Ben Purvis

Flight from reality: sustainable aviation, Jet Zero, and the technofix This paper argues that rising aviation emissions, which are disproportionally driven by the wealthy, pose a serious threat to climate goals. Using the UK’s Jet Zero strategy as a case study, it exp...

Clear the UK is positioning itself as a leader in greenwashing the aviation industry, chiming with the great analysis of the Jet Zero strategy by @garethdale.bsky.social, Josh Moos, and Alistair Bernal Holmes

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Less positive news is that it has done so by dominating the global market, representing a massive 25% of global SAF consumption!

(90% of UK SAF is from used cooking oil imported from China)

Various interesting implications of this, of which its hard not to be cynical

Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation statistics: data tables Data on the supply of renewable fuel, as required under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO).

Spending my Friday night lost in UK renewable fuel statistics for some more 'Sustainable' Aviation Fuel work..

Some good news is the UK seems to be on track to meet the target of 2% SAF use by 2025 (provisional data indicates being very close to meeting this in 2024)

www.gov.uk/government/s...

"𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗹𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻"

Dr Joshua Forstenzer, Professor Thomas Webb and Dr Stephen Allen talking on stage at the Sustainability Symposium 2025.

A view of the crowd at the Sustainability Symposium 2025

Jon Alexander speaking at the Sustainability Symposium 2025

Harun Morrison speaking at the Sustainability Symposium 2025

Last week we brought together academics, artists and activists for the @sheffielduni.bsky.social Sustainability Symposium 2025 🌎

The day was full of fascinating discussions about interdisciplinarity, communities of practice, and the role of art and storytelling in activism. #SheffSustSymp 1/4

BREAKING: Our members at the University of Sheffield have voted overwhelmingly for strike action against the University Executive Board’s ongoing campaign of job cuts, and the threat to staff workload and wellbeing that they represent.

@sheffielducu.bsky.social member? This is your last chance to vote. Whatever your views, please protect democracy in your union, and do so immediately. Thank you. Please share. @ucu.org.uk #UCUstrike

University of Sheffield @ucu.org.uk members, have you voted? If you haven't, please do so immediately as the deadline is soon. Trade union solidarity is one the most important tools we've got left in our much troubled world. Don't waste it. @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucuhallam.bsky.social

Ditching the declaration: the real cost of Reform UK's plans to rescind the climate emergency in Kent Reform UK look set to rescind the climate emergency declaration in Kent. But does the motion align with the latest research? Our Green Watch team share their views.

The Reform UK led #Kent County Council is on the verge of ditching its #climate emergency declaration, despite the motion being at odds with the latest research.

@richsulley.bsky.social from our #GreenWatch team shares his expert views. Read the full story here ⬇️
tinyurl.com/bdyz5zfs

It feels almost comical at this stage. Something quite insidious too in terms of the amount of TU rep, HR, and staff time that is being cannibalised by constant overlapping collective consultation processes

Anyway, vote yes for strike action, and yes for action short of a strike x

Our leadership's love of constant restructuring without any pause to reflect on changes has turbo charged against the backdrop of "external pressures".

Great to work within an organisation where nobody knows which work areas still exist, where they sit, or what they're called!

An unwelcome boost to our ongoing @sheffielducu.bsky.social industrial action ballot as our VC announces more work areas to be targeted by cuts.

It is unclear that this has much to do with finances, but is more an ideological push to change the University's "size and shape".

Study finds limits to storing CO2 underground to combat climate change | Imperial News | Imperial College London Imperial research has found limits to how quickly we can scale up technology to store gigatonnes of carbon dioxide under the Earth’s surface.

Kinda good (but also infuriating in a told ya so kind of way) to see #CCS being more widely recognised for the techno optimist tool of distraction it always was. Political ecologists & many others have called out CCS BS for years. Good to have this new study⬇️

www.imperial.ac.uk/news/255614/...

