Smil in full flow

admiration for Vaclav Smil’s command of a range of disciplines, sources and statistics tends to break out here quite regularly.
I’ve just renewed it by watching this discussion from the recent Perimeter Institute Conference with the – also admirable – Andy Revkin.
you can see it all here
Be patient with the opening sponsors’ roll and you get [...]

peak oil (supply… or demand?)

A good, clear presentation on peak oil at Bristol’s Science Café this week from Ian Page of the International Futures Forum.
He spent too long telling us what a great guy Hubbert was (is there a biography, I wonder? – there should be). But he also brought out clearly that the civilisation- ending interpretation of peak [...]

Politics of climate change

Tony Giddens’ new book on climate change is attracting some interesting crits. Giddens is a good specimen of that rare species in the UK, the public intellectual. He’s steered a nicely judged path between devoting his life to the promulgation of a single idea, like Richard Dawkins, and offering views on so many things you [...]

Alternatives to growth?

It is easy to sympathise with the green commentators who are unimpressed by the results (as opposed to the rhetoric) of the various stimulus packages, and how far they fall short of a “green new deal”. However, there are more radical critiques than that which are worth considering, even though they lead to even more [...]