Kenneth Rexroth was a poet, translator, thinker. Wikipedia page here. I have been reading his essays in "The Elastic Retort" and enjoying them enough to have bought another earlier collection (please don't tell Dr Wifey - she thinks I am addicted to books). There's also a bunch of Rexroth's essays online, and this one, from... Continue Reading →
Don’t budge from the budget. The responsibility of intellectuals yet again
We need to put front and centre the fact that we've blown our (carbon) budget. “We're massively off target we're massively behind.” We know that those who run official events are not going to say it front and centre (at absolute best they might mutter it under their breath while making sure that their microphone... Continue Reading →
OODA loops and cat belling: of Jason Bourne, climate activism and the end of the world
Two of my favourite mental tools are OODA loops and the fable of cat belling. I'm going to describe both and then put them together as best I can. Why? Because I think it reveals something useful about "activism", such as it is. OODA loops are an insight developed by an American fighter pilot, John... Continue Reading →
Amnesia is the price of admission
In the same way that when you enter a prison as a cop, you have to give up your weapon. Well, when you enter the prison of the institutions, you have to give up your memory, as well as your spine. Or you can keep the memory but people will look askance and be a... Continue Reading →
Metaphors we think with – of orchards, pies, eating and energy
Somewhere along the line I learnt that metaphors are very powerful things, in shaping/directing/preventing thought. So a for instance – if you frame a crime as a virus or crime as beast, it leads people to support different sets of responses. Autocrats and demagogues know this, instinctively, of course, and those of us who think... Continue Reading →
The emotional dynamics of ego-fodder
I've written plenty about ego fodder since I invented the term almost ten years ago. I have even managed to slide it into various things I have written elsewhere (e.g. here). What I haven't described - or if I have haven't done recently - is the emotional dynamics within this notion of ego fodder. These... Continue Reading →
Elephants in the airport, aesthetic delight in our doom…
I photographed this yesterday morning, at Heathrow Airport. A friend of mine has written about elephants in the room and climate change and all that jazz. Ranciere, Badiou, that crowd. Me, I'm a Walt Benjamin man - “Mankind, which in Homer’s time was an object of contemplation for the Olympian gods, is now one for... 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 →
Midnight Oils “Shakers and Movers” – a profound beautiful gem of a song
Next week Midnight Oil get a Human Rights award. David Ritter has written perceptively and with power and passion (plus some easter egg references for the nerds) about their influence. I want here just to talk about one song, an album track from the 1990 effort Blue Sky Mine. The song is "Shakers and Movers"... Continue Reading →
Debate speech: XR has done more harm than good
Here's the text I prepared and delivered for what was, in the end, a deeply unsatisfactory debate held recently. I am Dr Marc Hudson. Speaking as editor of Manchester Climate Monthly, I put the case “that Extinction Rebellion has done more harm than good to the movement towards climate action.” I will stick to XR... Continue Reading →
