On 27 February 2019, Mike Berners-Lee presented his newest book, “There Is No Planet B”, to the Oxford Climate Society.
About the book: Feeding the world, climate change, biodiversity, antibiotics, plastics – the list of concerns seems endless. But what is most pressing, what are the knock-on effects of our actions, and what should we do first? Do we all need to become vegetarian? How can we fly in a low-carbon world? Should we frack? How can we take control of technology? Does it all come down to population? And, given the global nature of the challenges we now face, what on Earth can any of us do?
Fortunately, Mike Berners-Lee has crunched the numbers and plotted a course of action that is practical and even enjoyable. There is No Planet B maps it out in an accessible and entertaining way, filled with astonishing facts and analysis. For the first time you’ll find big-picture perspective on the environmental and economic challenges of the day laid out in one place, and traced through to the underlying roots – questions of how we live and think. This book will shock you, surprise you – and then make you laugh. And you’ll find practical and even inspiring ideas for what you can actually do to help humanity thrive on this – our only – planet.
About the author: Mike Berners-Lee consults, thinks, writes and researches on sustainability and responses to 21st century challenges. This is his third book.
About his first book, How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint Of Everything, Bill Bryson wrote “I can’t think of the last time I read a book that was more fascinating, and useful and enjoyable all at the same time”
His second book, The Burning Question, co-written with Duncan Clark, explores the big picture on climate change and the underlying global dynamics, asking what mix of politics, economics, psychology and technology are really required to deal with the problem. Al Gore described it as “Fascinating, important and highly recommended” and was among MPs’ top ten summer reads.
Mike is the founder of Small World Consulting, an associate company of Lancaster University, which works with organizations from tech giants to supermarkets. Small World is a leader in the field of carbon metrics and their use.
He is a professor at Lancaster University’s Institute for Social Futures, where his research includes sustainable food systems and carbon metrics. He co-ordinates the Global Futures event series which are freely open to all and explore big global challenges in multidisciplinary ways.
On January 24th 2019, Professor Kevin Anderson addressed the Oxford Climate Society on “climate’s holy trinity: how cogency, tenacity & courage could yet deliver on our Paris 2°C commitment”.
Talk abstract: It’s twenty-eight years since the IPCC’s first report and over a quarter of a century since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit – such heady days of international hope and optimism. Now, in 2019 and with the benefit of hindsight, we can look back and trace our voyage of abject failure – and with humility learn lessons for charting an alternative low-carbon course.
This lecture will begin by acknowledging our collective penchant for delusion on climate change. It will explore how academia has abdicated its responsibility to hold government to account, choosing instead to be complicit in maintaining a façade of mitigation. Revealing the growing gap between aspiration and action, it will argue that centuries of reductionist thinking and specialized disciplines leave us ill-equipped to understand system-level (‘wicked’) problems.
Building on a more candid foundation, the seminar will proceed to sketch out the unprecedented scale and timeframe of decarbonization now necessary to deliver on our Paris 2°C commitment. It will conclude by elaborating a system-level framing of the challenge, with equity at its core, and asking whether a Marshall-style policy prospectus could yet deliver on the Paris commitments.
About the speaker: Kevin Anderson has just completed two years as the Zennström professor of climate change leadership at Uppsala University, and has now returned to his position as chair of energy and climate change at the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering (MACE) at the University of Manchester. He has previously held the roles of deputy director and director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and he is a non-executive director of Greenstone Carbon Management. Kevin is research active with publications in Science, Nature and Nature Geosciences. Kevin engages widely across all tiers of government (EU, UK and Sweden) on issues ranging from shale gas, aviation and shipping to the role of climate modeling (IAMs), carbon budgets and ‘negative emission technologies’. His analysis previously contributed to the framing of the UK’s Climate Change Act and the development of national carbon budgets. Kevin has a decade’s industrial experience, principally in the petrochemical industry. He is a chartered engineer and a fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Our air, drinking water, food supply and shelter are all at risk. Our survival depends on urgent change. Watch this video produced for COP24 United Nations Climate Change Conference 2018.
Video production: Multiplied.tv Music: Alex Parker
