Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for December 22, 2006

Weekend Reading, Christmas 2006

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1. Ebenezer Scrooge got a bad press
By David Rowe
December 22, 2006

Charles Dickens’s sentimental 1843 work, A Christmas Carol, delivered to the world a character who has come to embody mean-spiritedness. Ebenezer Scrooge is represented as a cruel, penny-pinching miser who exploited his workers and hated the soft heartedness, and interruption to capital accumulation, that Christmas celebrations entailed.

In fulminating to Fred, his hapless nephew, Scrooge demands, “What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you?”

After scary visitations by his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, Scrooge I is redeemed, coming across as the wettest of liberals in a burst of “We are the World”-style celebrity philanthropy as he is reborn as Scrooge II.

Read the completel article here: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5311

2. Reports of a dying catchment ‘greatly exaggerated’
By Glen Kile
December 20, 2006

The impact of logging in Melbourne’s water catchments is topical, given the drought, but has been greatly exaggerated.

While it is true logging results in fast-growing regrowth that uses more water than mature forests, the fact that less than 0.2 per cent is harvested annually means the effect is small.

Overall, timber production for saw logs is only permitted within a 13 per cent portion of the total catchment area and this is planned for logging on an 80-year cycle.

Read the complete article here: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5295

3. More info if we are to cotton on to water issues
By Michael Duffy
December 16, 2006

A fortnight ago I fulfilled a dream and visited the Macquarie Marshes, which are at the centre of a dispute over water in the Macquarie River valley.

It’s a reminder of the complexity of water issues, which include long-term weather trends. There was a dry period from 1890 (when records were first kept) to 1946, followed by a very wet period to 1978, and then another dry period that is continuing. So a lot of our perceptions of what the land “should” look like are based on memories and photos of the 30 years after World War II, which were actually quite unusual.

Read the complete article here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/more-info-if-we-are-to-cotton-on-to-water-issues/2006/12/15/1166162317474.html

4. The Truth about Greenpeace and Whaling
by Paul Watson
December 20, 2006

Enough is enough. The Greenpeace fraud about saving the whales must be exposed. For years, I have been tolerating their pretense of action and watching them rake in tremendous profits from whaling.
Greenpeace makes more money from anti-whaling than Norway and Iceland combined make from whaling. In both cases, the whales die and someone profits.

Read the complete article: http://www.seashepherd.org/editorials/editorial_061220_1.html

Interested in the Environment? Looking to do a PhD?

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A new partnership between the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) and the University of Queensland has resulted in the creation of a new ‘Science and Environment Research Group’ and 3 PhD Scholarships in Environmental Science and 1 in Environmental Law.

Funding is available for 4 PhD scholarships to undertake evidence-based research into environmental issues with the aim of providing improved information and frameworks for prioritizing environmental need, quantifying the costs and benefits of conservation initiatives, developing agricultural policies and appropriate legal frameworks.

Successful applicants will become research fellows at the IPA and PhD students at the University of Queensland. The recipient of the scholarship in environmental law will become, in addition, a Research Scholar of the Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law (CPICL) in the T C Beirne School of Law.

Areas of research

The PhD research topics will be determined by the successful candidate through discussion with their advisor(s) and the IPA. Environmental Science projects will involve students using an evidence-based approach to quantify the costs and benefits to the environmental from government policies in areas such as, but not limited to:
• agricultural practices and chemicals
• genetically modified organisms
• water use, conservation and environmental flow management.

The Environmental Law candidate will survey and evaluate the legal and administrative frameworks for environmental management in Australia to determine their fairness and efficiency for achieving environmental goals. The environmental law research topic will be in these broad areas:
• use of evidence to develop environmental protection policy and law
• the suitability and efficiency of current laws and administrative processes for determining environmental goals, impacts, options, costs and benefits and the development of regulatory models that allow the application of sound science and appropriate economic instruments in meeting the challenges of environmental management.

The Person

First class honours or Masters graduates from a relevant discipline such as but not limited to biological or environmental sciences or law. Potential candidates will want to contribute to the environmental policy debate and pursue a career in research and public policy, communicating science to the public or advising Government and Industry oin environmental issues. The research fellows will be selected based on demonstrated academic achievement and their allied interest in the goals of the Science and Environment Research group. The personal skills and attributes should also include:
• Ability to access, analyse and evaluate data in topical and controversial areas
• Developed oral and written communication skills
• The ability to participate in the public debate on environment issues
• Understanding of evidence based non-partisan assessments.

Remuneration

These are full-time scholarships for a fixed-term of 3 to 3.5 years at $25,000 per annum with a generous allowance for operating and travel.

Contact

For more information about the projects and to obtain a position description contact Dr Jennifer Marohasy from the IPA at jmarohasy@ipa.org.au or look online at www.ipa.org.au.

For general scholarship information contact Marijke Schmidt Research, The University of Queensland, m.schmidt@research.uq.edu.au.

Closing Date for Applications: Monday, 29th January 2007.