Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Anybody who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist (Kenneth Boulding).

Environmental change on earth is as old as the planet itself, about 4 billion years. Our genus, Homo, has altered earthly environments throughout our career, about 4 million years. But there has never been anything like the twentieth century. (J.R. McNeill) 

All questions of the limits, boundaries and scale of the human economic enterprise hinge on whether or not the economic system can be understood independently of its physical context. Can human economies grow forever? If not, what determines their boundaries? If so, what happens to the natural world?

"As George W Bush embarks on his sixth year in office, it’s anybody’s guess whether his administration’s egregious misrepresentations, misjudgements and (quite probably) crimes will end up carrying any penalty. We will perhaps be able to gauge the electoral implications with the midterm Congressional elections this November, though it should always be remembered that the US electoral system, which has become heavily reliant on unaudited electronic voting machines, is vulnerable to vote-tampering." Kerryn Higgs

"What is clear now is that, with over 2,100 US troops dead, 15,000 injured and no end in sight, the war has lost its appeal in America and support for the President is bleeding from all sides. Republican backing for Bush has dropped about 10% in the year since the 2004 election and people without party alliance (known here as independents) have deserted Bush in droves. Democrats who think Bush is doing all right have virtually disappeared. Since Murtha's impassioned plea for a quick end to the occupation, the US administration has begun talking up prospects for partial withdrawal, but the plan has been heavily dependent on Iraqis taking over the immense security challenge. It's worth remembering that the fate of the tens of thousands of dead Iraqis is not uppermost in Murtha's or most other American minds, just as millions of deaths in Indo-China were of far less importance here than the deaths of US soldiers. It is also important to note that the Democratic Party did not rush to back Murtha's withdrawal proposal." Kerryn Higgs

"We do not yet know who actually released Plame's name to reporters. We think Novak had one source whose name has not been made public. Two prominent members of the Bush administration have admitted talking to reporters about Plame - Cheney's Chief of Staff 'Scooter' Libby and Karl Rove, but both have maintained that it was reporters who told them Plame's name and job.... According to several sources, Fitzgerald is examining the possibility that blowing Plame's cover was a desperate tactic in a far-reaching conspiracy, first to falsify WMD intelligence and, later, to destroy Wilson's credibility and warn off other potential whistleblowers." Kerryn Higgs

"Blowin’ in the Wind was finished just in time to coincide with Operation Talisman Sabre 2005, the joint exercise of US and Australian troops conducted in June at Shoalwater Bay, Queensland – the first set of wargames conducted in Australia since a new defence agreement was quietly signed in Washington on July 7th last year." Kerryn Higgs

"What seems to be in the offing is an airstrike aimed primarily at a couple of dozen nuclear installations, plus Iranian defence facilities: a quick burst of ‘shock and awe’, not necessarily followed up by invasion, though an uprising leading to showers of roses and chocolates is again expected." Kerryn Higgs

"Revelations last week by Richard Clarke - Bush's counter-terrorism guru until just before the Iraq invasion - could destroy the Bush presidency. I asked Webdiarist Kerryn Higgs, a Australian living in New York who's been glued to live TV coverage of Clarke's evidence to the September 11 inquiry, to report the controversy." Kerryn Higgs