Alasdair Lane

I'm a multi-skilled journalist and writer with extensive print, broadcast, online, and digital experience. I've worked at the sharp end of some of the biggest stories in recent years across multiple platforms. Climate, sustainability, politics, foreign affairs, social issues, business, and technology are my key interest areas — but I'm confident in covering anything that intrigues me. 
 

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Recent work

Fortune •

Nuclear fusion has been a pipe dream for decades, but it might actually be on the cusp of commercial viability

In the packed field of prospective net-zero solutions, nuclear fusion stands out in its scope and ambition. By successfully replicating the reaction that powers the sun, humanity could—in the words of Stephen Hawking—unlock an “inexhaustible supply of energy, without pollution or global warming.” Fusion development has progressed at a glacial pace for decades, however, and breakthroughs have been intermittent at best.
The New York Times •

How Crypto is Re‑Writing the Rules of Digital Ownership

Shortly after the financial crisis of 2008, a group of tech-minded trailblazers sought a solution to the shortcomings of conventional finance. They envisaged a world underpinned not by centralized power, but by a distributed, democratic system of ownership that was inclusive, transparent and secure. This world, the crypto world, grew steadily in the years that followed. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Global lockdowns have hastened the advance of all things digital and, in this uncertain age of
Fortune •

U.S. states lead the way in taking Big Oil to court

In courtrooms around the United States, climate lawyers are tightening the screws on Big Oil. From California to Colorado, Hawaii, and Rhode Island, no fewer than 20 states are seeking damages against dozens of the world’s largest fossil fuel firms. The argument? That these corporations’ extractive enterprises are responsible for decades of environmental destruction—and, crucially, that they have misled the American people about the true nature of the damage.
New Scientist •

Peatlands in peril: The race to save the bogs that slow climate change

In the middle of the 20th century, Finland started modernizing. Like most of Europe, the Nordic nation had been left economically bereft by World War II, and needed to ramp up productivity fast. The answer, the Finnish government decided, was forestry, the country’s industrial backbone for generations. Over the next three decades, vast tracts of trees were planted, blanketing the swampy terrain that covers nearly a third of Finland’s surface: peatland.
BBC Future •

How might the world meet its clean energy needs

Sixteen miles (26km) off the windswept coast of northern Scotland, the future of renewable energy is taking shape. Rotating rhythmically in the breeze, the five colossal turbines of the Hywind Scotland wind farm look much like any other off-shore wind project, bar one major difference – they're floating. While conventional offshore turbines sit atop metal and concrete towers fixed into the seabed, Hywind's turbines rest on buoyant steel keels that bob with the waves. Carefully balanced, they re
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