Massive tech companies are keen to consolidate as much power and rake in as much cash as possible before the bubble bursts and the emperor is revealed to be naked

Meanwhile their glorified autocomplete tools continue to kill kids, destroy the environment, and push swathes of workers into precarity

THE AI CON How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want

Really recommend this by @emilymbender.bsky.social & @alexhanna.bsky.social

Incisively cuts through dangerous big tech bullshit surrounding so-called 'AI'

Worth emphasising that 'AI' is a marketing term for a wide range of tools that are pretty shit outside of very specific uses

thecon.ai

Here goes my vote for strike action at the University of Sheffield. When your management treats staff & students as disposable commodities, it's your duty, even more than your right, to respond. @sheffielducu.bsky.social @zooarchlabsheff.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk #sheffield #university #workersrights

Don’t like to have to keep doing this, but management has left us again with no choice. We will vote again to take action and massive numbers will again be out on picket lines. And like last year, management will again back down. All of that can be prevented if management chooses to negotiate.

Strike ballot opens at University of Sheffield staff over job cuts Staff at the University of Sheffield are being asked to vote for strike action, announced the University and College Union (UCU) today. The ballot opened yesterday and will close on Tuesday 30 September.

Ballot papers drop today for local industrial action to defend jobs at the University of Sheffield against redundancy and further workload pressures.

www.ucu.org.uk/article/1415...

OpenAI is an evil company and should be shut down.

if you see someone shoplifting food or baby formula or nappies, no you didn’t

Drug death epidemic: Is it time to bring legal consumption rooms to Sheffield? A pioneering new project in Glasgow aims to cut the number of overdose deaths by providing a safe environment for injecting powerful opioids. Could this model work in South Yorkshire?

With the advent of powerful new synthetic opioids, health workers fear we could be about to see an explosion in the rate of drug deaths in #Sheffield.

Could 'The Thistle', a pioneering project in Glasgow that allows drug users to inject on-site, be part of the solution?

@sammgreg.bsky.social ✍️

OpenAI signs deal with UK to find government uses for its models Wide-ranging agreement with artificial intelligence firm behind ChatGPT comes after similar UK deal with Google

We are so thoroughly cooked.

One really consistent pattern whenever I look at the energy and financial data for large big tech companies is that energy + revenue are being decoupled. They keep having to buy more and more energy each year to make the same $1 of revenue.

This is a pretty new thing

ketanjoshi.co/2025/05/31/t...

Original image by Jake Greenhalgh

Three months ago, we were told that workers at the Uni of Sheffield’s AMRC had been overheard joking about making nuclear weapons. There couldn’t be anything to it – could there?
THREAD 1/n

Why the University of Sheffield’s problems are made in Sheffield University management claims the current financial situation is entirely down to external factors. The evidence suggests otherwise.

Great article from @sheffielducu.bsky.social on how, despite what university leadership might suggest, the data clearly shows any financial issues at the institution are not a result of 'sector-wide' problems, but a result of their mismanagement. Please read!

ucu.group.shef.ac.uk/campaigns/st...

Unfortunately not open access, but we have a 50 day sharable link to view and download:

authors.elsevier.com/c/1lAsV3Hb~0...

Macroeconomic models for assessing the transition towards a circular economy: A systematic review The Circular Economy (CE) paradigm has gained traction in both academic discourse and industrial practice. While a transition towards a CE is generall…

Great to have collaborated with José Bruno Fevereiro, @ecoclassical.bsky.social, and colleagues on this review, now published in Ecological Economics.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#CircularEconomy @ussee.bsky.social

Great day of #SUCUstrike action at the University of #Sheffield. Today we started our #Palestine support roving picket, which much solidarity around the campus. Join us! ucu.group.shef.ac.uk @drvaleriehobbs.bsky.social @lisastampnitzky.bsky.social @amnakaleem.bsky.social @sheffielducu.bsky.social

The back of a large rally with people holding placards. Underneath a concrete underpass with blue lighting.

Huge rally of staff and students today rejecting cuts at Sheffield 💥