Jon Symons

Hi #POIR2030 Theories of World Politics students - I'm excited that Macquarie Uni IT have created a Bluesky block for ilearn.

For the next 15 weeks I'll be sharing content for our unit to this block. If you're on bluesky and want to post here please use #POIR2030 and I'll repost you to the class.

Coercive Bombing Doesn’t Work! Every indicator-and-warning light is blinking red: The US and Israel are about to unleash a massive terror campaign on Iran from the air.

“Coercion-as-habit is domination stripped of hegemonic obligation. No public goods, international order, or attempt to manufacture consent. Just the power to kill, wielded for the sake of nonsense—libido, spectacle, oligarch payola.” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/coercive-b...

In Trump’s war on global justice, court staff and U.N. face terrorist‑grade sanctions Trump’s sanctions on U.N. expert Francesca Albanese and the International Criminal Court froze assets and disrupted war crimes investigations. The clash is part of the broader campaign by his administ...

‘Albanese told Reuters she had “received offers to open bank accounts in so-called fiscal or tax havens,” but declined, saying that would conflict with her ethical principles and wouldn’t resolve “the illegality of the U.S. sanctions against me.”’

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

What’s the Chinese equivalent?

If Australia and Indonesia agreed to end new thermal coal mines, it could drive the green transition. If the biggest coal exporters banned new coal mines, they could drive the shift to renewables – and benefit while they do it.

If Australia and Indonesia agreed to end new thermal coal mines, it could drive the green transition - @aunz.theconversation.com

theconversation.com/if-australia...

If Australia and Indonesia agreed to end new thermal coal mines, it could drive the green transition. If the biggest coal exporters banned new coal mines, they could drive the shift to renewables – and benefit while they do it.

Is a treaty to end thermal coal mine approvals possible?

Sounds counterintuitive, but Chris Wright argues the treaty's cartel-like logic might win industry support for climate goals.

New piece in @theconvo-bot.bsky.social explores why Indonesia + Australia alone could shift the global market.

Radical Eudaimonism | The Point Magazine The choice is not between growth and degrowth but capital growth and rational growth.

“…the task is to rationalize growth: to expand and develop the forces of production so that they might better enable and express the fundamental end of animals like us. In other words, our freedom.” thepointmag.com/politics/rad...

Feel like a man throwing a homemade IED into a large crowd at an invasion day rally should be bigger news

Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ is a sham designed to give the US ultimate control The choice facing Anthony Albanese and other world leaders is between international law and a “mafia world order” in which the US plays landlord and arbiter.

Maher Mughrabi on the new "mafia world order"...
www.smh.com.au/world/north-...

This is beyond the pale.
Trump's "board of peace" is a sham to formalise the genocide, and against all intl law. The Albanese govt has no right to make Australia complicit.

Budyko's conclusion: that more research and global regulation are needed.

Fascinating interview, but note Mikhail Budyko and other Soviet scientists anticipated solar geoengineering would be needed to address climate change by mid C20th. Budyko's "Climatic Changes", published in English in 1977, concludes with analysis of stratospheric aerosol dispersal...

Global CO2 emissions are showing signs of levelling, thanks to a slight decline in net land-use change emissions offsetting continued growth in fossil emissions.

The trends are way off compared to the 1.5C scenarios with no or low overshoot assessed in the IPCC.

Details: bsky.app/profile/glen...

One Year After Klamath Dam Removal, 'There's Just Fish Jumping All Over the Place': Scientists Describe Improvements to Water Quality and Wildlife

Hanging onto every bit of good news

The river has come alive in the Klamath with wild Chinook salmon. The wider ecosystem is healing.

This most powerful story of Indigenous-led #rewilding after the largest dam removal in US history keeps getting better.

lostcoastoutpost.com/2025/oct/9/o...

Farmland for forests may be the net zero trade-off The problem with an emissions reduction target is that its mere existence implies it is achievable and that if we do achieve it, we will be fine. The truth is more complex.

