You might have noticed that the world is currently undergoing an energy transition – from fossil fuels to renewables. Despite great resistance to this shift from the traditional purveyors of energy, the trend seems...
Author - dlisle
Wasting food: a brief guide.
With the human population on this little planet of ours expected to grow to over 9 billion in the next few decades, food security is being consistently identified as a pressing problem. That might sound Malthusian, but...
Enhancing urban mobility: Anyone for bicycle freedom?
As discussed a couple of weeks ago in this blog (here), cycling has long been understood as a super-efficient mode of transport. So it is no surprise that in recent years urban planners have turned to bicycle-sharing...
A taste of Velo-efficiency
I once read that a human being on a bicycle is the most efficient means by which any animal has ever moved through space. Indeed, it is a claim often made. Forty years ago Ivan Illich wrote that: “The bicycle is the...
The TTIP: Partnership or legal straitjacket?
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership(TTIP) currently under negotiation between the US and the EU has been billed as a free trade deal. And indeed, for the last couple of hundred years it has been clear...
Unburnable Carbon: Bill McKibben’s frightening math
An article by veteran American environmental campaigner Bill McKibben appearing in Rolling Stone a couple of years ago framed the issue of dealing with climate change in a simple and remarkably vivid way. McKibben posed...
Open source for climate innovation
Nobody is likely to argue with the claim that innovation is at the root of human prosperity. So it is hardly surprising that technological innovation is the main response of society as we grapple with the consequences...
Resource Efficiency III: The Quarry and the Factory
One of the more frustrating aspects of research is when the data will not conform to ones expectations. This article consumed much more of my time than I would have liked because I had wondered whether China and...
Resource efficiency II: Offshoring resource consumption
Last year the Economist magazine claimed that “While America and Europe are cutting their emissions by 60m tonnes a year combined, China is increasing its own by over 500m tonnes. This makes it a unique global threat”...
Resource Efficiency: Measuring and Managing Metabolism
Last week’s offering from this blog flew under the banner of “The Circular Economy” – a concept so broad that it might well have been labelled “sustainability”. Like sustainability, the idea of the circular economy is...