Economie

Analysis

In Kenya garbage is recycled into opportunities for the young

14 October 2020 -

As the Kenyan economy grows, the amount of waste grows along with it. A flood of new disposable materials, from mouth masks to gloves, puts extra pressure on faulty policies. Can a sustainable waste policy offer young people growth opportunities and reduce the waste heap?

Analysis

Money, Power and Politics at the WHO

7 October 2020 -

Fien Van den Steen takes a look at the geopolitics that shaped the WHO’s manoeuvring throughout the global coronavirus pandemic.

Report

New Capital in Indonesia displaces people

23 June 2020 -

An old idea suddenly became an urgent project: Indonesia is going to build a new capital. It has no name yet, only a working title: Ibu Kota Baru, New Capital City. What do the people who live there think of that? What interests are being served? And who’s going to pay for it? Kris Vanslambrouck did what the government still hasn’t done: listen to ...

Report

Europe’s last primeval forests are turning into timber factories

20 December 2019 -

Primeval forests are increasingly included in plans to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis. They are the best carbon sinks, but they are disappearing rapidly. In the European Union, they are mainly located in Romania, where only 13 per cent are protected. The rest has already been turned into or is threatened to be turned into production for ...

Report

These primeval forests have to make way for a mega-ski resort. Who benefits from the clear-cut?

13 December 2019 -

The businessman who helped Ukrainian president Zelensky to the top, wants to build Europe’s largest ski area in Europe’s last great wilderness: the Carpathians. Logging in primeval forests near the protected mountain range of Svydovets has begun, but is confronted with unexpected civil activism. An ordinary citizen is dragging some the most po ...

Report

Portugese architects confront tourists with reality behind azulejos

19 November 2019 -

No cathedral or tastings of port wine, but long lost glory. This is what you get when you join The Worst Tours for a tour in Porto. Three young and unemployed architects started their guided tours during the recession. Along the way they tell you how mass tourism and speculation have put a mortgage on their future.

Interview

The House is on fire, but we need more than the fire brigade

21 September 2019 -

After a day of global climate action, and just before a crucial Climate Summit at the UN on Monday, MO* sent three pressing questions about the prospects of fast and frundamental transition to a number of global experts. These experts have the ear of top policy makers, so what they say, matters. Even for activists or skeptics who beg to disagree wi ...

News

European Commission delays transparency over millions-fraud by Czech Prime Minister Babiš

21 May 2019 -

An audit report by the European Commission would show that Czech Prime Minister and businessman Andrej Babiš abused his political power to obtain millions of euros of European subsidies for his company. The Commission is delaying transparency until after the European elections. The Czech Pirate Party is taking the European Commission to court. &lsq ...

Report

Mendeleev beaches: shipbreaking and the spilling of copper, cobalt, manganese, lead, cadmium, nickel, zinc and mercury

5 March 2019 -

The Science for Environment Policy (European Commission) provided an overview of several studies, one of which clearly showed just how heavily the Alang-Sosiya natural environment has been polluted by copper, cobalt, manganese, lead, cadmium, nickel, zinc and mercury. Warning: reading this can damage your profit margins.

Interview

Baskut Tuncak: “As long as the world allows shipping companies to choose the rules they want to abide by, regulation is all but impossible”

5 March 2019 -

Baskut Tuncak is, UN Special Rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes: “In shipbreaking yards, workers often are exposed to toxic chemicals including asbestos, dusts and fibres, highly toxic industrial chemicals which have been banned for decades but are still present in ships, as well as lead, mercury, arsenic or cadmium in paints, coat ...

Report

Why beaching is so hard for companies to resist

5 March 2019 -

The road to Alang is lined with shops and warehouses selling items that once used to sail across the world’s oceans. Oak desks, faux crystal chandeliers, life vests and boats, ropes, electric cables and switches, leather chairs, paintings and reproductions, giant generators and motors – you name it. It is ship recycling in its most lite ...

The Oriental N (a vessel that became notorious under the original name Exxon Valdez) ended up on one of the beach yards of Alang, India

Report

“Every day on the shipbreaking yard can be your last”

5 March 2019 -

“Shipbreaking is amongst the most dangerous of occupations, with unacceptably high levels of fatalities, injuries and work-related diseases”, the ILO warned in 2015. I went to Alang and sat down with the father of a worker who just died on the yard.