Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

jennifer

Tree Chop Campaign

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Frustrated with the many laws and regulations in Australia that now make it difficult for farmers to manage trees, including woody weed regrowth, on their land a TREE CHOP CAMPAIGN kicked off on 1st July.

The NSW Farmers Association has failed to condemn the campaign that encourages farmers to cut down trees. The Australian Beef Association is actively supporting it.

Jeff Angel, Director of Total Environment Centre, said farmers were misled if they believed these actions would affect politicians in their favour. According to the Wilderness Society website: “Environment groups are calling for a criminal investigation into the activities of all individuals and groups who have publicly incited illegal land clearing, and for action to be taken against the ringleaders.”

Not so many years ago environmental activists rather than farmers would have been more inclined to break the law. Now it is once law abiding farmers who feel so aggrieved they have resorted to civil disobedience.

Paul Biggs To Start Blogging

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Since beginning this blog in April 2004, I’ve received lots of information and opinion from readers. I’ve really appreciated the notes that I’ve been able to publish from people like Libby, Ann, Ian, Luke, Roger, Cinders and others.

I’ve also occasionally published comment from Paul Biggs, who should not be confused with Paul Williams who I also occasionally publish.

Paul Biggs is now going to join Neil Hewett as someone who occasionally posts directly to this blog and will look after the blog when I visit Indonesia again later this month.

Paul Biggs is a Biological Sciences graduate who has worked in medical research at Birmingham University, UK, since 1979. He became interested in climate change after watching a BBC documentary in 2003 called ‘The Big Chill,’ which claimed that the Gulf Stream could be cut off within 20 years, resulting in the UK having climate like Alaska.

Worried by this, he decided to investigate the claim in climate journals that he has access to at Birmingham University. It soon became clear to him that the Gulf Stream shut down was more scare that substance. As a result, he now spends much of his spare time debunking the claims that there will be a man-made climate catastrophe due to carbon dioxide.

paul.biggs.jpg
Paul and his partner

More Reading from Marc Morano (Part 4)

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1. Solar Greed? Humans accused of overusing the Sun!

Excerpt: HUMANS are just one of the millions of species on Earth, but we use up almost a quarter of the sun’s energy captured by plants – the most of any species. The human dominance of this natural resource is affecting other species, reducing the amount of energy available to them by almost 10 per cent, scientists report.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/human-greed-takes-lions-share-of-solar-energy/2007/07/02/1183351126304.html

2. Former Colorado State Climatologist Roger Pielke, SR. Spanks Down RealClimate.org’s latest Propaganda Climate Science Responds to Real Climate’s Web Posting Of July 2 2007

Excerpts: The absence of Real Climate commenting on these [peer-reviewed] papers is by itself evidence that this website is not interesting in debating the science issues that we raise in our papers. & Real Climate, rather than engaging in the science issues raised by the photographic documentation of such a key data set in the assessment of climate change, has elected to be defensive and has sought to transfer this issue into a political debate.

http://climatesci.colorado.edu/2007/07/02/climate-science-responds-to-real-climates-web-posting-of-july-2-2007

3. BBC: Poll finds majority of public believes global warming fears ‘over hyped’

Excerpt: The public believes the effects of global warming on the climate are not as bad as politicians and scientists claim, a poll has suggested. There was a feeling the problem was exaggerated to make money, it found.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6263690.stm

4. Americans Oppose Ratifying Kyoto Protocol

Excerpt: Many people in the United States would disagree with their government ratifying an international treaty seeking to reduce global pollution, according to a poll by Zogby Interactive released by UPI. 47.9 per cent of respondents think the U.S. should not sign [Editor’s note: Actually ratify] the Kyoto Protocol.

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/16355

5. Global Warming May Cause Higher Pizza Prices

http://global-warming.accuweather.com/2007/07/global_warming_may_cause_highe_1.html

6. Singer Melissa Etheridge sees Gore Resurrection as source of hope

Excerpt: Gore has “actually has rekindled my hope for America and the world, to see one man so beaten down by our mistakes and our apathy hold onto his core belief that leadership can take us into a better future, and keep our world from imploding.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070630/ent/ent5.html

7. UK government rules fish feel pain, draws up ‘bill of rights’ to ban inhumane treatment

Excerpt: The government has ruled that fish may feel pain and will draw up a charter of rights to protect them from inhumane treatment in research laboratories,

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2010193.ece

8. Lessons from a 5,000 Year Hurricane Record

“An article has appeared in the prestigious journal Nature entitled “Intense hurricane activity over the past 5,000 years controlled by El Niño and the West African monsoon.” The title suggests that someone has a 5,000 year record of hurricane activity and that the activity is controlled by El Niño and weather in West Africa – there is no suggestion that hurricane activity is controlled by greenhouse gases, planetary temperature, or sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic.

