Australian politics, society & culture

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Guy Pearse

Guy Pearse is a research fellow at the Global Change Institute, University of Queensland, a former political adviser, lobbyist and speechwriter, and the author of High & Dry and Quarterly Essay 33, ‘Quarry Vision’.

Coalminers' world tour
Phillip Adams and Guy Pearse in conversation on Late Night Live

Articles by this author

'I don't dig texting', 2009. © Zawezome/Flickr
Generation Text
It tolls for thee
Ping! New message received. “Hi, this is Dr Carl O’Kane from the Townsville Hospital emergency department. I was taking your medical history so we can treat what looks like a...
 
Aided by Purves Environmental Fund, sculptor Mark Coreth rides his life-sized ice polar bear in Sydney, 3 June 2011. © Reuters/Daniel Munoz
Australia’s patrons of climate change activism
The climate movement
With Tony Abbott up in the polls, both sides saying they’ll stand or fall on climate policy, and some believing effective ‘climate action’ and the fate of ‘progressive politics’...
 
Illustration by Jeff Fisher.
The coal industry’s coal-fed algae plan
Coal’s next alibi
Imagine a supermarket called Coal’s where everything in your trolley was made with algae fed with carbon dioxide from a large industrial facility, such as a coal-fired power...
 
Dick Smith (with friends) reveals $1 million to be awarded to a person under 30 who shows leadership in tackling Australia's "population crisis", 2010. © Paul Miller/AAP Image
Dick Smith’s population crisis
Stick to the generous speed limit approaching the bucolic village of Gundaroo on the Yass River in NSW and it takes nearly two minutes to pass ‘Bowylie’ – Dick Smith’s well-known...
 
Illustration by Jeff Fisher.
Renewable energy
Every year the sunburnt country receives enough solar energy from above to meet its current annual energy consumption for 10,000 years. From below, there’s enough geothermal...
 
Land of the long black cloud
“Join us, won’t you, on our coalminers’ tour of exotic Mongolia, and grab a slice of the world’s fourth-biggest coal reserves. En route to the Gobi, we’ll explore the fleshpots of...
 
Illustration by Jeff Fisher.
Greenwash
Next time you fly, grab your in-flight magazine or newspaper, carefully rip out a few pages, jot a few words on each, smile knowingly to those seated next to you and stash them...
 
A Green balance?
The 2010 federal election approaches. it’s certainly no coincidence that, with climate change sitting in the too-hard basket and both major parties wanting Australia to double its...
 
King Coal
Glenn Beutel has heard of The Castle but has no plans to see the film about a suburban family who win a David-and-Goliath battle to save their house from an airport expansion....
 
Robert G Kaiser’s ‘So Damn Much Money’
Revolving doors
Robert Kaiser’s exposé of lobbying in Washington, DC helps to explain why Barack Obama has declared “war on lobbyists”. It also leaves the Australian reader very uneasy about the...
 
Illustration by Jeff Fisher.
Climate for change
Kevin Rudd wasn't the only one licking his lips on election night last year. For millions of Australians, an end to John Howard's lamentable response to climate change couldn't...
 
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