Clive Hamilton

Clive Charles Hamilton AM FRSA (born 12 March 1953) is an Australian public intellectual and Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE)^[1] and the Vice-Chancellor's Chair in Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University.^[2] He is the Founder and former Executive Director of the The Australia Institute.^[1][3] He regularly appears in the Australian media and contributes to public policy debates.^[4] Hamilton was granted the award of Member of the Order of Australia on 8 June 2009 for "service to public debate and policy development, particularly in the fields of climate change, sustainability and societal trends".^[5]

Education and academic career

Hamilton graduated from the Australian National University with a BA in history, psychology and pure mathematics in 1975 and completed a Bachelor of Economics with First Class Honours from the University of Sydney in 1979. He was an Overseas Commonwealth Postgraduate Scholar and completed his Doctorate at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in 1984.^[3]

He was a Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Fellow at the Research School of Pacific Studies of the Australian National University from 1984 to 1988 and the Director of the Graduate Program in the Economics of the Development at the National Centre for Development Studies of the Australian National University from 1986 to 1988. From 1994 to 1997 he was a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and from 1997 to 2002 he was a Fellow in Public Policy at the Australian National University and he was a Visiting Fellow of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health in 2004.

From 1988 to 1990 he was a Senior Research Economist at the Bureau of Industry Economics of the Federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources (now the Productivity Commission).

Hamilton founded the Australia Institute in 1993 and was Executive Director until 2008.^[1]

He has been an Academic Visitor at Oxford Uehiro Centre, a Visiting Lecturer at the Oxford Martin School and a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Oxford.^[6]

He is a Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and was a Visiting Scholar of the Department of Land Economy of the University of Cambridge.^[7]

He was a Senior Visiting Fellow of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies of Yale University.

Works

Hamilton has written about the issue of climate change politics over a period of some 15 years.^[8] His most recent book Requiem for a Species (Earthscan 2010) explores climate change denial and its implications. His earlier books, Scorcher (2007) and Running from the Storm (2001), were critical of the Australian Government's efforts, especially in relation to the Kyoto Protocol.^[9] Hamilton's general view about climate change is that the "world is on a path to a very unpleasant future and it is too late to stop it".^[8] Hamilton argues that to believe anything else is to deny the climate change truth and engage in wishful thinking.^[10]

Hamilton has written several books relating to consumerism and overconsumption. Growth Fetish (2003) became an Australian best-seller and suggests that the unthinking pursuit of economic growth has become a fetish, which has not led to any real improvements in levels of happiness.^[11] In Growth Fetish, Hamilton advocates the politics of wellbeing over economic growth.^[12] In Affluenza (2005), Hamilton describes how these themes play out at a personal level, as he explores the shallowness of modern consumer life.^[12] In What's Left? (2006) Hamilton comments on topics written about in Growth Fetish and Affluenza. He argues that there is an emergence of new types of "alienation and exploitation", in the form of ravages of the free market, which have "have robbed life of its meaning".^[13] The Freedom Paradox (2008) relates to the nature and consequences of advanced consumer capitalism. In the book Hamilton proposes a system of "post-secular ethics" that will serve as a challenge to the "moral malaise" occasioned by the "freedom of the marketplace".^[14]

Silencing Dissent: How the Australian Government Is Controlling Public Opinion and Stifling Debate, edited with Sarah Maddison was published in 2007.

Political career

Hamilton campaigning in the seat of Higgins in 2009

On 23 October 2009, Hamilton was announced as the Australian Greens candidate for the by-election in the federal seat of Higgins.^[15] He ran against nine others for the seat, and came second, receiving 32.40 percent of primary votes and 39.77 percent of preferred votes.^[16] The Australian Labor Party did not run a candidate in the election.

Hamilton is a supporter of internet censorship in Australia.^[17][18]

Bibliography

Books by Clive Hamilton include:^[19]

• Capitalist Industrialization in Korea (1986)
• The Economic Dynamics of Australian Industry (1992)
• The Mystic Economist (1994)
• Human Ecology, Human Economy: Ideas for an Ecologically Sustainable Future (1997)
• The ESD Process: Evaluating a Policy Experiment (1998)
• Running from the Storm: The Development of Climate Change Policy in Australia (2001)
• Growth Fetish (2003)
• Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough (2005)
• What's Left? The Death of Social Democracy (2006)
• Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change (2007)
• Silencing Dissent: How the Australian Government Is Controlling Public Opinion and Stifling Debate (2007)
• The Freedom Paradox: Towards a Post-Secular Ethics (2008)
• Requiem For A Species: Why We Resist The Truth About Climate Change (2010)

See also

• Ecological economics
• Ethics
• Social policy
• Mark Diesendorf
• Ian Lowe

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Clive Hamilton". Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. http://www.cappe.edu.au/staff/clive-hamilton.htm. 
2. ^ "CSU EXPERTS". Charles Sturt University. http://news.csu.edu.au/director/experts.cfm?itemID=072AFA2E03374E63F2595A75111AF7B5. Retrieved 9 November 2010. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Clive Hamilton: Brief CV". Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. http://www.cappe.edu.au/docs/staff-cvs/hamilton.pdf. 
4. ^ Schmidt, Lucinda (30 July 2008). "Profile: Clive Hamilton". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/news/planning/profile-clive-hamilton/2008/07/28/1217097144006.html. 
5. ^ It's an Honour
6. ^ http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/the_faculty/visitors
7. ^ http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/press/dpp/2003111901
8. ^ ^{a b} Kelsey Munro. Too late for all but prayers The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 February 2010.
9. ^ Tim Flannery. Scorcher: the dirty politics of climate change The Age, 25 May 2007.
10. ^ Steven Yearley. Book of the week: Requiem for a Species Times Higher Education, 3 June 2010.
11. ^ Ross Gittins. When growth turns into a monster The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 May 2008.
12. ^ ^{a b} Kirsty Needham. A serious bout of affluenza The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 May 2005.
13. ^ Maley, Barry (1 June 2006). "When the left is half right". Quadrant. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-16200577_ITM. Retrieved 12 November 2008. 
14. ^ Richard King. The Freedom Paradox: Towards a Post-Secular Ethics The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 September 2008.
15. ^ "Greens announce candidate for Higgins". ABC News. 23 October 2009. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/23/2722213.htm. 
16. ^ Australian Electoral Commission: Higgins By-election results
17. ^ Proposed Filter Criticized in Australia (New York Times)
18. ^ Web doesn't belong to net libertarians
19. ^ "Books by Clive Hamilton". http://www.bookfinder.com/author/clive-hamilton. 

External links

• Clive Hamilton's website
• Clive Hamilton on SlowTV
• Higgins campaign website
• Hamilton's blog
• Short film regarding Hamilton's take on current climate legislation

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Name	Hamilton, Clive
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Date of birth	12 March 1953
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