Development Roast Giving international development a proper roasting
By: Lykke E. Andersen* Within the Bolivian government, there are parts that encourage a massive expansion of the agricultural frontier, and other parts that work to control deforestation in order to reduce the local and global impacts of climate change. These are pretty much opposing policies, so consider the following …
Read More »Deforestation and reforestation in Bolivia: A thought experiment
By: Lykke E. Andersen* Within the Bolivian government, there are parts that encourage a massive expansion of the agricultural frontier, and other parts that work to control deforestation in order to reduce the local and global impacts of climate change. These are pretty much opposing policies, so consider the following …
Read More »Father’s Day and teenage pregnancy in Bolivia
By: Lykke E. Andersen* Fertility rates have been going down all over the World much faster than most people realize. Fertility rates in Bolivia, for example, have come down from 6.5 babies per woman in 1971 to 3.2 in 2013, which is typical of developing countries (1). This evolution made …
Read More »Anti-feministic musings on International Women’s Day
By: Lykke E. Andersen* Today is International Women’s Day and you are likely to be bombarded with posts, articles and speeches listing all the ways in which women are wronged and discriminated against. Some of it is true in some places, and there are definitely problems that have to …
Read More »Incredible Internet Inequality
By: Lykke E. Andersen & Fabián Soria* According to the latest Bolivian Population Census (2012), only 9.6% of households have Internet access (either fixed or wireless). Considering that the Bolivian Constitution puts telecommunications (including Internet) on par with water, sanitation and electricity as a basic human right, this coverage is …
Read More »The Universal Beer Work Constant
By: Lykke E. Andersen* It’s Carnaval week/month in Bolivia – the time of year when most beer is drunk. Beer prices have just gone up again, now reaching an outrageous Bs. 9, or more, for a small can of standard beer in supermarkets. This corresponds to USD 3.64 for 1 …
Read More »Homo rapiens, species extinction and the meaning of life
By: Lykke E. Andersen* The impacts of Homo sapiens on this planet are enormous. We have turned about a fifth of the total land area of this planet into agricultural fields and pasture to feed ourselves; we are burning massive amounts of fossil fuels, thus altering the composition of the …
Read More »Transforming problems into opportunities by mimicking nature
By: Lykke E. Andersen* The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is about to end its 20th annual conference in Lima, Peru, and heads of state and negotiators from every country on Earth are fighting to get other countries to reduce their CO2 emissions as much as possible, …
Read More »Genetically Modified Organisms and the perils of being too precautionary
By: Anna Sophia Doyle* At a time when the global view of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) grows ever more polarized, the seventh meeting of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety[1] was both timely and symptomatic of the current divide. Agenda items were many and varied, including compliance to the protocol, financial …
Read More »Day of Spring, Love, Peace and Ice
By: Lykke E. Andersen* The 21st of September marks the beginning of spring in the southern hemisphere. In Bolivia, it is also the day of Love, Peace, Students, Doctors and Photographers (!!). Most relevant for this article, however, today is usually the day of the year that the extent of …
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