society - Our Green Health

Global Biodiversity Dictates the Quality of Our Life

24/01/2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

Global biodiversity dictates the quality of our life. You might compare it with our personal health. It’s one of our most important assets. The reason of course is that it makes us feel good. Yet, there is more. We perform better when we are healthy. Physically and mentally. We measure our well-being by our health. Our quality of life is measured by our health.

There are a lot of pines where we live. All the neighbours in our street spray poison against the pine processionary caterpillar. This spraying is totally nonsense and goes against every biodiversity logic. All the natural enemies of this caterpillar live here: the praying mantis, dozens of bats, cuckoos, and the great tit. Our neighbours consciously destroy the habitat of these animals and are a threat to the biodiversity in this area.

Is Happiness the Key to be Successful or Vice Versa?

06/01/202210/12/2021 by Hannie Mommers

Is happiness the key to be successful or is success the key to be happy? It probably depends on who you ask this question. If you ask me, I say happiness comes first. But if you would have asked my Dad he would have said success is the main thing.

The mother of my father had to raise 6 children on her own during the crisis of the 30s because my grandfather died young. So my father had a job from age 12.

He was determined to study and work himself up to a better position. He went to night school and became a very skilled metalworker. During World War II he was imprisoned in an Arbeitslager in Germany. My father always claimed this hadn’t been too bad because he found refuge in his profession and could perfect his skill there.

What We Can Do about Climate Change and Why We Should

22/11/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

What we can do about climate change has become a major challenge for us.

We are so disappointed with the outcome of the climate conference in Glasgow!

This disappointment brought back a phrase I read a couple of weeks ago ‘The climate changes only in Glasgow!’ I read it originally in Spanish: El clima solo cambia en Glasgow!

The person who shared this outcry probably meant that nobody in Spain cares about climate change.

Working from Home is more and more Favored as Essential

28/06/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

Working from home wasn’t exactly how my paid career started. At the age of 15, I delivered the local newspaper to people’s homes. The day started at 06:00 hours. Through rain, snow, and sometimes sunshine.

I very much enjoyed the freedom and the exercise. In fact, I never stopped walking after that. Never stopped working either.

In those days, my newspaper route was just the beginning of a very long day. First the newspaper delivery, a quick breakfast at home, to school for the remainder of the day. Back from school, homework until late at night. At 06:00 hours the routine started all over again.

What are Personal Risk Factors and how to Cope with them?

21/06/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

What are personal risk factors and how do I cope with them? This is a recurring question in most comments people write in response to our articles. When someone asks what personal risks are, the word virus does wonders these days.

However, in our articles, we often write about totally different risks. Most of us are very familiar with these risks: the pollution of the air, the water, the soil, our food, and the destruction of biodiversity and ecosystems. Unfortunately, not everybody understands the link between these so-called impersonal risks, and the risks we think are more personal, such as a virus.

Medical Care for the Elderly Lags Substantially Behind

05/02/202211/02/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

“Medical care for the elderly lags substantially behind in most Western countries.” Already in 2007, the Dutch professor of internal medicine and gerontology Rudi Westendorp made this claim in one of his famous lectures.

Westendorp advanced two arguments to prove medical care for the elderly lags behind. The first was that the medical protocols prevented a more coherent approach of the elderly. His second argument was that people over 65 were consistently excluded from medical research.