Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for October 30, 2011

No Global Warming for 13 Years

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It was hailed as proof that the world has warmed, the preliminary findings released with much fanfare just a week ago from a new and more accurate method of computing changes in world temperatures. At least that was the claim made at the time by the head of the expert team, Professor Richard Muller, that global warming is real.

Now, following accusations from a colleague that the public comment was misleading, Professor Muller has acknowledged that the BEST data might also indicate that world temperatures have not risen for about 13 years.

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Bad Farmers Produce More Food

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You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs and you can’t grow food without water – and lots of it. That’s reality. But fashion dictates that farmers pretend otherwise.

Consider the ‘Rice and the Environment’ page at the Ricegrower’s Association of Australia website. It says that the rice industry was “the first to initiate a project to return water to the environment through the Living Murray initiative, delivering more than 12,000 megalitres to the river system.”

Why is an industry that is so totally dependent on the availability of water boasting that its given water back to the environment?

Imagine if West Australian mining giant Ghina Rhinehart, said she was giving back Iron Ore to mother earth? We don’t expert Ms Rhinehard to give back Iron Ore, we expert her to mine it and sell it to China. So, why do we expect farmers to give back water and to a river system that is either in chronic drought or flood?

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