WEC Articles

SDG`s The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. Learn more and take action. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ We can break these down into three main challenges–  instability, implementation, governance . Increasing global instability, including the recent financial crisis, the political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa and around the world, and the problems caused by changing climate conditions has brought about growing insecurity. These key challenges are: Instability, such as conflict between nations Implementation, such as ensuring programmes fit the local context Governance, such as political will to transform development programmes into sustainable long-term practices Sustainable Development: A Win-Win Situation for Every...

  What else could meme coins be? Ten years ago, two weeks before the Ethereum project was publicly announced, I published  this post on Bitcoin magazine arguing that issuing coins could be a new way to fund important public projects. The thinking went: society needs ways to fund valuable large-scale projects, markets and institutions (both corporations and governments) are the main techniques that we have today, and both work in some cases and fail in others. Issuing new coins seems like a third class of large-scale funding technology, and it seems different enough from both markets and institutions that it would succeed and fail in different places - and so it could fill in some important gaps. People who care about cancer research could hold, accept and trade AntiCancerCoin; people who care about saving the environment would hold and use ClimateCoin, and so forth. The coins that people choose to use would determine what causes get funded. Today in 2024, a major topic of disc...

Trust Me, I'm Verified: How Not to Fall for Nonsense on the Internet In today’s digital landscape, where every scroll serves up a buffet of breaking news, unsolicited opinions, and cats playing the piano, separating fact from fiction feels like a full-time job. Enter the trusted source verification model—essentially your personal nonsense filter. While it may sound like a boring bureaucratic process, it’s actually a clever method for deciding whether a piece of information deserves your attention or your eye roll. At its core, the model looks at four key things: the reputation of the source, the consistency of the information, the presence of actual experts, and a history of not being terribly wrong in the past. Think of it like asking, “Would I trust this person to watch my plants while I’m away?” If the answer is no, maybe don’t trust them with your worldview either. Take, for example, a breathless headline about a groundbreaking scientific discovery-say, “Coffee Cures Time.” Bef...

Australia’s Evolving Relationship with Aboriginal Culture Australia’s relationship with its First Nations peoples is complex, layered, and still unfolding. For much of its modern history, Aboriginal culture was not only ignored—it was actively suppressed. But today, it's increasingly common to hear Australians begin events or speeches with an Acknowledgment of Country, paying respect to the traditional custodians of the land. This shift didn’t happen overnight. It is the result of generations of activism, public reckoning, and cultural change. In this post, we’ll look at how Australia got here—from the era of the White Australia policy to a society beginning to embrace its Indigenous heritage—and explore both the progress made and the challenges that remain. A Brief Historical Context Before British colonisation began in 1788, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples lived across the Australian continent for over 60,000 years, maintaining rich and diverse cultures deeply conne...

Tariffs: A Look at Their History, Use, and Impact on the Global Economy Tariffs are one of the oldest tools in international trade, yet they remain a hot topic in today’s global economy. Whether in discussions about trade wars, local industry protection, or rising prices for everyday goods, tariffs continue to shape economies and influence the way countries interact. But what exactly are tariffs, and why do governments use them? More importantly, how do they affect us today? helped protect Japanese farmers from cheaper foreign rice. While this supports domestic agriculture, it also means that Japanese consumers pay higher prices for imported food products. Similarly, the European Union has placed tariffs on steel and aluminum to protect its manufacturing sector from foreign competition, ensuring that local producers remain competitive in the market. For consumers, tariffs often mean higher prices. When a country imposes tariffs on imported goods, companies usually pass the extra cost o...