Created by Derek van den Berg

Nov. 2014 Hardly anyone saw the economic crisis of 2008 coming. Six years further down the road we are still feeling the pain of this crisis and it is likely that this tumor will be difficult to eradicate. The crisis in 2008 happened because we have constructed a financial system that got out of control, where all parties seem to owe tremendous amounts of money to others in the system. In 2008…

During the first lecture we have talked about the definition of sustainability. Most people agree upon the following definition: “meeting the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs”. This definition is also used by the World Commision on Environment and Development. Based on own experiences, I dare to say that most people don’t have a…

A few months ago I read about Belgian plans to construct an energy island in front of their coastline. In the Netherlands, these kind of plans have been circulating already for decades, starting with Plan Lievense (Westra, 2007), which aspired the deployment of the Markermeer as an energy reservoir. Since the Dutch have been avantgarde in the field of water management for centuries, it strikes me…

Shrinking areas are a rather common phenomenon nowadays in the Western world. A low population increase and a transition into a service-oriented society for several decades long, has led to the effect of monofunctional areas losing their talents to multifunctional areas. In the Netherlands this is happening already for some decades with the Randstad area, which sucks up a majority of the bright…

Dec. 2014 Wars have been fought over it. It is one of the most precious elements found in nature. It is so essential, that without it, you die within a few days. Large corporations such as Nestlé and successful entrepreneurs such as the Bushes or  T. Boone Pickens are buying large quantities of it with only one goal in mind: tremendous profits. I am not talking about oil, I wish I was. Water is…