https://shawjonathan.com/2020/11/02/november-verse-2-judith-bretts-coal-curse/ ( )

This essay with its evocative title is a comprehensive survey of how Australia came to have its current paralysis on the matter of climate change.

This year's Melbourne Writers Festival is offering two sessions on this topic, and I have tickets for both of them. The first one, on Saturday August 8th and titled 'A Matter of Fact' features Ketan Joshi and Judith Brett, focusing on how this critical issue has been hijacked. This is the session description on the MWF website:

As certain branches across politics and the media push mistruths, half-truths and lies about the cause and severity of the climate crisis in Australia, identifying reliable, science-backed information is increasingly a challenge.

But how do we identify misinformation in the battle against climate change, and what can we do to counter it? Academic Judith Brett (The Coal Curse) and renewable energy expert Ketan Joshi (Windfall) join Graham Readfearn in conversation.

(I've also got tickets for 'Australia's Response to Climate Change', more about that later.)

I haven't been able to get a copy of Joshi's book because it's not due for release till September, but The Coal Curse was already on my TBR because I subscribe to Quarterly Essay.

Judith Brett is a professor of politics so she is well placed to illuminate the sad and sorry story of our coal curse. She begins with an invidious comparison:

The term 'resource curse' was first used by the British economist Richard Auty in 1993 to explain why some resource-rich countries suffer from slow development and corrupt, authoritarian political elites: for example, Nigeria, Angola, Venezuela. At worst, the country embarks on a spending spree, using the export income earned to buy expensive imports, and is left with little when the limited resources run out, as happened most notoriously with Nauru. For a few decades, the money flowed from its phosphate deposits, but when the phosphate ran out, the economy collapsed. (p.9-10)

What should protect us from this fate is a strong civil society, functioning democratic institutions and the rule of law, working together to prevent corruption and nurture a diverse economy. Byt what has happened instead is that our advantage in mineral and agricultural commodities has been wasted, and worse, cynical operators in big business and in politics have propped up an industry which is a declining sector of world trade, and damaged Australia's international reputation into the bargain. When Harvard University's Centre for International Development ranked economies by their diversity and complexity in order to assess their potential for growth, Australia came in at number 93 of 133 economies among countries that we used to call the 'third world'. Worse, our position is falling. New Zealand came in at 51, and all the other OECD countries were at the top of the pack. The cause is the resources boom which made us rich but also made us reliant on other countries buying our minerals. Brett is blunt: from the Harvard perspective, we are a dumb country with a weak industrial base and poor prospects.

Well, it's not as bad as that. Before COVID-19 we had thriving tourism and education industries which brought in foreign income.

To read the rest of my review please visit This essay with its evocative title is a comprehensive survey of how Australia came to have its current paralysis on the matter of climate change.

This year's Melbourne Writers Festival is offering two sessions on this topic, and I have tickets for both of them. The first one, on Saturday August 8th and titled 'A Matter of Fact' features Ketan Joshi and Judith Brett, focusing on how this critical issue has been hijacked. This is the session description on the MWF website:

As certain branches across politics and the media push mistruths, half-truths and lies about the cause and severity of the climate crisis in Australia, identifying reliable, science-backed information is increasingly a challenge.

But how do we identify misinformation in the battle against climate change, and what can we do to counter it? Academic Judith Brett (The Coal Curse) and renewable energy expert Ketan Joshi (Windfall) join Graham Readfearn in conversation.

(I've also got tickets for 'Australia's Response to Climate Change', more about that later.)

I haven't been able to get a copy of Joshi's book because it's not due for release till September, but The Coal Curse was already on my TBR because I subscribe to Quarterly Essay.

Judith Brett is a professor of politics so she is well placed to illuminate the sad and sorry story of our coal curse. She begins with an invidious comparison:

The term 'resource curse' was first used by the British economist Richard Auty in 1993 to explain why some resource-rich countries suffer from slow development and corrupt, authoritarian political elites: for example, Nigeria, Angola, Venezuela. At worst, the country embarks on a spending spree, using the export income earned to buy expensive imports, and is left with little when the limited resources run out, as happened most notoriously with Nauru. For a few decades, the money flowed from its phosphate deposits, but when the phosphate ran out, the economy collapsed. (p.9-10)

What should protect us from this fate is a strong civil society, functioning democratic institutions and the rule of law, working together to prevent corruption and nurture a diverse economy. Byt what has happened instead is that our advantage in mineral and agricultural commodities has been wasted, and worse, cynical operators in big business and in politics have propped up an industry which is a declining sector of world trade, and damaged Australia's international reputation into the bargain. When Harvard University's Centre for International Development ranked economies by their diversity and complexity in order to assess their potential for growth, Australia came in at number 93 of 133 economies among countries that we used to call the 'third world'. Worse, our position is falling. New Zealand came in at 51, and all the other OECD countries were at the top of the pack. The cause is the resources boom which made us rich but also made us reliant on other countries buying our minerals. Brett is blunt: from the Harvard perspective, we are a dumb country with a weak industrial base and poor prospects.

Well, it's not as bad as that. Before COVID-19 we had thriving tourism and education industries which brought in foreign income.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/07/29/the-coal-curse-resources-climate-and-austral... ( )