News and Updates

  • Introducing, momentarily, the 'Amazon Second'

    Amazon, in addition to selling stuff, is now in the time-shifting business.  From 1200 today, 30th June, to 1200 on 1 July, the universal second, according to Amazon, will be slightly longer than seconds everywhere else.  This is because of the...

  • Another WEEC, another two conferences

    Three conferences in one WEEC – and what to do? There's WEEC 8 in Göteborg at the start of the weec, but enough's been said for now about that.  Then there's the National Sustainable Schools conference in Bristol, and the International Outdoor...

  • Less than a WEEC to go

    I wrote a while back about the best conference I have ever attended as far as keynote addresses were concerned.  There were 3 stunning ones.  I won't repeat any of the detail – but it's here.  Most of the rest have...

  • Walking the walk

    Those readers concerned that business is not taking climate change seriously enough might find some (probably small) encouragement from an article [ Walking the walk ] in the Economist which looks at European business and climate change.  It begins: "SIX big...

  • Paris UN conference text update

    I noted back in February that UN negotiators had produced "an early draft" of the text for the climate deal in Paris next December.  Their initial text had been 38 pages long, but negotiators managed to whittle it down to 86 pages to make...

  • Sun, Sun, Everywhere, but ...

    I wrote back in May about  the growth of renewables in electricity generation. It was a positive picture.  Today's post is a somewhat more sober one. A recent BP report says that world-wide solar energy generation grew by 38% last...

  • Only two WEECs to go

    Are you looking forward to WEEC at the end of June?  The programme says that there are 23 keynote speakers.  "23!", I thought, "that's over 7 a day; hardly time for lunch. Who's going to eat all that herring?" I need not have...

  • What's the collective noun for zoos?

    I wondered about this as I was browsing the recent flush of 'zoos are a problem – but we love them' stories in the media.  According to Wiktionary, there isn't such a term – yet.  But I think that NAEE might just have...

  • How GM do you feel today?

    The Economist recently ran a story under the headline: Genetically Modified People.  The graphic was itself appropriately graphic. The point of the piece was that human beings’ ancestors routinely absorbed genes from other species.  The article began: OPPONENTS of genetically modified crops often...

  • The Future History of Political Economy – Part 1

    Another well-written post from the Daly News landed in my in-box last week.  It's focus was how economics has ignored thermodynamics over the years and centuries.  I touched on the issues it raises in my talk at Cambridge last week...