ISRS at UCL

20/02/2024

“These metal particles are essentially like mirrors for terahertz waves. If I spread a bunch of mirror pieces onto a surface and then shine light on that, depending on the orientation, size, and location of those mirrors, I would get a different reflected pattern. But if you peel the chip off and reattach it, you destroy that pattern,” adds Ruonan Han, an associate professor in EECS, who leads the Terahertz Integrated Electronics Group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics.

A cryptographic tag developed at MIT uses terahertz waves to authenticate items by recognizing the unique pattern of microscopic metal particles that are mixed into the glue that sticks the tag to the item’s surface.

29/06/2022

Bringing Realism to the Economics of Climate Change

ISRS @ UCL is delighted to announce the completion of our grant funded project by Friends Provident Foundation. Economic models dominate humanity’s response to climate change. These models omit the role of energy in production, while in fact, nothing can be produced without energy, and waste from energy use is the primary cause of climate damage. Complex dynamic models are needed to capture these effects, and at the same time, these models must be understandable by non-expert policymakers if they are going to affect our policy responses to global warming. “It takes a model to beat a model”.

Economic models dominate humanity’s response to climate change but omit the role of energy: the primary cause of climate damage. Complex dynamic models are needed to capture these effects, which this project seeks to produce.

29/06/2022

Future loss calculations by economists must be developed, not in isolation from climate scientists, but in close collaboration with them, writes Prof Steve Keen, Distinguished Research Fellow @ ISRS UCL

Estimates of economic and environmental damages from tipping points cannot be reconciled with the scientific literature

24/05/2021

Economists' climate change forecasts severely underestimate the true damage, says ISRS @ University College London distinguished research fellow Prof Steve Keen says, with even economists' most severe climate change forecasts severely underestimate the true damage we can expect: "We are toying with forces far in excess of ones we can actually address."

University College London research fellow Steve Keen says even economists' most severe climate change forecasts severely underestimate the true damage we can expect, adding "we are toying with forces far in excess of ones we can actually address."

02/09/2020

In a bold new paper, "The Appallingly Bad Neoclassical Economics of Climate Change ", ISRS's Prof Steve Keen challenges forecasts by economists of the economic damage from climate change in the context of warnings by scientists about damage to the biosphere.

(2020). The appallingly bad neoclassical economics of climate change. Globalizations. Ahead of Print.

19/02/2020

Bumblebees are among the most important plant pollinators. Declines in range and abundance have been documented from a range of causes, including pesticides, disease and habitat loss.

In a new study, researchers looked at more than half a million records of 66 bumblebee species from 1901 to 1974 and from 2000 to 2014. They found bumblebee populations declined rapidly between 2000-2014: the likelihood of a site being occupied by bumblebees dropped by an average of over 30% compared with 1901-1974.

Jonathan Bridle and Alexandra van Rensburg of the University of Bristol described the findings as "alarming". Commenting in the journal Science, they said: "The new study adds to a growing body of evidence for alarming, widespread losses of biodiversity and for rates of global change that now exceed the critical limits of ecosystem resilience."

"Climate chaos" has caused widespread losses of bumblebees across continents, experts say.

15/02/2020

Prof Steve Keen, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Strategy, Resilience and Security, discusses the spread of a new strain of coronavirus in China.

Steve Keen, honorary professor at University College London's Institute for Strategy, Resilience and Security, discusses the spread of a new strain of coronavirus in China.

06/02/2020

Executive Chair of ISRS, the Rt Hon Lord Reid of Cardowan addresses the issue of the economics of climate change in the House of Lords today

06/02/2020

Are economists globally understating or overstating the cost of climate change?

While some mainstream economists argue that 4°C of warming would cause minimal impact to the global economy, Distinguished Fellow at ISRS, Professor Steve Keen, believes that 4°C would unleash a 'howitzer'. He argues that current economic models fail to take into account the true impacts of this change.

His concerns echo assessments by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, who released a report noting that "economic assessments of the potential future risks of climate change have been omitting or grossly underestimating many of the most serious consequences for lives and livelihoods".

Economists are divided on the cost of climate change, with some predicting Armageddon, while others say a warming planet will be business as usual.

23/01/2020

Thanks to the new Sky drama Cobra, another potential planetary emergency may be about to join climate change at the top of the agenda. Cobra stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A. It is the UK equivalent of the US government’s “situation room”, where the top brass gather to monitor and deal with crises.

Society needs the knowledge to be able to cope without power for extended periods

02/12/2019

ISRS's Professor Steve Keen comments in The Conversation: "The risk to organised human civilisation of sending Earth into a nightmare “hothouse” state should be sufficient alone to justify the higher cost of a decarbonisation timescale compatible with 1.5°C. Even if letting warming reach 2°C or above turned out to be more cost-effective, the saved money is not worth the moral costs of species extinctions, habitat destruction, and forcing climate refugees from their homes."

William Nordhaus' predictions of what the climate crisis will cost the earth are dangerously at odds with climate science.

13/11/2019

Presenting the British and Irish Legal Information Institute's Sir Henry Brooke Lecture, Lord Sales said the growing role of algorithms and artificial intelligence poses significant legal problems, in particular around the fundamental concept of agency. Existing prejudices could be embedded in hidden rules that are impossible to challenge, he said. ’AI may get to the stage where it will understand the rules of equity and how to recognise hard cases, but we are not there yet.'

New body would enforce the principles of 'equity and mercy' Lord Sales tells lawyers.