Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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No Global Warming For 15 Years: David Whitehouse

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NEW UK Met Office global temperature data confirms that the world has not warmed in the past 15 years.

Analysis by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) of the newly released HadCRUT4 global temperature database shows that there has been no global warming in the past 15 years – a timescale that challenges current models of global warming.

The graph shows the global annual average temperature since 1997. No statistically significant trend can be discerned from the data. The only statistically acceptable conclusion to be drawn from the HadCRUT4 data is that between 1997 – 2011 it has remained constant, with a global temperature of 14.44 +/- 0.16 deg C (2 standard deviations.)

The important question is whether 15 years is a sufficient length of time from which to draw climatic conclusions that are usually considered over 30 years, as well as its implications for climate projections.

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South Australian Water Minister’s Foolish Statements About Murray River and Ngarrindjeri Culture

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YESTERDAY the South Australian government yet again displayed its contempt for science and history by claiming yet again that Lake Alexandria is, and always has been, a freshwater lake.[1]

I’m hopeful that the local tabloid, the Adelaide Advertiser, will publish my reply. So far this News Ltd publication has refused to let me respond to various articles about me.

My Letter to The Editor:

Paul Caica, South Australian Minister for Water and the River Murray, claims that in wishing to restoring the Murray River estuary, I show disrespect for scientific work and the culture of the region’s traditional owners, the Ngarrindjeri (Lakes flood plan defiles the existing evidence, Adelaide Advertiser, March 31, 2009).

In fact, all the science published in peer-reviewed journals is on my side. Minister Caica’s claim is consistent with the Book of Genesis in the Bible inferring the estuary came ready-formed with a sand barrier and central lagoon. But such an interpretation denies geological and environmental reality. The scientific literature clearly shows that Lake Alexandrina has a marine origin that dates back to a period of late Pleistocene and early Holocene sea level rise. Since this time the coastal sand barrier and related landward estuarine environments have evolved and changed naturally, including manifold changes in salinity.

The Murray Mouth barrages were built to stop saltwater intrusions that were a problem from the time of European settlement. Indeed, long before the development of upstream irrigation, the Southern Ocean would push in each autumn and for longer periods during drought.

The seawater poured in through the Murray’s mouth and sometimes worked its way across the lake and then into the River Murray proper as far north as Mannum. This is recorded in the patangi – a song category of the Ngarrindjeri. In one of these stories, the River Murray drags trees along as sea water flows upstream as far as Mypolonga. The river water was too salty to drink and the Ngarrindjeri were forced to dig wells about two feet deep to get drinkable water.

Minister Caica really should read more and/or consult more widely to avoid making foolish statements.

Jennifer Marohasy
Biologist, Noosa, Queensland

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Deception is Part of ABC Staff Culture

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RON Brunton, a former Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Director, explains how deception, in particular the withholding of important information, is part and parcel of the organisation’s culture:

“Before I became a director, I had an experience that demonstrated how staff and management were quite prepared to deceive members of the Board if they thought it necessary to protect an individual or program unit. After I wrote a Courier Mail column about having been invited, and then suddenly disinvited, to appear in a television debate on Aboriginal issues, the Prime Minister’s Office contacted the ABC for an explanation. The incident itself was not particularly important, and the actual details are too involved to recount here. However, in the correspondence that followed, which came to involve the then Chairman, it was clear that Donald McDonald had been given information that I knew to be false.

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Time to Celebrate Coal not Candles: Viv Forbes

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Coal not candles should be the symbol of Earth Hour.

It was coal that produced clean electric power which cleared the smog produced by dirty combustion and open fires in big cities like London and Pittsburgh. Much of the third world still suffers choking fumes and smog because they do not have clean electric power and burn wood, cardboard, unwashed coal and cow dung for home heat.

It was coal that saved the forests being felled to fuel the first steam engines and produce charcoal for the first iron smelters.

It was coal that powered the light bulbs and saved the whales being slaughtered for whale oil lamps.

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Australian Broadcasting Corporation Endorses More ‘Junk Science’

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ELEANOR HALL: Australian delegates to an international conference on global sustainability delivered a warning today that the earth is reaching a point where it’s changing beyond our control.

  Almost 3,000 scientists have been in London for the conference to discuss the relatively new field of earth system science.

That’s how the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) began a story today on ‘The World Today’.

Want to really know what the conference is about and how qualified the scientists delivering the message about tipping points are?

Read ‘The Royal Society’s Blatherfest’ by Donna Laframboise here:

http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2012/03/24/the-royal-societys-blatherfest/

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Donna Lafromboise is the author of ‘The Delinquent Teenager’ all about the IPCC and how unqualified its ‘experts’ are.
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/my-book/

Queensland to Dump ‘Green’ Schemes

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NEW Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, orders ex-Queensland Premier’s husband, Greg Withers, to kill green schemes. That’s according to an article in today’s The Australian:

“The showpiece of the Gillard government’s $1.5 billion Solar Flagships Program is now in jeopardy, after Mr Newman yesterday pulled the plug on $75 million in state funding pledged for the $1.2bn Solar Dawn solar thermal project near Chinchilla, west of Brisbane.

“[Federal] Resources Minister Martin Ferguson yesterday suggested the federal government might withdraw its own $464m contribution, promised only last month…

“Mr Newman yesterday declared his LNP government would axe seven other green schemes, on the grounds the carbon tax would make them redundant…

“Mr Newman has given the job of dismantling the programs to the bureaucrat who set them up – Greg Withers, who is married to Ms Bligh.

“We want him to unravel those programs ’cause he’s the bloke who set them up…

Read more here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/elections/campbell-newman-orders-anna-blighs-husband-greg-withers-to-kill-green-schemes/story-fnbsqt8f-1226311864712