Feedback Reigns

Act on Climate Change

About

The Site Author

Author: Andrew Gunner

Contact

feedbackreigns@gmail.com

Qualifications:

  • Honours Science Degree: Applied Mathematics (BSc. Hons.),
  • Social Work Degree (BSW),
  • Social Work Master’s Degree by Research (MSW).

Experience:

  • Worked briefly at the Bureau of Meteorology; my applied maths study qualified me to become a climate scientist,
  • Worked in a geophysics research team in Antarctic waters on a ship, the USNS Eltanin,
  • Worked for a petrol company and a petrochemical company for 20 years as an operations researcher, using maths and computers to guide decision-making,
  • Demonstrated from a rubber raft during the Franklin River Blockade,
  • Studied social work,
  • Worked as a counsellor for 17 years, including ten years as an addiction counsellor, working with problem gamblers,
  • Completed a master’s degree by research into the way I worked with clients,
  • Article published in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy,
  • Developed this website, starting in 2009.

Gunner (2002). “Problem gambling development and recovery: A reflective counsellor’s practical construction based on feedback”. (Unpublished master’s thesis). The University of Melbourne.

Gunner (2006), “Feedback Loops in Clinical Practice: An Integrative Framework”. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, September 2006, Volume 27, Number 3, Pages 143-152.

Site Purpose

  • Urge action on climate change, and
  • Present “amplifying feedback” as a tool for understanding climate change and as a general organising principle suitable for use in counselling.

Amplifying feedback in problem development

As a counsellor, I sometimes talked to clients about how their attempts to escape from difficulties often made those difficulties worse. People can get stuck in damaging habits that escalate. See:

Amplifying feedback in climate change

Amplifying feedback is also a critical part of climate change, so this site describes some feedback loops that threaten our livable climate, e.g., the permafrost feedback cycle:

Diagram: This feedback cycle amplifies (1) temperature, (2) permafrost melting, and (3) global warming.
This feedback cycle amplifies (1) temperature, (2) permafrost melting, and (3) global warming. (ZG60N4Sa)

The site name: Feedback Reigns

The broad relevance of feedback to climate change, human functioning, and more led to this website’s name: “Feedback Reigns”.

Distributing this information

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Loaded 2014; Updated 13 Sep 2026.