New Anthropocene
Economy
China’s Coal Power and Australian Devotion to Obscurity
“Why should we do anything when China is building a new coal power station every week?” I had this one hurled at me just the other day over dinner. It is both misleading and irrelevant, but serves the point of misinforming. Moreover, the Climate Institute / GE Low-Carbon Competitive Index, released today shows that China … Continue reading
Future of Food: Water Woes
They even showed a rice crop, happily evaporating that water away…
Even More On The Coalition Spin
Recently, I commented on the spin provided by Joe Hockey. Peter Hartcher, in The Sydney Morning Herald articulates the shape of the Aussie dollar even better (please do read it), leaving Hockey’s highlighting of retail, tourism and manufacture very absurd. Moreover, he raises another point I hadn’t; the Coalition claiming that Labour needs to reduce spending to help the … Continue reading
The Road to Business as Usual! Are we Doomed to Watch?
In the recent article, CO2 emissions rises mean dangerous climate change now almost certain, the Guardian highlights the growing scientific concern that business as usual is being business as usual, leading us down that cliché nightmarish fork in the road; the higher estimates in the climate models, which will present future generations with a world … Continue reading
“I Wanna Be At a Loss So F’en Bad”
My attitude regarding “growth” obsession is pretty clear. I would argue that my points on the subject should be universally acknowledged and applied to human activity. It ought to be a no-brainer that you simply cannot avoid degrading vital resources with perpetual growth ideologies. The two are simply inconsistent. It is fair to then ask, … Continue reading
Limitations to Open Online Courses: Talking Outside the Field of Expertise
Earlier this week, I undertook an induction for my new position. There, one of the speakers talked about Massive open online courses (MOOCS). As my focus has swayed a little from rich ecological science and analytical chemistry, towards more social science topics, this was of interest. One of the topics I enrolled in within Udemy, … Continue reading
Why “Growth” Makes Fools of Us all
It never ceases to amaze me just how quickly people tend to reject a blatantly obvious observation such as the hopeless naivety that spawns from growth economics. One would assume that it should be a no-brainer to say that growing resource demand from a limited resource pool will ultimately lead to a collapse of that … Continue reading
Islandisation From Our Own Prosperity.
As a recent immigrant back to Victoria, the state of my birth, I have received my first water bill. As part of this water bill, there is a note that a reduction has been included due to the delays in completion of the desalination plant, which, so the bill informs me, will cost 1.8 million to run … Continue reading
Sexism, the Economy and Inhumane GDP: To Fit Them All in One Post
Admittedly, I did have some preconceptions when I read the blurb for Rana Dajani’s recent article in Nature, How women scientists fare in the Arab world. Many secular individuals tend to expect, arguably with good reason, that gender equality is a pipe dream wherever religious fever is high – especially where the Abrahamic faiths are the dominant … Continue reading
