Thoughts, insights and rants about futures, climate change, system change, transport, wicked problems, EDI, and heavy metal

By Professor Glenn Lyons

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  • I know a thing or two about extinction – but what about optimism?

    I know a thing or two about extinction – but what about optimism?

    Here’s my Tuesday morning challenge to you – please point me to a video on YouTube that is under four minutes long that offers a compelling sense of optimism about climate change. Mainstream media has been so very good at balancing (finding a person on either side of an issue to offer contrary views to Read more

  • Who cares about provenance these days? Decide and Provide

    Who cares about provenance these days? Decide and Provide

    A decade ago John Dales coined ‘Decide and Provide’ in an LTT article. Hot on the heels of that we found ourselves at the New Zealand Ministry of Transport coming up with the same term to describe a new approach to transport planning (contrasted with Predict and Provide) emerging from strategic work I’d led (https://lnkd.in/eGzvnikr). With Cody Read more

  • Decarbonising transport – buckle up!

    Decarbonising transport – buckle up!

    Here’s your progressively zoomed-in May 2024 update on decarbonisation: globally as a whole, globally for transport, globally for direct emissions from transport, for direct emissions from transport in the UK and for car driving and flying. The story goes like this in brief: We need to reduce emissions globally by 45% compared to 2010 levels Read more

  • Did you hear the $40 billion joke about people, planet and profit?

    Did you hear the $40 billion joke about people, planet and profit?

    Did you hear the $40 billion joke about people, planet and profit? We need to restore biodiversity and reduce global emissions on the planet. People need to change behaviours to help this to help themselves. But perish the thought that such trifling matters should get in the way of profit. It’s a joke. P.S. If Read more

  • The future of highways – a perspective from Mott MacDonald

    The future of highways – a perspective from Mott MacDonald

    Do you know I was a setting out engineer on a by-pass construction in the 1990s? I also worked in a consultancy designing by-pass schemes in Wales then. Both as a student civil engineer. I haven’t strongly associated myself with highways in the many years in between. However, more recently I’ve had the honour of Read more

  • First they came for…

    First they came for…

    It is quite chilling to read of such developments below – a “First they came for…” sensation. I find myself once again oscillating between chasing deadlines amidst a pile of day-job work and opening my eyes wide in shock at what is happening around us. “They shouted up: ‘If you don’t come down and open Read more