Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2024-517/ The Nordic region's climate change goals are challenged by significant energy price hikes from 2021 to 2023. Nordic governments implemented various price compensation measures, but their impact on social-, climate-, and environmental goals remains uncertain. The impact evaluation presented in this report highlights that the Nordic measures were characterised by diverse designs, rapid yet problematic implementation, and limited redistribution to low-income households. Several measures discouraged effective resource allocation and emission reduction. To reduce the risk of conflict between compensation measures and climate change policy it is important that measures are understood as temporary. Measures that utilise flat rate or regressive patterns for transfer of funds, and that decouple funds from current consumption, should have been more effective that most of the measures utilised.
Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2024-517/ The Nordic region's climate change goals are challenged by significant energy price hikes from 2021 to 2023. Nordic governments implemented various price compensation measures, but their impact on social-, climate-, and environmental goals remains uncertain. The impact evaluation presented in this report highlights that the Nordic measures were characterised by diverse designs, rapid yet problematic implementation, and limited redistribution to low-income households. Several measures discouraged effective resource allocation and emission reduction. To reduce the risk of conflict between compensation measures and climate change policy it is important that measures are understood as temporary. Measures that utilise flat rate or regressive patterns for transfer of funds, and that decouple funds from current consumption, should have been more effective that most of the measures utilised.
International and domestic tourism changed not only as a result of the Corona pandemic, but even before. As a result of Covid-19, international and global tourism has temporarily collapsed in most countries, but in many countries - such as Austria or Switzerland - domestic tourism has increased. The big question is whether the slump in global tourism is temporary or whether an actual trend reversal is on the horizon. In favour of the former is the fact that growing middle classes in Asia, but also Latin America and Africa, have greater financial means and more and more people are vaccinated against Covid-19; in favour of the latter are the many ecological constraints and the fight against climate change, but also the emergence of new mutations in the Corona virus. Based on the development of tourism since the turn of the millennium, these and similar questions about tourism and its short- and medium-term perspectives will be discussed.
A comprehensive survey of the therapeutic, historical, and cultural uses of cannabis in traditions around the world. • The most complete visual record of cannabis culture ever published. • Christian Ratsch is one of the world's foremost ethnopharmacologists and is the current president of the German Society for Ethnomedicine. Marijuana Medicine explores the role of hemp in medicinal systems spanning the globe. Cannabis has accompanied the development of human culture from its very beginnings and can be found in the healing traditions of cultures throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Even today it is an important part of many Asian healing traditions: in Ayurveda cannabis is praised for its tonic and aphrodisiac qualities and in traditional Chinese medicine it is cited as a superb antidepressant. It also remains a significant part of the healing and visionary traditions of Latin American curanderos and Brazilian, Nepalese, and Indian folk medicine. Modern research has confirmed the effectiveness of marijuana's application in treating such diseases as asthma and glaucoma. Christian Ratsch profiles the medicinal, historical, and cultural uses of cannabis in each of these societies and medical systems, providing remedies and recipes for those interested in how cannabis can be used to treat specific conditions.
The most comprehensive guide to the botany, history, distribution, and cultivation of all known psychoactive plants • Examines 414 psychoactive plants and related substances • Explores how using psychoactive plants in a culturally sanctioned context can produce important insights into the nature of reality • Contains 797 color photographs and 645 black-and-white illustrations In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful plants--those known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness--have traditionally been regarded as sacred. In The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants Christian Rätsch details the botany, history, distribution, cultivation, and preparation and dosage of more than 400 psychoactive plants. He discusses their ritual and medicinal usage, cultural artifacts made from these plants, and works of art that either represent or have been inspired by them. The author begins with 168 of the most well-known psychoactives--such as cannabis, datura, and papaver--then presents 133 lesser known substances as well as additional plants known as “legal highs,” plants known only from mythological contexts and literature, and plant products that include substances such as ayahuasca, incense, and soma. The text is lavishly illustrated with 797 color photographs--many of which are from the author’s extensive fieldwork around the world--showing the people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world’s sacred psychoactives.
In this timely exploration of sustainable actions, Christian Berg unpacks the complexity in understanding the barriers we face in moving towards a sustainable future, providing solution perspectives for every level, from individuals to governments and supra-national organizations offering a lucid vision of a long-term and achievable goal for sustainability. While the 2030 Agenda has already set ambitious targets for humanity, it offers little guidance for concrete actions. Although much is already being done, progress seems slow and some actions aiming at sustainability may be counterproductive. Different disciplines, societal actors, governmental departments and NGOs attribute the slow progress to a number of different causes, from the corruption of politicians to the wrong incentive structures. Sustainable Action surveys all the fields involved in sustainability to provide action principles which speak to actors of different kinds, not just those professionally mandated with such changes. It offers a road map to all those who might not constantly think about systems change but who are concerned and want to contribute to a sustainable future in a meaningful way. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of sustainability issues, as well as those looking for a framework for how to change their systems at work to impact the quadruple bottom line: environment, economy, society, and future generations.
Christian Schierenbeck makes a provocative case that higher education across the globe suffers from a profound productivity crisis which prevents broad access to affordable and high-quality educational services. He shows how the vast productivity gap in higher education could be closed if academic managers borrowed some of the managerial practices applied by the world’s leading business enterprises. In order for this to happen in practice, the author argues for radical changes in the policy framework for higher education.
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