The book talks are coming! Blue Machine (out June 1st) tells the huge story of our ocean. Upcoming talks:
Launch talk, London, 1st June https://shorturl.at/kmuPT
Online, 5th June, https://shorturl.at/rtyBZ
Brunel Museum, London, 5th June https://shorturl.at/jsxQ8
Cheltenham 8th June https://shorturl.at/cflz1
Manchester, 16th June https://shorturl.at/iwMU8
Rotterdam 20th June https://shorturl.at/bFU02
Chalke Valley, 26th June https://shorturl.at/agkwL
Book info here: https://shorturl.at/ikVX1
I love the idea of “materials as a service” because we only ever borrow atoms from the planet - they will all eventually be returned to a shared pool - and it forces us to face the ridiculousness of the linear model of resource->factory->item->use->”Away” #climate #CircularEconomy #materials #recycling
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/Stories/materials-as-a-service/?mc_cid=642ecf71f0&mc_eid=919725ccb3
I keep thinking back to this Microlino at Fully Charged Live. Reusable water bottles became acceptable, being vegan is now cool, and so is wearing vintage clothes. So who is going to step up to the critical task of making small cars fashionable? The trend towards giant SUVs is ludicrous, incredibly wasteful and dangerous, and bad for our cities. If you must use a car, it should be as small as possible. Where are the micro-car visionaries/influencers? WE NEED YOU. #cars #SUV #climate
This just went straight into my top ten favourite boat names.
I’m in Guernsey (for the first time) to speak at their literary festival tomorrow on Blue Machine, so if you know anyone on the island, do encourage them to come along. #books #Guernsey #ocean #boats
So he spent £6000 instead of £30 by taking a helicopter instead of the train, but he also generated ~1100 kg of CO2 instead of ~10kg per person for the train. (No idea how many people were in the helicopter)
“Sunak uses helicopter for trip that would have taken just over an hour by train”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/09/sunak-helicopter-train-southampton-prime-minister-rail
Helicopter use cannot be casual - it must be a last resort, when there are no other options.
(Back-of-the-envelope calculation based on fuel consumption)
I am all for vehicle-to-grid technology - it means that car battery capacity can be doing useful things for a far higher proportion of the time - but if we make that a major selling point of cars, aren’t we just pushing people to own a car (aka a mobile battery) when they don’t really need to? All cars having V2G capability is sensible, but I think if we make this a killer argument for owning an EV we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. Fewer cars = better .#EV #Cars
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/05/08/california-ponders-v2g-mandate/
Just finished this, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the UK parliamentary system and UK democracy. It’s a very readable deep dive into what does and doesn’t work at the moment (only published last month), and although it’s depressing along the way, it points to some relatively straightforward fixes at the end. We can change this if we choose. Read it and tell your MP! #books #democracy #Parliament
I love the idea of cities that are far more people-centred than most today, with properly flexible travel options and fewer cars… and maybe we’re not that far away (and not just in Utrecht). Today I had a large box to collect from my sister, so I had a nice run across London to her house, then a cup of tea, and then a PedalMe e-cargo bike arrived to take me and the box home. And it was FUN. More of this! #cities #bikes #ecargo #climate
The “launch” book talk for Blue Machine will be on the day of publication (June 1st) at the Royal Institution in London. When we talk about the ocean, we talk about the fish, the dolphins, the pollution - anything except the water itself. But the water forms the engine that carries some of the biggest stories on Earth, and it’s time to see the ocean for what it really is. Do join us. https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/blue-machine-uncovering-oceans-power #Science #ocean #books
Fully Charged LIVE is coming to the north of England on the 19th, 20th and 21st of May. If you’re interested in the future of clean energy and transport, THIS is the place to be - talks, test rides for e-bikes/scooters/unicycles and EVs, domestic advice on heat pumps, solar etc, a zero carbon kitchen, and a positive, interesting, fun exploration of just how exciting this is all going to be. And it’s *not* just about cars. Do come and join us! https://fullycharged.show/events/fully-charged-live-uk-north-2023/ #FullyCharged #Energy #EV
To anyone who knows **UK** students looking for a PhD studentship and who might be interested in any of these topics, UEA has some going so please pass on the advert below:
Wild fires, Coastal cliff instability, Near-real time fossil fuel emissions, Extreme weather, Ozone depletion events in the polar Arctic atmosphere, Sea-ice carbon pump, Ocean-atmosphere-ice interactions, Leaky ocean eddies, Zinc in polar diatoms, Zooplankton carbon pumps