BY: MARK DIESENDORF
Publisher: UNSW Press, Sydney, NSW
ISBN Number: 978 1 74223 018
Publish Date: 2014
Number of Pages:
“The word academic is synonymous for irrelevant”, declared Saul Alinsky, the influential Chicago activist-educator. A notable exception to Alinsky’s rule is Mark Diesendorf, author of ‘Climate Action: A campaign manual for greenhouse solutions’. Diesendorf is Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales.
Alinsky would admire Diesendorf’s academic activism. He’s an outspoken critic of the Rudd Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and the Australian bargaining stance in Copenhagen. He accuses the Australian Government of ‘posing as an active proponent of climate action’. In recent months, Mark has gone head to head with Tony Abbott over the Liberal leader’s support for nuclear power as a remedy to climate change, arguing that, ‘The two biggest threats facing human civilisation in the 21st century are climate change and nuclear war. It would be absurd to respond to one by increasing the risks of the other.’ He has also challenged the powerful Australian Coal Association, asserting that in just 20 years, Australia could entirely replace coal with less polluting energy sources.
In mid-2009, Diesendorf added Climate Action to his impressive list of almost 80 publications including the popular, Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy (2007). The new book has been well received.
ISBN Number: 978 1 74223 018
Publish Date: 2014
Number of Pages:
“The word academic is synonymous for irrelevant”, declared Saul Alinsky, the influential Chicago activist-educator. A notable exception to Alinsky’s rule is Mark Diesendorf, author of ‘Climate Action: A campaign manual for greenhouse solutions’. Diesendorf is Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales.
Alinsky would admire Diesendorf’s academic activism. He’s an outspoken critic of the Rudd Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and the Australian bargaining stance in Copenhagen. He accuses the Australian Government of ‘posing as an active proponent of climate action’. In recent months, Mark has gone head to head with Tony Abbott over the Liberal leader’s support for nuclear power as a remedy to climate change, arguing that, ‘The two biggest threats facing human civilisation in the 21st century are climate change and nuclear war. It would be absurd to respond to one by increasing the risks of the other.’ He has also challenged the powerful Australian Coal Association, asserting that in just 20 years, Australia could entirely replace coal with less polluting energy sources.
In mid-2009, Diesendorf added Climate Action to his impressive list of almost 80 publications including the popular, Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy (2007). The new book has been well received.
