ScholarTribe

21/06/2022

Oxford’s hottest day this early on in the year (in the past 50 years)

It was a bit hot last week wasn't t it? Might be too hot, even. If you’re currently in the UK you will know exactly what I mean, and if you aren’t in the UK - well I’m sure you can imagine it. Just think 31 degrees with a disproportionate amount of moaning.

This week we will be taking a look at some historical temperature data. If you’ve wondered how hot it usually is at this time of year, or how many days there have been in the past which have been hotter, then read on!

(And a disclaimer for any actual climate scientists reading this: most of the calculations I did for this are very back-of-an-envelope, so don’t take them too seriously!)

This plot shows 50 years’ worth of historical temperature data, recorded in Oxford. Each grey dot is an individual day in that 50 year time period. Three days last week (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) are represented by the larger red dots. We can see that all three days are much hotter than average, with Fridays’s dot being on the very edges of the historical distribution. In fact, if you count up all the days that have been hotter than today, there are only 70 in total. However, all those 70 days occurred later on in the year than 17th June, which means that today marks the hottest day this early on in the year that Oxford has experienced in the last 50 years!

19/06/2022

Let's introduce another amazing ScholarTribe team member - our Chief of Staff Narumi Saito. 👋

Narumi spent five years as a strategy consultant in Tokyo before moving to London to fight the climate emergency.

If you are currently looking for some books or readings, Narumi has some brilliant recommendations:

✅The Sixth Mass Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
✅Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
✅The China Study by T. Colin Campbell

Narumi's favourite sustainable business at the moment is Treecard. It's cool that 80% of profits go to reforestation and climate investment! 🌳

15/06/2022

Let's have another look into what we do... here's a case study of a consulting retainer 👋

A product design agency required ongoing consulting to support their sustainable design team's efforts to decrease the carbon footprint of their products.

We connected the client with a University College London Postdoc , specialising in LCA, and with industry consulting experience in product and packaging design.

We agreed a weekly retainer with the client, signing the academic on for 2-6 hours of consulting work per week. The academic worked flexibly around the team's requirements, producing deep research and 1-to-1 video consultations.

✅ The academic has worked with the client on three projects over two months, and continues to work with the client on an ongoing basis.🏅

14/06/2022

Weather ≠ Climate 🌩️

As some-who has worked in climate research, a concept I (Dan) often find myself explaining (normally in a pub somewhere) is what the difference is between weather and climate. Indeed, just last weekend I was in the Royal Oak in Oxford, talking to someone about the differences in predicting the two.

So to concisely explain the distinction: climate is the condition of the atmosphere that we expect to see, based on an average of the last 30 years of data. The weather is what we actually get. So to put it another way - if a particular summer was abnormally wet, that would just be an example of the weather being wetter than the usual climate, and it wouldn’t be evidence of climate change. If summers gradually became wetter over a 30-year period however, then the climate would indeed be changing.

So what about the difference in predicting the two? My friend in the Royal Oak was wondering how we can predict changes to the climate in 2050, when we can’t even predict the weather two weeks in advance. The answer to this comes down to what we are actually calculating when we predict climate and weather. In the case of weather, we look at things like where clouds are going to be, where it’s going to rain, and what the wind might do. These are all quantities which are predictable in the short term, but fall victim to chaos in the long term and are therefore unpredictable. Climate prediction isn’t concerned with these mundane affairs, and instead looks at global energy balance, ocean-atmosphere feedbacks, and generally broader variables.

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11/06/2022

At ScholarTribe, we’re supporting our clients’ sustainability journey by connecting them with brilliant climate academics for freelance projects. One of these academics is Antoine Koen, a third year PhD student at the University of Cambridge. His research focusses on grid-scale pumped thermal energy storage, an energy storage option to compensate for the intermittency of renewable power.

Originally from Paris, he did his undergrad in engineering at before doing a Master’s in Energy Technologies at . There he studied everything related to energy engineering, and it was a fast-paced and exciting year for him. At the end of the course, he wrote his master's thesis on thermal energy storage.

As always we have a recommended reading for you! Antoine suggest Sustainable Energy – without the hot air by David MacKay. It’s a free e-book that came out a couple of years ago now, but still extremely relevant.

10/06/2022

Something’s in the air 🌬️ no, literally...

It’s well known that microplastics have been swimming around in our water systems and oceans for decades now. At current rates, the level of plastic pollution is set to reach 80 million tonnes per year by 2040. To put that into perspective that’s the equivalent of 10 kg, or 2 household cats, per person per year. 🤯

This analogy is of course inaccurate, as some countries produce and consume vastly more plastic than others. The problem, which again is already well understood, is that ocean currents mean that the pollution has global coverage, no matter where it originates from.

A new study from the Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research () suggests that there is more at play here than just ocean currents. They show that wind, too, can transport these particles great distances - and much faster than water, over timescales of days rather than months.

📸 @

09/06/2022

Are you a consumer brand wondering what environmental impact your product or service has? ScholarTribe has sector-specific life cycle assessment (LCA) academics that can offer an in-depth assessment of the environmental impact(s) of a product, process or service.

Want to know more? Get in touch via our website now or send us a DM.

08/06/2022

Say hi to our Project manager Dan 👋

Dan was previously a researcher at Bristol University, studying the relationship between extreme weather and climate change. Now, he's an integral part of ScholarTribe and also writes our bi-weekly climate briefing Newsletter ✍️ (If you haven't signed up yet, what are you waiting for?)

Dan suggests you to read The Climate Casino by William Nordhaus - great economic viewpoint of the climate crisis from 2013.

When asked about his favourite sustainable brand, nothing came to mind. BUT, he loves charity shops, and appreciates the important role they play in fashion's circular economy. His all time favourite being the in Oxford 🎉

04/06/2022

Are you wondering in what ways ScholarTribe can help your business? Well, one of the many services we offer are written deliverables ✍️

You'll be paired with academics who can produce written deliverables such as written memos (e.g. pre-investment due diligence), reports (e.g. ESG reporting), or articles. You name it, we'll sort it.

Want to know more? Let's chat 👋

31/05/2022

30/05/2022

Let us show you what we do 🤝 Here at ScholarTribe, we connect small/medium businesses and VCs with a trusted and highly knowledgeable academics in a required climate/sustainability field.

One service we're offering is video consultations, where you can either meet your matched academic 1-on-1 or with a larger group in the form of a seminar - whatever works best for you.

Head to our website now and book a 🚨 free 🚨 consultation. You've got nothing to lose, but our planet might have something to gain!

https://scholartribe.io/clients/

23/05/2022

Please welcome Luciana dos Santos Duarte, one of our academics 👋

Luciana is a third year PhD researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies – . She is the founder of , a sustainable fashion consultancy and a meditation coach.

Her research focusses on the consequences of scaling-up social technologies of rubber in the Amazon rainforest for fashion value chains!