Jon Lovett
Jon Lovett is Chair in Global Challenges in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds and works on institutional economics.
http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/j.lovett
Location United Kingdom
Activity
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Jon Lovett replied to isfah abbasi
This is an interesting podcast about diet and longevity:
https://zoe.com/learn/podcast-longevity-according-to-blue-zones
"The diets of people who make it to 100 are 90% whole food and plant-based. Although the specific plants might vary, people tend to eat what they grow in their gardens, and beans feature heavily.
Beans are full of healthy plant... -
Good summary - and of course policies and institutional arrangements can be put in place to reduce inequalities and favour justice (in the sense of John Rawls).
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Jon Lovett replied to isfah abbasi
The interesting thing about the Pareto wealth distribution is that it appears to be consistent. However the EKC has been criticised and the patterns may not be as robust as originally proposed.
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Jon Lovett replied to isfah abbasi
Very insightful comment, well done.
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Jon Lovett replied to Vicky Ellis
You're right - it's complex! Here's an example of a complex correlation with El Niño years that may interact with changes in human population, land use and migration:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1617218114
"Here, we show clear evidence for a shift in the distribution of cholera incidence throughout Africa in El Niño years, likely mediated...
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The lynx and snowshoe hare dynamics is an interesting case study as it has been shown that the predator-prey dynamics that were previously thought to explain the fluctuations are in fact too simplistic. This paper explains the complexity:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.94.10.5147
"The plant species in the hare diet appear compensatory to one...
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You are right, many countries are now either adopting or looking seriously at legal rights for natural objects. Some of these laws have already been in place for many years. For example Bolivia has a 'Law of Mother Earth' enacted in 2011:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights
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Good analysis, thank you. Yes, the 'legal rights for corporations' argument is one put forward as an example of non-human things being granted legal rights. Perhaps a better argument is to look at the countries and places where legal rights for e.g. rivers has already been granted to see how those cases are working.
These cases are a few years old...
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Jon Lovett replied to Lee Scott
Welcome back Lee. Yes you're right, there is no doubt and the impact continues with increased fossil fuel extraction and burning, more forests cut down, more water polluted and more fishing of wild stocks to name but a few impacts.
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Jon Lovett replied to Mark Bretherton
Many thanks Mark and sorry you haven't had feedback. My students are in the course somewhere, but have extended access so might not be practising their assignments just yet. Hope you'll join us on the next course.
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Jon Lovett replied to Mark Bretherton
@MarkBretherton There are many good people doing some excellent work on apocalypse avoidance. Here's a nice example from Spain:
https://commonland.com/landscapes/reversing-desertification-with-regenerative-practices/
There are many others. Perhaps small in the big scale of the world, but they show what can be done in a practical financially viable...
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Jon Lovett replied to Mark Bretherton
I agree that humans living in harmony with nature is Utopian. But the principles of virtue ethics explored in the Rights and Values course are that we should aim for a goal (a Telos) even if we can't attain it. Decision making will be orientated towards the higher level goal as a matter of principle. Costa Rica is a good...
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Jon Lovett replied to Mark Bretherton
Good analysis. The reasons for the extraordinary migrations to urban areas are, as you say, many fold and complex. Many people moved to cities during the industrial revolution in England and some say that the Enclosure Acts were used to drive people off the land to provide factory and mining labour. Similarly, many dispossessed Irish people looked for labour...
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Jon Lovett replied to Mark Bretherton
Good example. It's interesting to think of libraries as common pool resources. If you are interested in solutions to conflict the skills exercise in the fifth course in this series on 'Scarcity and Conflict' is on conflict transformation. With so many stakeholders affected by this type of decisions, many of whom probably have no power or voice, its important...
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Jon Lovett replied to Mark Bretherton
Very good points. We looked at 'elite capture', power hierarchies and the control of institutions in the first course in this series 'Justice in Environmental Management' in case you hadn't seen it.
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Jon Lovett replied to Denzel Musambai
Good analysis, well done.
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Jon Lovett replied to Denzel Musambai
One of the key preconditions to Coasian Bargaining is the establishment of private property rights - which is required for free market transactions. It doesn't matter who owns what, as long as everything is owned. This runs into complex problems with public goods and common pool resources, as we discuss in the course on 'Hierarchy of Property Rights'.
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Jon Lovett replied to Rajab Ali Hussaini
Welcome to the course, I hope you find it interesting.
