So David Roberts, who writes so well on climate and economics and so forth has a thread that has gone viral, even by his standards. Inspired by (or despaired by, perhaps) the weeks long Confected Moral Outrage over Harvard University and its now-ex-President, Roberts bemoans how the "left" keeps falling into the same very old trap-... Continue Reading →
I did not buy these books. You can’t prove I did.
Defo didn't buy this one, by Elleston Trevor (also wrote as Adam Hall - the Quiller books etc) Or this. Nom Nom Nom. You can't prove it, and Doctor Wifey trusts me not to buy books on the sly.
Barbel or Babel – clever pun by Douglas Adams?
So, am reading and enjoying "Cast in Order of Disappearance," a 1975 book by Simon Brett. It's a comic murder mystery, the one that introduces semi-alcoholic actor Charles Parris (played by Bill Nighy in the radio adaptations). At one point Charles goes fishing with his son-in-law, and the word barbel leapt off the page. So, I added it... Continue Reading →
Cesspit or money-spinner? Depends on your pov
Siggie Freud would have a field day with this Those benefitting from the status quo will act to resist socio-technical change, obvs. One of the "derailing risks" we don't talk about enough... Barles, S. (2014). History of waste management and the social and cultural representations of waste. In The basic environmental history (pp. 199-226). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Time for a “Dying in the Greenhouse” book?
In late 1989 there was a book published in Australia called "Living in the Greenhouse." Six months later, in June 1990, there was a book published in England called.... wait for it... wait for it... "Living in the Greenhouse." Here we are, having not done anything other than (checks notes)... make the problem much much worse.... Continue Reading →
Another Private Eye letter! Whoop, whoop!!
Validation!
COP28, Climate and what The Wire has to teach us
At time of writing there are breathless/shell-shocked accounts on the BBC World Service from Dubai, where the 28th "Conference of the Parties" to the UN Climate Convention is entering overtime (they almost always do). It turns out that - despite literally decades of denial and predatory delay - people are still surprised that the oil... Continue Reading →
Letter that Red Pepper didn’t publish on activist pathologies
Red Pepper is a full-colour quarterly (now) magazine for and by the extra-parliamentary green/left. The following two statements about it are true a) it is a useful source of information and perspectives about what is happening in the world and some of the things that might be done to make it a less dreadful place... Continue Reading →
Who is going to educate the mice to bell the cat? #Climate #Academia
Will admit that I am losing the will to ... write the same thing over and over. This occurring long after others have lost the will to read the same thing over and over. And yet we plod on (or I do). There's a two page comment in the latest Nature Climate Change (an academic... Continue Reading →
There’s never an irony policeman when you want one – academic hilarity
So, one thing the Bad Guys do is set up fake "consultation" processes where a few voices, who are saying the right things, are amplified and other more problematic ones marginalised ("we're outa time..." etc etc) And so in an hour and a half (felt longer) webinar about precisely this - the Bad Guys and... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 