Mike Berners-Lee – Burning Questions: How much fuel needs to stay in the ground? (Part 1)
Emissions from energy use have been rising exponentially for at least 160 years. So far the world’s talk and action on climate change has produced no detectable deviation in this long-term trajectory. Why haven’t innovation, efficiency or renewables helped us yet? Why haven’t personal, local or national targets made any difference? Where will the curve take us if it continues? Is deliberate intervention really necessary? And if so what blend of politics, economics, technology and psychology will make this possible? Drawing on Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clark’s book, The Burning Question, Mike explores the macro dynamics of the energy system.
Mike Berners-Lee is a leading expert in carbon-footprints and director of Small World Consulting at Lancaster University. He is the author of How Bad are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything (2010) and with Duncan Clark he wrote The Burning Question: We can’t burn half the world’s oil, coal and gas. So how do we quit? (2013).