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Jon Lovett replied to Mark Bretherton
Welcome to the course Mark. The course is also supporting my teaching this term at the University of Leeds so my students are here too. This is the third of the Environmental Challenges courses we've been using this term and there are two more after this one in case you're interested in the others.
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Jon Lovett made a comment
Welcome to this course on property rights! I'll be following the course as well so please put any questions into the Q&A step 2.11 in Week 2.
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Jon Lovett replied to Nathalie Bagge
That's a very good summary and a nice critical analysis of some of the contradictions. There are many different discourses around nuclear power that range from the 'ban nuclear' to 'its the best option to provide base load for renewables that fluctuate'. Other arguments against (aside from the risks and waste disposal) are that civilian nuclear power is used...
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Jon Lovett replied to ROBERT NAMUSHI
Welcome!
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Jon Lovett made a comment
Here is a recent news article that raises contrasting values about elephants with people being killed as conservationists move elephants to a new habitat in a protected wildlife park:
"Four more people have died after an elephant translocation overseen by two wildlife organisations, including one that was headed by Prince Harry, in a protected area in...
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Jon Lovett made a comment
I'm now over in the ‘Rights and Values in Ecosystem Services’ course so please join us there!
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Jon Lovett made a comment
Welcome to the Rights and Values in Ecosystem Services Course. I will be following the 'comments' as we go through the course and will try my best to keep up with responding to comments. There are a lot of steps in the course so if you have any specific questions you'd like answering then please put them in Step 2.11 Q&A where I can find them. Thank you!
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Jon Lovett replied to Nathalie Bagge
Very good analysis. Readjusting the distribution of land rights to correct historical discrimination is difficult. The same is true in many other countries. For example countries as different as South Africa and Scotland have very unequal patterns of land ownership and redistribution of land is politically contentious.
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Jon Lovett replied to Kandahar usman Naderi
You are welcome! I hope you find the course of interest.
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Jon Lovett replied to Cameron Allan
Marketing of vapes to children has been attracting a lot of media attention recently. I was listening to a radio programme yesterday about child grooming and vapes. It certainly appears to be an institutional failure.
"A BBC investigation has uncovered evidence that vapes are being used to groom children into sexual or criminal exploitation. Last week, the...
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Jon Lovett replied to Aliya Kanat
I don't know enough about law and the 'reasonable man' concept to respond in detail as to whether this creates discrimination. At first sight (and I am ignorant of case law details) I would assume that a reasonable person in law could be any gender, ethnicity, orientation etc. because of the principle of equality before the law (i.e. first principle of...
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Jon Lovett replied to Sebi Williams
That's an interesting example. From the perspective of China the interpretation might be different - they would say that they are breaking the hegemony of western control and empowering developing countries in Africa by supporting creation of economic infrastructure. But as you point out, it is also to enhance trade with China which needs raw materials and...
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Jon Lovett replied to Joseph Main
That is a good example of inequality that had many consequences that are still being played out to this day. For example emigration of people from Ireland to the USA where people of Irish descent have strong political influence (the current president, Joe Biden, is of Irish descent) and political fractures in Northern Ireland. At the time it was certainly...
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Jon Lovett replied to Muhammad Siddiqui
Yes, there is a lot of elite capture in United States politics. Following a series of Supreme Court decisions e.g. Citizens United v. FEC (2010) the amount of funding that could be allocated to campaigning politicians was uncapped. In 2020 $14 billion was spent on campaigning. This favours influence from super-rich elites.
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Jon Lovett replied to Mimi Bartlett McLuckie
Air BnB is a good example as it is an elite who are capturing the resource under a particular type of institutional arrangement that they've created. I had a quick look for literature and found this paper which seems nicely relevant:
Elite capture and urban geography: Analyzing geographies of privilege
Many cities have a two-tiered system for governing...
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Jon Lovett replied to Owen Kendall
I wasn't sure if this was really elite capture or simply part of normal dynamics in a city. Cities change all the time and they can't be regarded as museums with everyone stuck in a diorama of a past age. So I did a quick lit search and found this article which I thought was quite interesting in this context:
Challenging the financial capture of urban...
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Jon Lovett replied to edward white
Elite capture by private agents of colonial powers is a good one and on a grand scale. It's happened again and again. The modern equivalent are transnational companies who can shift their capital around to places with the cheapest minerals, land and labour. This is often called 'free market economics', but its not because it goes against the basic principles...
