Laurie

Notes from a 1.2C world

I was born at the end of the eighties, this side of Hansen’s testimony to the US Congress and before the first Scientists’ Warning and Earth Summit in 1992. Much of the subsequent mainstream narrative on the environmental crisis seems to have been akin to warning fellow crewmates on a ship of a far-off storm.Continue reading “Notes from a 1.2C world”

On climate change, the younger generations must shout even louder

What a difference a crisis makes. It wasn’t all that long ago a Tory prime minister wanted to “get rid of all the green crap”. This week, however, Boris Johnson committed to power all homes in the UK with wind by 2030, investing £160m as part of a wider drive to “build back greener” by making Britain a worldContinue reading “On climate change, the younger generations must shout even louder”

Interview: Blick

I was interviewed by Fabienne Kinzelmann at the Swiss paper Blick about the environmental crisis and how we best respond (link is not in English): https://www.blick.ch/ausland/physiker-und-wirtschaftswissenschaftler-laurie-laybourn-langton-31-ueber-die-waldbraende-in-kalifornien-greta-und-die-schweiz-beim-klima-verlieren-wir-die-kontrolle-id16111422.html

Change only through crisis? Reflections on strategies for paradigm shift in an age of coronavirus and environmental breakdown (Forum for a New Economy)

1st December 2020 The emergency measures undertaken in response to the COIVD-19 pandemic constitute an unprecedented break from the norms and practice of the prevailing political-economic paradigm—the predominant set of economic theory, policies and narratives. Public health has always been a major driver of changes in political economy because it is a systems-focused approach, providingContinue reading “Change only through crisis? Reflections on strategies for paradigm shift in an age of coronavirus and environmental breakdown (Forum for a New Economy)”

Politics in a time of consequences

Fighting the environmental emergency is about power and politics, not just clean technologies and regulation. This presents a problem for political systems. When considering the record of our democracy in handling problems that arrest all parts of society, such as Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, the prospects look poor for responding to the environmental emergencyContinue reading “Politics in a time of consequences”

Notes from a 1.2°C world

The coronavirus pandemic is a warning from the future. It has brought the fragility of our increasingly interconnected economic and social systems into stark relief. A health crisis became an economic crisis, a social crisis, a political crisis. The word ‘resilience’ now peppers the policy PDFs of governments, NGOs and multilateral institutions. Let us hopeContinue reading “Notes from a 1.2°C world”

A new politics for the era of environmental breakdown (IPPR)

7th October 2020 Environmental breakdown is accelerating and poses an unprecedented threat to our political system. This system is a key enabler of environmental breakdown, the major drivers of which include chronic short-termism, a failure to recognise and act on systemic problems, and a failure to integrate environmental concerns throughout policy. This challenge comes atContinue reading “A new politics for the era of environmental breakdown (IPPR)”

Presentation: at The Great Unraveling? Confronting Accelerating Environmental and Social Stresses.

I gave a presentation before a panel discussion as part of the Great Unraveling? conference, organised by the Post Carbon Institute and Anthropocene Actions.

Video: What now? A personal reflection on the future as part of the Great Unraveling? series

In this final video of the series, I challenge the false binary beliefs that tell us we still have time to prevent crises like climate breakdown or that it’s too late and hopeless, and argues strongly for honest appraisal of our predicament and urgency in responding to the interconnected environmental and societal challenges we faceContinue reading “Video: What now? A personal reflection on the future as part of the Great Unraveling? series”

Video: Emotional and Psychological Resilience to Current and Looming Crises. Leslie Davenport

More and more individuals and communities are struggling to cope with the psychological and emotional toll of environmental and social systems gone awry, with this trend likely to get more severe in the coming years and decades. In this episode of the “Great Unraveling?” series, Leslie Davenport joins me to explore the emotional and psychologicalContinue reading “Video: Emotional and Psychological Resilience to Current and Looming Crises. Leslie Davenport”