Science Under Siege
When the denial machine goes after climate scientists it is, as one of them said, like the marines going into battle against boy scouts. The brutality of the attacks has once again been confirmed by the release of some of the emails sent to Phil Jones, the University of East Anglia climate scientist at the […]
The Philosophy of Geoengineering
Geoengineering can be understood as the fulfillment of the entire technological project, because, in geoengineering, the Earth as a whole is represented as an object available for human regulation. The thinking that gives rise to geoengineering is the same thinking that first creates the world as an object suitable for technological manipulation. A contribution to […]
The Heretic: Melbourne Theatre Company goes over to the dark side
Who would have thought the Melbourne Theatre Company would get into bed with Andrew Bolt? The Conversation, 9 May 2012
ABC Should Be Fair to the Truth
Because it falls for the deniers’ tactic of doubt-mongering, ABC TV’s program “I Can Change Your Mind…About Climate Change” is a victory for climate denial even before it goes to air.Crikey, 26 April 2012
What we do in Woolies matters more than what we do in bed
Affluence rather than population growth is mainly responsible for the climate crisis.The Conversation, 23 April 2012
Love Your Scapegoats
A response to Bruno Latour’s “Love Your Monsters: Why We Must Care for Our Technologies As We Do Our Children” [1] If Frankenstein is to serve as a parable for “political ecology” then Mary Shelley’s plot must be reworked. In the revised version Dr Frankenstein is no more than an inquisitive but anxious assistant to the […]
Bioengineering as a response to global warming
You know the situation is getting desperate when three bio-ethicists propose genetically modifying humans to reduce our environmental impact. In a bizarre paper titled ‘Human engineering and climate change’, Matthew Liao, Anders Sandberg and Rebecca Roache argue we should seriously consider technologies to engineer human bodies to reduce carbon emissions. One leading idea is genetic […]
Defamation
Why did the Australian, a newspaper that has heavily criticised use of the defamation laws, launch legal action to force the ABC to take down an article by Robert Manne? The Conversation, 8 March 2012
Shadowy World of IPA Finances
The secret funding of the Heartland Institute once again focuses attention on the financing of the Institute of Public Affairs and particularly its sustained attacks on climate science and all policies aimed at cutting Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Despite its refusal to divulge, we can make a good guess at where a large part of its recent […]
Why We Resist the Truth About Climate Change
Global warming science has become a battleground in a wider cultural war, particularly in the United States where rejecting climate science has been seamlessly adopted by right-wing populism—notably by the Tea Party, the movement of those who demand their fair share of injustice. In these circumstances scientific facts are trumped by beliefs, so that climate […]