Mike Berners-Lee Explained

Mike Berners-Lee is an English researcher and writer on carbon footprinting. He is a professor and fellow of the Institute for Social Futures at Lancaster University[1] and director and principal consultant of Small World Consulting, based in the Lancaster Environment Centre at the university.[2] His books include How Bad are Bananas?,[3] [4] The Burning Question[5] and There Is No Planet B[6] and he is a contributing author to The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg. He is considered an expert on carbon footprints.[7]

Early life and education

He was born in 1964 and is the son of Mary Lee Woods and Conway Berners-Lee who were both mathematicians and computer scientists. One of his brothers is computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee[8] who invented the World Wide Web.

He graduated in physics from University of Oxford in 1986, gained a PGCE in Physics and Outdoor Education at Bangor University in 1988, and has a master's in Organisation Development and Consulting from Sheffield Hallam University (2001).[9] He has been a Professor in Practice at Lancaster University since 2016.

Carbon accounting

Berners-Lee has pioneered carbon accounting of upstream carbon emissions from supply chains, known as scope 3 emissions, to assess the full greenhouse gas emissions of products. His work at Small World Consulting has combined Process-based Life Cycle Analysis with Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis to achieve both a system-complete estimate of the supply chain and specificity in key areas.[10] He is also a leading researcher in assessing the full climate impacts of current and emerging ICT.[11]

Climate impact of food and land-use

His research has also examined the climate emissions from food and land-use, concluding that global food production can meet humanity's nutritional needs but only with a radical shift in dietary choices, so that less land is used for the relatively inefficient production of animal products with high greenhouse gas emissions, and more land is used to produce plant-based foods direct for human consumption.[12] [13]

Selected publications

Media appearances

Memberships

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Our people . 4 April 2024 . Lancaster Environment Centre . Lancaster University.
  2. Web site: The Team . Small World Consulting . 21 March 2024.
  3. News: How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything . 1 January 2019 . Publishers Weekly.
  4. News: Couch . Aaron . How Bad are Bananas (review) . 1 January 2019 . Christian Science Monitor . 13 June 2011.
  5. News: Forbes. Peter. 31 May 2013. The Burning Question by Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clark – review. The Guardian . 2021-02-08.
  6. Web site: There Is No Planet B, by Mike Berners-Lee . 2024-04-04 . www.ft.com.
  7. News: A bad reputation . 1 January 2019 . BBC News: Magazine . 8 June 2010.
  8. News: 21 September 2014 . Author – and brother of world wide web inventor – to talk about threat of carbon emissions . 1 January 2019 . Berkhamsted and Tring Gazette.
  9. Web site: Mike Berners-Lee . 15 June 2022 . Chartwell Speakers.
  10. Kennelly . C. . Berners-Lee . M. . Hewitt . C.N. . 2019 . Hybrid life-cycle assessment for robust, best-practice carbon accounting . Journal of Cleaner Production . en . 208 . 35–43 . 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.09.231. 2019JCPro.208...35K .
  11. Freitag . Charlotte . Berners-Lee . Mike . Widdicks . Kelly . Knowles . Bran . Blair . Gordon S. . Friday . Adrian . 2021 . The real climate and transformative impact of ICT: A critique of estimates, trends, and regulations . Patterns . en . 2 . 9 . 100340 . 10.1016/j.patter.2021.100340 . 8441580 . 34553177.
  12. Berners-Lee . M. . Hoolohan . C. . Cammack . H. . Hewitt . C.N. . 2012 . The relative greenhouse gas impacts of realistic dietary choices . Energy Policy . en . 43 . 184–190 . 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.12.054. 2012EnPol..43..184B .
  13. Berners-Lee . M. . Kennelly . C. . Watson . R. . Hewitt . C. N. . 2018 . Kapuscinski . Anne R. . Locke . Kim A. . Peters . Christian J. . Current global food production is sufficient to meet human nutritional needs in 2050 provided there is radical societal adaptation . Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene . en . 6 . 52 . 10.1525/elementa.310 . 2018EleSA...6...52B . 2325-1026. free .
  14. Web site: BBC One - Climate Change - The Facts . 2024-04-08 . BBC . en-GB.
  15. Web site: BBC Two - Horizon, 2021, Feast to Save the Planet . 2024-04-08 . BBC . en-GB.

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