It's good to have a really good handle on why it is "unravelling" (1). Might help us spot some of the hows of the unravelling before they quite arrive. No averting, that's a 20th century delusion... Anyway thanks to a smart and compassionate friend (who took me out to the coast last Tuesday, when I... Continue Reading →
Bill Stan Jevons and the meteorology/economics connection
So, this 19th century economist called William Stanley Jevons came up with a Paradox around how the increased efficiency in the use of a commodity/element of production would lead to an increase in overall usage. If it gets cheaper to use, it will be used up more. I made a video a few years back.... Continue Reading →
Targets, Science and targeted Scientists: Australian government and its climate change advisors
The Climate Change Authority that Tony Abbott tried to abolish has created a fresh headache for his successor, Malcolm Turnbull. Seven of its members have agreed the sort of compromise emissions reduction target that even the Business Council of Australia can live with. Two – public intellectual Clive Hamilton and scientist David Karoly- have produced... Continue Reading →
Nukes, prestige and dime-store psychology
The bang was big. In 16 July 1945, humans got to start using the power of the sun. First to fry people, but then – and this is not understood enough – with the hope (okay, maybe it was a bit of a fig-leaf) of the “peaceful use of nuclear explosions”. What's this, you say?... Continue Reading →
Beating nukes into plowshares
I thought I was cynical enough. Nope, not by a gazillion miles. Turns out both the US and the Russians were keen on using nukes for peace. Some of this I knew, but I didn't realise it was quite so extensive... "Project Plowshare was the overall United States term for the development of techniques to... Continue Reading →
Trolling Esso for the shits and giggles.
Oil companies. Doncha just love them? And they spend a lot of time trying to shape the public debate, shape the public mind. BP isn't doing arts sponsorship because they're a charity you know. Shell have been brilliant at their advertising for decades (see this post and this post). Esso (aka Exxon) have some new... Continue Reading →
Brexit and climate – is the world too complex for our political institutions?
The British people have narrowly voted to leave the European Union. Britain's elites are in a state of bewilderment and fear not seen since the Global Financial Crisis hit in September 2008. Already the Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will step down, and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is also being challenged. ... Continue Reading →
Civilising hypocrisies and fundamental questions: on “Emancipating Transformations
Manchester Tyndall Centre today hosted a provocative and highly interesting seminar. Professor Andy Stirling, who spent the 80s in the trenches for Greenpeace, had schlepped up to deliver a seminar on “Emancipating Transformations.” What they? Read on for an (almost) blow by blow account. [My multiple two centses are in square brackets like these.] Stirling... Continue Reading →
The sound of silence: why has the environment vanished from election politics?
Reposted from "The Conversation". Thanks as ever to the very cool editors. There’s a deafening silence in the ongoing Australian election campaign over the environment. Polling shows increasing public support for greater action on climate changebut debate has been mostly missing. And despite some blows traded over the Great Barrier Reef, the wider environment has... Continue Reading →
My “Three Minute Thesis” effort on #climate
Here's my performance in the University of Manchester final of "Three Minute Thesis." (Thank you very much to the organisers - and the training we received was fab). I did okay but on reflection, I tried to do too much - a history of climate science and policy, an explanation of issue lifecycle models, AND the Australian... Continue Reading →
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