Just published in Environmental Research Letters, a collaboration with Jesse Abrams (Exeter) and John Schellnhuber (International Institute for Advanced Study) in which we explore some of the consequences of overshooting 1.5°C of warming. Our argument is that climate damage will accumulate and so further stress societies in the future, along …
Earlier this year I had the good fortune to contribute an article to a special edition of the Environmental Scientists – Degrees of disorder: climate tipping points. What the editors wanted from me was a discussion about CDR – carbon dioxide removal, and SRM – solar radiation management. I was …
Does net zero go far enough? That was the question I was asked to debate for an episode of UCL’s The Bridge podcast, part of their Disagreeing Well programme. Unsurprisingly, I said no. Moreover, I argued net zero was never enough because it didn’t respond to what the climate crisis …
Tipping points. You’ve probably heard the term, but what exactly is a tipping point? This was the question by colleague Jesse Abrams asked last year. Our collective answer was published last week: Integrating tipping point concepts across diverse systems. The concept of a “tipping point” is widely used to describe abrupt, potentially irreversible …
I’m very pleased to say that I have started a fellowship with the Earth League, an international organisation that “provides scientific insights on change and transformation within the Earth system and informs decision-making for global sustainability.” I’m joining a very esteemed group, some of who I’ve worked with in some …
Large swathes of UK farmland is underwater – again. Rural flooding is increasing as a result of more periods of intense rainfall. In this section I explained how warming leads to more climate change impacts which we need to adapt to. But there are hard and soft limits to such …
Earlier this year I worked with the Earth League on a research programme investigating climate overshoot. One of the results of this collaboration is an article recently published in the journal One Earth: Living beyond limits: Consequences of missing the decisive decade for preserving our planet’s life-supporting systems. I discussed …
Last month I was asked to contribute to Carnegie’s ‘Taking the pulse’ series. The question was Has Europe Given Up its Leadership on Climate Change? December 12, 2025 will mark the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement adopted at COP21. Rather than celebrating the birth of this landmark climate treaty, …
I will be joining the Global Day of Action on the 17th November, a worldwide initiative that works to connect legal clinics together in order to raise awareness for the climate emergency. This year’s event theme is “Decarbonization: A just transition. What does decarbonization actually entail? How quickly or easily …
At the beginning of 2025 I resolved to try and progress writing with an independent publication. I hosted “Eccentric Orbits” on Substack. Over the summer break I decided to move away from Substack and ended up settling on Ghost. Along the way I changed the name to Technosphere Earth. Head …
It doesn’t make much climate sense either, but given we are dealing with government ministers, it’s pounds and pence that can only make sense to them. I was one of the signatories to a letter we sent to the Secretary of State for Transport Rt Hon Heidi Alexander, and Chancellor …
“System change not climate change” is something you often hear shouted at a climate protest. This week we release a documentary that tries to unpack this. This is the second film I’ve produced with Global Documentary. The first, The Race is On: Secrets and Solutions of Climate, was released in …
A hotter more dangerous world demands new thinking about the climate crisis Recently I’ve been DJing at events and playing R.E.M.’s It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine). Most people in the crowd have either never heard it before, or think of it as …
People’s inability to see past net zero shows it is no longer fit for purpose “Be flexible, find common ground, come forward with solutions and achieve consensus and never lose sight of our north star of 1.5°C, that’s what I’m going to stay laser-focused on.”President of COP28, Dr. Sultan Ahmed …
On the 11th March I gave a talk to a group of students from across the University of Exeter as part of a careers in sustainability & environment week. In many ways, this was a long time coming. I’ve been giving public lectures, seminars, talks about climate change for over …
I’ve started a Substack for a number of reasons, one of them being a place to publish articles that for one reason or another never seem to quite fit anywhere else. Yes I could put them up as posts here, but having a Substack just for articles means that, perhaps, …
In 2021, Robert Watson, Wolfgang Knorr and I wrote the article “Concept of net zero is a dangerous trap“. Three years later we concluded that the jaws of this trap are starting to close with climate policy increasingly being framed in terms of what we call “The overshoot myth“. In …
I had the good fortune to work with audio producer Jo Barrett on a podcast about climate change. The commission was for a British Academy funded project that provides online climate and sustainability education to people working in creative industries. My brief was to talk about climate change, tipping points, …
You could say it’s 2016 again. But this time it’s worse. It’s worse because back then we could only really guess what a Trump presidency would do. Now we know. And beyond the presidency, the Republican Party now controls the Senate, Congress and has a conservative majority in the Supreme …
A version of this article was published by inews, October 15, 2024. Putting out the recycling bin is not my favourite household chore. But it’s one I always used to try to do, because I could argue I didn’t have to sort and wash the recycling beforehand. It’s not that …
