Perovskite. It took from the early 1960s until just a few years ago for the conventional solar panel to get about as far as is going to go with current technology, where panels, made up of silicon-based solar cells, can turn 20-22% of the energy in sunlight into electricity. So that’s about 50 years. Scientists… Continue reading
Posts tagged climate change
A new age of rural railways promises big benefits
As well as building better defences against floods, in response to the destructive storms of December 2015, the UK government, and the governments of Wales and Scotland, should consider building new railway lines. Some of these lines would back up routes closed by the waters. There is one obvious candidate for a new link. Rail… Continue reading →
Attenborough promotes Global Apollo Programme to halt climate change
In a flurry of interviews on the opening day of COP21, the UN climate talks in Paris, Sir David Attenborough, speaking with the authority few interviewers dare to counter, outlined the simple premise of the Global Apollo Project. Media coverage of the climate crisis has been lamentably low (with the honourable exception of The Guardian… Continue reading →
A message to the future – why were we so quiet about climate change?
September, 2015. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” — “Elephant in the room’ is a metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is either being ignored or going unaddressed…also applies to an obvious problem or risk no… Continue reading →
How to turn bright ideas to address climate change into viable companies
We cannot possibly know to what extent good ideas and smart technology might help us mitigate the effects of climate change, and even slow it down. Just as in the 1980s we had no inkling of how developments in computer chips and electronics would enable vast numbers of us to communicate with one another instantly… Continue reading →
BMA votes to divest from fossil fuels
Fossil fuels make people ill. The British Medical Association acknowledged the point this week. Exercising their duty to safeguard public health, doctors attending its Annual Representative Meeting voted that the body should stop investing in fossil fuels, “if possible, practicable and feasible”. Delegates called on the BMA to “transfer their investments from energy companies whose… Continue reading →