Random writing

I’ve been writing about cities, technology, climate and politics for over three decades in outlets including Sydney City Hub, Australian Personal Computer magazine, Australian Planner, New Matilda, Guardian Australia and Pearls and Irritations. This is a selection of pieces from the last decade.

  • A double exposure photograph of a person holding a bouquet of flowers in front of their face, with the flowers superimposed over their head, creating a layered effect and an illusion of cognitive dissonance

    On cognitive dissonance, and courage

    Essay for Pearls and Irritations, republished by The Shot and RenewEconomy, 2024

    Essay

    I have flashes of climate grief, recognition in photographic bursts: Pakistani cotton farmers walking through knee-deep water trying to salvage a few white puffs of income off blackened plants; precious graves of ancestors being inundated by the sea in Fiji, the Torres Strait Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Samoa, the Marshall Islands; the view of fire-ravaged forests, white smoke sky and black trunks in Yosemite National Park, Namadgi National Park, so many places that should be verdant.

  • Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison a navy suit and yellow tie standing outdoors next to a Grace Tame in an orange jacket with stars, with a yellow building and lush green trees in the background.

    Dark side of politeness: Grace Tame's act of defiance

    Essay for Pearls and Irritations, 3 February 2022

    Essay

    Human communication is highly complex. It’s simplistic to call Grace Tame not smiling for Scott Morrison ‘rude’.

  • Aerial view of a neighborhood with many destroyed houses and burnt debris, likely from a recent fire, with some undamaged houses visible at the bottom left corner.

    Time is running out. We must call out the vested interests propelling the climate crisis

    The Guardian, 19 November, 2022

    Article

    It is not enough to professionally communicate the science of climate change. This is not a matter of rationality.

    Photo Source: Master Sgt. David Loeffler/Air National Guard / Climate Visuals Countdown

  • What the NEM could learn from an economics professor and a moon landing

    RenewEconomy, 2022

    Article

    Here I reflect on the fragmented policy and investment landscape of the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM), noting the lack of a shared, nationally consistent strategy for rapid decarbonisation and energy transition. Drawing on insights from economist Mariana Mazzucato, this piece argues for a mission-oriented approach where government plays a proactive role in shaping markets, rebuilding institutional expertise, aligning market rules with net-zero goals, and ensuring public value through coordinated and well-resourced governance rather than passive market facilitation.

  • It might seem unethical but someone has to get rich fighting climate change

    The Guardian, 5 February 2015

    Article

    While the moral arguments for climate change are important, achieving change fast enough might mean we must make some bankers rich

  • The political value of climate denial has fallen to zero. What will Abbott do now?

    The Guardian, 8 January 2015

    Article

    Climate change denial was useful to Tony Abbott as long as it helped to bring down the Rudd-Gillard government. Now it’s a hindrance, and he looks isolated at home and abroad.

  • Cover of a book titled 'Four Degrees of Global Warming', edited by Peter Christoff, showing a cracked, drought-affected map of Australia with an orange outline.

    Too hot to handle: life in a four-degree world

    Overland, 25 February 2014

    Essay/Book Review