We need to protect nature’s systems

In our complex world there are more ways to do good than we might imagine.

This independent website is an unconventional exploration of sustainability-related ideas and perspectives.

The Climate Change posts are easy to explore any time. The referenced scientific articles and reports provide clear explanations of the concepts and are usually free to access online.

A sample from the Links page: I Want a Better Catastrophe by Andrew Boyd (2023) (click Play to listen, or click items to expand the flowchart).

How much more carbon do the Earth’s oceans hold than the atmosphere? How many decades earlier does the IPCC anticipate that the agriculture, forestry and other land use sector, alongside the energy sector, will reach net zero than other sectors? Which parts of the carbon cycle take millennia to play out?

Explore low-cost greenhouse gas mitigation options, promising demand-side mitigation options, and nature-based solutions.

In the IPCC scenarios where we tackle climate change effectively, how does the global energy mix shift? How does the share of low-carbon energy in primary energy change over the decades? What are the shares of fossil fuels, CCS, nuclear, solar and wind, bioenergy, and hydrogen later this century? Which regions have the highest historic cumulative emissions, and how does this compare to current regional emissions trends and our remaining carbon budgets?

Should we use future carbon drawdown projections to justify continued fossil fuel burning? What’s the problem with bioenergy with carbon capture and storage? How does the enhanced greenhouse effect lead to an immense build-up of ocean heat content, and why can’t we hope to overcome this physical reality with clever carbon accounting? What are the projections for global mean sea level rise over centuries and millennia, and how do these sea levels align with comparable times in the ancient past?

Physically, we know that we can bring down the global mean temperature this century. Our CO₂ emission levels result in particular atmospheric CO₂ concentration levels, which lead to particular global warming outcomes. It isn’t our physical limitations that are preventing us from decarbonising.

The site will be developed further, with a broader range of sustainability-related content:

• Celebrating hopeful and humane approaches that respect the integrity of nature’s systems
• Recognising the need for nuanced approaches to messy and contested topics, to stay open to possibilities

Feel free to take a little time out to explore.