The most destructive implement on the Planet, without a doubt, is the human jawbone.  Every year, in the course of wolfing through 8.5 trillion meals, it dislodges more than 75 billion tonnes of topsoil, swallows seven billion tonnes of fresh water, generates 30 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions and distributes five million tonnes of concentrated biocides. That same human … Continue reading Of food, war and ecology: how we can end the 6th Extinction

It is an oft-overlooked fact of history that World War II was originally fought chiefly over food and the means to produce it. The military philosopher Clausewitz once observed that ‘War is the continuation of politics by other means’ and, in 1920s’  Weimar Republic Germany, the politics were very much about securing sufficient new land … Continue reading WWII: the first big food war

Centuries from now, future historians will be able to assign a date to the start of the Australian Dark Age: it began in July of 2019. That was the date the nation turned its back on the enlightenment of reason, evidence, science and rationality and forged into a befogged future of political fantasies and wild, … Continue reading The Dark Age of Science Denial

An essay by Julian Cribb FRSA ATSE In an age of existential emergency, when the future of human civilization depends on how successfully we manage to overcome the ten global threats which now bearing down on us all, it is important for humanity to share a common currency for dealing with them. We need not … Continue reading On the Need for an Earth Standard Currency

She’s just turned 16 and is already a world leader with more statespersonlike qualities, clear-eyed goals, plain speaking and sheer guts than almost any national head of today or recent history. Moreover she represents a profound shift in the world’s geopolitical gravity field, one that promises to alter human history forever. Swedish climate campaigner and … Continue reading The Rise of Woman

A video discussion of the existential emergency we face, and some possible approaches to solving it. https://vimeo.com/user5670026/review/315852437/d94087b164      

Hollywood action star and former Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called it when he recently accused big oil companies of first degree murder – knowingly killing millions of people around the world with their products. While legal experts rate his actions as largely a stunt to raise awareness of the deadly effects of fossil fuels, a … Continue reading When ‘oil’ spells murder

The whole of humanity is only 20 years or so from meekly surrendering the one thing most us have craved, sought and fought for throughout our history. Our freedom. By the 2050s every person on the planet will be under surveillance, 24/7, for the whole of their lives, their every word and act automatically recorded, stored … Continue reading The End of Freedom

In the view of most thinking people, the human species is more likely to earn its end in either a nuclear Armageddon or an episode of uncontrollable global overheating. There is now a third, and more intractable, scenario by which our tenure of Planet Earth may be terminated: ecocide. Ecocide? Sounds like another greenie scare … Continue reading Averting ecocide

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”  – H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A … Continue reading Age of the Nuclear Moron