Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for October 2011

Let’s Agree to Disagree for the Sake of Science: Daniel Sarewitz

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“THE very idea that science best expresses its authority through consensus statements is at odds with a vibrant scientific enterprise. Consensus is for textbooks; real science depends for its progress on continual challenges to the current state of always-imperfect knowledge. Science would provide better value to politics if it articulated the broadest set of plausible interpretations, options and perspectives, imagined by the best experts, rather than forcing convergence to an allegedly unified voice.

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Carbon Tax Almost Australian Law

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“THE Greens will support the Gillard government’s $300 million steel transformation plan in both houses of parliament, ensuring Labor’s entire carbon tax plan will be passed into law.

“The party’s support will be conditional on an amendment requiring the government to pay regard to green jobs in allocating steel restructuring funds.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/carbon-plan/coalition-in-bid-to-delay-carbon-tax-bills-as-labor-offers-extra-time-for-debate/story-fn99tjf2-1226163940257

And while the Australian government asked the Australian people for submissions, most of the 4,500 were apparently against the tax and so rejected.

http://www.menzieshouse.com.au/2011/10/disgraceful-4500-aussies-silenced-by-the-gillard-brown-regime.html

Great Barrier Reef ‘Research’ – A Litany of False Claims

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WE may live in the information age, but how true are many of the scientific claims we read and hear?  For ten years the World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF, has been campaigning to ‘Save the Great Barrier Reef’. [1,2,3] When the WWF campaign was first launched in June 2001 it was claimed Diuron was killing seagrass and dioxins were killing dugongs and so both these pesticides should be banned.  Ten years on and the ban on Diuron appears imminent, but the chemical is probably no more harmful than the dioxin that was found to be natural.[4]

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Which Pesticides Should be Banned?

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NICK Heath is worried about the future of the Great Barrier Reef.  He has a Bachelor of Commerce and after ten years in business and consulting, moved into political and policy advice for government.  He’s now the national program leader for water at WWF-Australia.   He’s been spearheading the ongoing WWF campaign to ‘Save the Great Barrier Reef’. [1]

As part of this campaign WWF wants the herbicide Diuron banned.  Heath recently told journalist Brian Williams at the Courier Mail that he accepted that government would probably ban Diuron, but he was disappointed about further delays. [2]

Why does Heath want Diuron banned?

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Good Advice from New York on the Murray Darling

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A year or more ago a prominent climate sceptic suggested that he felt sorry for me whenever he heard me talking publicly about the Murray Darling.    When I asked why, he suggested it was a lost cause… the Murray Darling.  Furthermore, he hinted, it did the reputation of other sceptics no good for me to be defending irrigators.

More recently, in a piece in The Monthly, New York-based Australian author and poet, Kate Jennings, suggests it does the Murray Darling cause no good my being a “prominent climate-change sceptic”.  While Jennings, may understand very little about anthropogenic climate change, her recent article on the Murray Darling is better researched than most and is of course beautifully written.

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Go buy a box of Reflex brand paper

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WE are so connected to each other via the Internet, but so disconnected from reality when it comes to primary production including paper production.  Indeed most Australians don’t know the first thing about farming or forestry.     So, we are so susceptible to the slick, online, marketing campaigns from the mainstream multi-million dollar environmental lobby.   Their campaigns are increasingly big on style, reinforce popular myths, and promise you redemption. In the case of an on-going campaign from the Wilderness Society this just involves you not buying Reflex brand paper.[1]

But I’m sceptical.

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