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A few centuries ago, much of the world's natural systems lay outside the reach of human activity. Today, direct and indirect impacts of our actions touch every ecosystem, from glaciers and oceans to savannahs and forests. Every ton of CO₂ emitted, and every year we delay acting, shapes the planet as surely as a deliberate… Continue reading There is no outside anymore  →

I’ve now worked at Isometric for three years. It’s the first proper company I’ve worked for, and in that time it’s grown from fewer than ten people with no product or customers to team of over seventy five working with more than a hundred project developers and some of the world’s largest companies as clients. … Continue reading Joy’s soul lies in the doing →

To achieve the necessary scale for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to meaningfully address climate change, we cannot rely on market signals or generalized climate policies alone; instead, we must embrace targeted industrial policies.This means building real coalitions that will fight for these technologies because they see direct, tangible benefits, not just generic atmospheric benefits. It… Continue reading Coalitions, co-benefits, and lock-in – building durable support for Carbon Removal →

I joke that I blogged my way into a job at a startup and while that's not entirely true it's true enough that I have thoughts on the topic. This is my attempt to give some views on writing in case anyone at university or at the beginning of their career would find it helpful.… Continue reading Writing advice for young people →

Most things are made of some kind of group, your neighbourhood, your workplace, the UN. Yet there are many times when the behaviour of the group does not seem to conform to what we would expect. If we got a look at the members who made it up we may be surprised at what the outcome is. Why is this? Predominantly inspired by Schelling's Micromotives and Macrobehaviours I've tried to lay out some systems that can help shed light on this.

Details matter. This is the central message running through Ostrom's most recognised work. The abstracted models of collective action like the prisoners dilemma or the tragedy of the commons are just that, abstractions. They have assumptions built in to them, that simplify the world enough to be shown in a 2x2 grid, and by necessity… Continue reading Governing the commons →

I came across a blog post recently titled 'Where are all the successful rationalists' by a newish blog called Applied Divinity Studies. The post raises the point that given the focus 'rationalists' put on better thinking there don't seem to be many people who would call themselves 'rationalists' in high up positions. A few answers… Continue reading re: Where are all the successful rationalists →

What is the ultimate source of knowledge? If knowledge is what we seem to be continually striving for shouldn’t we have in mind a good idea of how we attain it. Do we get it from our senses, some higher authority, direct observation, tradition? In this book Popper unasks this question declaring that there is… Continue reading Popper: Conjectures and Refutations →