Daily Links Sep 28

Garret Hardin’s seminal paper The Tragedy of the Commons gave us a way of thinking about how self-interest stands in the way of the public good. George Monbiot, in this must – read article, includes the commons in his analysis of how we lost our way, or perhaps more accurately, had it taken from us.’there are four major economic sectors: the market, the state, the household and the commons. The neglect of the last two by both neoliberals and social democrats has created many of the monstrosities of our times’https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/27/rich-assets-resources-prosperity-commons-george-monbiot

Daily Links Sep 27

Barnaby, if BHP makes the market judgement that there is no future in coal against the judgement of their business association, they are well within their rights to challenge their business association. The Minerals Council of Australian members join to have their interests represented, not yours.

Daily Links Sep 26

The Conversation’s Glossary is a handy contribution for our informed participation in the debate. Here you’ll find explained the Wholesale or National Energy Market (in reality the South-East Energy Market), dispatchable power, frequency control and inertia. What you won’t find in the glossary is vested interests and politics, two concepts that are central to understanding the energy mess we’re in.

Daily Links Sep 25

Hmmm, the fire season is starting early this summer, with fires already in NSW and now in Buchanan and Cape Conran in Victoria. Might be time to reopen the Australian Emergency Management Institute in Macedon and make sure we have the trained emergency managers we need, George Brandis.

Blokes at a BBQ, a blokey place to be, so why was Leanne there?

These blokes didn’t call out ‘Ducks on the pond’. Marinating Leanne in barbeque smoke was less kind than would have been just plain exclusion in this all-too-familiar example of bloke bonding. When it comes to such behaviour, me mate ‘Plate’ would say, ‘I resemble that comment”.

Robert Manne listened to Mahler and then listened to Paul Keating – and so did we.

Paul Keating thinks over the broadest range of issues, intelligently, deeply, strategically. We miss in our public life thinkers of his calibre and we and our country are the poorer. He had the thousand plus people fortunate to be in the room with him spell-bound at his wit, his humour and believe it or not, his humility. After all, he has so little about which to be humble.

Deciding for the coast: a guide for effective decision making

Adapting to climate change is a fraught area when what we are adapting to is so uncerntain. Councils and other land managers have to make decisions now within this context of uncertaintly. SECCCA teamed with Marsden Jacob Associates to develop a guide for decision-making that gave a level of confidence in anticipating and responding to climate impacts. This paper sets out the ideas in Deciding for the coast, a guide for decition making.