This blog so far…

I started this blog nearly a year ago by commenting on the rather disappointing website (now changed) of Portugal’s main agency for the promotion of the internationalization of the Portuguese economy – AICEP, and on general aspects related to institutions and good governance (read). Still on Portugal, I dedicated a post to the efforts the country is making to take a leading role in the renewable energies industry (read). A report analysing possible areas of cooperation between Portugal and each one of the Portuguese-speaking African countries was here published too (read – in Portuguese). 

Turkey’s troubled EU accession was here discussed in two different moments, from a pessimist (read) and from an optimist (read) perspective.

A day listening to Brazilian music led me to write about Brazil’s path to development as seen by the country’s samba-rap musicians, relative to the academic researchers (read).

The book ’Cod: the fish that changed the world’, offered to me as a present, proved to be not only enjoyable but also an insightful journey through the history of a fish that actually changed the world. It resulted in a post because the book shows one face of the disruptive impact of raising consumption on the sustainability of the planet (read). 

In another post I comment on the impressive numbers behind bottled water consumption as well as a clever idea on how to fix that problem (read); the the decision of Shell to stop investing in wind energy was also commented but from a CSR perspective (read).

Overall, and unfortunately, not so many visitors passed by, and not that many comments were generated. Such is understandable given the irregular character of the blog. All that will change soon, as the focus will be readjusted. 

I hope to see you around.

Clear as water

On Mark Notaras’ article for UNU’s OurWorld 2.0 webzine we can find several facts about water and its harmful bottled version. Facts presented are as shocking as ”developed countries alone consume over one billion bottles weekly” and “unrecycled bottles represent 80% of those consumed”. The situation worsens when Mark shows how water resources are being transferred away from vulnerable communities towards consumers who already have access to clean water at a fraction of the cost. The issue doesn’t get any better when “from 1999 to 2004, India tripled and China doubled their consumption“.

Mark does present some facts and work being done to tackle the tendency and shows some interesting campaigns taking place. NYT shows how the problem has reached the inventive minds of two students who designed water bottles that could be filled with sand and reused as a brick to build housing and reduce waste in developing countries.

However, on the same article we can read that “bottled water sales are increasing exponentially as water companies make record profits“. Where from should the solution take departure? From the thirsty consumers, from the record-beating firms, or from the governments’ regulation?