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Jon Lovett replied to Oliver Hart
The oil company example (and not just Nigeria) is a good example of elite capture and the consequences can be devastating with very long term consequences. The case of Persia/ Iran and BP is fascinating and the effects are still being played out today. In Nigeria there is great wealth and crushing poverty - and this is true of many countries rich in...
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Jon Lovett replied to Leon Rapsomanikis
That's an interesting example. It could also be construed as market economics and is quite nuanced. A bit different from the luxury flats example you give: 'council houses' were sold off cheaply to the people who lived in them as a privatisation of the social housing sector as a way of creating a 'home owning' class. But now (I might be wrong on the numbers,...
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Jon Lovett made a comment
Welcome to the Justice in Natural Resource Management Course. I will be following the 'comments' as we go through the course and will try my best to keep up with responding to comments. There are a lot of steps in the course so if you have any specific questions you'd like answering then please put them in Step 2.11 Q&A where I can find them. Thank you!
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Jon Lovett replied to Charles Belveal
@paulgwynn A lot of countries are developing microgrids at a range of scales from local communities to larger scale operations. Here's an article about microgrids and mining in Indonesia for example:
https://bv.com/perspectives/microgrids-bring-sustainable-solutions-mine-operators-indonesia
It's not only clean energy, microgrids are also cheaper, more...
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Jon Lovett made a comment
A great many thanks to all the course participants. The discussion forums during the past two weeks were lively and informative, I very much enjoyed reading them and replying. I wish everyone success in their future careers and I hope you find PyEPLAN a useful tool for designing microgrids.
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Jon Lovett replied to Lorna Allen
Many thanks, I'll ask Lizzie to add that. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/what-is-the-united-nations-framework-convention-on-climate-change
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Jon Lovett replied to MERCY Mirriam apio
Thank you! We hope that you are able to apply the information in the course and the design software in your own work.
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Jon Lovett replied to Druscilar Atuhaire
Thank you! We are very pleased that you enjoyed the course.
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Jon Lovett replied to Druscilar Atuhaire
Thank you very much, we are pleased that you enjoyed the course.
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Jon Lovett replied to Muhammad Abyaz Anwar
Thank you very much Muhammad. We wish you success in your future career.
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Jon Lovett replied to Lorna Allen
Thank you Lorna. we're really pleased you've enjoyed it. As you say, it takes a lot of work to put a course like this together so it makes it all worthwhile when the participants say they've gained something from it!
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Jon Lovett replied to Charles Belveal
@MERCYMirriamapio Thank you very much for your appreciation. We are very pleased that the course has been worthwhile for you and wish you success in your future career.
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Jon Lovett replied to Liberty Amaechi
@MojahedMnzool Welcome to the course. I hope you find it interesting and useful.
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Jon Lovett replied to Renate R
Thank you! We very much appreciate your nice feedback.
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Jon Lovett replied to Michael Baker
Many thanks! It's very nice for us to know that you've enjoyed the course and gained some useful knowledge.
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Jon Lovett replied to Michael Baker
Many thanks for your kind words and valuable contributions in the discussions. There are some very knowledgeable and engaged people on the course.
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Jon Lovett replied to Lorna Allen
@LornaAllen Yes, I agree that's not very clear. It refers to the different types of sources of generation e.g. a solar panel is a renewable unit with the Microgrid design area map. Hope that helps.
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@MichaelBaker They look very handy. I'll put a link here in case anyone else is interested:
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@HenryNeondo,Herman Welcome to the course!
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Jon Lovett replied to Liberty Amaechi
Welcome to the course Liberty. I hope you find it interesting and useful.
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#2 Using available technologies and smart grids we can supply household needs using smart/mciro grids. As you point out, it's already been done in many places. It's easy and just needs political will and local action to make it happen. If we wanted to shift to net zero for households we could do it right away.
The next question is how to power energy...
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@LornaAllen Interesting question ... small claim to fame... and I once had the opportunity to discuss this with Ian Blackford and gave him the concept of the 'Porter Hypothesis' which he then mentioned in a speech in Parliament. :). I doubt if he remembers the discussion!
The main point of your question relates to nuclear power. This is much debated. You...
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I did a quick internet search on fossil fuel subsidies. I have no idea if these are correct or not:
n 2020-21, Australian Federal and state governments provided a total of $10.3 billion worth of spending and tax breaks to assist fossil fuel industries. The $7.8 billion cost of the fuel tax rebate alone is more than the budget of the Australian Army. Over...
