Scientists have proposed that as annual production and releases of manmade technologies accelerate at a pace that outstrips the global capacity for assessment and monitoring – the safe operating space of the planetary boundary of novel entities has been exceeded. This paper, lead by Lyn Persson and colleagues at the […]
Extracts from my October 2022 discussion paper: COVID-19 in New Zealand: Ethics & the Setting Aside of Normative Principles. October, 18, 2022. (refs in original paper) Humanity has a long history of avoiding bringing attention to the ethical mismatch, when lower order rules contradict higher level principles. Actions taken 2020-2022 […]
The New Zealand State, Medical Capture & the Role of Strategic Ignorance. Summary New Zealand’s Unite Against COVID-19 ‘stamp it out’, or ‘elimination’ strategy is revealing it’s democratic and political deficit. The strategy relied on the deployment of policy, legislation and simple slogans focusing on case rates, vaccination, masking and […]
The process of unwrapping the drivers of persistent societal and environmental problems involve extraordinary political challenges. Persistent wicked problems include such diverse issues as pervasive anthropogenic pollution, nutrient loss in food, the privatisation of data, climate change, obesity and non-communicable disease. Wicked problems require that the public, scientists and policy […]
In an abstract presented at The Australian Sociological Association Conference, November 26, 2021 the relationship between science policy in New Zealand; the decision-making practices of funding committees and the funding outcomes of scientists were explored. The conference abstract was titled Innovation and Ignorance: How Science Funding Schemes Deter the Production […]
Biodiversity rhetoric often excludes comment on contamination and pollution from economic activity. Narratives relating to biodiversity loss often exclude the relationship of biodiversity decline and persistent applications of pesticides over years. Also avoided are the low level, or sub-chronic exposures to surrounding ecosystems -the soil and water profiles, and the […]
‘There is increasing Evidence That Endocrine Disruption (EDC) Exposures Play a Substantive Role In Disease Causation Or Progression.’ Gore et al 2015 An enormous quantity of medical literature involves the manipulation of synthetic chemicals at ultra-low doses – parts per billion, for example – to alter hormone function. Hormonally active […]
The theory of ‘wicked problems’ originated in the planning literature in 1973. Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber proposed that planning could no longer be efficiently managed by scientists and engineers due to the trickiness of goal setting and problem definition in dynamic systems with feedback loops, and the commensurate requirement […]
In the last 30 years, the relationships, ties and threads between private interests and the state have become more tightly interwoven. This has occured through industry alliances, via lobbying and corporate mergers, and impacted the executive (administrative) and legislative (Parliament) arms of democratic governments to then shape governance cultures. The […]