Linus Blomqvist

Biography

Linus Blomqvist is a PhD student pursuing the Economics and Environmental Science emphasis. He is the former Director of Conservation and Food & Agriculture at the Breakthrough Institute, and an Associate Researcher at the D.E.E.P. Lab at the University of Tasmania. Linus has worked for several conservation organizations including BirdLife Europe and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Linus’s interests center on land use, specifically on how to design and evaluate policies that drive agricultural intensification while also protecting natural habitats.

Linus has published widely in the areas of conservation, agriculture, and environmental policy. He has co-authored seven peer-reviewed papers and two book chapters, covering topics from ecological tipping points to livestock systems, food demand, ecological footprint accounting, planetary boundaries, ecosystem services, and forecasting methods. He has written blogs and essays on issues ranging from decoupling to land sparing, precision agriculture, aquaculture, feedlots, and fertilizers.

Linus’s work has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, New Scientist, Wired, The Guardian, and many others. He is a former PERC Lone Mountain Fellow and is on the advisory committee of Nature Needs Half.

Linus holds an MESc from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a BA in Geography from Cambridge University.

Linus was born and raised in Sweden and has been based in the US since 2011. In his free time, he enjoys birding, motorcycling, photography, jazz, and running.

Selected Publications

Blomqvist, L, L Yates, BW Brook (2020) ‘Drivers of increasing global crop production: A decomposition analysis’ Environmental Research Letters 15(9): 0940b6

Brook, BW, EC Ellis, MP Perring, AW Mackay, L Blomqvist (2013) ‘Does the terrestrial biosphere have planetary tipping points?’ Trends in Ecology and Evolution 28 (7): 396–401

Blomqvist, L, BW Brook, EC Ellis, PM Kareiva, T Nordhaus, M Shellenberger (2013) ‘Does the Shoe Fit? Real versus Imagined Ecological Footprints’ PLoS Biology 11(11): e1001700

Blomqvist, L, RD Simpson (2017) ‘The value of ecosystem services: What is the evidence?’ in Kareiva, P, et al (eds), Effective Conservation Science: Data Not Dogma. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press

Blaustein-Rejto, D, L Blomqvist, J McNamara, K de Kirby (2019) Achieving Peak Pasture: Shrinking Pasture's Footprint by Spreading the Livestock Revolution. Oakland, CA: Breakthrough Institute

Blomqvist, L, T Nordhaus, M Shellenberger (2015) Nature Unbound: Decoupling for Conservation. Oakland, CA: Breakthrough Institute

Nordhaus, T, M Shellenberger, L Blomqvist (2012) The Planetary Boundaries Hypothesis: A Review of the Evidence. Oakland, CA: Breakthrough Institute