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Conventional thinking about microgrids is that they are more resilient, so you are correct. However... and the truth is always after the 'but'. Microgrids need a good institutional and governance framework (see my other online courses about institutional economics). So, technically yes, microgrids are the next best thing. But... it needs strong local...
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Jon Lovett replied to Lorna Allen
I couldn't find the context of the use of the term. Can you give me a bit more info?
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Jon Lovett replied to Charles Belveal
Many thanks. It's open source so you can adapt it.
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Jon Lovett replied to Lorna Allen
Good points. High demand users such as heavy industries need to be on grids. But this opens a can of worms to the extent that households are subsidising industry when we're in a cost effective situation with regard to technologies to shift households off-grid or be energy positive. How many household solar panels are needed to power a smelter?
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It's all about getting the right mix for the local situation.
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Yes, if you've got the gas.
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Jon Lovett replied to Lorna Allen
Having a back up is a sensible part of integrated energy generation. Demand is the thing to be negotiated.
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Jon Lovett replied to Adrian Brewster
There is no single approach unless it is to reduce demand. There are lot of cost effective opportunities to generate electricity for household use if demand fits supply. There are other reasons for nuclear power stations. That's a political decision outside the scope of this course. Integrate microgrids in smart energy systems for household use. It's a...
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In energy supply and demand, nothing is off topic! Thank you for this information.
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Jon Lovett replied to Michael Baker
There are many examples of communities who are becoming energy positive, for example in Germany. https://www.communitypower.eu/en/germany.html.
But... the it's important to distinguish between household use and industrial use. A steel smelter or mining operation uses a lot of electricity. It is simple to use existing technology to convert households to...
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Jon Lovett replied to joanne scott
Both good points and examples of the problems associated with local energy supply and tariffs. Vertical integration of generation, transmission and ownership cause local problems.
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Jon Lovett replied to Adrian Brewster
I should also add - there are many farms with microgrids powered by biogas. There were some good case studies in 'Farming Today' recently.
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Jon Lovett replied to Adrian Brewster
That's a very interesting summary, thank you. A strategic rethink and reorganisation of energy generation and supply is long overdue, but it is happening on a local scale already https://placetech.net/strategy/case-study-limericks-positive-energy-city-experiment/
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You make a very good point. There are major subsidies for national grid providers and generations systems, but there are not similar incentives for small scale microgrids. The reasons for this are both simple and complex. The simple reason is that that large scale generation and transmission can attract major external and national funding to develop the...
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Jon Lovett replied to Charles Belveal
Many thanks Charles - you've made some very useful and helpful contributions in the discussion forum.
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Good summary and you're absolutely right. I'm not even sure that the environmentally friendly criterion needs to be brought in. They are cheaper, more flexible, create local employment, keep money within the local economy etc etc. It's a straight forward business case.
I also think you're right about them replacing main grids through 'smart grids' which are...
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Jon Lovett replied to Michael Baker
Many thanks! You may also be interested in our companion course on bioenergy (search for Bioenergy on FutureLearn). Embedded in the course are a series of worked examples that might help guide the sort of calculations you need to work out the energy gap. It's all about getting the right energy mix! :)
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You're right. It's a matter of scale. The energy demand needs to be scaled to the ability of the energy generation and transmission system to supply needs. The fossil fuel 'problem' arises because of the superabundance of fossil fuels. Some amazing technology has been developed to extract, transport and convert fossil fuels - a real testament to engineering...
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Good points. There are some examples of well established community forestry and these have been subject to quite intensive research. Community forests in Nepal are a good example. Here's a collection of papers from the research of my PhD student...
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This is a very good point. It's not so much that fossil fuels are totally 'bad'. The problem is the quantity that's being burnt. A massive amount in fact. A mixture of different fuels is the way to deliver sustainable energy generation. If the amount of greenhouse gas produced was around about the same level as the amount naturally absorbed in natural cycles...
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You are right. Education is important. It is not only people in rural areas though. Many people living in urban areas do not have access to good education. The team at CREEC in Uganda have been producing a series of television dramas and radio podcasts to in an effort to get knowledge of the technology more widely disseminated. Some of their outputs are...
