The ECHR ruling that could shame our Government into climate action

inews 11th April 2024 For more than 30 years governments have been wrestling with the climate problem. While we may or may not get the politicians we deserve, what seems abundantly clear is that no mainstream political party has demonstrated the sufficient gumption to keep humanity safe from dangerous climate …

Climate tipping points are nearer than you think – our new report warns of catastrophic risk

James Dyke, University of Exeter and David Armstrong McKay, Stockholm University It’s now almost inevitable that 2023 will be the warmest year ever recorded by humans, probably the warmest for at least 125,000 years. Multiple temperature records were smashed with global average temperatures for some periods well above 1.5°C. Antarctic …

To Tackle Climate Change, Stop Farming the Planet to Death

Published in World Politics Review 24th January 2023 There is something very wrong with global food production. From farm to fork, the food system as it currently exists is the most environmentally destructive of all human activities. More than half of the Earth’s habitable land is used for agriculture, and …

University of Exeter’s new partnership with Shell is a mistake

This week, the University of Exeter announced a new net zero collaboration with Shell. This five-year deal represents a significant amount of income to the University. This money will pay for research in the UK and Brazil that “is part of a wider Shell-led research programme focussed on carbon sequestration, …

10 myths about net zero targets and carbon offsetting, busted

The term “net zero” features in every climate policy. Why? Kevin Anderson gives his explanation in this short clip from the climate documentary film The Race is On (carry on watching to hear Kate Raworth diagnose some of the central dysfunctions of mainstream policy). Today, I and 40 other scientists …

We don’t need to sacrifice the economy, people or planet to Covid-19

Does every cloud has a silver lining? It may be argued that Covid-19 has in a couple of months produced more action on the environment than international treaties have in many decades. Air pollution has precipitously dropped around the world. Skies are no longer lacerated with contrails as aircraft remain …

Carbon removal is as much of a solution to climate change as liposuction is a solution to obesity

The i newspaper and inews online 26th September 2019. Is this it? Is this the long-awaited tipping point, the moment when a sufficient fraction of society not only wakes up to the dangers of global heating, but starts to demand action? An estimated four million people in more than 160 …

This month millions will strike for climate justice- we will either make history, or through our inaction, end it

The i news online and i newspaper print edition 9th August 2019. A year ago, Greta Thurnberg was an anonymous school girl who every Friday sat outside the Swedish parliament with a home made sign protesting against inaction on climate change. Today politicians and celebrities hang on her words, the …

Amazon fires need cooperation across political spectrum

The Independent 27th August 2019 If the Amazon rainforest goes up in smoke, then we will all be cooked. Its two million square miles hold over a hundred billion tons of carbon. At a time when we urgently need to reduce carbon emissions, the current fires that are raging across …

The Whaley Bridge dam collapse is terrifying – but it will soon be dwarfed by far greater eco-disasters

The Independent 2nd August 2019. The phrase “I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life” has been uttered a great deal in the north of England this week. In some places an entire month’s rain fell in four hours. Small streams that are usually a few inches deep …

Hiroshima victim’s message of hope aged 12 reminds me of Greta Thunberg’s climate-striking children

The i news online and i newspaper print edition 6th August 2019. 6th August 1945 8:15am local time, and a flash of light brighter than the sun bursts over Hiroshima. Within seconds the centre of the city is obliterated and tens of thousands of people are dead. 72 years later …

Europe is burning just as new research offers a chilling truth about the volatility of climate change

The Independent 24th July 2019 It’s not the fall that will kill you, but the suddenness of the stopping. Just as it is with a plane crash, so it is with global heating. Changes in the climate don’t in themselves represent a significant risk – the Earth’s climate has been …

The government’s progress on climate change is so bad it’s almost a waste of time measuring it

The Independent | The i 10th July 2019. Today should mark a milestone in the UK’s rapid decarbonisation. Because today is the release of the Committee for Climate Change’s annual progress report in which it details how the UK government has been performing over the past year. With the recent …

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