Nine dangerous ideas we discovered at the Sydney Opera House

Climate change will produce the next wave of refugees, China is censoring us all, and, beware, even your white collar job is not safe from automation. Here’s some of the best talking points from the Festival of Dangerous Ideas

Those familiar with activist and writer Naomi Klein’s work may also be familiar with her fascination with Pope Francis and his encyclical, Laudato Si. Perhaps lessknown is Klein’s interest in how the “throwaway culture” Francis describes is epitomised by the tiny island of Nauru. The Canadian spoke of how Nauru was “mined from the outside” – both literally, by phosphate mining companies, and figuratively by banks of dubious credibility, leading to what Klein called the threat of a “double bankruptcy”. Add to that list of troubles a kind of moral hollowing out when the island began hosting Australia’s immigration detention centre, and the risk that the remaining inhabitable coastal strip will be engulfed by climate change. Klein said it was a case of the climate change refugees of tomorrow playing prison warden to the war refugees of today.

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