• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

  • About
    • Ambassador from the future
  • Past lives
    • Professional
      • Volans
      • SustainAbility
      • CounterCurrent
      • Boards & Advisory Boards
      • Awards & Listings
    • Personal
      • Family
      • Other Influences
      • Education
      • Photography
      • Music
      • Cycling
    • Website
  • Speaking
    • Media
    • Exhibitions
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Reports
    • Articles & Blogs
    • Contributions
    • Tweets
    • Unpublished Writing
  • Journal
  • Contact
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Cement looks very different in the greenhouse

John Elkington · 19 June 2014 · Leave a Comment

650,000 years of climate change

I wrote my first report on climate change (among three other emerging environmental issues) for Herman Kahn of the Hudson Institute way back in 1978.

And the first blog in this series recorded a 2003 visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, where we learned just how systemic the crisis we are facing now is.

Even so, the way things are headed continuously takes my breath away. So, for example, two images I have come across in the past few days, while convalescing, brought home the sheer scale of what we are facing in the coming decades with climate change – and threw an uncomfortable light on where a growing proportion of the problem is now coming from.

The first image, above is from NASA, and shows that current carbon dioxide trends are, whatever the skeptics may choose to believe, unusual. The second came via Twitter, is equally shocking and shows that China used more cement in the three years from 2011-2013 than the United States did in the entire twentieth century.

This is not so much to point the finger as to underscore the extent to which China has clicked on and dragged across an obsolete industrial model from the West. If I try to put an optimist’s hat on, the best I can come up with is the notion that biomimicry might help inspire novel ways to produce cement and concrete – perhaps based on the way that the world’s coral reefs do it.

CEMENT 2

Uncategorized

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Introduction

I began this blog with an entry reporting on a visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, on 30 September 2003. The blog element of the website has gone through several iterations since, with much of the older material still available.

Like so many things in my life, blog entries blur the boundaries between the personal and the professional. As explained on this site’s Home Page, the website and the blog are part platform for ongoing projects, part autobiography, and part accountability mechanism.

In addition, my blogs have appeared on many sites such as: Chinadialogue, CSRWire, Fast Company, GreenBiz, Guardian Sustainable Business, and the Harvard Business Review.

Recent Comments

  • PATRICK DICK on Reminder of Glencot Years
  • Milton Marino Gómez Ortiz on Tickling Sharks
  • John Elkington on Green Swans A “Must-Read”

Journal Archive

About

John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

Contact

john@johnelkington.com  |  +44 203 701 7550 | Twitter: @volansjohn

John Elkington

Copyright © 2025 John Elkington. All rights reserved. Log in