Joël Guiot, Aix-Marseille Université (AMU) and Wolfgang Cramer, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) The Mediterranean basin, which includes the Mediterranean Sea and the countries it borders, is often referred to as a hotspot for climate change and biodiversity. This image is used to illustrate the multiple risks for the region, its people and […]
Urban rooms: where people get to design their city’s future
Tim Dixon, University of Reading and Lorraine Farrelly, University of Reading Despite the strong Utopian traditions of urban planning, there has often been a reluctance to think beyond the short term. Long-term planning is complex; electoral cycles are short and it’s easier to focus on the everyday challenges than those of the far-off future. For […]
How Renewable Energy Will Alter the Global Geopolitical Calculus
It wasn’t that long ago that most of the energy used on the Earth came from muscles. People and animals did most of the work, with an occasional assist from a water wheel. Ships relied on the wind to get from port to port. Then along came James Watt and his steam engine and everything […]
Britain’s electricity away from fossil fuels
Britain has shifted 30% of its electricity away from fossil fuels in just nine years By Joe Dunckley / shutterstock Grant Wilson, University of Birmingham and Iain Staffell, Imperial College London Nine years ago, Britain generated nearly 75% of its electricity using natural gas and coal. In 2018, this dropped to under 45% – a […]
What if we engineered the world’s climate!
Rob Bellamy, University of Manchester and Matthew Watson, University of Bristol wrote that Nations may soon be desperate enough about global warming to consider deliberately engineering the world’s climate. Should we engineer the climate? A social scientist and natural scientist discuss Ekaterina Karpacheva/Shutterstock.com Rob Bellamy, University of Manchester and Matthew Watson, University of Bristol This […]
Progress in Greening the Global Construction Industry
Noting some progress in greening the global construction industry, the United Nations environment agency (UNEP) co-released a report on Friday at the COP24 climate conference in Katowice, Poland, sounding the alarm on the need for “dramatic action” to reduce the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions. “It’s critical we have a big change over the nextcouple of […]