Rowan Alcock
@row-a.bsky.social
DPhil - University of Oxford. Post-Doc - Tsinghua University. Currently Research Fellow - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Research -- Karl Polanyi, China, Environment.
Homes being built today in UK that could become uninsurable due to the risk of #flooding, boss of insurance giant Aviva says #climatecrisis HT @carbonbrief.org www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Aviva boss warns more homes will be uninsurable due to flood risk
Aviva boss Amanda Blanc said England was "for sure" building homes that might be uninsurable at some point in the future.
bbc.co.uk
Good to see Foreign Secretary presenting the findings of the suppressed Joint Intelligence Report on ecosystem collapse to other governments. But when is it going to be shared with the rest of us? We can’t prepare for what we don’t know - it should be published in full
UK shares findings of damning climate crisis national security report suppressed under Starmer
El Niño poses critical threat to nations’ defences, says Ed Miliband in presentation to global foreign ministers
theguardian.com
“It means that the risk of large-scale, persistent and potentially irreversible change is increasing, while our margin for error in tackling these problems is shrinking.” - Boris Sakschewski, lead author of this year's Planetary Health Check. In @theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘Planetary boundaries’ necessary for flourishing of life have been massively breached, scientists warn
New report shows key indicators of Earth’s health are ‘outside the safe operating space’ as climate disaster looms
theguardian.com
"The sense of economic decline that drives support for the far-right is real. But it is not caused by migrants. It is caused by the greed of capital." @graceblakeley.substack.com is right. As I argue in ANTI FASCIST ECONOMICS, that's why only an economics of essentials can turn the tide.
Grace Blakeley@graceblakeley.substack.com · 3w agoThe far right is winning because people are scared for the future. The left has to combat this fear head on by showing that decline is not inevitable. Another world is possible - but only if we can take on the power of capital. Me for @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/opinion/econ...
'It would seem that Bezos believes the prospect of humanity living sustainably and peaceably on our precious, singular home is a nightmarish possibility unworthy of his consideration'
Naomi Klein@naomiaklein.bsky.social · 4w agoFirst excerpt from End Times Fascism! So happy The Guardian went for the part of the book about the wonder of THIS world, and the people doing everything to commit to it. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
boosters want us to believe opponents of data centers are a bunch of nimbys that just indiscriminately oppose development. they don’t want people to see (or hear!) what it’s actually like to live next to one of their monstrosities.
Abbey@abbeyarletto.bsky.social · last mo.This is what living next door to a 30 megawatt data center sounds like.
'If clean and dirty energy facilities were to adopt AI at similar rates, they found, the productivity gains for renewables would have to outpace those for fossil fuels by at least four times for emissions to break even' www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
AI’s potential climate benefits outweighed by role in boosting fossil fuels, study finds
Modelling finds AI-driven productivity gains in coal, oil and gas enable more emissions than applications in renewables avoid
theguardian.com
@kevinclimate.bsky.social is always a great listen, this is no exception. Aaron Bastani @novaramedia.com has an interesting interview technique... at least he didn't talk about the anti-carrot extractivism extremists this time🥕🥕
Kevin Anderson@kevinclimate.bsky.social · 2mo agoLong form interview on @novaramedia.com - covering a wide range of climate issues: from the science to the politics, the climate leadership prospects of the new PM and the dangerous soft-pedalling by many climate academics/experts & much of the mainstream media. m.youtube.com/watch?v=mBFo...
"Researchers modelled the technical potential for AI to boost clean power generation [...] Across 64 scenarios, they found net yearly carbon pollution rose by 0.47-1.8 gigatonnes, or about 1-5% of the energy sector’s annual emissions." www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
AI’s potential climate benefits outweighed by role in boosting fossil fuels, study finds
Modelling finds AI-driven productivity gains in coal, oil and gas enable more emissions than applications in renewables avoid
theguardian.com
This is an important article but there there are a number of missed opportunities... 🧵
Jason Hickel@jasonhickel.bsky.social · 2mo agoI'm excited to announce this new piece we have in Nature Sustainability, on the question of post-growth and China. To me, this is the important point: post-growth *must* take account of world-system dynamics and should facilitate, not compromise, Southern liberation. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🎂Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom was born on this day in 1933! Ostrom was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics for her research on "collaborative governance, especially the commons." She showed how communities of users could work together to sustain their shared resources. 1/9
I predicted that even if their AI found ways to improve efficiency, Google's energy use would go up, not down. Seven years later and this is where we're at:
"Every single reasonable metric on climate change we have fundamentally failed"
@qbas81.bsky.social · 3mo ago
Another good interview with @kevinclimate.bsky.social Saying the 2C warming threshold is at risk already. How quickly we moved from "keeping 1.5 alive" to 2C might be hard to hold... youtu.be/Tx6wz-c0JSU
What is the actual climate impact of data centers? Climate pollution from Microsoft increased 25% in a single year, per @heatmap.news (and this data is fiscal year, so over a year old)
Great to have a new article published in Globalizations continuing my theoretical work on Karl Polanyi's countermovement and double movement concepts. Have a read, its Open Access 🥳🥳 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Polanyi’s non-ideological countermovement: one step forward, two steps back
This article engages with Goodwin (2024. Radical (re) readings of Polanyi: Splitting hairs and building bridges. Globalizations) to clarify the non-ideological reading of Polanyi’s countermovement ...
