Strategy Boffins

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Emissions need to fall by a minimum of 8 per cent year on year

Idea Almanac

When the amount of carbon added to the atmosphere is greater than the amount we remove (as has been the case for over a century), the stock of carbon dioxide increases. To stabilise temperature rises below 1.5°C, at 2°C or indeed at any temperature, we must reach net zero – the balance where the carbon emitted and taken out of the atmosphere is equal. Net zero isn’t a slogan, it’s an imperative of climate physics.To get on the path to stabilise temperatures at 1.5°C, emissions need to fall by a minimum of 8 per cent year on year over the next two decades. To put that into context, total CO2 emissions for 2020 (which incorporated full-scale, Covid-19-induced shutdowns of our economies) decreased by around 5 to 7 per cent. To be clear, even at this crisis-reduced rate, we are continuing to spend our carbon budget, and we are not on track to meet our temperature goals.

Excerpt From: Mark Carney. “Values.”

Words so bloodless, so fleshless and so empty of Matter

Idea Almanac

“There were two opposing concepts. Chrysippus the philosopher intermingled not merely passages from other authors into his writings but entire books: in one he cited the whole of the Medea of Euripides! Apollodorus said that if you cut out his borrowings his paper would remain blank. Epicurus on the other hand left three hundred tomes behind him: not one quotation from anyone else was planted in any of them. The other day I chanced upon such a borrowing. I had languished along behind some French words, words so bloodless, so fleshless and so empty of matter that indeed they were nothing but French and nothing but words.”

Excerpt From: Michel de Montaigne. “The Complete Essays.”

Fascism is something not desirable

Idea Almanac

“Noting the similarities in tactics and even uniform between Mussolini’s Blackshirts and Antifa’s street warriors, many conservatives reveled in the irony. The so-called “anti-fascists,” they argued, were actually fascists. But they aren’t fascists, and conservatives’ giggling to the contrary demonstrates the PC trap. Some Antifa members are anarchists; others are Communists. All are very bad fellows. But they are not fascists. By describing them as such, conservatives have accepted the radicals’ premise that fascism uniquely threatens the peace and body politic. As Orwell observed, “The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable.’ ” And that is precisely how the radicals want it.”

Excerpt From: Michael Knowles. “Speechless.”

Mixture of wheeler-dealer and diplomat

Idea Almanac

Lakhani was a natural in the world of oil trading, equally at ease in the presidential palace of an oil-rich megalomaniac or the refined and discreet world of Swiss finance. He was born in Karachi, Pakistan, but had grown up in London and Vancouver. A natural entertainer, he hosted concerts for the diplomatic corps at his bungalow in a wealthy neighbourhood of Baghdad. Later in Erbil, in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, he would hold parties with free-flowing champagne and seafood flown in from Dubai where guests would goggle at his collection of paintings by Salvador Dali. Lakhani’s role was a mixture of wheeler-dealer and diplomat. Known variously as ‘middlemen’, ‘agents’ or ‘fixers’, men like Lakhani are hired by commodity traders for their connections and ability to make things happen in difficult parts of the world, where the traders may not have a fully-staffed office.”

Excerpt From: Farchy, Jack. “The World for Sale.”

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