This channel seeks to understand the issues that face our civilisation in the 21st Century and focusses on the potential solutions that will save as many lives as possible and hopefully bring about a greater level of equality in the world. The channel is not a debating forum about whether Human Induced Climate Change is a real phenomenon or not. If that’s what you’re after then I can highly recommend chat forums on Social Media, where people on both sides of the argument go round and round in circles achieving precisely nothing at all.
That is a mug’s game. And it’s not my game.
Anyway, outside of those caveats, I do try to keep it light and humorous wherever possible, so I hope you enjoy the content.
Oh..and me… Dave Borlace. Born 1969. BSc in Technology from the Open University in the UK. After a 30 year career in People and Project Management, I now work full time on the channel thanks to the amazing folks who support me on Patreon http://www.patreon.com/justhaveathink
From Just Have a Think. Aluminium offers a promising alternative to lithium for the batteries of the future…in theory! The trouble is it’s been very difficult to make a rechargeable version work reliably in the real world. Now a group of researchers in China reckon they’ve cracked it. But is it just another bit of…
From Just Have a Think. Carbon Capture and Storage has been heralded by some as the ‘silver bullet’ to enable a smooth transition to renewable energy while preventing existing greenhouse gas emissions reaching the atmosphere, or even, in the case of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), actually sucking CO2 back out of the air. But recent…
From Just Have a Think. Air source heat pumps are rapidly replacing gas boilers in homes around the world. But they typically use refrigerants that can be potent greenhouse gases. Now a team at the Ames Laboratory in the USA has developed a novel method using a technology that could replace refrigerant gases in heat…
From Just Have a Think. Modern climate models are incredibly sophisticated machines. And with the advent of artificial intelligence they’re getting better all the time. But they’re still not able to accurately reflect what’s actually going on in the real world. So, should we be relying on them any more? Help support this channels independence…
From Just Have a Think. The Arctic region has been a massive store of carbon for thousands of years. Now it’s warming between 3 and 7 times faster than the global average and that carbon is escaping into our atmosphere. The latest research suggests that more than a third of it is now a net…
From Just Have a Think. Researchers have been looking for ways to shoe-horn pure lithium metal anodes into batteries for years, but nobody has really yet managed it at scale. Now a team in South Korea has published details of a process that might just make it much more likely to happen. Help support this…
From Just Have a Think. Donald Trump has signed executive orders designed to dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act, halt the desperately needed improvements to the US grid, and boost oil and gas drilling. That will prove to be a catastrophe not only for the climate but also for the US economy, as reserves rapidly dwindle…
From Just Have a Think. Battery swapping is all the rage over in China and other parts of Southeast Asia – mostly for the hundreds of millions of electric scooters in that part of the world, but increasingly also now for electrically powered cars and trucks. Now the world’s largest battery maker has waded in…
From Just Have a Think. The world’s biggest banks pumped $7 trillion of our hard earned cash into oil and gas expansion projects between 2016 and 2023. The industry also enjoys another $7 trillion or so each year in tax breaks and other subsidies. The latter are for governments to address, but the former lies…
From Just Have a Think. Agrivoltaics and Solar Canals have been around for a while now, but they haven’t exactly ‘gone viral’ have they? So, why have such blindingly obvious renewable solutions struggled to gain mainstream support? Help support this channels independence at http://www.patreon.com/justhaveathink Or with a donation via Paypal by clicking here https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=GWR73EHXGJMAE&source=url You…
From Just Have a Think. Sodium-ion chemistry, and just about every other battery technology, is dominated by 4 major Chinese and South Korean manufacturers. But there is a massive amount of research and development going on in Europe and the USA to catch up. Now an American team has identified a key improvement to the…
From Just Have a Think. Industrial processes currently account for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, more than half of which comes from fossil fuel fired furnaces. Some say it’s impossible to decarbonise most of those applications, but now a new study debunks that lie. Help support this channels independence at http://www.patreon.com/justhaveathink Or with…
From Just Have a Think. 2024 was a catastrophic year for the Earth’s climate. What can we learn as we enter 2025? Help support this channels independence at http://www.patreon.com/justhaveathink Or with a donation via Paypal by clicking here https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=GWR73EHXGJMAE&source=url You can also help keep my brain ticking over during the long hours of research and…
From Just Have a Think. Are electric vehicles a mistake? Well, to listen to certain sections of the mainstream press and social media, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they’re a disastrous concept and their sales are tanking fast. But does that tally up with the real-world data? Help support this channels independence at http://www.patreon.com/justhaveathink…
From Just Have a Think. Renewable technology cost curves are dropping so quickly and installation rates are accelerating so fast that in some countries around the world they already account for more than fifty percent of all electricity generation. No wonder the fossil fuel industry is trying every trick in it’s playbook to try to…
From Just Have a Think. Antarctica is collapsing! BUT it’s a game of two halves. East Antarctica is pretty solid but the West Antarctic ice sheet is perched precariously on islands and held back by huge glaciers the size of small countries. Those glaciers are rapidly giving way, and when they go, we’ve got a…
From Just Have a Think. Methane is 87 times more potent as a greenhouse than carbon dioxide over the 12 years or so that it typically hangs around in our atmosphere. The new 2024 Methane Budget from the Global Carbon Tracker tells us that it has been accelerating in recent years reaching record levels between…
From Just Have a Think. "Drill baby drill", said Donald Trump many times on the campaign trail, along with all sorts of other threats to upend Biden’s climate policies and hand power firmly back to the fossil fuel industry. Only trouble is, it won’t be quite as easy in practice as it is in rhetoric.…
From Just Have a Think. The climate emergency appears to have taken a turn for the worse this week as the world’s most powerful nation and second largest greenhouse gas emitter just elected a climate denier back into The White House. It’s tempting to think the cause of climate mitigation is now all but dead.…
From Just Have a Think. Global energy market disruption is desperately needed if the world is to stand any chance of achieving its decarbonisation goals. Taking on the incumbent behemoth monopolistic suppliers is no mean feat, but Greg Jackson is confronting the issue head one with a raft of initiatives that will not only revolutionise…