From Little Things, Big Things Grow: Fungi, Security and the Future of Food
Global conflicts, devastating fires, destructive flooding, COVID-affected supply-chains, lettuce shortages…the fragility of our food security has been brought into sharp relief recently. Our soil ecosystems are one of the facets in this system that is fundamental to supporting the future of food and our access to it. Can increased understanding of these systems reduce our reliance on destructive industrial farming techniques and increasingly scarce resources?
Adam Frew, Meike Heuck, Christina Birnbaum
Budget Repair? Better to repair your thinking instead
Everything that you think you know about Australia’s ‘debt and deficit crisis’ is probably wrong.
Politicians, journalists, and even economists have been peddling the mistruth that running a country’s budget is like balancing a household’s books – when nothing could be further from the truth…Menzies knew the value of a good deficit, and knew that deficits are the driver of wealth creation. By oversimplifying a complex system, the public understanding has been turned on its head – putting everything at risk.
Steve Keen
Social Grooming: Algorithms mis/shaping political discourse for young voters
Three quarters of young Australians are likely to have been exposed to toxic, politically-divisive content on social media, such as Covid denialism, Qanon conspiracies, or extreme men’s rights views. Whether or not these young people are interested or searching for such content, platform algorithms are pushing it into their feeds. Around the world we have seen real-world repercussions of social media misinformation and political propaganda. To protect our democracy we need to find ways to limit the exposure of young people to potentially polarising material.
Ralph Housego and Rys Farthing
Australia’s U-turn: The past and future of Australia’s COVID-19 response
Through the first two years of the pandemic Australia’s response was lauded overseas, particularly when death rates soared in dozens of countries that had been unable, or unwilling, to pursue a “Covid-zero” approach. Now the contrast is stark as we, in 2022, come to terms with our future of ‘living with the virus’. Yet questions remain: Was our success good luck or good management? Was it the best approach? Was it all worth it? Where to next?
James Trauer
