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 →
Video: Professor Clive Hamilton on the “Anthropocene”
Interview with Professor Clive Hamilton on the "Anthropocene", in the startlingly noisy cafe at the John Rylands Library (the first few minutes are the worst - it gets easier to hear as time goes on).
Of dinosaurs, Gramsci, Aussie polluters and #climate change: 5 easy pieces
I appear to be Learning. Instead of 13 articles to synthesise, this one only goes up to five. They’re listed below, and I’ll take them in the order I read them, which is mostly chronological. Dobel, A., Westberg, K. Steel, M. and Flowers, K. (2014) An Examination of Corporate Social responsibility Implementation and Stakeholder Engagement: A... Continue Reading →
13 academic articles on corporate political strategy and … #climate change
[Update: I got it down to five papers for the next one, and four for the one after that!] Hmm, let this be a lesson to me. Nobody, probably even me, is going to read all of this. I need to do write-ups every three or four articles (which, given the amount I read, means... Continue Reading →
For “success”? Timing and conformity as key. Barry Jones, #Keynes and #climate
Barry Jones was the Australian Science Minister between 1983 and 1990, and a key figure in the coming of climate awareness to that country. He is also a pretty smart guy (didn't help him as a politician, naturlich). Keynes said something different but similar - We needed to be transruptive [another of my shoddy neologisms],... Continue Reading →
Of the Australian Coal industry, the US secret service and kill zones. No,honestly.
The US Secret Service spends a lot of time thinking about how to keep the people they protect alive. Overall, they're pretty good at it. I remember reading an interview with one of them once, where she emphasised one of the core things. If you are being attacked, do NOT focus on winning the fire fight.... Continue Reading →
Trying to democratise and “green” the state. Yeah, good luck with that…
It’s an age-old dilemma; Existing industry has power, influence, lobbyists. The industries we need (solar, wind, energy efficiency etc) are smaller, weaker and as-yet-not-quite-there. So, how DO you get (enough) state bureaucrats to see and support an opportunity that isn’t there (yet)? How do you, when trying to talk about ‘green jobs,’ get the powerful... Continue Reading →
Propaganda for beginners – Australian government pre-Kyoto conference
So, at the September 1997 "South Pacific Forum" in the Cook Islands some of the locals/hosts were mildly peeved that Australia was opposing emissions reductions. Ms McDonald, who headed the greenhouse task force in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, last week took on officials from Pacific island countries who feared their low-lying atolls... Continue Reading →
Historical #climate cons –What we can learn from Big Brother and the chocolate rations
“Winston was smoking a Victory Cigarette which he held carefully horizontal. The new ration did not start till tomorrow and he had only four cigarettes left. For the moment he had shut his ears to the remoter noises and was listening to the stuff that streamed out of the telescreen. It appeared that there had... Continue Reading →
Letter on #climate and business that the FT didn’t publish :(
Thank you for your coverage of the impending Business & Climate Summit, by the ever-reliable Michael Stothard and Pilita Clark (April 21). They quote Jean-Pascal Tricoire, CEO of Schneider Electric and one of the organisers, as saying “The [carbon] price needs to be high enough to make a difference and not volatile, so companies can factor... Continue Reading →