Category Archives: Sustainable life

sustainable development, environmental economy

Ecosystem Mutilation and Patching Business

monoculture in agriculture

Maybe you have already heard the term externalities in economics: Externalities are defined as harmful or useful side-effects of economic activities… For example pollution is a harmful side-effect of many industrial production activities. Most economy books explain the harmful externalities … Continue reading

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Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Jared Diamond

Did you know that great Indian civilizations like Maya and Anasazi went down primarily due to environmental disasters like erosion and aridity? Did you know that the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, such a creative and influential society, collapsed due to the … Continue reading

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Impressions from my Bolivia journey in 2007, part 1

Hot water lake in Robore, Bolivia

Impressions from my Bolivia journey in January 2007, organized by the retired Swiss biologist Robert Guggenbühl. Our travel group consisted of botanists, nature lovers and some passionate aquarium hobbyists. Passing from places like St Cruz, Robore, Trinidad, Magdalena and Bella … Continue reading

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Take clean-tech one step further: A self-sufficient life style

Self-Sufficient Life And How To Live It from John Seymour

What is cleantech? Cleantech in the narrow sense includes green technologies like: Renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels) Green buildings Energy efficient and low emission transportation Biomaterials like bioplastic Water filtration With cleantech in the narrow sense one still means … Continue reading

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Improving well-being through mind manipulation: Motorboats versus sailboats

Original 5-level hierarchy of needs from Maslow

The bottom line of this article is very simple: “Make the most of what you already have”. Nothing new, nothing extraordinary, just what the common sense says. You may see on the left side the famous five-level hierarchy of needs … Continue reading

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