Book Reviews
Clive Hamilton's Scorcher. Paul Cleary's 'Shakedown: Australia's Grab for Timor Oil'. Mark Diesendorf's 'Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy'.
The Dirty Politics of Climate Change
Clive Hamilton
Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change
2007
Black Inc. Agenda, Melbourne
RRP: $29.95
Review by Jim Green
Scorcher is an updated, and more accessible, version of Hamilton's equally important 2001 book, Running from the Storm. Both expose the corrupt politics of climate change in Australia over the past decade.
Clive Hamilton, executive director of the Australia Institute, provides a blow-by-blow account of the manoeuvrings of the self-described 'greenhouse mafia' of corporate fossil-fuel interests, and their secretive dealings with the federal government.
Outside of the corporate cabal and the inner echelons of the Howard government, Hamilton probably knows more than anyone about climate change politics in Australia and that depth of knowledge makes Scorcher a compelling read. (Guy Pearse, a political insider turned whistleblower, has released a book covering similar ground.)
Alongside the political and corporate collusion and corruption, the media plays an important role in climate politics in Australia. Scorcher benefits greatly from Hamilton's analysis of the "studied ignorance" of most of the corporate media.
As if to prove the point, The Australian declined to publish excerpts from Scorcher. Instead, Hamilton wrote in New Matilda on June 15, The Australian used "bullying behaviour" to try to persuade him and his publisher to edit the book to paint the Murdoch press in a better light.
Commenting on The Australian's manoeuvring, Hamilton wrote: "The Australian was always going to lose the climate change debate because, while it dug its heels in to resist the 'green tide,' the science of climate change became stronger and stronger. ... Although it took a long time, Rupert Murdoch could see the writing on the wall – but the gaggle of climate sceptics at The Australian would look like fools if they began too quickly to speak with His Master’s Voice. ...
"The Australian has now been mugged by the facts but is not yet ready to admit it. That is why the newspaper – through demands for corrections and threats of legal action – has attempted to silence the criticisms of it made in Scorcher."
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An insider's account of the Australia's Timor oil grab
Shakedown: Australia's Grab for Timor Oil
Paul Cleary
June 2007
Allen and Unwin
RRP: $29.95
Shakedown is an insider's account of how Australia bullied the politically young and economically weak new democracy of East Timor out of billions of dollars – and would have robbed billions more if not for the determination of the Timorese.
Paul Cleary, a former journalist, was appointed by the World Bank as an advisor to the Prime Minister of East Timor on the Timor Sea oil and gas negotiations in 2000.
He took part in East Timor's backroom strategy meetings and was involved in the negotiations as the Australian government tried, with mixed success, to bully and blackmail East Timor.
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Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy
Mark Diesendorf
Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy
May 2007
UNSW Press: Sydney
RRP $49.95
Review by Patrick O'Neill
Mark Diesendorf has written a comprehensive guide to sustainable energy systems. Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy is simply a joy to read.
Whilst the technical and scientific detail is immense, the language is simple and the book is well laid out. It also engages in related, but oft-ignored areas of the sustainable energy discussion such as population issues, morality, social justice and equity.
The opening section of Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy outlines succinctly the science of global warming and climate modelling, deals with many myths of the climate change debate, and tables the environmental and economic impacts. There is no "moral case for further delay" in tackling climate change, he states.
Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy then powers through the world of sustainable energy, and all the significant modes are included. Wind power occupies a significant portion of this work. There is some more myth-busting regarding the ability of wind power to provide baseload electricity, and the oft suggested down-sides are also explored, and in general, busted.
Diesendorf covers extensively the use of biomass as a fuel source. He believes that a well structured biomass energy industry could produce significant amounts of energy with a concomitant reduction in greenhouse emissions. Other benefits include restoration of degraded land and the significant social and economic effects of rural and regional job and industry development.
Solar hot water has a significant, though an often understated role to play in the rapid reduction of greenhouse emissions in the short term. Solar heat and solar electricity, both requiring technological development, will have the greatest impacts when the last of the big emissions cuts are needed.
Diesendorf covers the topic of 'clean' coal (via carbon dioxide capture and sequestration), concluding that while it has future potential roles, the "possibility of geosequestration in the future is being used to divert funding away from cleaner technologies that are more cost-effective now ..."
The chapter on nuclear power concludes that: "The risks of proliferation, terrorism and accidents, taken together with the lack of long-term waste management repositories and the environmental impacts (including CO2 emissions) and high costs of the nuclear fuel chain, characterise a source of electricity that is not, by any reasonable criterion, ecologically sustainable."
Efficiency is a theme turned to many times in this book, and not just in terms of energy supply. Demand-side issues are the simplest and quickest measures at our disposal to reduce greenhouse emissions.
Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy concludes with an extensive section outlining the relevant policy and governmental aspects of renewable energy, including carbon taxes and emissions trading. The final section involves discussion of the individual and collective ways renewable energy and climate change can be approached.
This book is a wonderfully energising piece of sedition. Diesendorf calls for a "coordinated national strategy for non-violent action". Halt the growth of energy demand, rethink our economic structure, contraction and convergence – this book is a call for revolution, and not before time. Diesendorf has supplied the science necessary to carry this argument and this movement. It is now for others to come forth, brandishing the book as a manual, to make the change happen.
