Apocalypse Never Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All by Michael Shellenberger

$34.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

Climate change is real but it's not the end of the world. It is not even our most serious environmental problem. Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world's last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today's Green New Deal. And h e led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions. But in 2019, as some claimed “billions of people are going to die,” contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that, as a lifelong environmental activist, leading energy expert, and father of a teenage daughter, he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction. Despite decades of news media attention, many remain ignorant of basic facts. Carbon emissions peaked and have been declining in most developed nations for over a decade. Deaths from extreme weather, even in poor nations, declined 80 percent over the last four decades. And the risk of Earth warming to very high temperatures is increasingly unlikely thanks to slowing population growth and abundant natural gas. Curiously, the people who are the most alarmist about the problems also tend to oppose the obvious solutions. What's really behind the rise of apocalyptic environmentalism? There are powerful financial interests. There are desires for status and power. But most of all there is a desire among supposedly secular people for transcendence. This spiritual impulse can be natural and healthy. But in preaching fear without love, and guilt without redemption, the new religion is failing to satisfy our deepest psychological and existential needs... ...Show more

On Hope (On Series) by Daisy Jeffrey

$16.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs | Series: On Ser.

As extreme weather becomes the norm, scientists agree that our climate is changing. But it seems too many of our leaders aren't listening to the science and are failing to act. In On Hope, one of the lead organisers of the Australian Climate strike, 17-year-old Daisy Jeffrey shows how ordinary people a re fighting back and demanding we address climate change to help save our planet. Daisy was at the centre of a movement that joined people together to drive change. She reveals what prompted the action, what she and her friends believe and why she is choosing hope over indifference and standing up to speak truth to power. ...Show more

Spy vs Spy: The New Age of Espionage: Australian Foreign Affairs 9 by Jonathan Pearlman

$22.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs | Series: AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The ninth issue of Australian Foreign Affairs explores the rapidly evolving espionage threat facing Australia as changes in technology enable malign actors to target individuals, officials, businesses and infrastructure. Spy vs Spy examines how Australian agencies can defend against this attempt to not only steal secrets but also disrupt the workings of government and society. Contents of this issue include- An essay by Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong Andrew Davies on the evolution of spycraft Danielle Crave on cybertechnology and intelligence "The Fix"- a high-profile strategist reflects on how to solve Australia's foreign affairs challenges "The Back Page"- award-winning journalist Richard Cooke dissects key foreign policy terms Correspondence on AFA8- Can We Trust America? ...Show more

Webtopia: The Worldwide Wreck of Tech and How to Make the Net Work by Peter Lewis

$32.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs | Reading Level: very good

Sydney in the 1970s and 1980s was a world of limited choice, one where we all watched the same television programs and the household phone was at the heart of allnetworks people belonged to: family, school, church and the neighbourhood. The arrival of the internet promised a utopian, creative and democr atic future that would break down traditional institutions and replace them with exciting collaborative networks. So how did we end up here? In Webtopia, Peter Lewis draws from his own pre- and post-tech experience and conversations with entrepreneurs, politicians, pastors, parents, teachers and journalists to show us that technology is not the problem. We are. If we fix our relationship with technology, it will be easier to fix our relationships with each other in a fragmenting world. Riveting, engaging and wise, Webtopia traces our digital journey to this point and, fearlessly, marks out the best route from here. 'This book is an encounter with a born raconteur. This makes for a highly readable book, but it also reflects something more profound: that people power the web and modern tech is the embodiment of human genius, human folly and every human choice that lies in between.' -- Edward Santow, Australian Human Rights Commissioner     ...Show more

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

$35.00 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

Not being racist is not enough. We have to be antiracist. In this rousing and deeply empathetic book, Ibram X. Kendi, founding director of the Antiracism Research and Policy Center, shows that when it comes to racism, neutrality is not an option: until we become part of the solution, we can only be part of the problem. Using his extraordinary gifts as a teacher and story-teller, Kendi helps us recognise that everyone is, at times, complicit in racism whether they realise it or not, and by describing with moving humility his own journey from racism to antiracism, he shows us how instead to be a force for good. Along the way, Kendi punctures all the myths and taboos that so often cloud our understanding, from arguments about what race is and whether racial differences exist to the complications that arise when race intersects with ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. In the process he demolishes the myth of the post-racial society and builds from the ground up a vital new understanding of racism - what it is, where it is hidden, how to identify it and what to do about it. ...Show more

On Secrets (On Series) by Annika Smethurst

$16.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs | Series: On Ser.

