Voluntary exposure to exit COVID-19 lockdown

It seems that the government is struggling to agree a plan to relax the drastic lockdown that is presently in place in response to COVID-19 in the UK. Maybe a new option is worth considering. I call it voluntary exposure (or controlled infection), and have just done a simple first analysis which shows that voluntaryContinue Reading and comment

Feeling the heat…

The 2018 UK heatwave prompted me to write this short summary of where we are now and what we can do about it: Scientists say that the heatwave scorching the UK, northern Europe and Japan was made more than twice as likely by climate change, as was the last major European heatwave, which killed tensContinue Reading and comment

Anyone for tennis?

Tennis has a weird scoring system. Point, game, set, match. This leads to lots of excitement, as mini-dramas unfold near the end of many games and sets. But it can also lead to unfair results. The better player sometimes loses. If tennis had a more straightforward scoring system, like basketball or cricket, just totting upContinue Reading and comment

Valuing climate damages

The US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has just released a new report about the social cost of carbon dioxide (SCCO2), described by one economist as ‘the most important number that you’ve never heard of”. The report is the result of many months of work by dozens of experts, and comes in at about 380Continue Reading and comment

A proportionate response to Trump’s climate plans

During the US election campaign, Donald Trump said that he would dismantle the country’s domestic climate change policies, and withdraw the US from international climate agreements, most notably the Paris agreement which came into force earlier this month. In the week since he became President-Elect, he has given every indication that he is serious inContinue Reading and comment