Vol 29 No 18

08 September 2019

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INTERNATIONAL

Sinking Kiribati raises sovereignty questions
- Alana Schetzer
- 19 September 2019
8 Comments
This tiny nation isn't just at risk of physically disappearing because of rising sea levels. It's also at risk of disappearing politically and culturally. Kiribati's shaky future raises the unprecedented question of what could happen to its sovereignty if — or when — it physically disappears. Can a nation still exist without an actual country?
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ENVIRONMENT

The 'kettle logic' of climate denial cultists
- Jeff Sparrow
- 19 September 2019
13 Comments
Like the flying saucer people documented in When Prophecy Fails, they don't change their minds based on new material. Rather, the discomfort fresh edvidence causes them results in a renewed proclamation of their denialism, as they double down on that identity. The rhetoric might change but the structure remains the same.
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MEDIA

Ban polar bears! Climate visuals that work
- Greg Foyster
- 18 September 2019
3 Comments
The visual language of climate change has become predictable and stunted. In the 1980s activists used an image of a polar bear adrift on a floe of ice to tell the story of global warming and rising sea levels. It's become visual shorthand for the topic — useful for quick categorisation, but stale and easily dismissed.
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RELIGION

The two Francises model climate justice
- Andrew Hamilton
- 18 September 2019
12 Comments
Pope Francis has insisted that the urgent need to care for the natural world of which we are part is not a disputed question but a Christian duty. He has appealed to the legacy of St Francis of Assisi, whose name he took when he became Pope; that saint of the 13th century who is popularly known best for his love of nature.
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CARTOON

Thinking big
- Fiona Katauskas
- 17 September 2019
1 Comment
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AUSTRALIA

The Jacqui Lambie conundrum
- John Warhurst
- 17 September 2019
8 Comments
Serendipity is defined as the gift of finding valuable things in unexpected places by sheer luck. It is a good description of Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie in Australian politics. But there is a sting in the tail. A system which depends on serendipity potentially also has a big downside.
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ENVIRONMENT

Nuclear push is about ideology, not solutions
- Tim Hutton
- 17 September 2019
15 Comments
The problem with the discussion about nuclear energy is that it is a distraction; an ideologically driven misdirection by those who are more concerned with opposing renewables and the 'green-left' than solving our country's energy problems. Nuclear just doesn't make sense for Australia at this stage of the game.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The quiet assimilators
- Denise O'Hagan
- 16 September 2019
4 Comments
Take almost any street, in any modern city, and we are there. We are the substrata of society, ever-present, the unseen lining, the padding in the crowd. We carry our backgrounds closer than our wallets, effortlessly. Yet they inform our every step.
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INTERNATIONAL

Messiness unleashed by the attack on Saudi oil
- Binoy Kampmark
- 16 September 2019
9 Comments
All of this has the hallmarks of danger. Previous US administrations have been cavalier with using stretched evidence, to justify military action. The region still labours with the fantasies that drove the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The dangers of misreading also extend to the cognitive failings of US foreign policy in the Middle East.
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MEDIA

Don't look away from climate change
- Neve Mahoney
- 16 September 2019
4 Comments
Every time I need to read an article that deals with climate change, I can feel a tightness in my body. It’s a physical response, the churning in my stomach and my shoulders hunching over, as though I’m trying to protect myself from the information.
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ENVIRONMENT

A rogues gallery of casual climate denial
- Vivienne Cowburn
- 16 September 2019
7 Comments
From overly sheltered baby boomers to millennials too fatigued with the state of the world to care, the reality of climate change can be a lot to handle. Here's a snapshot of the people living with their heads in the sand, employing tactics including pessimism, cognitive dissonance and deflections to stay where they are.
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ENVIRONMENT

Green consumerism is part of the problem
- Jacinta Bowler
- 16 September 2019
7 Comments
Whole industries have sprung up dedicated to help alleviate climate stress. Tote bags. Metal straws. Zara has announced 100 per cent of its fabrics will be sustainable by 2025 while Apple has said it plans to eventually stop mining. All of this looks great, but it doesn't help the underlying issue: We are still buying way too much stuff.
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INTERNATIONAL

Australian unis failing Hong Kong students
- Sangeetha Thanapal
- 14 September 2019
5 Comments
The students might not have many rights back home, but they do in the western democracies in which they live. The violence against peaceful protestors not just in Hong Kong but in countries where Hong Kong students are exercising their basic rights is unsettling. Yet the response by unis all over Australia has been taciturn at best.
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AUSTRALIA

Robodebt at the vanguard of government power grab
- Kate Galloway
- 12 September 2019
7 Comments
A policy genuinely in support of moving into employment would not seek to capitalise on the ambiguity of accounting in the year of transition from welfare to work — which is effectively what robodebt does.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Harris statue marks a turning point for AFLW
- Erin Riley
- 12 September 2019
4 Comments
It felt like a turning point. Female athletes and their supporters were saying no, we will not stand by while this happens. That sexual harassment has no place in our game. That female athletes should be able to do their jobs without abuse.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The lattes have been had
- Geoff Page
- 11 September 2019
5 Comments
They feel a shyness and a fear/taking off their clothes. Gravity has had its say/regarding shape and size. Their bodies are a narrative/permitting no disguise. There’s been no rush — or just a bit — the lattes have been had.
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AUSTRALIA

A different approach needed for youth justice
- Andrew Hamilton
- 11 September 2019
4 Comments
The Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass has published a damning report of the use of isolation for children in Victorian justice centres. Those acquainted with the administration of juvenile justice in Australia will find nothing new in the report. Therein lies its scandal.
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CARTOON

The Unquiet Australian
- Fiona Katauskas
- 10 September 2019
1 Comment
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INTERNATIONAL

Australia's true relationship with Timor-Leste
- Sophie Raynor
- 09 September 2019
13 Comments
Australia’s priority is clear: self-protection at all costs, no matter the sacrifice required of Timor-Leste. And it’s a theme that continues today: Australia’s neighbourly relationship with Timor-Leste remains one of taking anything it can, not of sharing like friends.
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AUSTRALIA

Day inquest highlights threat of police profiling
- Celeste Liddle
- 07 September 2019
3 Comments
As an Aboriginal woman walking the streets at night, I am significantly more concerned about being brutalised by those charged to keep our streets safe — the police — than I am about any fellow lone wanderer on the streets. The case of Tanya Day and the response to it reinforced to me that my fears were well-founded.
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ECONOMICS

Inside US and China's dodgy economies
- David James
- 07 September 2019
6 Comments
One of the ironies of the intensifying tariff war between America and China is that that neither of the two giants seems to have a viable economic model. Both countries' systems are based on dodgy financial engineering and printing money, or just inventing new types of money out of thin air.
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AUSTRALIA

Donor discrimination comes down to trust
- Wilson Huang
- 06 September 2019
4 Comments
If everyone who donated blood correctly identified when their last sexual contact was, and it was at least three months ago, then you could be sure that their test results were accurate. Yet, it seems that gay and bisexual men cannot be trusted to give accurate information about their sexual history or to understand their sexual risk.
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Vol 29 No 18