We Need to Talk About Data Centers
The rapid expansion of hyperscale data centers for AI risks blowing global energy demand — and a bubble that collapses the economy. Is it worth it?
The New Climate, on Medium.com
About
I launched The New Climate publication in early 2023 as an experiment to stoke engagement on climate change and the environment amongst Medium.com's readership. It's since grown into a beautiful thing, and helped to provide a platform for new writers around the world.
Featured Articles
How Our Water Systems Went From Crisis to Collapse
As another World Water Day rolls by, the UN no longer warns of stress or scarcity — but of having reached water bankruptcy.
Forget the AMOC Collapse: an ‘SPG Collapse’ Is Much More Imminent
A collapse of the ocean Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) would profoundly destabilise much of the world’s climate, and with it national and international security. But the collapse of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre (SPG) — a smaller but crucial sub-component of the AMOC — could happen far sooner...
China Has Scaled Floating Solar PV — Will the World Follow?
Floating solar saves on land costs, cools the panels, reduces water evaporation, and even works at sea — is it now a no-brainer?
Celebrating 25 Years of UK Offshore Wind Power
While Trump halts US offshore wind farms, the UK has spent the past quarter century building 47 of them—with many more to come.
Has China Planted So Many Trees It Has Changed its Water Cycle?
China’s vast reforestation scheme has brought water benefits that other world regions should learn from.
The Benefits of Letting your Lawn Go Wild
I’ve always liked mowing the lawn. Perhaps it’s a childhood nostalgia thing, having watched my dad do it seemingly every weekend in summer. The smell, the neat intermittent stripes, the angry roar as the mower...
Is Recycling A Lie?
A decade ago I watched a film called Cowspiracy on the exciting new TV streaming service that everyone was talking about—called ‘Netflix’. It had a big impact on me at the time, and prompted a short-lived attempt to go vegan...
We Need To Talk About Degrowth: Part II
“It seems to be easier for us today to imagine the deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism; perhaps that is due to some weakness in our imagination.” ― Fredric Jameson, The Seeds of Time (1994)
We Need To Talk About Degrowth: Part I
“Is the Earth’s balance, for which no-growth — or even degrowth — of material production is a necessary condition, compatible with the survival of the capitalist system?” — André Gorz, social philosopher, 1972
Exposing the Waste-To-Energy Lie
Waste-to-energy incinerators are touted as ‘renewable’, attracting private investors and public subsidies. But is it all smoke and mirrors?
The New Climate. – Medium.com
The fastest growing climate publication on Medium, covering the environment, biodiversity, net zero, renewable energy, social justice and regenerative agriculture. It’s time for The New Climate.
Climate Refugees: How The World Must Act
Banaba, a small Pacific island of just six square kilometres, should be the postcard-picture of paradise. But, Colonialism. In 1945, the British Phosphate Commission — jointly owned by the British, Australian and New Zealand governments—relocated the entire population of Banaba (also known as Ocean Island and part of present-day Kiribati) to Rabi Island (Fiji), in order to mine for phosphate. By the 1980s, the BPC had exhausted the phosphate supply and mined 90% of the Banaba’s surface...
“We’re Doomed, Now What?”
Is doom a proactive or a reactive emotion? Is it useful? Does it galvanise us with a sense of purpose, or drown us in apathy? As Vox wittily put it, “it’s boom times for doom times” right now. When the Pew Research Center polled 17 countries on attitudes towards climate change, the overwhelming majority said they were willing to change the way they lived to tackle the problem. We are poised and ready for action...
Are Agrivoltaics The Ultimate Climate Win-Win?
Take a train journey through the British countryside, and you’re sure to come across a view like the one in the photo above. When fields full of solar panels — known as solar farms or solar parks—started to become common around 10–15 years ago, I used to gaze out on them with a mix of hope and excitement. They seemed to offer tangible, irrefutable evidence that the renewable energy transition was underway. But as they become more ubiquitous I get a karmic pang of guilt...
How Smart Home Batteries Could Solve Renewable Energy Storage
It all started for me one year ago. My energy provider in the UK asked if I’d like to take part in an energy saving trial. Being somewhat of an energy nerd, and Editor of a climate publication, I was likely to say yes anyway. But there was an extra sweetener — they would pay me for it. And in the middle of a cost of living crisis, with energy bills the highest in living memory, I happily plonked that sweetener in my cup of English Breakfast tea, gave it a stir, and gulped it down...
I Wrote A Book About Water: Here’s What I Learned
I’d already written one environmental book, plus several reports for the BBC on water issues. So writing my next book on the subject of the water crisis seemed a logical step when discussing it with my publisher in February 2020 — how hard can it be? The following month I had a book deal, but the world had a pandemic — I was locked down and thinking more about my family’s health and survival. The book now seemed impossible. And the words ‘how hard can it be?’ took on a whole new meaning...
