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 →
Letter in the Saturday Paper, about EVs, climate and how long we’ve been doing nothing (except digging deeper hole).
Mike Seccombe's customarily excellent reporting ("electric vehicles policy stuck in low gear") put me in mind of a front page story on the Adelaide Advertiser I recently encountered. Under the headline "Addiction to cars must go - Minister" the relevant federal minister said "everyone has his role to play, even if it's to wal to the shop instead of... Continue Reading →
Letter in Advertiser, abt energy transitions
Letter in Advertiser today (29 April) Two fascinating articles in the Advertiser yesterday. First in "Auf wiedersehen, Pete" (congrats to whoever came up with that headline, btw) we learn that SA Premier Peter Malinauskas is continuing the work of South Australia's political leaders - dating back to Mike Rann - in seeking advantages for the... Continue Reading →
From “On the psychic costs of climate collapse” – (hairball rather than pill)
Arena is an Australian radical/left/sorta-Marxist publication, often very interesting and insightful. This from an article by a chap called Mark Furlong caught my eye. "Because climate collapse is a hyper-object, recognition promises to 'do your head in'. It suggests a disturbance so holistic, so total - of every aspect of life, now and forever -... Continue Reading →
From hope to despair – Two Australian books book-ending the beginning of the end and the middle of the end…
This blog is about two books I have not yet read, but will do so with great interest. They are (drum roll please) The Way Out: Radical Alternatives in Australia (eds Margaret Smith and David Crossley), published in 1975, when we still had (false, it turned out) hope of big transformative change and Summertime: reflections... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 