Humanity has grown prosperous and numerous by burning and consuming the products of biological systems of the past and present. In doing so we have allowed the degradation of the environment which we share with other living things. We have now learned how to get much of what we need without causing such destruction but we are not all doing it yet. We must transition to embracing and stewarding our world instead of consuming it. To get there we must focus on the causes rather than the symptoms of our problems. The causes being our addiction to using combustion to give us power and our clearing of land to feed ourselves, while GHG emissions, climate change and biodiversity loss are symptoms of these activities.
This presentation from Prof Simon Spooner sets out concepts and principles building on the Combustion Transition FrameworkTM which introduces metrics and tools that can help us to plan and manage the transition more effectively than just carbon accounting. Examples of practical measures for the UK to accelerate the transition to net-zero and then on to thriving sustainably as part of our biosphere are discussed.
