You'd think an academic conference - attended by people with the willingness to think and criticise, and a hunger for a transformed world – would be looking at the questions of what what went wrong, of how the 'revolutionary' fervour of “1968” gave us not the new Jerusalem, but the new Las Vegas. 'Neo-liberalism' (see... Continue Reading →
8th July, 1996 – the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network first mentioned (I think)
Did I ever mention I do a blog about climate history (with a bias to Australia and the US)? According to (my ability to search) Factiva, on this day in 1996 came the first mention (by name) of the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, in an article called When green and gold don't mix The Australian... Continue Reading →
July 7th, 1997 – Australian Foreign Minister explains facts of life on #climate
The Government's position was explained in a speech given by the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, in the lead up to the Kyoto Conference in 1997, in which he stated: A significant proportion of the Australian economy is currently geared toward the production of emission intensive products. As a result, the abatement costs in Australia are... Continue Reading →
The Australian Climate Roundtable – what, who, why and what does it all mean? #climateroundtable
UPDATE: See this EXCELLENT piece by Ian Dunlop on how the Australian elites have fundamentally failed us on climate change [minor corrections spotted by eagle-eyed people, and corrected] The Australian climate policy soap opera is a bit like the TV show Neighbours. It’s been going since the late 80s. It survived the departure of some... Continue Reading →
2 pivotal years in Australian #climate history (2006-2007)
At the end of 2005, climate change was still a 'non-issue' for most Australian voters and politicians at the Federal level. Two years later the incumbent Coalition Government was swept from power in what has been called 'the first climate change election' (Rootes, 2008). This paper describes what happened, offers explanation as to why it... Continue Reading →
Judging books by their covers, or ‘act naturally’- Australia’s Coal Export Industry
Young folk today, eh? They think if it isn't on google's first or second page, it's not worth knowing. Fossils like me, fueled by the thrill of the chase, pace the library shelves. And you stumble across the greatest stuff. So, I didn't know that the Federal Government, for a period between 1993 and 2001,... Continue Reading →
Australian Coal Association advert and also awesome librarians again
I've said it before, and no doubt I will say it again - the librarians at the Barr Smith library (University of Adelaide) are awesome. They fossicked out hard copies of the Business Council of Australia Bulletin from the early 1990s. I spent a few hours today systematically going through them for any articles even... Continue Reading →
Awesome librarians and mining industry conflations…
First thing to say is this - the librarians at the University of Adelaide (Barr Smith) Library are fricking awesome. One of them has gone above and beyond the call of duty and dug up some stuff I didn't even know they had, which is going to be very useful for my thesis. Huzzah!! Definitely... Continue Reading →
Renewable Energy and South Australia – 100 per cent event…
On Tuesday 16th June, Dr Mark Diesendorf was in the hot seat. In front of a capacity audience of about 120 people, he outlined the report [pdf] about achieving 100% renewable energy that he has just written for the Conservation Council of South Australia. He also fielded a very wide variety of questions from the... Continue Reading →
Book Review: “The Big Score” – Down these Mean Aussie Streets
Corris, P. (2007) The Big Score: Cliff Hardy Cases Peter Corris is an Australian author of very very many books (with a relatively small book market, if you want to pay the bills, you have to pursue a high volume low margins strategy). One of his mainstays is the Private Eye Cliff Hardy. Based in... Continue Reading →