There's lots else I intended to write about today (including the heart-breaking ignorance of the VERY basic facts of climate change among university-educated people - 1.) But instead I am going to riff on why people hate Just Stop Oil so much and what that 'means'. It's inspired by a recent unfortunate interaction on Twitter.... Continue Reading →
Of the BBC, Stewart Lee and Just Stop Oil – End of Days diary #21 and #22
Another double header- are the wheels coming off this “blog about what it feels like to live in the ‘end times’” project, would anyone notice or care? And isn’t it interesting that one of the go-to images (i.e. cliches) that our brains turn to is of a wheeled vehicle, presumably travelling at speed. Did we... Continue Reading →
Of discipline, futility and Three Types of People – End of Days #19 and #20
I took the day off yesterday - not from work but from talking about staring into the abyss. That does not mean that my Twitter feed wasn't full of graphs and memes and articles some of which I took in. It simply means that I didn't have the discipline to put out a thousand words.... Continue Reading →
Of Twitter ‘fame’, ice, beauty, and Aaahnold – End of Days diary #18
Yesterday the latest issue of Private Eye tumbled through the letterbox, and was brought to me (I am laid up following an operation involving cutting into my second toes and inserting pins!) by the wonderful wife. There’s a symmetry here, because the subscription to Private Eye is a gift from my mother-in-law. There’s two things... Continue Reading →
Of Test Cricket, the CCC, CCS and futility – End of Days #17
What do we expect of ourselves? What do we expect of others? Do we understand and give proper weight to the ways that 'institutions' (norms, habits, rules, rituals) shape what we see and what we think is 'right'? This all comes from a shockingly stupid piece of commentary fifteen minutes or so ago on "Test... Continue Reading →
Of Wildfires, fatigue, fear – End of Days #16
Short posts till I am feeling a bit better (to be clear, not feeling bad, just fairly immobile and with mild discomfort that was challenging my pharmacological Calvinism). First thing I'd point to is a couple of piece by an excellent writer/thinker called Jessica Wildfire. There's her 'urgent normality syndrome' thing, but some other worth-reading... Continue Reading →
The Thin Red Line and all that it portends… End of Days Diary #13
Look at this graph. The red line is the North Atlantic surface sea temperatures for this year, All the other lines below it every other line that we have data for. And you look at that line. And if you have any imagination at all, you know what it spells. And you keep thinking to... Continue Reading →
Of Walt Benjamin, Titanic metaphors, gallows humour etc – End of Days diaries 11 and 12
Apologies to my thousand of readers who hang on my every word. Yesterday, I got lost in feeding moorhens. And I could and should have done my doom diary then, but I didn't have anything to say (when has that ever stopped me before??). And then I spent a long time moving piles of books... Continue Reading →
Of Kafka, CCS, suicide machines and so forth – End of Days Diary #10
So, The conversation, (full disclosure, I have written for it) has got a couple of excellent articles you should read. One is a summary of air and sea temperatures, and what it all means. It doesn't talk about the Atlantic sea ice issue. But you've got 1000 words, you can't talk about everything. The second... Continue Reading →
Running out of Juice – of the need for protest, but much more. #SouthAustralia #petrostates #emotacycles #smugosphere
The judge was scathing. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported - "Passing sentence, Mr B. Riley, SM, said he agreed people had a right to demonstrate. "But that right is restricted to a proper place, a proper time and proper conditions, and never at the inconvenience of other people." Sydney Morning Herald, September 17... And... Continue Reading →