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Jon Lovett replied to ELIZABETH NWAMBA
Ethanol from sugarcane and maize is produced using a fermentation process in which yeast converts sugars in the plant to alcohol (ethanol). This is the same as the fermentation process used to make alcoholic drinks such as beer, so it doesn't need a biochemical or thermochemical pretreatment. The more complex carbohydrate of starch in maize needs to be...
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Jon Lovett replied to Sandra Kempf
Welcome to the course Sandra, apologies for being rather late in welcoming you, I have been busy preparing our new course on Microgrids ready to launch at the same time as CoP27. You might be interested in that one too if you liked this one.
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Jon Lovett replied to ELIZABETH NWAMBA
You are welcome Elizabeth, I hope that you found the course interesting.
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Jon Lovett replied to Yohana jocktani
Hujambo! Habari gani? Karibu!
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Jon Lovett replied to Lisa Silver
Welcome to the course - yes you're right. There are a lot of hidden costs in different types of energy feedstocks. Good insulation is one of the best ways of heating homes - simply preventing heat loss and so reducing energy consumption. That's a different story though and I hope you find something of interest here. You might also be interested in our course...
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Jon Lovett replied to Maria Chernetska
Welcome to the course. You might also be interested in our course on Microgrids. You can can find it using the FutureLearn search with the term 'Microgrids'.
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Jon Lovett replied to Jess Barbour
Very good points. Oil palm is a flex crop so it can be shifted across different commodity markets. As you say, biodiesel is only a small part of that. Although regional trading blocks such as the EU are looking at oil palm trade restrictions based on sustainability criteria these restrictions won't affect trade to other countries, such as China and India.
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@LornaAllen It's the camp where the construction team have their headquarters for the duration of the construction. If they are building something like a railway then the construction camp stays in place longer than the construction site, which will move along with the railway as it's completed.
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Jon Lovett replied to Charles Belveal
Yes, a mix of different types of generating capacity is often needed and this may include diesel generators as well as solar, wind, hydro etc. Batteries are expensive, but the cost is coming down and new battery technologies emerging.
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Jon Lovett replied to Charles Belveal
You are right. It is also interesting to think about the role played by grids in the national economy.
One of the main functions of creating expensive grid infrastructure and generating capacity is to stimulate national economic activity. This is why the costs of grids are subsidised by government or international donors/ banks instead of being paid for...
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Good points! Creating microgrids for remote places such as rural areas and islands to power infrastructure and industry is important for economic development and also for paying the cost of construction, operation and maintenance of the microgrid.
For example the microgrid on Lolwe Island in Uganda will provide power to 'Agro-processing Hub to deliver...
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It's amazing how quickly renewables are becoming an integral part of national electricity supply systems. Price is of course a key factor. Having the right energy mix is important though - it will be a while before fossil fuels are eased out of big systems to just be backups, and this will probably need some major changes to demand.
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Thank you, some very good points.
There are some interesting and simple initiatives on electric cookers. Here is a video made by our partners CREEC in Uganda promoting electric pressure cookers:
"Demystifying Ecooking in Uganda | Electric Pressure Cooker Exhibition with MEMD Uganda"
The health benefits of shifting away...
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That is a good point, though many of the communities that would benefit from microgrids actually produce very limited amounts of greenhouse gas so they don't have a big influence on climate change. For microgrids to have an effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions there would need to widespread uptake in countries that already have well established...
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Economic growth is important for microgrids because there needs to be means for the community to pay for the operation and maintenance, so there need to be businesses benefitting from the presence of electricity supply who are capable of paying tariffs.
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It means that the consumer of the electricity will reduce their consumption if there microgrid is being heavily used (or increase their consumption during periods when the use is light). So for example, in an island community the households might take turns to run appliances such as washing machines that use a lot of electricity.
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I was talking to an energy engineer recently in London and his group were looking into the possibility of construction camps in the UK using microgrids. So it looks like they are attracting attention for a variety of uses not just remote communities.
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St Kilda has an incredible and poignant history. I'll put a link below here for those course participants who are not familiar with it.
"The decision to evacuate the island archipelago was taken because life there was becoming untenable. So many islanders had left that the traditional livelihoods of raising sheep for wool, spinning and weaving tweed,...
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Jon Lovett replied to Alex Reid
Welcome to the course. I hope you find the microgrid design tool PyEPLAN useful.
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Welcome to the course Carole. I hope that you find it useful for your professional work. We cover quite a range of topics.
