Esther Duflo is a French economist, Co-Founder
and Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), and
Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Duflo serves on the board of the Bureau for
Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), and is Director
of the Center of Economic Policy Research's development economics program.
Her research focuses on microeconomic issues in developing countries,
including household behavior, education, access to finance, health and
policy evaluation. She was awarded 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic
Sciences for his experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.
She is the youngest person and the second woman to win the award.
The
Chef’s Menu: Bugs, Plants, and Anything He Can Forage By The
New Yorker Documentary
“Little Fish,”
directed by Edward Columbia, follows the chef Bun Lai as he closes his
renowned sustainable restaurant to focus on practicing what he preaches
— living off nature as a food source.
The world’s first
energy islands will be constructed in Denmark, exploiting our immense
wind resources in the North and Baltic seas. The energy islands will
serve as hubs that can create better connections between energy generated
from offshore wind and the energy systems in the region around the two
seas.
The offshore wind turbines around the islands will be able to supply
green electricity with a capacity to power at least five million households.
The Danish Energy Agency is leading the project.
The energy islands mark
the beginning of a new era for the generation of energy from offshore
wind, aimed at creating a green energy supply for Danish and foreign
electricity grids. Operating as green power plants at sea, the islands
are expected to play a major role in the phasing-out of fossil fuel
energy sources in Denmark and Europe.
The plan envisages
the establishment of an artificial island in the North Sea that will
serve as a hub for offshore wind farms supplying 3 GW of energy, with
a long-term expansion potential of 10 GW.
The energy island in
the Baltic Sea will be Bornholm, where electrotechnical facilities
on the island will serve as a hub for offshore wind farms off the
coast supplying 2 GW of energy.
Denmark has a long history
of exploiting the strong winds from the sea to produce electricity.
We constructed the world’s first offshore wind farm in 1991, and
in the
climate agreement of 22 June 2020, the Danish legislature
decided to build on that legacy with the construction of two energy
islands. In light of the decision reached by Danish politicians, the
Danish Energy Agency is now drawing on domestic expert knowledge as
well as extensive experience and skills in this field with a view to
taking a historic and ambitious step on the road to phasing out fossil
fuels.
After political agreement
on the energy islands have been reached, the Danish Energy Agency are
playing a key role in leading the project that will transform the two
energy islands from a vision to reality. The islands are a pioneer project
that will necessitate the deployment of existing knowledge into an entirely
new context. Working together with well-established actors in the industry
and the highest level of expertise in the field, our goal is to find
the best solutions to the aspects of the project that remain unsolved.
We are exchanging knowledge, performing quality assurance on solutions
and working every day to further the green transition and ensure a reliable
supply of electricity to Danish power sockets.
How many solar panels do I need for 1 gigawatt?
3.125 Million Photovoltaic (PV) Panels.
What is GW in renewable energy?
India will easily achieve the target of 50 per cent share
of energy from non-fossil fuels and also the 500-gigawatt
(GW) renewable energy capacity before the deadline of 2030
set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Power and New &
Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh.
How big is a GW?
The gigawatt (GW) is equal to one billion (109) watts or 1
gigawatt = 1000 megawatts. This unit is often used for large
power plants or power grids.
Source: Google
Green
electricity for our neighbouring countries
The energy islands’ initial capacity of 5 GW and eventual capacity
of 12 GW means that Denmark will end up generating more electricity
than it needs. Therefore, the electricity will be exported to our neighbouring
countries, contributing to the green transition beyond Denmark’s
borders.
Efforts to establish connections
to foreign grids are already underway; Denmark has entered into political
agreements with several of its neighbours to commence joint analytical
efforts to connect the energy islands to their grids.
The two energy islands are to be completed in 2030.
German 50Hertz and Energinet have entered into an agreement to carry
out the studies which, before the end of the year (2021), are to identify
whether it is possible and advantageous to construct an electric cable
connection between the two countries via Bornholm as a future energy
island.
Energinet
is the Danish national transmission system operator for electricity
and natural gas. It is an independent public enterprise owned by the
Danish state under the Ministry of Climate and Energy.
Energinet is collecting information from the preliminary studies which
will form the basis for the future work of designing and constructing
energy islands, offshore wind farms and the intervening infrastructure.
The environment and nature studies are
expected to start in autumn 2021.
Factors will be investigated separately
for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, as the conditions are different.
The geophysical conditions in the North
Sea are currently being mapped. The seabed and soil layers are being
examined, with the aim of describing how foundations for wind turbines
and the like can be established with minimal environmental impact.
Denmark's
$34BN Energy Islands Could Solve Europe's Power Problem
The mission of the Center for Partnership Systems
is to catalyze movement towards partnership systems on all levels of
society through research, education, grassroots empowerment, and policy
initiatives. CPS’s programs focus on promoting human rights and
nonviolence, gender and racial equity, child development, and new metrics
that demonstrate the financial contribution of the work of care.
We draw from the latest
social and biological science including neuroscience, connecting the
dots between the personal and political to address root causes rather
than merely symptoms of dysfunction and injustice.
Eisler’s pioneering multidisciplinary, systemic approach has impacted
many aspects of scholarship, society, and life.
Nurturing Our Humanity offers
a new perspective on our personal and social options in today's world,
showing how we can build societies that support our great human capacities
for consciousness, caring, and creativity. It brings together findings--largely
overlooked--from the natural and
social sciences debunking the popular idea that we are hard-wired for
selfishness, war, rape, and greed. Its groundbreaking new approach reveals
connections between disturbing trends like climate change denial and
regressions to strongman rule. Moving past right vs. left, religious
vs. secular, Eastern vs. Western, and other familiar categories that
do not include our formative parent-child and gender relations, it looks
at where societies fall on the partnership-domination scale. On one
end is the domination system that ranks man over man, man over woman,
race over race, and man over nature. On the other end is the more peaceful,
egalitarian, gender-balanced, and sustainable partnership system. Nurturing
Our Humanity explores how behaviors, values, and socio-economic institutions
develop differently in these two environments, documents how this impacts
nothing less than how our brains develop, examines cultures from this
new perspective (including societies that for millennia oriented toward
partnership), and proposes actions supporting the contemporary movement
in this more life-sustaining and enhancing direction. It shows how through
today's ever more fearful, frenzied, and greed-driven technologies of
destruction and exploitation, the domination system may lead us to an
evolutionary dead end. A more equitable and sustainable way of life
is biologically possible and culturally attainable: we can change our
course.
Conversation
for Change with Dr Riane Eisler : Exploring the New Possible
Jan Fichtner
Eelke Heemskerk
Johannes Petry