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2007/07/03/lessons-from-a-5000-year-hurricane-record/

9. Manure pit’s methane fumes kill five on Virginia family farm

Deadly methane gas emanating from a dairy farm’s manure pit

killed five people, including four members of a Mennonite family, authorities said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070703/ap_on_re_us/methane_deaths_1;_ylt=Ah0jYklBpxbFR5_Ve.uf53YE1vAI

10. Schwarzenegger accused of playing politics with state’s warming law

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/03/MNGPNQQ3211.DTL

11. Broadcasters eye 2 billion people for Live Earth

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2007-07-03T060445Z_01_N25304775_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-LIVEEARTH-COL.XML

12. Forecasters see no tropical storm activity

http://www.bradenton.com/breakingnews/story/88233.html

13. California drought creates booming business for snake wranglers

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4933884.html

14. Global warming could increase U.S. death rate

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKKUA26100320070702

15. Ask Al Gore a Question: Live Webcast on Thursday, July 5

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/al_gore_on_live.php

16. Climate change and the world’s poor

Excerpt: “Climate change is arguably the gravest threat ever faced by humanity.”

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6038

17. Study claims capitalism is bad for men’s health

Excerpt: Communism may be oppressive, but it seems as though capitalism is bad for men’s health, according to a recent study which found significant increases in mortality rates after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070701161147.2coeamzy&show_article=1&cat=0

18. 116-DEGREES PREDICTED FOR VEGAS THIS WEEK; 127 FOR DEATH VALLEY…

http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=vef&wwa=Excessive%20Heat%20Warning

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Thanks to Marc Morano for all these links.

Is Ecology, Geography Under Another Name?

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Hello Jen,

Is ‘Ecology’ simply ‘Geography’ under another Name?* As any ecology textbook will tell, the e-word dates back to the 1880s.

However, in recent decades it has captured the news-media, politics, and academe. But is it simply old wine in new bottles? Geography has long been concerned with the landscape effects of interactions between humans, vegetation, animals, and the non-living elements such as air, soil, and water. Some geography teachers complain that their discipline is being neglected, in favour of more trendy versions (IAG Newsletter No. 57, p.17).

A fast growing area of ecology is ‘landscape ecology’, which brings history into play to understand landscapes. Have we come full circle, back to geography (maps) and history (chaps)? Am I missing something? Is scale an essential difference, with geography broad, and ecology detailed? Is there, perhaps, a quasi-religious tendency in ecology, whereas geography looks at the plain facts? Do ecologists tend to dislike humans? Is one discipline a subset of the other? Are they both actually disciplines? I hope some incisive minds out there will sort this out.

Regards
Davey Gam Esq.

Expert Comment on Fourth IPCC Climate Change Report

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Hi Jennifer,

I have devoted the best part of the last 20 years to reading, commenting and preparing objections to the many voluminous science reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Besides the actual comments as an “Expert Reviewer” I have published numerous articles in a variety of Journals, many of them in New Zealand, and a book “The Greenhouse Delusion: a Critique of ‘Climate Change 2001′”, currently still available from the publishers at

http://www.multi-science.co.uk/greendelu.htm

I visit the local University library about once a month and monitor “Nature” “Science” Journal of Geophysical Research”, “Geophysical Research Letters”, Journal of Climate” and copy signficant articles. I receive several daily or weekly Email summaries of publications and I monitor all the most useful websites. I possess a large library of photocopies, pamphlets and books which is tending to get out of hand. I maintain contact with a large number of local and international correspondents. I have lectured frequently, both locally and internationally.

I have written many pages of comments on the various IPCC Reports and most of them have been ignored. I assumed that they would never see the light of day. Owing to a change of location of the head office of IPCC to the USA it has become subject to an Official Information Act, and largely owing to the efforts of Steve McIntyre of

http://www.climateaudit.org/

They have now published all the comments on the current 4th IPCC WGI (Science) Report at

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Comments/wg1-commentFrameset.html

They are rather tedious to wade through but they show at once that many of the scientists listed as supposed supporters of the report have serious doubts about it. A friend of mine, John McLean, has done a summary of the names of the reviewers and the number of comments they made.

I was rather surprised to find that I made far more comments than anybody else, 1,878 of them, 16% of the total. You will find that nearly all of them were rejected, allegedly, because “I gave no reason for them” The reasons were usually obvious, and when I elaborated them, they still claimed I had not given any.

It is difficult to understand any of the comments if you do not have the full report. The very few comments made by most of the reviewers suggest that there may be very few actual people who ever read the report itself all the way through except those who write it.

The “Summary for Policymakers” might get a few readers, but the main purpose of the report is to provide a spurious scientific backup for the absurd claims of the worldwide environmentalist lobby that it has been established scientifically that increases in carbon dioxide are harmful to the climate. It just does not matter that this ain’t so.

Cheers,
Vincent Gray
New Zealand

“The urge to save humanity is always a false
front for the urge to rule it”:
H. L. Mencken

Fellow Blogger Launches Re-election Campaign: A Note from Andrew Bartlett

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Queensland Democrat Senator, Andrew Bartlett, and I don’t agree on a lot…

Except the power of the internet, the importance of free speech and that the Australian environment is unique and precious.

Anyway, Andrew recently sent me a note including comment that:

“While most people assume the [federal] election will not be called before mid-September at the earliest, it can be called from July onwards, so we’re getting out there early to show we’re ready and rolling.”

In particular, Andrew’s campaign launch is happening this Sunday 8th July. It will be starting from 11am, in the Gardens Theatre at QUT Gardens Point campus, 2 George St in Brisbane City. It should all be over by around 12.30.

You can read Andrew’s web diary at http://www.andrewbartlett.com/blog
His homepage is at http://www.andrewbartlett.com