Andrew Seifert

Are we responsible for our actions both individually and as companies and industry? As individuals, we can be held accountable in most areas, unless we are politicians – but companies and...

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Do we have control over the technology we use? We need regulations when it comes to technology, robots and AI – and it's urgent.

WATER: Do we know the figures behind today's water consumption? For example, cotton from the fashion industry accounts for 10 per cent of global CO2 emissions – more than aviation and shipping combined. It costs 2700 liters of water to produce a cotton T-shirt. 140 liters of water to produce a cup of coffee. And one kilogram of beef requires a whopping 14 liters of water. Must we always let capitalism trump the future?

ECOLOGY: On the one hand, plastic replaces more polluting building materials. On the other hand, we have enormous amounts of plastic waste. We have produced 7 billion tonnes of plastic as of today.

Food production: The newly explored "air food" contains neither soy, hormones, pesticides, herbicides nor genetically modified organisms. And the manufacturing process, which is carbon negative, can reduce traditional food production – which currently causes a third of the world's CO2 emissions.

Energy: MODERN TIMES's commentator Ole Seifert will in future regularly cover ecological technology and innovations. Various innovations in energy and power are presented here: ocean current turbines, solar power with ferroelectric crystals, hemp batteries and mechanical storage of excess power – which replaces batteries.