We live in a world of stocks, flows and feedbacks. At 330 ppm CO2 we launched a book. Free download. Read it. It will change our life.
Oct 17, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This image is a tribute to our cognitive biases. To our blind spots. These machines are what we call Negative Emissions Technologies. Please forgive us for our ignorance. We just don’t get what negative emissions mean. Perhaps adding the suffix‘Technologies’ makes us feel good.
By running’s this machine can we reverse ice that has melted? Restore the life of a dead polar bear? Is there a negative heat wave? Perhaps we can buy one of these new IoT devices at Amazon? “Alexa, please undo the heatwave“. What happens if we cross a tipping point?
Apr 25, 2019 • 23 tweets • 4 min read
Disclaimer: this is not a qualified scientific statement, just our opinion after reading the BBC story.
“Prof Jog believes Parkinson's disease reduces the signals coming back to the brain - breaking the loop and causing the patient to freeze.”
bbc.com/news/health-47…
If Parkinson’s Disease is a consequence of problems with the feedback loops, this could have major implications for research and for the quality of life of patients.
Our body is a very complex system that relies on potentially thousands of féedback loops.
Mar 6, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
To get rid of the CO2 in 24 years using negative emissions would require a system with a capacity (measured in Gt/year) 12 times our current annual rate of oil consumption. The claim by scientists that negative emissions could be a viable path doesn't seem practical.
We applied a basic understanding of levels and rates and arithmetic to formulate this hypothesis. These are key concepts in system dynamics.
The levels are the accumulations within a system. The rates represent the system activity which causes a particular level to change.
Nov 14, 2018 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
This thread is to congratulate Prof. Steve Keen for having his co-authored paper accepted by the Journal of Ecological Economics, and to thank him for the attached preprint. The correct role of energy in production has been absent from conventional economic theory for centuries.