Clive Hamilton
Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change
2007
Black Inc. Agenda, Melbourne
RRP: $29.95
Review by Jim Green
Scorcher is an updated, and more accessible, version of Hamilton's equally important 2001 book, Running from the Storm. Both expose the corrupt politics of climate change in Australia over the past decade.
Clive Hamilton, executive director of the Australia Institute, provides a blow-by-blow account of the manoeuvrings of the self-described 'greenhouse mafia' of corporate fossil-fuel interests, and their secretive dealings with the federal government.
Outside of the corporate cabal and the inner echelons of the Howard government, Hamilton probably knows more than anyone about climate change politics in Australia and that depth of knowledge makes Scorcher a compelling read. (Guy Pearse, a political insider turned whistleblower, has released a book covering similar ground.)
Alongside the political and corporate collusion and corruption, the media plays an important role in climate politics in Australia. Scorcher benefits greatly from Hamilton's analysis of the "studied ignorance" of most of the corporate media.
As if to prove the point, The Australian declined to publish excerpts from Scorcher. Instead, Hamilton wrote in New Matilda on June 15, The Australian used "bullying behaviour" to try to persuade him and his publisher to edit the book to paint the Murdoch press in a better light.
Commenting on The Australian's manoeuvring, Hamilton wrote: "The Australian was always going to lose the climate change debate because, while it dug its heels in to resist the 'green tide,' the science of climate change became stronger and stronger. ... Although it took a long time, Rupert Murdoch could see the writing on the wall – but the gaggle of climate sceptics at The Australian would look like fools if they began too quickly to speak with His Master’s Voice. ...
"The Australian has now been mugged by the facts but is not yet ready to admit it. That is why the newspaper – through demands for corrections and threats of legal action – has attempted to silence the criticisms of it made in Scorcher."
------------------->
An insider's account of the Australia's Timor oil grab
Shakedown: Australia's Grab for Timor Oil
Paul Cleary
June 2007
Allen and Unwin
RRP: $29.95
Shakedown is an insider's account of how Australia bullied the politically young and economically weak new democracy of East Timor out of billions of dollars – and would have robbed billions more if not for the determination of the Timorese.
Paul Cleary, a former journalist, was appointed by the World Bank as an advisor to the Prime Minister of East Timor on the Timor Sea oil and gas negotiations in 2000.
He took part in East Timor's backroom strategy meetings and was involved in the negotiations as the Australian government tried, with mixed success, to bully and blackmail East Timor.
------------------->
Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy
Mark Diesendorf
Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy
May 2007
UNSW Press: Sydney
RRP $49.95
Review by Patrick O'Neill
Mark Diesendorf has written a comprehensive guide to sustainable energy systems. Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy is simply a joy to read.
Whilst the technical and scientific detail is immense, the language is simple and the book is well laid out. It also engages in related, but oft-ignored areas of the sustainable energy discussion such as population issues, morality, social justice and equity.
The opening section of Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy outlines succinctly the science of global warming and climate modelling, deals with many myths of the climate change debate, and tables the environmental and economic impacts. There is no "moral case for further delay" in tackling climate change, he states.
Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy then powers through the world of sustainable energy, and all the significant modes are included. Wind power occupies a significant portion of this work. There is some more myth-busting regarding the ability of wind power to provide baseload electricity, and the oft suggested down-sides are also explored, and in general, busted.
Diesendorf covers extensively the use of biomass as a fuel source. He believes that a well structured biomass energy industry could produce significant amounts of energy with a concomitant reduction in greenhouse emissions. Other benefits include restoration of degraded land and the significant social and economic effects of rural and regional job and industry development.
Solar hot water has a significant, though an often understated role to play in the rapid reduction of greenhouse emissions in the short term. Solar heat and solar electricity, both requiring technological development, will have the greatest impacts when the last of the big emissions cuts are needed.
Diesendorf covers the topic of 'clean' coal (via carbon dioxide capture and sequestration), concluding that while it has future potential roles, the "possibility of geosequestration in the future is being used to divert funding away from cleaner technologies that are more cost-effective now ..."
The chapter on nuclear power concludes that: "The risks of proliferation, terrorism and accidents, taken together with the lack of long-term waste management repositories and the environmental impacts (including CO2 emissions) and high costs of the nuclear fuel chain, characterise a source of electricity that is not, by any reasonable criterion, ecologically sustainable."
Efficiency is a theme turned to many times in this book, and not just in terms of energy supply. Demand-side issues are the simplest and quickest measures at our disposal to reduce greenhouse emissions.
Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy concludes with an extensive section outlining the relevant policy and governmental aspects of renewable energy, including carbon taxes and emissions trading. The final section involves discussion of the individual and collective ways renewable energy and climate change can be approached.
This book is a wonderfully energising piece of sedition. Diesendorf calls for a "coordinated national strategy for non-violent action". Halt the growth of energy demand, rethink our economic structure, contraction and convergence – this book is a call for revolution, and not before time. Diesendorf has supplied the science necessary to carry this argument and this movement. It is now for others to come forth, brandishing the book as a manual, to make the change happen.
