April 2023

I see that the government is proposing that, by 2024, 22% of new car sales in the UK must be zero emission vehicles (ZEVs).   Given that it does not make or sell cars, this is a bold move.  Bolder...

The world worries about the supply of lithium, or rather, the lack of it, as the metal is so vital to technological innovation.  Not to mention all those Rare Earths with funny names: dysprosium, promethium, gadolinium, ytterbium, etc.  But what...

The older I get, the more bizarre my dreams seem to be.  The other night I dreamt that I had a tube of bread mix which, when squeezed out and put into a hot oven, turned after baking into a...

Matthew Adams, a psychologist from the University of Brighton writes in The Conversation with tips for coping with eco-anxiety.  I don't actually know anyone who has it to the extent that it debilities them although I think I've come across such people on...

PA Consulting Services received £90,000 to think about the environmental impact of examinations on behalf of Ofqual, the "Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation". What this was really about is unclear.  The blurb says its focus was "The design, development and...

It's endlessly interesting how different countries name their great offices of state.  Indeed, the USA has a Secretary of State (as we did in Elizabethan days) who heads up the State Department whereas in the UK we make do with...

I see that WEEC is following in FIFA's footsteps by holding its next global extravaganza in the Gulf.  WEEC 2024 – the 12th congress – will be in Abu Dhabi over 5 days next January / February. The organisers say...

Back in 2018, a survey of 2,143 people by YouGov revealed that 27%  of them admit to “careful littering” such as leaving drinks cans or coffee cups on window ledges rather than on the ground as usual.  A campaign was duly launched...

Rory Sutherland's 'must read' Spectator column this week quoted some "excellent thinking" from the Italian complexity theorist Luca Dellanna: Two days ago, the EU parliament approved a ban on new fossil fuel cars starting in 2035. While I like the...

The government announced today that access to energy within the UK would be rationed from the beginning of May.  The Hon Dr Alex Blair-McPherson-Ali (she/him/they/etc), a spokesperson for the newly created Ministry for Using LEss Stuff  – MULES [1] –...