tandfonline.com
Despite all the noise today I'd really like you to read this, as I think it's crucial. The government's in the process of p*ssing up to £264 billion into the ground, at the behest of the fossil fuel industry. Yes, £264 *billion*. It's utterly mad, and has to stop. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The great carbon capture con: behold the wasted billions Burnham could claw back | George Monbiot
There are far better ways to tackle climate breakdown, but successive governments have chosen to listen to the fossil fuel companies instead, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
theguardian.com
The famous "Wedges" paper was used repeatedly to shut us up when we argued against the continued use of fossil fuels, and, esp, against carbon capture and storage and the mass use of bioenergy. "But these eminent scientists say ..." Now we learn BP co-authored it. www.propublica.org/article/wedg...
How BP Execs Influenced a Climate Study That Shaped a Generation of Global Policy
BP sponsored an elite Princeton research center to address the climate problem without getting off fossil fuels. Its key work, a paper known as “Wedges,” guided climate discourse for a generation.
propublica.org
"Greenpeace has calculated the “climate debt” of these... individuals, by attributing to them their share of the damage done to the climate by the assets they own. By this reckoning, the world’s richest cause nearly $1tn a year of damage to the climate" www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Super-rich’s assets cause outsized amount of climate harm, study says
Greenpeace calculates that wealthiest contribute nearly $1tn of damage a year with ownership-based emissions
theguardian.com
Growth has failed to eradicate poverty or to promote wellbeing. Poverty is not inevitable. It is manufactured. Our op-ed with @deschuttero.bsky.social @jayatighosh.bsky.social @thomaspiketty.bsky.social @kateraworth.bsky.social @jasonhickel.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
We economists have done the maths: ‘growth’ is a doomed strategy – there is a better way | Olivier De Schutter and others
Our roadmap has been shaped by experts across the world. We call on political leaders at all levels to use it, says Olivier De Schutter and others
theguardian.com
Quelle surprise: my comment on the Govt's latest climate commitment (www.gov.uk/government/n... is out of step, at least publicly, with many colleagues: www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-react... With expert whitewash on one side & charlatans on the other, an honest climate debate stands no chance.
Attached is my "two penn'orth" on how to relate the 2°C carbon budget to our climate commitments. I take the UNFCCC, Paris, ICJ, etc. commitments at face value, and express my views without fear or favour and regardless of political sensibilities. Always happy to hear what I've got wrong.
Hatred of data centers is the only bipartisan political issue in America. Incredible work by tech CEOs in uniting the country.
'Fast decarbonisation of energy systems is necessary. But we also need a major shift away from overconsumption towards "sufficiency”. This would involve a sharp reduction in labour hours and the use of raw materials...big changes in consumption patterns, food habits, land use and forest cover'
Guardian Environment@environment.theguardian.com · 4mo agoA good life for the 99% isn’t a pipe dream: it can be done. Here’s how
This is exactly what we have been warning about. But oh no, anyone who objects to the changes is a selfish, privileged nimby, a zealot, a blocker, an elitist. Let's trash the lives of England's poorest communities, and smear anyone who complains. Thanks Keir. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
England’s poorest areas face deepest cuts to green space under planning law changes, report finds
Exclusive: New loopholes for developers will exacerbate extreme disparities across country, charity coalition warns
theguardian.com
🎉 New #OpenAccess Research Article in #JCCA Journal of Current Chinese Affairs @row-a.bsky.social Alcock interrogates #Polanyi's #double_movement & #countermovement concepts through a case study of a #Chinese #wet_market doi.org/10.1177/1868... @giga-hamburg.de @journals.sagepub.com
Really happy to have this article published in @jcca-gigahamburg.bsky.social 🥳. Bringing together all the important things, food, Polanyi and China 😁 Open access ✌️ 'The Double Movement in Action: Karl Polanyi, Food Safety and China's Rural Transformation' journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
