climate change - Our Green Health

What is Sustainable Energy and Why Must We all Convert to it

28/07/202119/07/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

What is sustainable energy? The common, yet rather simple definition is that an energy source is sustainable when it does not jeopardize the energy sources of future generations. Fossil fuels are an example of an energy source that will not be available for future generations.

Since March 2020 we have 8 solar panels on the south side of the roof of our house. The computer of the system informs us that we saved 3,4 tonnes of CO2. Moreover, we saved almost 800 euros on our energy bill. The excess energy we produce with our solar panels is transferred to the national electricity grid, for which we get a fee.

Poverty in the World and Sustainability, a Tense Relation

26/05/202126/05/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

Poverty in the world and sustainability are not on par. Sustainability plans are usually designed to manage the long-term environmental impacts of human activities. What we tend to forget is that these plans can have devastating effects on world poverty.

Economic growth, financial stability, and jobs are often believed to be essential to sustainability plans. These plans are usually aligned with the protection of ecosystems, biodiversity, and water resources on which the poorest of the world depend.

What are the Positive Effects of Deforestation or are the Negative Effects Worse?

05/07/202114/05/2021 by Hannie Mommers

In this article, I’ll try to be objective about the positive effects of deforestation and the negative ones. Although I must admit that I am a bit biased, my gut feeling is that at the moment the negative effects outweigh the positive ones.

“What now remains is like the skeleton of a sick man, all the fat and soft earth having wasted away, and only the bare framework of the land being left… Moreover, it was enriched by the yearly rains…”

This could very well be a quotation from a present-day text. It is not. It’s a complaint from the Greek philosopher Plato about the slopes of Athens in Critias which he wrote in 360 BC. Deforestation has been taking place from the time when agriculture became more widely practiced 4,000 years ago.

Agrifood Chain Overlooks the Importance of Customer Loyalty

28/01/202201/02/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

The importance of customer loyalty is overlooked by the agrifood chain. The loyalty of consumers is questioned by acting as if they’re stupid. That is one of the opinions I shared in the series of articles I recently wrote about the agrifood complex and its impact on customers.

The first article discussed the food anxiety depression that’s sold to us by governments, agrifood businesses, and scientists.

The second article introduced the debate about food safety.

The third article explained the complexity of the debate about food and the food industry.

In this article, I express my surprise about the lack of the food industry’s confidence in their own capacities. I will illustrate this with two examples. The first is the dairy debate that emerged in The Netherlands at the beginning of the 21st century. The next is the false claims in the European Parliament that the European Green Deal will cause food shortages.