Jennifer Marohasy

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New Papers from ‘Science & Public Policy Institute’

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YOU may find these new papers of interest:
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/climate_action_plans_fail_to_deliver.html
We update this paper periodically.
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/commentaries_essays/obama_on_the_urgency_of_combating_global_warming_.html
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/arizona_climate_change.html
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/commentaries_essays/saving_the_planet_.html
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/scarewatch/bank_of_america.html
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/scarewatch/coolest_year_for_decade.html
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/scarewatch/global_warming_spreads_malaria_.html
 
Let us hear from you about our site and papers. 
 
Regards,
Bob Ferguson, President SPPI

Always Scared to Death?

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With reference to the crisis in financial markets, Sydney-based think tank The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) held a forum yesterday entitled ‘The End of Capitalism’.   

CIS Research Fellow, Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich, suggested that doom and gloom headlines in magazines such as Time, The Economist and Der Spiegel foretelling the end of capitalism were no different from other irrational scare stories.  Dr Hartwich referred several times to examples of global scares from the book ‘Scared to Death’ by Christopher Booker and Richard North.   

I am not sure that I agree with Dr Hartwich – he went as far as to suggest that with the fear of a depression we wouldn’t be hearing so much about global warming because the media could generally only focus on one major scare at a time.  But I can definitely recommend the Booker and North expose of a long list of media scare stories beginning with the great salmonella scare of 1988-89.

The book is dedicated to “all those scientists and campaigners who, amid the madness of our age of ‘scares’, have kept a sense of proportion and fought for the truth to prevail.”     

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Scared to Death, From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth by Christopher Booker and Richard North, published by Continuum UK, 2007. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scared-Death-Global-Warming-Costing/dp/0826486142

Best [Australian] Blogs of 2008

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Each year On Line Opinion and Club Troppo collaborate to publish a Best Blogs feature in January, which features the best blog pieces from the previous year selected from reader nominations.

This year we are doing it again.

What was the best blog piece that you read in 2008? It can even be one you have written yourself – so don’t be shy.

Let us know, by casting your votes here http://polling.nationalforum.com.au/index.php?sid=54429&lang=en

We will take look at your votes, weigh them up with our expert panel, and get the right to republish as many of them as we can in On Line Opinion over the January period. While you’re thinking, you might like to check out last year’s Best Blogs feature http://onlineopinion.com.au/feature.asp?year=2008&month=1

The IPA Review & Articles by Jennifer Marohasy

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I have been a senior fellow with the Melbourne-based Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) for more than five years now.   I have written a lot for the magazine,  which used to be published by the IPA quarterly, but now comes out every two months.   A year’s subscription is not that much – just $33 a year.

Anyway,  Nichole Hoskin has made a list of many of the articles I have had published in the ‘Review’ over the years, and here goes:

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘Deceit in the Name of Conservation?’, IPA Review, March 2003, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/Review55-1%20Deciet%20in%20the%20name%20of%20conservation.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘Where’s the Data?’, IPA Review, June 2003, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/Review55-2%20Wheres%20the%20data.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘GM Fish and Chips? Already and Australian Staple!’, IPA Review, September 2003, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/Review553%20GM%20Fish%20and%20ships.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘How Useful are Australia’s Official Environmental Statistics?’ IPA Review, December 2003, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/review554%20How%20useful%20are%20Australias.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘The Taboo Food- Genetically Modified Anything’, IPA Review, March 2004, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/review56-1%20The%20taboo%20food.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘There are Votes in the Murray’, IPA Review, September 2004, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/56-3-%20there%20are%20votes%20in%20the%20murray.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘Time to Redefine Environmentalism’, IPA Review, December 2004, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/56-4-Time%20to%20Redefine%20Environmentalism.pdf

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Australian Commodity Statistics 2008

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ABARE released today, Thursday 4 December 2008, Australian Commodity Statistics 2008.

This report is an invaluable reference book with Australia’s agricultural and resources industries. It is a comprehensive publication, containing overview and macroeconomic information as well as key statistics on the supply of and demand for more than forty commodities.

It covers current and historical data on price, production and export information, with some historical series extending over forty years.

Download your free electronic copy or purchase a hardcopy from www.abare.gov.au

Save the Environment, Stop the Emissions Trading Scheme

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Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I am writing to you as the Chair of the Australian Environment Foundation (AEF).  Over the last year a key issue for us has been the protection of River Red Gum forests in the Central Murray Valley of south eastern Australia.   At our recent conference and AGM in Canberra, members decided that the best thing we could do as an organisation for the environment over the next year would be to oppose the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). 

You might well ask why an environment group would oppose such a scheme.  Well, for three reasons:
1. An ETS  will not change the global temperature;
2. It will force many clean and green Australian industries overseas; and
3. It will make Australians poor, but it is richer, not poorer nations, that are generally better able to protect their natural environment. 

[Read more…] about Save the Environment, Stop the Emissions Trading Scheme