January 2021 - Relocalize

Promoting a Sustainable Local Economy

The post-COVID-19 era has left small businesses penniless, some closed, and some retrenched employees. The local economy has been massively displaced, and the pandemic has created unemployment to a great extent. Luckily for some who have lost their jobs have ventured into small scale business.
It takes the entire community to help regain the local business momentum. Economic and social growth come hand in hand; thus, promoting the local economy is not the sole responsibility of the government, but most importantly, it takes the help of ordinary citizens. Here are some examples of what we can do to achieve a sustainable local economy:

Rather than shop from malls, buy small scale stores.
Support individual businesses by buying from them. These can be any homemade products.
Start urban gardening to …

How Will the Post Covid-19 Society Look Like?

Now that the lockdown has eased up in most parts of the world, people are slowly going back to their pre-pandemic life. But the big question is, will the world still be the same after the pandemic? Here are reflections from some prominent thinkers.
Here’s what to expect for the post Covid-19 society:

Daniel Susskind, an economist from Oxford University, said that the world would only look significantly different. The problems we will face in the future will simply be more extreme than what we had.
James Manyika, chairman, and director of the McKinsey Global Institute, projections include the amplification of remote working and learning, telemedicine, and delivery service.
Shan Burrow, the International Trade Union Confederation general secretary, reflected on a more inclusive, resilient, and …

The Silver Linings of COVID-19

Before you say good riddance to the year 2020, why not pause for a moment and think of the positive things that happened despite the pandemic? Here’s to help you see the silver lining of COVID-19:

Members of the families were forced to stay at home, which allows families to bond with one another.
Mother earth has gotten its much-deserved respite from carbon emission. We have witnessed a dramatic fall in air pollution and greenhouse gas emission.
Empathy is magnified. Stories of people extending help to those who have lost their jobs and front liners working round-the-clock have dominated social media.
Solidarity became stronger among people from different walks of life in terms of following health protocols.
Courage is amplified, especially among the front liners such as doctors, …

We Cannot Monopolize Society

Same feathers flock together; this saying is literally true for birds but cliché with people. We live in a diverse neighborhood and society at large. There are whites, blacks, and people of color. This diversity even gets diversified because of our varied political beliefs.
These beliefs are supposed to unify rather than divide us, especially in the kind of political atmosphere we have right now where political people are on the brink of violence because each one believes differently. Whether we like it or not, we live in a world we should share. We cannot have a monopoly because the truth is often relative and unique to each group of individuals.
Disagreements are normal and should be respected. We cannot expect others to believe what you believe, but we could demand respect from each other. We cannot be cooped up in …

Eating Sustainably and Guilt-Free

The universe has bestowed planet earth with millions of plant species all over the entire planet. There are unique species native to each country in the world. The abundance of flora is enough to feed every single person on our planet. However, the opposite is happening.
The environment’s degradation because of human greed and carelessness has massively dwindled plant species and degraded soils. Let us do our small act of kindness to mother nature; let us start with the food we eat. This way, we can also share some of nature’s harvest with those who are hungry.
Here are some creative ways to eat sustainably:

Buy only what you need and what you can eat in certain periods to avoid food spoilage.
Reduce junk food. Studies show that most junk foods cause major health problems.
Share …

Walk the Talk in Environmental Issues

Talks about environmental concerns continue to echo in senate and congress hallways, but they are just mere spectacle. Environmental issues such as climate change, carbon emission, and the likes are louder now than before, but money still talks the loudest. While environmental activists are blowing the trumpets, capitalists are whispering in the dark, yet they are better heard.
Ordinary citizens and the less developed nations are the most vulnerable to the effects of environmental degradation. Scientists say that climate change is strengthening typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones. The most destructive example of this is the typhoon ‘Yolanda’ that claimed 10,000 thousand plus lives in the Philippines.
Another ill effect of climate change is the El Nino phenomenon, which causes drought, water shortages, and …

Are World Leaders Working to Address Climate Change?

The global pressure to address climate issues had led the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (1992) in drafting global policies on climate change. It aims to prevent dangerous interference with the climate system. The Kyoto Protocol (1995) creation legally binds developed member countries to abide by the emission reduction targets. During the Paris agreement (2015), the member countries reached a landmark agreement to accelerate and intensify the actions and investment needed for a sustainable low carbon future.
The most important point in this agreement is to keep the global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius. The Climate Action Summit (2019) has brought world leaders, the private sector, and civil society together for another meeting on accelerating climate action. The summit focused on the primary…

The Challenges of Solar Energy

The 2017 reports of global electricity consumption said that 85% are still dependent on fossil fuels. Despite some powerful environmentalists’ pressures for the nation’s governments to shift to renewable energy, only 0.7% is generated from solar sources. Is the future of solar energy just an empty promise? Is solar energy a growing myth?
Energy experts posed the challenges facing solar energy: the land requirements for harvesting energy from the sun. They say that the watts harnessed per unit of land area are much lower than fossil fuels. Therefore, generating renewable energy takes way much greater land areas.
Moreover, the technological infrastructure needed for the construction of …

The Future of Cheap Energy is Here

While non-renewable energy resources are depleting, the good news is solar energy is showing a promising future. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2020 report says that there will be a 23% increase in solar energy use and an 11% increase in the wind by 2040. This projected increase is due to the analysis that solar is 20-50% cheaper.
However, IEA warned that this does not mean that global oil use will have a significant decline unless more aggressive action is pushed towards climate action. Along with the 43% rise in solar use, demand for gas could also rise-up by 30%, except if some global warming policies take a greater stance. One of these policies is the promotion of more sustainable use of energy.
The EIA cost estimation of solar electricity generation technology for developers is …

It’s Time to Relocalize

The ideal economic principle is to patronize your own product. The rise of the global economy has opened the floodgates of trade and industry in the global market. Although it brought many good things in terms of quality, price, and competition, it also became a ‘David versus Goliath’ arena.
In this post-pandemic period where many local businesses have closed, and unemployment has risen, relocalization can be an appropriate solution to rebuild our society. Relocalization is a “strategy to build a society based on the local production of food, energy and goods, and the local development of currency, governance, and culture” (source: postcarbon.org).
This is one mighty way to develop a resilient society during this post-pandemic period. Resilience in a societal context means (source:postcarbon.org). …

Older Posts