What follows is in no way an “official” (nor even necessarily entirely accurate) account of the two day event for PhD students at the Science and Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex. First off, thanks and congratulations to the 1st year cohort of students who organised it. The Monday started with brief opening... Continue Reading →
Chomsky with a guitar – aka TV Smith #punknotdead
Punk isn't dead, and won't be while TV Smith can draw breath and hold a plectrum. Going on tonight's performance, that will be a good 25 years yet. Smith, who was there as a proper punk in the 70s, has the energy of a gobby gobbing 20 year old, but the skills and cynicism of... Continue Reading →
Here comes the “2050” bullshit. Be happy for it. #climate
The future is here, and we are avoiding it. 2020 used to be the target year, by which we had done x and y and z. Sadly, we didn't do those things. A mix of complacency, distraction, stupidity and incompetence mostly explains that. So it goes. But this presents the happy shiny people (HSP) who... Continue Reading →
Repost: Kevin Anderson interviewed on outcomes of Paris
Reposted from Manchester Climate Monthly. Professor Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre Manchester kindly agreed to a further interview. In this first part we discuss the outcomes of the recent UN climate conference in Paris, the reality of fossil fuel subsidies and the signal the Paris agreement may (or may not) send to big business... Continue Reading →
Paris changed everything. Erm #climate calamities continue
We'll get to the climate calamity in a second, promise. First, some remedial Greek mythology: Paris was “nice but dim”, and chosen to settle an acrimonious dispute between some powerful actors. He fell head over heels with a rather beautiful creature,full of promise(s). For a little while everything seemed fine, but sadly, relationships broke down,... Continue Reading →
Why the hype over Paris and #COP21? Politics, psychology and money
An essay on hype, history, denialism and the fossil fuel lobby. I hope I am wrong, and that Paris is indeed the “turning point” it is being hyped as. It won't take us long to find out – two or three years, I reckon. Personally, I think it will run into the sand in much... Continue Reading →
Fetish night at Bruntwood: sustainability gets VERY interesting. #Manchester #climate
Cross posted from here. Not that kind of fetish (sorry for the clickbaiting). I mean the original, anthropological meaning of “fetish” - a god that we create, then forget that we created as we come to worship it. That kind of fetish was being discussed tonight at the latest and best-I've-been-to meeting of the excellent... Continue Reading →
The immovable object and the State
On Monday night Manchester was the scene of a crime. It was a crime committed, as the tabloids would always tell you most are, by a young(ish) Black Man, the son of one of those immigrants allowed to come to England decades ago. It was a serious crime, a crime against the state.... If, that... Continue Reading →
#Australian Prime Ministers and #climate change aka “Turnbull goes to Paris…” #auspol
Malcom Turnbull is going to the Paris Climate Talks., for the photo opportunity that the French are staging at the outset, hoping to avoid a repeat of the Copenhagen debacle. Environment Minister Greg Hunt will be there for the first week and Julie Bishop, angling for a co-chair role on the Green Investment Bank, will... Continue Reading →
Prof Kevin Anderson on #climate, INDCs IAMs and much else
Here's another part of the interview with Professor Kevin Anderson. It covers some of the same ground as what has already been posted (see below for explanation)- the inadequacy of the Intended Nationally-Determined Contributions (the pledges for Paris), but goes into much more detail on the nature of Bio-energy Carbon Capture and Storage, the problems... Continue Reading →
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