Blog

So it’s taken me nearly two thirds of January to get around to writing this. There is a tradition around this time of year to come up with “New Year Resolutions”. For this reason, January is generally a terrible month to visit the gym, because it’s packed with idiots who will be gone by...
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Sitting in a hotel room in Berlin on New Year’s eve is as good a time as any is write a long-belated post about growing up, and how it differs to ageing. I recently turned 31. 31 is a nice age to become, and not only because it is a prime number. I dealt...
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Yesterday was the final day of negotiations. The text was adopted, but it was very weak. The opportunity to really make a difference was squandered… or was it? As far as the political process and the negotiations are concerned, very little progress was made. Countries have three years to come up with sustainable development...
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UN summits are funny things. One of the more unusual things I noticed is the way people are dressed. Rio de Janiero at this time of the year is often in the mid-twenties and quite humid – just last tuesday it was 32 degrees. Yet, the dress code for the conference is overwhelmingly suit-and-tie....
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It’s taken a little while to fully decompress, but we seem to have all recovered well from the stress of our official Rio+20 side event. A lot has happened in the time since I last updated. Big on my agenda of course was the side event that I mentioned before. The “side” events are...
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So we’ve mostly adjusted to the time zone difference and the climate. Well, sort of. It just keeps getting hotter and hotter. On the morning of the 3rd day, it is 32 degrees (celsius) which is the hottest of the three days we’ve been here (and it’s only 10am). Took a trip to the...
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This is not the first time I’ve been to Rio. Five years ago, while undertaking an epic voyage around South America, I came across this beautiful city (read about it here). Of course, traveling with no purpose other than to travel and see things is very different from traveling with a purpose, and this...
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Not long ago, I came across this on my facebook news feed with the caption “First you don’t get it… Then you do… And then you can’t UN-get it!”. The caption describes perfectly the various stages my own mind went through when viewing. It also got me thinking about culture, and the various differences...
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