Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Information

Can Cathy McGowan Fix the Travesty of National Water Reform?

By

MOST of the federal electorates within the Murray Darling are held by MPs from either the Liberal or National Parties. Over recent years, however, major water policies instigated by federal Coalition governments that directly impact these electorates have been to their long-term detriment. It makes no sense, until one realises that the Coalition has assumed it could take these electorates for granted, in particular that it has been implicit Coalition policy that the representatives from these electorates put the politics of the party machine first for fear of losing votes in South Australia. McGowan Mirabella

Read more here…
http://www.mythandthemurray.org/water-politics-has-traditionally-put-indi-last-and-last-can-cathy-mcgown-change-that/

Arctic Sea Ice Back

By

Various media have been reporting that in the Arctic about a million more square miles of ocean are covered in ice this August than just last year. This is apparently an increase of 60 percent. Sea Ice 2013

August is usually a low point in the annual cycle, and not so many years ago some were predicting the Arctic would be ice free by August of this year, by 2013.

But if you consider the longer millennial-scale temperature trends as detailed in the technical literature, it is one of summer insolation declining through the Holocene, summer temperatures being generally cooler and the area of Artic ice expanding. [Read more…] about Arctic Sea Ice Back

Remembering Appalling Policies Introduced by Previous Coalition Governments (Part 1)

By

POPULAR sceptical blogger, Jo Nova, has responded to Labor’s defeat in yesterday’s Australian federal election with the headline ‘Voters crush the carbon tax and corruption – worst Australian government gone’. Howard and Abbott

I’m not so sure. It remains my view that the previous Coalition Government lead by John Howard was a disaster, particularly when it came to mismanagement of both the economy and the natural environment.

Indeed the Howard government, of which our new Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, was a senior Minister, was instrumental in introducing a raft of very damaging legislation.

Top of the list is perhaps the renewable energy certificate, an ongoing economic disaster as detailed in an article by Ray Evans and Tom Quirk entitled the ‘The Ruinous Privileges of Renewable Energy’:

“THE mechanism through which electricity consumers pay greenmail to the owners of windmills and solar panels is the mandatory Renewable Energy Certificate, introduced by John Howard in his 2001 MRET legislation. As James Delingpole explained in the Australian on May 3, writing about the ghost town of Waterloo in South Australia (now depopulated by the impacts of the sub-audio frequency vibrations generated by the nearby wind farm), a 3-megawatt wind turbine, costing $6 million, will be lucky to generate electricity worth $150,000 in a year, but will receive $500,000 in RECs, paid for by the hapless electricity consumer.
[Read more…] about Remembering Appalling Policies Introduced by Previous Coalition Governments (Part 1)

The Virtual Impact of Cows on the Great Barrier Reef

By

FOR decades Queensland scientists have been trying to prove an impact from agriculture, particularly agricultural pesticides, on the Great Barrier Reef.

One way they can create the perception of a problem is to use a dodgy survey method involving the repeat targeting of reefs disproportionately affected by crown-of-thorn starfish outbreaks and reefs with insufficient time to recover from cyclones while ignoring more representative reefs. I detail this peer-reviewed scam here…

https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/2013/05/havent-lost-half-of-the-great-barrier-reef-part-2-junk-methodology/

Another way to create the perception of a major problem is to spend tens of millions of dollars on computer modelling. That is what this e-reef program is all about…

The power of these fancy computer models, that include a detailed simulation of the virtual pollution problem, is an increasing feature of modern science as detailed in a great book entitled, Science and Public Policy – The Virtuous Corruption of Virtual Environmental Science by Professor Aynsley Kellow from the University of Tasmania.

The book if full of quotable quotes including…

“In the absence of hypotheses which might be falsified by observational data, the extensive use of mathematical models introduces a virtual landscape where species, real and virtual, live and die, and where their utility to noble political causes restricts the scepticism of those who might question the validity of such ‘science’.

“Endangered species become not just trumps, but face cards in the game of politics used to create advantage.”

“The increased emphasis on mathematics which lent ecology its scientific gravitas helped steer it towards virtual science rather than experimental science, and it never shook off its normative shackles.”

And if you want to read even more about the scam that is taxpayer funded Great Barrier Reef science click here… https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/saving-the-great-barrier-reef/

Northern Australian Agriculture Will Need GM Cotton

By

As part of his election campaigning, the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was recently in Darwin and Kununurra revealing plans for an expansion of the Ord River scheme including into the Northern Territory. But there was no mention of a major obstacle to making such a plan viable, in particular the removal of absurd anti-cotton and anti-GM legislation. cotton

While GM cotton is the one crop that can make large irrigation schemes in northern Australia viable, the Northern Territory banned the growing of cotton in 2003 and the Western Australian Government declared the whole state a GM-free zone in 2004. These two pieces of legislation make the cultivation of cotton an uncertain proposition in northern Australia. [Read more…] about Northern Australian Agriculture Will Need GM Cotton

Ten Big Fat Lies About Fracking: Phelim McAleer

By

THERE are three places in the US called Burning Springs, and there are historical records of people lighting their water since the 1600s. That’s according to Phelim McAleer who explains what he sees as the ‘Ten Big Fat Lies About Fracking’…Fracknation

1) Anti-fracking activists are nice people who love debate

Actually, far from being liberal, open-minded souls bringing truth to power in a kinder, gentler way, anti-fracking activists have chosen a new disposition: angry! I guess no one told the fracktivists that just because we don’t agree doesn’t mean we can’t get along. Watch Vera Scroggins, for example.

Vera, an anti-fracking, Sierra Club-endorsed activist from Pennsylvania, adds to the ‘dialogue’ with such constructive comments as:
‘You’re a freak.’
‘You’re a male prostitute.’
‘You’re an Irish freak. Go drink some alcohol.’
‘Go get drunk and be a drunken Irish freak.’
‘You’re an alien. You look like a f***ing alien.’ [Read more…] about Ten Big Fat Lies About Fracking: Phelim McAleer