This essay makes a speculative attempt to visualise the ultimate reality by looking beyond the universe and to include non-measurable values. This approach could also be a way to repair the serious flaw that we as humanity appear to have become in the evolution process.
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Today’s tipping points in the context of evolution
Allerd Stikker and Else Boutkan elaborate on innovation processes in evolution, and the lessons to be learned from that, considering the crises we are globally facing.
How can we maintain coherence in our innovation drive?
Watch Allerd Stikker's keynote speech at Wetsus, presenting his research on innovation and coherence, as well as a personal survey of his thoughts on humanity at large.
Inspiring Dialogues
Curious to hear Allerd Stikker's inspiring talk at the Studium Generale of the Delft University of Technology?
Celebrating 28 years EMF
To celebrate EMF's transition into the organisation of Aidenvironment, a lovely booklet is presented with interviews and images of EMF’s activities since 1990.
Essay: ‘Code orange for life on earth’
'Code orange for life on earth. Opportunities and threats arising from the innovation explosion in the context of evolution' puts the present-day explosion in innovation into the context of evolution. It allows Allerd Stikker to open up a new layer in the discussion about the future of the human race.
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The Nature of the Dao and Sustainable Development
As a visitor from Europe and a friend of the Dao, I feel very honoured to have been offered the opportunity to formulate some observations on the subject of sustainability and its relationship with Daoism. I am a great admirer and long-time student of Daoism, but I realise that I cannot claim any of the deep expertise and practice accumulated by the masters, scholars and other experts present at the International Daoism Forum. Nevertheless, I will take this opportunity to give you some of my views.
‘Water, Water Everywhere…’
The global water situation, which has received increasing public attention during the last decade, is one of the most serious issues confronting the world today. However, despite numerous efforts to improve the situation, billions of people still lack access to clean drinking water and to sufficient water for basic sanitation. Moreover, around 10,000 people, about half of them young children, die every day from illnesses related to unclean water.
Turning their back on the oceans
Ecological Management Foundation chairman Allerd Stikker argues that the institutions and NGOs concerned with the world's water challenges should take desalination more seriously.
Micro versus Macro
Het Wereld Water Forum IV in Mexico ligt weer achter ons. Een forum met véél dezelfde boodschappen, véél onderlinge uitwisselingen en een ongeïnspireerde slotververklaring die geheel in het teken staat van de gouvernementele verantwoordelijkheden. Natuurlijk kan zo’n ‘top down’ macrobenadering zinvol zijn, in het kader van Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) en vooral voor grote bevolkingsconcentraties in bijvoorbeeld megacities. Wat ik echter mis, is aandacht voor micro oplossingen, de ‘bottom-up’ benadering.
Micro options can help bottom-up approach
As industry experts warn that the world is failing to achieve the MDG targets for water and sanitation provision, Allerd Stikker of the Ecological Management Foundation calls for a fresh approach.
Additional Resources for Achieving the MDG* for Water
1. Fresh Water Scarcity
Interview with the author of ‘Closing the Gap’
Why did you decide to write this book?
Desalination, a neglected option for the sweet water supply
Desalination will become an important option for relieving water scarcity in coastal areas, because of growing populations along the many coastal regions of the world. Another reason are the breakthroughs in the reduced energy requirement and investment costs for desalination processes.
How water scarcity will effect the growth in the desalination market in the coming 25 years
Desalination technology is finding new outlets in supplying water to meet growing municipal domestic consumption needs in water scarce countries with a per capita availability below 1,000 m3/y. An expansion of the current municipal water desalination market was related to the population growth and the groundwater scarcity in the coming 25 years in various regions of the world: Europe, The Caribbean, South East and Western Asia, GCC States and North Africa. First, the current impact of desalination on the renewable groundwater resources in these selected areas was determined.
Desal technology can help quench the world’s thirst
The process of taking the salt out of seawater, or desalination, "is as old as human civilization. Socrates taught students how to distill seawater to obtain fresh water. Sailors have been applying similar methods for over 2000 years. Solar ponds that were developed to harvest salt have let nature do the distilling for thousands of years already. The Sun’s heat was used to desalt seawater, which served as the drinking water for troops during the siege of Alexandria in the days of Julius Caesar. Last but not least, all of the annual fresh water supply for the planet comes from evaporation from the seas.
Desalination Improvements Spice Investment Potential
Published in Sustainable Business Investor, Worldwide 2002
(Re)connecting dualities
In this presentation the theme Gaya and Culture is looked at from an evolutionary perspective and placed in the context of a duality that is inherently interconnected. It is argued that present day emphasis on technology and economy in Western culture may have caused a trend towards radical distinctions between economy and ecology, between culture and nature and between other dualities that actually exist by the grace of each other. Reconnecting these dualities is a challenging task to be fulfilled in the 21st century.
The water issue
Reaching a desirable water world. That is the term used for the worldwide process that was started in 1998 to prepare for the World Water Forum and the Ministerial Conference on Water in March 2000 in The Hague. This ongoing process will result in a Vision and a Framework for Action that should lead to sufficient and clean water availability for all the worlds’ citizens by the year 2025. In this introduction I will try to describe the complex water issue in general terms without compromising on essentials.
Water today and tomorrow
This paper provides a general overview of the fresh water scarcity that parts of the world are facing today and will increasingly face in the coming decades. It demonstrates why and how many countries, especially developing and newly industrialized regions in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America will be vulnerable to lack of water. It shows how this will affect health, mortality and the prospects for peace if nothing is done to correct the imbalance between supply and demand. It is argued that scarcity is largely the result of poor water management and that with the implementation of proven methods of raising the efficiency of water withdrawal, use and consumption on the one hand, and of more efficient and integrated water supply on the other, the problem could be solved.