The US Secret Service spends a lot of time thinking about how to keep the people they protect alive. Overall, they're pretty good at it. I remember reading an interview with one of them once, where she emphasised one of the core things. If you are being attacked, do NOT focus on winning the fire fight.... Continue Reading →
For Millicent?
“Why so sad?” she said, as I walked towards her in a cloud of gloom. Millicent (not real name) is a young woman who works somewhere I go a lot. I don’t know what kind of contract she is on. It’s probably not zero hours (yet). She probably has shit terms and conditions that leave... Continue Reading →
How to defend your interests (shame about the lack of a habitable planet, but what can you do?)
Chap called Gavin Gilchrist wrote some corking articles back in the mid-90s, the documented the nuts and bolts of how the Howard Government took over the Keating/coal industry-inspired Australian climate retreat and turbo-charged it. The piece I am quoting from below [Gilchrist, G. (1996) "Climate Changes: Why We Are Seen As Rebels" Sydney Morning Herald 8th... Continue Reading →
Trying to democratise and “green” the state. Yeah, good luck with that…
It’s an age-old dilemma; Existing industry has power, influence, lobbyists. The industries we need (solar, wind, energy efficiency etc) are smaller, weaker and as-yet-not-quite-there. So, how DO you get (enough) state bureaucrats to see and support an opportunity that isn’t there (yet)? How do you, when trying to talk about ‘green jobs,’ get the powerful... Continue Reading →
Propaganda for beginners – Australian government pre-Kyoto conference
So, at the September 1997 "South Pacific Forum" in the Cook Islands some of the locals/hosts were mildly peeved that Australia was opposing emissions reductions. Ms McDonald, who headed the greenhouse task force in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, last week took on officials from Pacific island countries who feared their low-lying atolls... Continue Reading →
Historical #climate cons –What we can learn from Big Brother and the chocolate rations
“Winston was smoking a Victory Cigarette which he held carefully horizontal. The new ration did not start till tomorrow and he had only four cigarettes left. For the moment he had shut his ears to the remoter noises and was listening to the stuff that streamed out of the telescreen. It appeared that there had... Continue Reading →
The game is the “Game” … and the “family resemblance concept”
Read a corking paper a coupla days ago, called “A dynamic conceptualization of power for sustainability research.” Definitely one that – despite being clearly written – that I will need to return to. For now, though, this quote from the first page... "… however, power is not so much an ‘essentially contested concept’ but rather... Continue Reading →
Juking the academic stats – the ivory tower game explained.
Is it possible to be cynical enough? That’s one of those questions I ask myself occasionally (daily/hourly) and usually when I begin to chide myself for corrosiveness, along comes confirmation/warning that I haven’t even got to cynicism basecamp. The latest timely warning is "Ring a Ring Roses: Quality Journals and Gamesmanship in Management Studies." This... Continue Reading →
Letter on #climate and business that the FT didn’t publish :(
Thank you for your coverage of the impending Business & Climate Summit, by the ever-reliable Michael Stothard and Pilita Clark (April 21). They quote Jean-Pascal Tricoire, CEO of Schneider Electric and one of the organisers, as saying “The [carbon] price needs to be high enough to make a difference and not volatile, so companies can factor... Continue Reading →
Emancipating who from what? Risky business around “emancipatory catastrophism” and #climate change.
Beck, U. (2015) Emancipatory catastrophism: What does it mean to climate change and risk society? Current Sociology Vol . 63 (1) 75-88. Didn’t like this. Sorry to speak ill of the dead (and seriously, RIP Ulrich Beck), but this to me smacked of palimpsesting some wishful (millennial?) thinking onto the ugly “facts” (yes yes, Latour... Continue Reading →
