Reading links and admin stuff

What a welcoming title that is, eh?!

There’s a superb short article about the history of our understanding of global warming (who knew what, when), with lots of good links. It’s on the blog of that noted communist Luddite magazine… Foreign Policy.

I also recently read a really brilliant long (over 8000 words)essay called “A humanist on thin ice” by Tom Griffiths, who is a prof of Environmental History at Australian National University.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we are standing on the brink of a precipice, but at least we know that we are. We surely don’t understand all the dangers and opportunities ahead of us, but we are now roughly aware of our predicament. That at least is an achievement. The same industrial capitalism that has unleashed carbon has given us a planetary consciousness that reveals a calving glacier not as a random, local act of nature, but instead as the frightening frontier of a possibly irreversible global, historical event. How did we come to this realisation? It emerged partly due to humans’ contemplation of glaciers. Understanding ice – its history and its future – is the key to understanding climate change.

Also, have made improvements to the Australia 2007 – 2011 time line – feel free to suggest (national level) stuff via the comments box.

Up like a rocket…

The fun thing about building word press sites is that there’s this sense of infinite possibility at the outset.  Before grubby reality kicks in…