Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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Reflections on the ‘Malthusian Catastrophe’ as the World Approaches 7 Billion

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ON October 31, 2011 the world’s population will top seven billion. That’s according to expert opinion and a recent article in Nature.[1]

Writing in 1798, when there were less than one billion people on planet earth, Thomas Malthus suggested that misery, vice and poverty would keep population in check. [2]

Malthus was wrong.

Where there is most poverty, population growth is accelerating, while in rich countries population growth is slowing. The average number of children per woman in the world’s poorest countries is 4.5, compared to 1.7 for developed countries.

It is small increases in wealth and education that can lower fertility and are likely to result in a slowing in the world’s population growth.

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1. Jeff Tollefson. Seven billion and counting. Nature 478, 300 (2011)
2. Thomas Malthus. An Essay on the principle of population. Thomas Malthus, 1798

Earth Warming According to New Berkeley Analysis

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“Global warming is real, according to a major study released today. Despite issues raised by climate change skeptics, the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study finds reliable evidence of a rise in the average world land temperature of approximately 1°C since the mid‐1950s.” The media release continues:

“Analyzing temperature data from 15 sources, in some cases going as far back as 1800, the Berkeley Earth study directly addressed scientific concerns raised by skeptics, including the urban heat island effect, poor station quality, and the risk of data selection bias.

On the basis of its analysis, according to Berkeley Earth’s founder and scientific director, Professor Richard A. Muller, the group concluded that earlier studies based on more limited data by teams in the United States and Britain had accurately estimated the extent of land surface warming.

“Our biggest surprise was that the new results agreed so closely with the warming values published previously by other teams in the U.S. and the U.K.,” Muller said. “This confirms that these studies were done carefully and that potential biases identified by climate change skeptics did not seriously affect their conclusions.”

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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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Universe Getting Colder: New Nobel Laureates

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The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three US-born scientists for overturning fundamental assumptions about the universe.   According to the Nobel Physics Committee their research on supernovae implies the universe will get increasingly colder as matter spreads across ever-vaster distances in space. [1]

According to Oliver K. Manuel, who occasionally emails me, their theory:

1. Negates the need for a “Big Bang” origin of the universe and “Dark Energy” to keep it expanding.

2. Confirms that in our infinite, cyclic cosmos [2] neutron-emission from surfaces of neutron stars – driven by neutron repulsion [3] –  occurs faster from smaller fragments of parent neutron stars, just as water evaporates faster from expanded surfaces of smaller water droplets!

3. Illustrates the need to reconsider the role of a rotating superconducting super-fluid in iron-rich supernova debris [4], and expulsion of magnetic fields from the Sun by the Meisner effect [5].

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