Clive Hamilton

Clive Charles Hamilton AM (born 12 March 1953) is Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) and as such holds the position of Vice-Chancellor's Chair in Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University. He is the founder and former director of left-wing think tank, The Australia Institute.

Hamilton is well known as a climate change advocate and a public intellectual, regularly appearing in the Australian media and contributing to public policy debates.

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".

Early career

Hamilton has a BA from the Australian National University and a BEc (Honours) from the University of Sydney. In 1984 he received a PhD from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.

From 1993 to 2008 Hamilton served as the Executive Director of The Australia Institute.

Works

Hamilton has written about the issue of climate change politics over a period of some 15 years. His most recent book Requiem for a Species (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. 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".

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. In Growth Fetish, Hamilton advocates the politics of wellbeing over economic growth. In Affluenza (2005), Hamilton describes how these themes play out at a personal level, as he explores the shallowness of modern consumer life. 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". 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".

Hamilton's other recent books include Silencing Dissent: How the Australian Government Is Controlling Public Opinion and Stifling Debate, edited with Sarah Maddison and 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. 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. The Australian Labor Party did not run a candidate in the election.

Hamilton is a supporter of internet censorship in Australia.

Bibliography

Books by Clive Hamilton include:

• 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)

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