Quarterly Essay 77: Cry Me a River, The Tragedy of the Murray-Darling Basin by Margaret Simons by Margaret Simons

$22.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs | Series: Quarterly Essay

The Murray-Darling Basin is the food bowl of Australia, and it's in trouble. What does this mean for the future - for water and food, and for the people and towns that depend on it? In this Quarterly Essay, acclaimed journalist Margaret Simons takes a trip through the basin, all the way from Queensland to South Australia. She shows that its plight is environmental but also economic, and enmeshed in ideology and identity. Her essay is both a portrait of the Murray-Darling Basin and an explanation of its woes. It looks at rural Australia and the failure of political processes over the last few generations to meet the needs of communities forced to bear the heaviest burden of change. It considers corruption and resource politics, drought and climate change.   ...Show more

The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West by David Kilcullen

$35.00 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

Soldier-scholar David Kilcullen shows what opponents of the West have learned during the last quarter-century of conflict. Just a few years ago, people spoke of the US as a hyperpower -- a titan stalking the world stage with more relative power than any empire in history. Yet as early as 1993, newly ap pointed CIA director James Woolsey pointed out that although Western powers had 'slain a large dragon' by defeating the Soviet Union in the Cold War, they now faced a 'bewildering variety of poisonous snakes'. In this book, Killcullen explains what happened to the 'snakes' (non-state threats, including from terrorists and guerrillas) and the 'dragons' (state-based competitors such as Russia and China). He explores how enemies learn under conditions of conflict, and examines how Western dominance over a very particular, narrowly defined form of warfare has forced adversaries to adapt in ways that present serious new challenges to America and its allies. State and non-state threats have increasingly come to resemble each other, Kilcullen argues, with states adopting non-state techniques and non-state actors now able to access levels of precision and lethal weapon-systems once only available to governments. A counterintuitive look at this new, vastly more complex environment, The Dragons and the Snakes not only reshaped our understanding of the West's enemies' capabilities, but also shows how we can respond, given the increasing limits on US power. ...Show more

White Fragility - Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo

$22.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

Anger. Fear. Guilt. Denial. Silence. These are the ways in which ordinary white people react when it is pointed out to them that they have done or said something that has - unintentionally - caused racial offence or hurt. After, all, a racist is the worst thing a person can be, right? But these reacti ons only serve to silence people of colour, who cannot give honest feedback to 'liberal' white people lest they provoke a dangerous emotional reaction. Robin DiAngelo coined the term 'White Fragility' in 2011 to describe this process and is here to show us how it serves to uphold the system of white supremacy. Using knowledge and insight gained over decades of running racial awareness workshops and working on this idea as a Professor of Whiteness Studies, she shows us how we can start having more honest conversations, listen to each other better and react to feedback with grace and humility. It is not enough to simply hold abstract progressive views and condemn the obvious racists on social media - change starts with us all at a practical, granular level, and it is time for all white people to take responsibility for relinquishing their own racial supremacy. ...Show more

Foot Work - What Your Shoes Tell You about Globalisation by Tansy Hoskins

$32.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

In 2017, 64 million pairs of shoes were manufactured across the world every single day. They have never been cheaper to buy, and we have never been more convinced that we need to buy them. Yet their cost to the planet has never been greater. In this urgent, passionately argued book, Tansy Hoskins opens our eyes to the dark origins of the shoes on our feet. Taking us deep into the heart of an industry that is exploiting workers and deceiving consumers, we begin to understand that if we don't act fast, this humble household object will take us to the point of no return. ...Show more

Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully

$32.99 AUD

Category: Current Affairs

It's hard to be excited about the future right now. Climate change is accelerating; inequality is growing; politics is polarised; institutions designed to protect us are strained; technology is disrupting the world of work. We need to upgrade the operating systems of our society. Jess Scully asks, What can we do? The answer is- plenty! All over the world, people are refusing the business-as-usual mindset and putting humans back into the civic equation, reimagining work and care, finance and government, urban planning and communication, to make them better and fairer for all. Meet the care workers reclaiming control in India and Lebanon, the people turning slums into safe havens in Kenya and Bangladesh, and champions of people-powered digital democracy in Iceland and Taiwan. There are radical bankers funding renewable energy in the USA and architects redesigning real estate in Australia, new payment systems in Italy and the Philippines that keep money in local communities, and innovators redesigning taxation to cut pollution and incentivise creative solutions. Glimpses of Utopia is a call for optimism. Humans everywhere are rising up to confront our challenges with creativity, resilience and compassion. Harnessing technology and imagination, we can reshape our world to be fair and sustainable. This book shows us how. ...Show more

HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST by KENDI IBRAM X

$35.00 AUD

Category: Current Affairs