The Sustainable Futures Report

This week I'm looking at population, and like many other sustainability issues it is broad, deep and complicated.  What do you think we could, or should, do about growing world population? Other sustainability news from the US, Canada, France and North Somerset. Links to my sources on the blog (which will be published in the course of the morning) at www.sustainablefutures.report . 

This week's episode is about climate change - by far the most important issue facing us now, although it's far from the forefront of politics and it doesn't seem to excite the media very much. I talk about what we should do. What the Climate Change Commission suggests we should do. What Extinction Rebellion (who they?) demands we should do. What the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change wants us to...

Listen up to hear about electric insights, geothermal engineering, dams, fracking, the plug-in hybrids that aren't, new rules on waste, threats to environmental legislation, how nuclear power may be the future but Toshiba wants no part of it and a strange Icelandic saga - but that's by no means all!

Recently we've spoken at length about plastic. We've spoken about climate change. But there's something in the air; in fact there's a lot more in the air than there should be. This week's episode is about air quality, the third big area that needs cleaning up.

In this episode I talk about more plastic rubbish, about energy, about politicians and about Brexit. I also mention industrial-scale fly-tipping, what to do with your empty Pringles can and a new Circular Economy initiative.   Special thanks to Eleanor Rogers for extensive information on plastic.

This week it's all about policy, about energy policy, about policies to combat climate change. There's an interview, too, with Hal Harvey, author of   Designing Climate Solutions: A Policy Guide for Low-Carbon Energy. And some electrifying news about transport.

The big story this week is the IPCC report. Yes, I know it came out two weeks ago but there was an awful lot to read. One of the recommendations is the use of carbon capture and storage and this week we have an interview with Prof Jon Gluyas of Durham University who is an expert in this field. In this episode I also comment on a number of the government's green policies, I talk about energy, I loo...

This week's episode is all about plastic.

  I've had more feedback than ever this week as you'll hear. Also in this week's episode: climate failures and climate lies, a big price for small reactors, don't paint the town red – paint it green, and how should we keep it warm? News from Smart Cities World, from the IPCC and a follow-up on some of the issues covered last time.

This week I'll tell you about my PhD research into smart meters and why I'm not doing it any more. I did learn quite a lot as I shall explain later. OPEC tells us that they expect oil production to rise dramatically in the next five years, so if that's true I presume we can kiss goodbye to the Paris agreement. Why not avoid oil and buy an electric car? We ordered one last week. Unlike other electr...

This week I review an important book on the circular economy, there is energy news on nuclear, gas and coal, the BBC fesses up, Saturn may have rings but Carlsberg is getting rid of them, extreme weather is still battering many parts of the world and can Walmart afford sustainability?

In this episode I'll be talking about energy, including fracking and transport, about waste food and waste plastic, about climate change, about investment strategies, about floods and fires and climate change denial, and we have a book review as well. There are some informed insights from Jeremy Leggett and there might be a bit of politics too. Remember, the full text of this episode is on the blo...

I know, I know. I said the Sustainable Futures Report would be monthly from now on but there's just so much going on. Energy, climate change, reverse vending and what's a Hyperloop? And I've been on Talk Radio again- this time with Mike Graham.  

Goals. This special episode is mainly about goals. But not football. About the SDGs, the sustainable development goals from the United Nations and about how they relate to business. And as an extra extra, at the very end of this edition I've included the interview I did recently with Julia Hartley Brewer on Talk Radio. She wanted to talk about the carbon dioxide shortage.  Shortage? When there's t...

This time I interview Martin Baxter, Chief Policy Advisor at the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment about the Institute's response to the government's proposals for environmental regulation after Brexit. There's news from Canada where the government has just bought up a pipeline which some see as an expensive white elephant. It will cost taxpayers at least $3 billion. Text and li...

This month's episode is all about change. (OK, not that sort of change) The government is making it easier for fracking and plans to make it more difficult to own a wood burning stove. It's cleaning up cars, eventually, (although it's told us that once already) and it's promising world-beating environmental standards post Brexit, but a lot of people don't believe it. Carbon capture and storage is...

First of all there's news of a net improvement in the volume of plastics in the oceans. Barclays are still banking on fossil fuels and I can tell you about the enchanted forest which made some environmentalists very disenchanted indeed. Spurs, the football team plans to kick single-use plastic into touch. In Scotland there is a new tidal project, in Sweden there's an electric road and in Californi...

In this episode I'm looking at pension funds, plastics and population. There's good news and bad news on fracking, there is controversy in Canada about clean water, and ISDS, which I mentioned last time, has had a day in court. It seems that no one can stop Juliana, not even Donald Trump. Since the last episode we've had World Water Day, Earth Hour and Easter, that festival of packaging. WWF warns...

Introducing this episode with Goodbye Beautiful World by Michael Anzilotti. This time I'm going to talk about rubbish, about free solar panels and batteries and cars in space. About growing food in the desert, about Boris Johnson, the UK Foreign Secretary, and agricultural standards after Brexit. About who's getting pressure from Greenpeace and who's giving pressure to Avaaz, another campaigning g...

A few of the Sustainability stories which have come up since the last episode and my plans for 2018. That includes preparing for SSCC19 and researching for a PhD. More at sscc19.com and the text of this episode is at www.sustainablefutures.report  

Have a look at the 43 episodes I produced this year.

Campaigner, environmentalist, author and journalist George Monbiot talks to Manda Scott about his latest book.

Challenges and opportunities for the copper industry and its role at the centre of the low carbon economy. Balancing environmental constraints with the growing demand for the world's best conductor of electricity and heat. Text at sustainablefutures.report

It's lighter than air, it burns without a flame, it can pass through metals. Is hydrogen the fuel of the future?  

Coal, CO2, Disruptive Innovation, Worried Scientists and Pacific Warriors. Find the full text and links at www.sustainablefutures.report