IQ Squared debate on capitalism and the planet

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I’m tak­ing part in an Intel­li­gence Squared debate on Tues­day next week–August 10 2010–on the top­ic:

“That only capitalism can save the planet”

I’m on the Oppo­si­tion side, along with the poet and nov­el­ist Kate Jen­nings, and for­mer Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Green­peace Inter­na­tion­al Paul Gild­ing. The Gov­ern­ment side is Eco­nom­ics Edi­tor of The Syd­ney Morn­ing Her­ald Ross Git­tins,  busi­ness­woman and com­pa­ny direc­tor Lucy Turn­bull, and busi­ness­man, activist and writer Geof­frey Cousins.

The full descrip­tion of the debate can be found here on the IQ Squared web­site.

We’ll be rang­ing across quite a few top­ics with­in that “That only cap­i­tal­ism can save the plan­et” rubric. To quote the IQ Squared head­er:

Crit­ics of cap­i­tal­ism have been crow­ing ever since the onset of the glob­al finan­cial cri­sis.
Cap­i­tal­ism has been blamed for near­ly every one of the earth’s ills – pover­ty, pesti­lence, exploita­tion, envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion, the lot!
Cap­i­tal­ism has been cel­e­brat­ed as the only cure for the earth’s ills – pover­ty, pesti­lence, exploita­tion, envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion, the lot!
So, who is right?

If you’d like to be part of the audi­ence for this debate, which is held in the City Recital Hall Angel Place (2 Angel Place, Syd­ney), click on this link, or call 02 8256 2222 to reserve a seat. Tick­ets are A$32.

If you can’t be there in per­son, you can watch excerpts from the debate on the ABC’s Big Ideas on Tues­day August 17 (on ABC1 at 11am)– and it may also be played in full at 11am on Wednes­day August 11. You should also be able to lis­ten to it on ABC Radio Nation­al just after the 6pm news on Thurs­day  August 12. Check the IQ2 web­site for full details–and please note that it warns that “broad­cast times are sub­ject to change and that debates are no longer broad­cast live”.