Physical Attraction

Climate 201: Climate Doomism (II)

In the last episode, we briefly introduced "climate change doomers" and some of their misleading claims. In this episode, I talk about despair, and why we cannot give in

Climate 201: Climate Doomism (I)

We're going there. In this episode, I discuss why civilization is not going to imminently collapse due to climate change, explain why doomism is a new form of denialism,

UNLOCKED: Book Club: Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants

A new episode released from behind the Patreon paywall. This episode, we'll review and discuss some of the issues raised by Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants, a book that

Climate 201 NETS XI: Direct Air Capture, p2 and NETS conclusion

In this episode, we will continue our analysis of Direct Air Capture and conclude the series on negative emissions - crucial component of decarbonisation, or a techno-uto

Climate 201 NETS X: Direct Air Capture, part 1

Direct Air Capture - machines that suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Could this be the solution to a scaleable negative emissions industry? We'll discuss the pro

BONUS: Black Mirror IRL pilot - Be Right Back

Hi all! This is a slightly special bonus episode. Some years ago I had plans for another series "Black Mirror IRL", which was going to be a series of episodes looking

Climate 201: NETS VII: Ecosystem Restoration and Mangroves

What are "nature-based solutions" to climate change? Can we restore the ecosystems that we've destroyed? And how can restoring mangroves help us to suck carbon dioxide ou

Climate 201, NETS IX: Ocean Iron Fertilization

"Give me a tanker full of iron, and I'll give you a new Ice Age." It might sound like something Hank Scorpio would say, but this episode will deal with the very real idea

Climate 201: NETS VIII: Enhanced Weathering

How could grinding up rocks and sprinkling the dust over vast areas help to combat climate change? In this episode, we deal with "enhanced weathering" as a potential sour

Climate201 NETS VI: Planting Trees and Afforestation

Mention carbon capture, and the refrain you'll often hear is "why invent a machine that captures CO2? We already have one - it's called a tree." But is large-scale affore

Climate 201: NETS V: Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage

N/B: Owing to a ridiculously hectic schedule until the end of the year, episodes will continue to be released on a fortnightly basis until further notice - thanks for und

Climate 201: Negative Emissions IV: Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)

In this episode, we get into some of the specific technologies that might be called upon to deliver negative emissions at scale. Specifically, we're looking at the advant

Climate 201, Negative Emissions III: Technological Promises, or Prevarications

In this episode, we discuss whether the promises that some new technology - like negative emissions - will come along and "solve climate change" for us are genuine, or if

Climate 201: Negative Emissions (II): We'll Always Have Paris?

Increasing levels of negative emissions are envisioned by models in climate-change scenarios that are compatible with the Paris Agreements. In this episode, we talk about

Climate 201: Negative Emissions I: The Last Thing We Should Be Talking About?

Negative emissions technologies (NETs), also called carbon dioxide removal (CDR), are seen by many as an increasingly essential part of climate change mitigation. Many of

Book Club: Jason Hickel's The Divide, Part I: The Origins of Global Inequality

The book club returns, with a two-part review and overview of anthropologist Jason Hickel's book "The Divide", about global inequality, its historical origins, and possib

Cosmology, VII: Cosmological Contradictions

In this episode, we discuss the ongoing battle throughout the 1930s and 1940s between those who believed in a steady-state Universe, and those who thought it was expandin

TT: Climate, CCS Struggles as Adaptation Stalls

To close out this series of news episodes, we discuss the depressing failure of carbon capture and storage projects in Australia, as well as the far-too-slow approach to

Thermonuclear Takes: Amazon Carbon Stocks and Global Green Recovery Progress Update

In this episode of Thermonuclear Takes, we tackle a couple of recent climate-related news stories - the "tipping point" carbon flux measurements from the Amazon rainfores

Thermonuclear Takes: The Little Robot That Couldn't

Updates on the Softbank Vision Fund and the sad fate of Pepper the robot.