About
The Author:
My name is Andrew Gunner.
I completed a four-year applied maths degree. This qualified me to become a climate scientist, and my first real job was a brief period with the Bureau of Meteorology, but I am not a climate scientist. I ended up working for a petrol company and then a petrochemical company, 20 years of using maths and computers to guide decision making.
After studying social work, I worked as a counsellor. I found myself discussing with clients how their attempts to escape from difficulties were also increasing those same difficulties, For example:
- You might be having difficulties in a relationship, and
- go gambling to escape the difficulties, but
- the gambling will tend to increase the difficulties in the relationship.
People can get stuck in escalating dynamics like this. Without realising it, I was using the concept of amplifying feedback, and I eventually completed a master’s degree by research into this use of feedback.
Amplifying feedback is also a critical part of climate change, so this site covers some feedback loops that threaten our liveable climate.
Understanding the vicious feedback loops that drive a problem can be useful, but can unearth fear. The critical task is to foster virtuous feedback loops that can produce hope and drive recovery. So, this site is now placing emphasis on:
- promoting a vision and progress towards the vision, and
- the progress that Australia is making towards becoming a renewable energy superpower.
The broad relevance of feedback to climate change, human functioning, and more, led to the name of this website: “feedback reigns”.
Contact
To contact me, please use the Contact Page
About the website
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Updated 6 Jan 2020
Andrew – thank you for your efforts. There is a lot of highly useful information here and, having just discovered your site, I will, I’m sure, become a regular visitor.