Let's start with an under-rated tweet. https://twitter.com/marcsrhudson/status/1483901631615971345 Yeah, that's me half an hour ago and I would already struggle to tell you how I came across Sayer 1992. Oh, wait, it was the 2003 paper on Regional Development Agencies and Clusters (reading it for The Job). We are pattern-making machines. We see causation when there... Continue Reading →
Taste of bitter Ashes – what cricket can tell us about climate change
As an Australian, it kinda sorta gives me a small amount of pleasure to write the following sentence “England lost the Ashes in a record time of 12 days.” To those in the know, these are (mildly) surprising words. To normal people (i.e. not “cricket tragics”) they will ask two pertinent questions - “what are... Continue Reading →
Gestural politics, security and movements. So much for the climate emergency
The short version: I went to a small-ish rally on the steps of parliament house, then navigated intimidatory security to watch… school boys and school girls ignoring the climate emergency. The longer version: Around sixty people, many aged sixty or more, gathered on the steps of the State Parliament of South Australia at 1.30 today.... Continue Reading →
“Welcome to the Smugosphere” – a two page bluffer’s guide/warning
What would you want to tell a new member of a social movement (organisation)? My two pager below - comments in the comments pls. A couple of years ago (god, it feels like a million years) I wrote a piece called "Dear New Climate Activist", which largely stands up, I think (genuinely interested in folks'... Continue Reading →
Stranded asses- speaking out of rear-ends as rear-guard action. Fossil incumbents protecting their assets as #climate change becomes inescapable
There’s a technique I am beginning to see more and more (1). The inevitably laughable COP26 looms, and yet another “we’re screwed” climate report [e.g. IPCC WG1 6AR] is out. In response, fossil fuel companies are either heading for the exits as best they can OR they are claiming that they are part of the... Continue Reading →
So much podcasting and jaw-flapping, so little “this is how we bell the cat”-ting
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. I get that it is easier and safer to keep saying the cat should wear a bell. I get that it is easier to celebrate occasions on which the cat didn't get to kill quite so many mice. BUT WHAT THE ACTUAL... Why are people spending time on creating podcasts, or holding zoom calls... Continue Reading →
Intelligence Deficit or Empathy Deficit? Of “Covidiots” and the Voight-Kampff test
Hands up if you've ever changed your mind on a topic after someone called you stupid? [crickets] Yeah, me neither. I am not "stupid" (blah blah scholarships, degrees etc etc etc blah blah) but omfg have I done more (far more) than my share of stupid things. And the root cause of most of those... Continue Reading →
Getting beyond handwavium, or “A systematic review of energy systems: The role of policymaking in sustainable transitions”
Even back before I was trying to be an academic (watch this space) I was reading academic articles for fun. That's not a boast (well, okay, maybe a little bit, but also just a statement of fact). I learned the hard way that much academic output is dross - concept mongering or torturing of so-called... Continue Reading →
Demography, death, decarbonisation. All this and not much more at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas (see also, technopolitical salvationism and China Crisis)
I've spent bits of the last two days sat in neo-Gothic wood-panelled halls listening to sages on the stage. Some of the sages have been great. Others, well, that's why I took a book, innit? This is not, after all, my first go at this rodeo. It's the "Adelaide Festival of Ideas" again, that under-funded... Continue Reading →
If I had kids, I’d be in a blind blind panic right now: On a public meeting of the “Australian Verdant Political Organisation” #Machiavelli #Smugosphere #Eargout #Egofodder
There are many topics on which I am a dreadful bore. On a subset of those I am a dreadful SMUG bore. On a subset of those I am a dreadful smug bore who will one day be thumped by a breeder. That subset is actually one item - the "I had a vasectomy in... Continue Reading →
Marc Hudson 