How systems thinking could have prevented the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Descartes and Newton believed that the parts explain the whole. Imagine eating at a three-star Michelin restaurant and having just tasted the most wonderful dish. You know the restaurant owner, and you beg her to introduce you to the chef. And…

While Putin’s army proceeds in its ‘peacekeeping’ mission to restore order in Eastern Ukraine, just if it was Kremlin’s backyard, some considerations are due. On August 2008 — as Olympic games were being inaugurated in Beijing — Russia launched air attacks throughout Georgia and Russian troops engaged Georgian forces in…

Energy transitions are within reach, but we really don’t go for them, do we? — We can think of many excuses for why — as a society — we are not pushing for a real sustainability transition, one that could (still) get us out of trouble. So easy! Politicians! Duh! They are so worried about big oil votes! They like to boast their green side…

I have just finished watching “It’s a Wonderful Life”. The quintessential Christmas family movie was shot wonderfully — really — by Frank Capra, the acclaimed director of pieces of pure art, such as “It happened one night” and “Mr Smith goes to Washington”. Oddly, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was bashed…

On these days of COP26, between PR stunts and real — and yet volatile — progress, I would like to reflect on how all the commitments that are taken by countries would translate in real life advances. So, let’s talk about corporations! As we awake from the forced COVID slumber…

Amazing to learn that coal, one of the dirtiest power sources is in fact the way nature stores one of its cleanest, solar energy. So, instead of bashing marvels of humanity such as the Zollverein Coal Plant in the Ruhr, as it is sometimes done by improvised climate activist, we…

Voluntary Carbon Offsets (VCO) are reaching new peaks (2019 was a record year). In this piece, I reflect on three rarely evoked problems of VCOs. I call them distance, myopia, and extraction. To me, they disqualify VCOs as factors of genuine change and sustained environmental progress. …