Chris graduated from Sussex University obtaining both his B.Sc and D.Phil there and then worked for 2 years at Leicester University as a post-doctoral fellow with Professor M.C.R.Symons FRS. He was appointed to a "new-blood" lectureship in Chemistry at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London University and then moved to LJMU as Research Professor in Chemistry in 1994. In 2003 Chris was awarded a Higher Doctorate (D.Sc) by the University of Sussex. In August 2003 he established the consultancy firm, Fresh-lands Environmental Actions, which deals with various energy and environment issues, of which he is Director. Some of its current projects concern land remediation; heavy metal and radioactive waste management; alternative fuels and energy sources based on biomass and algae; and hydrothermal conversion of biomass and algae to biochar, fuels and feedstocks. Chris' publications run to over 200 articles and 5 books. He writes a monthly column for Scitizen.com on "Future Energies". He has given invited lectures at many international conferences and university departments around the world, radio and televised interviews and more recently at popular science venues e.g. Cafe Scientifique. His first novel “University Shambles” http://universityshambles.com, a black comedy based on the disintegration of the U.K. university system, was nominated for a Brit Writers Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. He was recently elected Chair of Transition Town Reading (U.K.).
Oil Price Crashes in Wake of Coronavirus (COVID-19)
By Chris Rhodes, Energy Balance
The global oil price has crashed, mainly as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19), and earlier in the week hit lows not seen for two decades, of around $20 a barrel for WTI and $24 for Brent crude.
Human Consumption of Natural Resources Exceeds an Annual 100 Billion Tonnes
By Chris Rhodes, Energy Balance
In 1969, the late Professor Albert Bartlett famously delivered a lecture, entitled "Arithmetic, Population and Energy", which begins with the observation that, "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." The truth of this is profound and irrefutable...
COP21 and “4 per thousand” – Storing Carbon in the Soil
By Chris Rhodes, Energy Balance
It would have been a remarkable oversight, had not our use of the land and its soils featured among the discussions about climate change mitigation in Paris at COP21.
The Whispering World of Plants: “The Wood Wide Web”
By Chris Rhodes, Energy Balance
The notion that plants can "talk" to one another was, until relatively recently, dismissed as fantasy, but the reality of inter-plant communication is now becoming an accepted part of mainstream science.
The Global Oil Supply: Implications for Biodiversity?
By Chris Rhodes, Energy Balance
The link between the global oil supply and biodiversity is not directly causal; rather, the two are elements of a broader and more integrated picture.
Permaculture: Regenerative – not merely Sustainable
By Chris Rhodes, Energy Balance
All sustainable solutions are unsustainable over the longer term, if they are not also intrinsically regenerative.
Albert Einstein, Soil, Honey Bees and Biodiversity
By Chris Rhodes, Energy Balance
Among the manifold quotes that are attributed to Albert Einstein, are variants along the lines of: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."
Can Flooding Be Prevented by Rebuilding the Soil?
By Chris Rhodes, Energy Balance
The floodplain does the job that ecology might expect it to, which is to take-up the excess water when the river is in flood.