It's become known as the Aarhus Model, a programme designed in Denmark's second city to dissuade young people from going to fight for al-Qaeda or Islamic State. Thirty travelled to Syria in 2013 but only two so far this year - and only one in 2014. Ahmed is one young man who was convinced, a few years ago, to draw back from the first step on a path that could have ended in jihad.
“One thing that occurs to me is the behavior of the tobacco companies denying the connection between smoking and lung cancer for the sake of profits, but this is an order of magnitude greater moral offence, in my opinion, because what is at stake is the fate of the planet, humanity, and the future of civilisation, not to be melodramatic.”
The reason you should boycott bottled water is because it enables a bullshit, backwards vision for society.
Boycotting bottled water means you support the idea that public access to clean, safe water is not only a basic human right, but that it’s a goddamn technological triumph worth protecting. It means you believe that ensuring public access to this resource is the only way to guarantee it will be around in a few more years.
Clean, safe drinking water that flows freely out of our faucets is a feat of engineering that humans have been been perfecting for two millennia. It is a cornerstone of civilization. It is what our cities are built upon. And over the years the scientists and hydrologists and technicians who help get water to our houses have also become our environmental stewards, our infrastructural watchdogs, our urban visionaries. Drinking the water these people supply to our homes is the best possible way to protect future access to water worldwide.
[...]
Giving up bottled water also means thinking long-term about preserving water security. You may have reservoirs near you brimming over with fresh rainfall right now, but the truth is that the amount of potable water on this planet is growing more scarce every year. The bottled water industry is one of the fastest-growing on the planet. Last year it made $100 billion, an amount that is expected to double within five years. Now consider the fact that it actually takes the equivalent of three bottles of water to make a single water bottle. Every swig from a plastic blob in the name of convenience moves us closer to a world without any clean water at all.
Because like I said before, it’s not about this drought—it’s about every future drought.
Au final, que retenir de cet éditorial ? L'image d'une Europe condamnée aux « ajustements », refusant toute solidarité interne et en même temps toute différence, montant les peuples les uns contre les autres, établissant une démocratie sur la base de critères économiques. L'Europe dont rêve Arnaud Leparmentier n'est en fait qu'un immense gâchis.
In a world where profit is consistently put before both people and the planet, climate economics has everything to do with ethics and morality. Because if we agree that endangering life on earth is a moral crisis, then it is incumbent on us to act like it.
La sous-enchère salariale fait l’unanimité contre elle. Personne ne défend les conditions de travail abusives en vigueur sur certains chantiers, qui ne respectent pas les règles et les usages locaux.
Mais serions-nous plus tolérants si nous pouvions commander, via une application smartphone, des ouvriers étrangers demandant des salaires de misère sans cotisations sociales?
La problématique économique et sociale liée à Uber brillamment expliquée.
Les secteurs de l’hôtellerie et des taxis étant universellement détestés, le débat public s’est rapidement résumé à l’image d’audacieux précurseurs bousculant des rentiers poussifs et dépourvus d’imagination. Une présentation aussi biaisée masque un fait essentiel : ces courageux champions de l’« économie du partage » évoluent dans un univers mental caractéristique du XIXe siècle. Dans leur système, le travailleur, radicalement individualisé, ne bénéficie que d’une protection sociale symbolique ; il assume les risques qui pesaient auparavant sur les employeurs ; ses possibilités de négociation collective se réduisent à néant.
