A cure for polarization?

It was the week of the nitrogen protests. The week also of the abolition of universal abortion rights in the United States. It was the week of the possible entry of Ukraine and Moldova into “our” Union. And well, it was another week of the overcrowded refugee camps, rising prices, an overheated labor market, a new Corona wave, and all kinds of other small and large incidents. 

The trend is clear: these are all events and developments that only further increase the polarization in our world. Are you pro or con? And is your choice based on actual or desired facts? It has become almost a mortal sin to want to walk a middle path. Let alone engage in conversation to be convinced by facts and arguments. To let knowledge win over illusions. To let science guide our big and small decisions.

Because we are concerned about this, we at Innovation Origins have been working behind the scenes for a few months to develop a second brand – a service focused on basic facts. In one respect, this service, the details of which we will reveal shortly, is similar to Innovation Origins. Both brands aim to make our audience’s world more manageable. But other than that, it will all be completely different. We are going to produce super-short videos containing urgent current matters. No opinion, no personal views, just the facts, stripped of all the embellishments we are used to in most media. We want to make a small contribution to the task of bringing our divided society back together again. Because if we start with shared facts, we can then also talk to each other about shared solutions.

“Are we going to make the news boring again,” a colleague wanted to know. Yes, we are. But hopefully in such a way that you will never want your news to be anything else again. A small detail: we are starting our rollout in the US, the country where polarization is still a few steps further ‘advanced’ than in our European world. 

In the meantime, we will continue to do what you have come to expect from us: bring you beautiful, insightful stories about relevant innovations from all parts of Europe. Read them all right here. What particularly struck me last week:

How fast technology can advance, you can read in Corine Spaans’ series of articles on 3D printing with materials like plastic, metal, and concrete. This is more and more a convenient (and cheaper) solution both industrially and privately.

It continues to be fun to see more and more lighted tiles on the overview page of our Decarbonizing Europe project. Understanding the current state of affairs, strategies, and measures that EU countries are taking to combat climate change is interesting and instructive. Although we can all use the same fund, the conditions in each country are different. We’re almost there, 6 more countries out of 27 to go – and we’re already working on a continuation of the series.

Also, good news from Brussels: Laurens Boven describes how the European Parliament this week finally agreed on a number of central laws of Frans Timmermans’ climate plan. Earlier this month, the vote on the introduction of, among other things, an import levy on CO2 got bogged down because of a conflict about taking the free CO2 emission rights off the market. 

Further: pitching students in search of a better world, the annual innovation day at Holst Centre and a top tip from our columnist Eveline van Zeeland: stop focusing on that awful ‘dot on the horizon’, but reach out for the stars!

Make it a beautiful, non-polarized Sunday!