In 1969, the Club of Rome commissioned a group of scientists from a range of disciplines to generate a computer model of what would happen to humanity if we continued with business as usual. The result was the publication of The Limits to Growth in 1972. It’s conclusions made for …
Read More »Who should lead the fight against climate change?
Efforts to tackle climate change have been hamstrung by a disconnect between national and international policy-making bodies and citizens. This often results in governments adopting unrealistic targets that they have no idea how to achieve, while individual citizens are left wondering what, if anything, we should be doing. Perhaps the …
Read More »The countries with more than 80% renewables… Not what you expected
A fifth of global energy generation came from renewables in 2012 according to the International Energy Agency. But which countries use the highest proportion of renewables in their energy mix? Perhaps it is the hi-tech Germans? Or maybe it is the fast-expanding Chinese? Not even close! Only two European countries …
Read More »Europe should leave TBTF banks to their fate
Government responses to the crisis of 2008 and its continuing fallout have left Europe with too many bloated and inefficient ‘too big to fail’ banks according to UBS boss Axel Weber in an interview for Business Insider: “Europe is over-banked so you would expect to see the demise of some weak …
Read More »Restructure or throw our children under a bus
Failure to make big shifts fast would amount to putting our children and grandchildren in the path of a speeding bus according to Laurie Goering at Reuters. According to experts at a meeting of the Thomson Reuters Foundation: “Meeting the goals of a new global agreement to tackle climate change …
Read More »Former energy CEO says we face an energy crisis before an energy revolution
The global energy system is set to undergo a revolution similar in magnitude to that experienced by the communications and computing industry, according to the former CEO of SSE, Ian Marchant: “Now there are already one million small generators from community-owned wind, small scale biomass, rooftop wind and solar, and …
Read More »The end of coal?
The collapse of Peabody – the world’s largest private coal corporation – may speed the transition to renewable electricity generation according to Claudia Assis at Market Watch: “Since 2010, more than a third of coal-fueled power plants have been retired or are scheduled to be retired, and the market for …
Read More »US government and energy companies knew about global warming 50 years ago
Oliver Milman at the Guardian has seen evidence that: “The oil industry’s knowledge of dangerous climate change stretches back to the 1960s, with unearthed documents showing that it was warned of “serious worldwide environmental changes” more than 45 years ago.” The evidence flies in the face of the energy industry’s …
Read More »When fracking isn’t fracking
The UK government’s claim that fracked gas is a ‘clean, low carbon transition fuel’ rests solely on the tight regulations designed to avoid the mistakes made in the USA. It appears, however, that potential drillers are deterred by such heavy-handed regulation. Even operating under the Wild West conditions seen in …
Read More »Want to see something really scary?
What are the three most dangerous myths about climate change? Obviously, the one put out by the fossil fuel industry that says that it isn’t happening comes top. But which myths come second and third? I would argue that propositions put out by oil giant BP and the International Energy …
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