Does income generate happiness and how much? Why do a growing obesity epidemic and cutting down a pristine forest both increase GDP? Is our way of thinking and measuring economic growth and development at all meaningful? These and many other questions are increasingly talked about in political, academic, and civic society circles.
It is currently estimated that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices are worth around 10 billion Euros each year – a shocking 19% of the value of catches worldwide. The EU and the US are both concerned about the disastrous environmental and socio-economic impacts of this illegal fishing activity and have each introduced their own legal measures. However, IUU fishing is a trans-boundary issue. The regular and coordinated exchange of information and practical tools is therefore essential for tackling IUU activity in the north Atlantic and beyond.
The objective of the conference "The new politics of water", organized by Chatham House on the 14-15th June 2011 in London, was to address key issues around water security and economic growth in emerging economies. Jennifer Möller-Gulland, Researcher at Ecologic Institute, participated at this conference and highlighted the main discussion topics in the following.
On June 12 2009, Zoë Robaey, Transatlantic Fellow with Ecologic, was invited to the General Meeting of the Dutch Environmental Professionals Association in Den Haag. She was among the three finalists from Dutch higher education institutions whose Master’s theses were nominated for the Rachel Carson Award. Her thesis “Differing Views of Uncertainty in Environmental Controversies: the Kearl Oil Sands Case, 2003-2008 in Canada“ was awarded second place.
On 1 March 2005, 13 members of The Integrated Assessment Society (TIAS), and 12 observers met in their first members’ meeting. On the occasion of the closing conference of the European Forum for Integrated Environmental Assessments (EFIEA), they discussed how to strengthen outreach activities and expand the new TIAS network. 