Austin Williams

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This article is part of the Climate project of Spinwatch.

Stanley Feldman and Vincent Marks, Global Warming and other Bollocks: the truth about all those science scare stories, 2009, including a chapter by Austin Williams of the LM network

Austin Williams is a trained architect, organiser and writer associated with the libertarian anti-environmental LM network. In particular, he has written for Living Marxism, led the Future Cities Project, ManTownHuman, Bookshop Barnies and the defunct Transport Research Group, participated in Audacity and in Institute of Ideas events, spoken at the Manchester Salon and the Battle of Ideas, adjudicated for Debating Matters, appeared on WORLDbytes and written for Spiked and Culture Wars.

Between 2002 and 2007 he was a regular contributor to Spiked online.

He was the director of Transport Research Group A 2007 biographical note states that he was "editor of Shortcuts: essential guides for building designers" and a "regular columnist in the Daily Telegraph Motoring section and a Visiting Tutor at the Vehicle Design department of the Royal College of Art."

A 2007 biographical note states that he "also written for a range of publications, including: The Times Literary Supplement, Times Higher Educational Supplement; Top Gear, Reason, New Humanist, Blueprint, Building Design, spiked-online, and MJ."

Climate change sceptic

Williams was the organiser, on behalf of the Future Cities Project, of a panel on climate change at the the Battle of Ideas festival at the at London's Royal College of Art, which was organised by the Institute of Ideas. "Williams, picked the panel, and he's on it too. The first article on Austin's reading list to accompany the debate mocks "climate change doom-mongers". Like the Government's chief scientist, Sir David King perhaps? Williams himself adds a sarcastic self-penned piece reviewing a conference on renewable energy," the Press Gazette reported.

Critic of sustainability

He is the author of a book attacking advocates of sustainability, The Enemies of Progress: Dangers of sustainability, published in May 2008 and standing in June 2010 at 343,203 in the Amazon.co.uk sales ranking.

in 2009 he had a chapter, 'Unsustainable arguments', in Global Warming and other Bollocks: the truth about all those science scare stories, edited by Stanley Feldman and Vincent Marks. Other authors in the book included Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute.

A promotional description of Williams's book, The Enemies of Progress: Dangers of Sustainability, stated that "this polemical book examines the concept of sustainability and presents a critical exploration of its all-pervasive influence on society, arguing that sustainability, manifested in several guises, represents a pernicious and corrosive doctrine that has survived primarily because there seems to be no alternative to its canon: in effect, its bi-partisan appeal has depressed critical engagement and neutered politics. It is a malign philosophy of misanthropy, low aspirations and restraint. This book argues for a destruction of the mantra of sustainability, removing its unthinking status as orthodoxy, and for the reinstatement of the notions of development, progress, experimentation and ambition in its place." The book features an endorsement by Frank Furedi.

In the Guardian, John Vidal and David Adam wrote that "when you see the words 'progress' or 'reason' in a book title, you can bet it has been written by an extreme libertarian arguing for the right to pollute, or an ageing Living Marxism cell member - or both. So it is with The Enemies of Progress: The Dangers of Sustainability, a book by Austin Williams that argues, very roughly, that planning is bad, all development is good, and sod the lot of you. Judge for yourself how batty it is with this endorsement from former Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson: 'A much-needed diagnosis of the bleak anti-human pathology described as environmentalism'."

Contact Details

45 St Lawrence Court,
De Beauvoir, London N1 5TP
Phone: +44 (0)7957 534 909
Website: http://www.futurecities.org.uk

External resources

• "Austin Williams", LinkedIn, accessed July 2009.
• Profile, "Austin Williams", ManTownHuman website, accessed 29 Dec 2010

External articles

Articles by Williams

• Austin Williams, "Eating the greens", NY Salon, February 13, 2007.
• Austin Williams, "Political 'stranger danger' in classrooms", The Australian, August 10, 2009.