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City is Right, Right Minister is Wrong
In Parliament last week the Finance Minister Bill English was derisive and ill-informed in response to Gareth Hughes’ questioning on New Zealand’s economic vulnerability to Peak Oil (16/3/11 Q12). English dismissed the Dunedin City Council’s “Peak Oil Vulnerability Analysis Report” on the basis of the title alone. But then, if all he read was […]
Posted in: Dunedin
Extra-dimensional sustainability?
March 17, 2011
Last night I went to a talk by Professor Lawrence Krauss (famous for writing, amongst other things – The Physics of Star Trek). The subject of Krauss’ talk was the question of whether there are hidden dimensions and whether there is evidence in the natural (physical world) for them – or is it just something […]
Posted in: Computing for Sustainability, Sustainable Lens
Borrowing from Terminator: A Sustainable Lens?
February 24, 2011
Here’s a draft of a position paper we’re working on (numbered references at the end). Feedback most welcome. In this paper we propose a “Sustainable Lens”- both actual and conceptual – to assist in acting as a Sustainable Practitioner. We describe how the complexities of everyday sustainable activities go beyond simple resource visualisations. More abstract […]
Making an inequity worse
February 24, 2011
I find it quite frustrating when bureaucracy gets in the way of a good thing. It is worse when people do things that are wrong, yet claim it is right for reasons of sustainability, or ethics, or equity. Here’s my letter to the Dunedin City Council regarding their recent and unfortunate tinkering with the city’s […]
Posted in: Dunedin
Grand Challenges for Sustainability Science demand a change in approach
November 16, 2010
I’m really impressed with the integrative approach taken in the Grand challenges for Earth Sustainability Science report from International Council for Science and the International Social Science Council. I like the five grand challenges (below), but even more, I like the strong statement for a need for a change in approach. The report starts by […]
Posted in: Computing for Sustainability, sustainability
Computing for Sustainability 
March 22, 2011
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