I guess I have a millionth of an inkling of what it must be like to be a person of colour anywhere, but especially in the US, UK or Australia. Given that I am as whitebread as it comes, that needs an explanation. One thing that comes through in reading people of colour, listening to... Continue Reading →
After the Goldrush: 11 theses (and 15 songs) about Extinction Rebellion and “what next?” #oldfartclimateadvice
Preamble The numbers tell the story, or a story. The numbers attending the latest Extinction Rebellion rebellion were far lower than a) last years two efforts and b) their private hopes. The emissions reductions are far higher than we would have thought this time last year, but that’s a) not enough to hit this year’s target... Continue Reading →
Thoughts on lunching out
It's interesting about lunching out, isn't it? Because if the reason that you're lunching out, is that you're having a mental health crisis - anxiety, depression, etc - all of which are entirely rational response to the shitstorm that we're in, then you're probably not able to stomach having to admit to someone else that... Continue Reading →
Climate scientists attacked for 30 plus years. Sure, so what is to be done? #action #climate
So, as per my recent Conversation article, the climate scientists have been attacked for (more than) thirty years. The UNFCCC is a hopeless case (see slightly-less recent Conversation article). It is easy to talk about how everything is fubarred, and what am I against. This below expands on the theme of attacks on climate scientists,... Continue Reading →
14 years ago today… #Climate Camp and what is (not) remembered #history #academics #power
"The struggle of man (sic) against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." Milan Kundera On 26th August 2006 the first "Camp for Climate Action" began, in the shadow of Drax power station in Yorkshire, then the biggest single point source of carbon dioxide in Europe. The camp (and the shorter name, "Climate Camp",... Continue Reading →
On #climate bullshit – interview with Dr Hayley Stevenson
A couple of weeks ago the academic journal Globalizations published a new article. "Reforming global climate governance in an age of bullshit" by Dr Hayley Stevenson. I'm the social media editor of another academic journal, Environmental Politics, and I tweeted it from @Env_Pol. It got a lot of Twitter love... I asked Dr Stevenson, who... Continue Reading →
Black Lives Matter to Fossil Fuel incumbents and #climate denialists – as a cloak and stabvest
People of Colour are gonna be shocked - SHOCKED - to learn that rich white people are sock-puppeting them in an effort to stay rich. Because, you know, it's so unusual for powerful interests to totally disregard the actual long-term health of everyone else, and to claim to be benevolent while continuing to despoil and... Continue Reading →
Elite tactics: Heroic Infrastructure Distraction and Evasion (aka “HIDE”)
How to minimise the growth in pressure for major/systemic change? If I were a technocratic boss, keen to insulate myself from calls for changes to the ways we do things - changes which would upset my cognitive equilibrium, changes which might upset people who provide me with party donations and a job once the voters... Continue Reading →
Capacity and Disruption – what do they MEAN?
Nowt like having to give a presentation in a job interview (wish me luck) for focusing your reading.... (see last few blog posts). Two super useful empirical-and-conceptual papers worth giving a shout out to. First Johnstone, Phil, Rogge, Karoline S, Kivimaa, Paula, Fratini, Chiara F, Primmer, Eeva and Stirling, Andy (2019) Waves of disruption in clean energy transitions: sociotechnical dimensions of system disruption... Continue Reading →
Looting the Ivory Tower: “Making the most of community energies”
Super-useful on DECC (RIP) and the "Community Energy" strategy - the costs of getting it. Should be read alongside that paper by Phil Johnstone Andy Stirling and Ben Sovacool about Policy Mixes for Incumbency Honest about risk of academic blindness from using one theory (SNM) and not paying close enough attention to interviewees, and what... Continue Reading →
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