So let’s imagine branding for cars is outlawed. Flashy logos or bright colours are banned. Go-faster stripes (which might encourage young would-be drivers) are, of course, out of the question. “Extra Strength” diesel models are sold only in unattractive mould green packaging. Bumper stickers with official warnings (“Air pollution kills more Americans than breast and […]
Read more "Warning: Driving Kills"“Exceptional” is how the World Intellectual Property Organisation has described Switzerland’s record in the area of innovation. You can find more about the Swiss ranking here. The correlation between the quality of the workforce and economic performance is persuasive, particularly with regard to the apprenticeship system. The photo above shows the Stadler workshop in Bussnang, […]
Read more "The Swiss Apprentice: You’re Hired"Is industrial agriculture really to blame for around half of all greenhouse gas emissions? A 2013 UNCTAD report suggests that if the whole chain is included (from land-use and deforestation to processing, packaging, transport and sale of agricultural products) we’re looking at the sector being to blame for between 47 to 53 per cent of […]
Read more "The Bitter Taste of Climate Change"I’ve had the image of this lorry in my head since last week and I can’t get it out. I know I’m not the only one. Over the last few months, there have been many mass murders associated with people smuggling but this one seems to have seems to have seared itself into popular consciousness. […]
Read more "Immigration And The Threat Multiplier"Many readers of the New York Times article on Amazon’s work culture were appalled by the description of a brutal environment with a strong work/work balance. Others claimed the pressure cooker treatment separates the winners from the losers, pointing out that Amazon isn’t the only “new economy” company out there demanding total dedication. It might […]
Read more "What Is The Future Of Work?"“Don’t touch politics, no-one’s interested”, was the advice for the news team at the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s brand new English-language radio station back in 2007. I was part of that team which arrived, fresh-faced and keen, just before the Federal Elections that definitively disproved that truism. The hard right Swiss People’s Party (SVP in German) […]
Read more "Political Upheaval In The UK: Could A Swiss Approach Be The Answer?"This post is in response to the New Statesman article “The record-breaking solar plane is grounded – is there still hope for clean energy” The piece is fair, on the whole, but it is important to point out that Solar Impulse does not believe in a world of untramelled and ever-growing consumption. Solar Impulse believes […]
Read more "In Response to the New Statesman"Maybe someone can help me out: why do some people insist on polarising climate change concern as a left-wing conspiracy? I’m writing this in the wake of Pope Francis’s encyclical on ecology and poverty. Commentators on Fox News have popped up to denounce his dangerous denunciation of the cost to the developing world of a […]
Read more "Climate Change Not Just Leftist Concern"
Conor Lennon 