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 →
Recent articles about #Australia and #climate negotiations
Hat-tip to John Englart and his excellent article here on the Australian diplomatic position. These are some of the articles that he refers to. Arup, T. 2015. Climate change: Can a wounded Paris deliver for the planet? The Age, 22 November. http://www.theage.com.au/environment/can-a-wounded-paris-deliver-for-the-planet-20151118-gl1pnx.html Englart, J. 2015. Can a leopard change its spots? Australia's schizophrenic #climate diplomacy. Nofibs.com.au 11 November.... Continue Reading →
Learning Curve: Australia and the #Climate Negotiations #Paris
Below is a short briefing, in the format of a Q and A, about the upcoming Paris climate talks, and Australia's role over the last 30 years (and the motivations behind that). There's also a short glossary, a timeline, references and the standard disclaimer. (My basic opinion on Paris, written in February, is here). You... Continue Reading →
The Prospects for Paris – not good. #climate #debacle
The "Earth Negotiations Bulletin," the best summary of the climate talks, has this (in part) to say about the last official meeting before the up-coming Paris talks; “Leaving [the last UNFCCC meeting before the Paris conference, held in October in Bonn], many delegates concurred with Laurence Tubiana, who spoke for the incoming COP 21 Presidency,... Continue Reading →
The Martian – From Whitey on the Moon to Whatney on the Mars….
In July 1969 Richard Nixon didn’t give a speech. It would have gone, in part, like this: Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their... Continue Reading →
#climate and #Australia, or, “The paranoid style in… Australian politics”
I ripped the title off from here. My simple point is that the recent hilarity/dismay/shrugging caused by Maurice Newman (Prime Minister Abbott's chief business advisor) is not a new 'meme,' as the young people say. Lisa Cox of the Sydney Morning Herald starts her 8th May 2015 story as follows - Climate change is a... Continue Reading →
DILC and the ProblemLady: Phase 5, the industry
The Dialectic Issue LifeCycle Model (DILC) is a very cool heuristic for thinking about how some societal problems become issues, what industry does when the problems climb the political agenda and how the issues are (or aren’t) ‘resolved’. Here’s a video starring its progenitors. The DILC has five phases, and looks at three categories of actors in... Continue Reading →
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