Just under thirty years ago, about 100m from where I am right now, I saw the wonderful Thelma and Louise. There's a short clip that stayed with me that I think we need to remember. https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/2b001c5a-43ea-41f8-9271-219994adf091 Well, I was watching Insiders (Sunday morning current affairs, mix of interviews, humour, panellists, on the national broadcaster ABC)... Continue Reading →
GroundCop Day, over and over again. COP6, COP26, whatever.
The year is 2048. COP46, delayed twice already because of the ongoing Covid-43 pandemic, is due to take place in the Dutch archipelago. Activists are encouraging everyone to join in a canoe flotilla to shout at the plutocrats and securocrats as they meet to discuss who is going to get what compensation (nobody and nothing)... Continue Reading →
“Quality” media ignoring #climate change during heatwaves
Just watched a good five plus minutes of the ABC news. After the COVID stuff there was coverage of heatwaves in South Australia and elsewhere. Temperatures of 45, 46 degrees. Warnings about swimming with friends etc. No context of how the Bureau of Meteorology has had to add two new colours to the weather maps.... Continue Reading →
Scottie is not Johnnie: Australia, #climate policy and the “English” slur
The rules of Australian climate policy are pretty straightforward The Australian government will always choose the stupidest, crudest position, at the behest of its fossil-fuel mates (this is largely bi-partisan, btw).The new low is never the new low for long: new lows will be drilled for, and found.Climate policy is green, insofar as old stupidities... Continue Reading →
Of #terrafurie, energy policy and groundhog day – #auspol #failedtransitions
I guess I have a millionth of an inkling of what it must be like to be a person of colour anywhere, but especially in the US, UK or Australia. Given that I am as whitebread as it comes, that needs an explanation. One thing that comes through in reading people of colour, listening to... Continue Reading →
Climate scientists attacked for 30 plus years. Sure, so what is to be done? #action #climate
So, as per my recent Conversation article, the climate scientists have been attacked for (more than) thirty years. The UNFCCC is a hopeless case (see slightly-less recent Conversation article). It is easy to talk about how everything is fubarred, and what am I against. This below expands on the theme of attacks on climate scientists,... Continue Reading →
On #climate bullshit – interview with Dr Hayley Stevenson
A couple of weeks ago the academic journal Globalizations published a new article. "Reforming global climate governance in an age of bullshit" by Dr Hayley Stevenson. I'm the social media editor of another academic journal, Environmental Politics, and I tweeted it from @Env_Pol. It got a lot of Twitter love... I asked Dr Stevenson, who... Continue Reading →
“Social innovation” acceleration and the belling of cats
So, my intellectual energies have been mostly devoted to the Active Citizenship Toolkit, which is a project of the group I am part of - Climate Emergency Manchester. I've researched and written a couple of novice's guides - to Manchester City Council's budget process, and to the thorny question of allyship. Other two page guides... Continue Reading →
Excellent Event: Ambiguous Transformations: Governance, Democracy, #Climate Transitions
Here’s the gist of a very long blog post. A senior academic (Professor Karin Bäckstrand) gave a very clear summation of the relative importance of the Paris Agreement, the distinctions between ecological democracy and environmental democracy and the (possible) path of transformation that Swedish society is undergoing. She did this in the context of an... Continue Reading →
Another #climate warning from 1969. #Australia
On 25 June 1969 Ralph Slayter, an Australian scientist, gave one of the first (but not the first - that's for another time) warnings of the dangers of the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Slayter was talking at the Australian National University, as part of a lecture series on 'Man and the New... Continue Reading →