Alan Kohler's analysis of Australia's 2035 target: New CSIRO modelling suggests Australia's new targets are difficult to achieve, and even if they are, we won't be fine. #POIR3970
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

YouTube video by Uppsalainitiativet Thatcher GlobalWarming

#poir3970 as promised, here’s conservative UK PM Margaret Thatcher speaking about Climate Change in 1989. youtu.be/aSrBO4_qPzo?...

The great acceleration debate Why the consilience of evidence points toward acceleration

Is global warming accelerating? Over at The Climate Brink I argue that the consilience of evidence from surface temperatures, climate models, forcing changes, ocean heat content, and earth energy imbalance all point toward yes: www.theclimatebrink....

Grok showed up in my Tesla this morning, and started speaking to me without me trying to trigger it.

I saw a tab called "conspiracy theories", clicked it and asked Grok about climate change.

This is what Elon Musk is telling Tesla drivers about climate change.

Indonesia is not a major trade partner. Not even top 10 at this point. However it is a rapidly growing near neighbour of >280 million ppl. I think it’s the European languages that require explanation.

Abundance for the 99 Percent Abundance is the precondition of socialism, but socialism is also the precondition of abundance.

Abundance is the precondition of socialism, but socialism is also the precondition of abundance.

In 2023, China installed more wind power than the rest of the world combined—yet Western media still portrays it as a climate laggard. @benwray1989.bsky.social on the geopolitics of the energy transition. www.tni.org/en/article/c...

new paper about US attitudes on solar geoengineering, para-environmentalism, and this idea that airborne atmospheric modification is already happening

rdcu.be/eyJX5

Trump’s Global War on Decarbonization Mark Blyth & Daniel Driscoll conclude that the US is intentionally undercutting the global demand for green technologies.

Check out a new piece by @mkblyth.bsky.social and me: 'Trump’s Global War on Decarbonization'. The Strategy? BLOCK Chinese green tech, PUSH US fossil fuels. @projectsyndicate.bsky.social prosyn.org/RE8I5Ix

"Using heavy nets to scrape the ocean floor, bottom trawling is described as being "destructive for both ocean life and the climate," destroying an area of the ocean floor nearly as large as the Amazon rainforest every year."

Source: Ocean with David Attenborough (from National Geographic).

The geopolitics of the green transition in two NYT graphs: China is the world's major manufacturer of green energy infrastructure and the United States is the world's major fossil fuels producer.

But apparently it's China that presents the big risk to our future!

Carbon bootprints: How war is fuelling climate catastrophe The military-industrial complex’s vast carbon footprint is deliberately hidden from public view, while we get gaslit into using paper straws.

While the world obsesses over individual carbon footprints, militaries — the elephant in the climate room — operate in the shadows, protected by the very institutions that have been charged with saving our planet. We must demand transparent reporting, genuine accountabi ...

YouTube video by The Ezra Klein Show MAHA Is a Bad Answer to a Good Question | The Ezra Klein Show

Today’s episode of The Ezra Klein Show.

Rachael Bedard and David Wallace-Wells on Covid disillusionment and the rise of the MAHA movement.
open.spotify.com/episode/6VhH...

youtu.be/VCaD4vh4XhI?...

Big polluter lobbyists and petro states sabotaged the global plastics treaty Global plastics treaty has now ended in a utter failure - with countries unable to agree. And we know exactly who is to blame.

Big polluter lobbyists and petro states sabotaged the global plastics treaty

Global plastics treaty has now ended in a utter failure - with countries unable to agree. And we know exactly who is to blame.
www.thecanary.co/global/world...

YouTube video by The Ezra Klein Show Has Trump Doomed Progress on Climate Change? | The Ezra Klein Show

#poir3970
I was looking to catch up on the Inflation Reduction Act and the current status of climate legislation in the US. When I saw Ezra Klein's name (he was mentioned in lectures) I was drawn to this quite good discussion:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuW4PdhqKmo

Productivity Commission draws attention to Treasury increasing the petroleum resource rent tax on gas exporters. Ross Gittins (SMH/Age) says that currently gas exports, now up there with US/Qatar, are given a free ride by the Commonwealth, adding little to our nation’s productivity.