Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Letters

Answers for Simon Birmingham, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray-Darling Basin

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LATE last year several of my friends sent off postcards as part of the Australian Environment Foundation’s Rivers Need Estuaries Campaign. You can still send a postcard and sign the petition here:

http://listentous.org.au/

There is a choice of message, for example:

Dear Senator,

Maintaining artificial freshwater lakes using 7.6 kilometres of concrete barrages has:
1. Destroyed the Coorong-Murray River estuary;
2. Diverted water from upstream environments and communities to keep these artificial lakes supplied;
3. Not improved the water security of Adelaide.

I ask you to support moves to:
1. Remove the barrages from the Lower Lakes to restore the Coorong-Murray River estuary; and
2. Relocate Adelaide’s water take-off to a proposed lock downstream from Tailem Bend.

Signed K. Smith
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Just today there has been a flurry of responses from Simon Birmingham Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray-Darling Basin to postcards sent last December. The Senator is mostly replying with a form letter as follows:

Dear Ms Smith

Thank you for your email regarding the Lower Lakes.

[Read more…] about Answers for Simon Birmingham, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray-Darling Basin

Academics and Freedom of Speech

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EVERY so often I receive emails suggesting I am morally reprehensible.  Interesting, like the following email, they often follow a function at an Australian university.  

Hi there,

I attended a very interesting lecture today around Climate change denialism with guest speakers Dr Andrew Glikson of the Planetry Science Institute and Professor Clive Hamilton of the ANU [Australian National University].
 
It seems to me there is a vast array of eminent scientists who are in agreement that increased levels of carbon due to human activity is having an undeniable impact on global warming. 

[Read more…] about Academics and Freedom of Speech

In Defence of ‘Heaven and Earth’ (Part 2)

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DON Aitkin, a former member of the Australian Science and Technology Council and Foundation Chairman of the Australian Research Council, wrote to Kurt Lambeck, President of the Australian Academy of Sciences, concerning his public criticism of Ian Plimer’s new book Heaven and Earth.  Professor Aitkin waited ten days for a response, and, in its absence, has decided to release his letter more widely.

[Read more…] about In Defence of ‘Heaven and Earth’ (Part 2)

Postmodern Physics

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PHYSICS is the science dealing with natural laws and processes and the states and properties of matter and energy including of course the radiative transfer within the atmosphere that underpins the theory of anthropogenic global warming.  There is criticism amongst some physics teachers both in the UK and Australia that the physics curriculum has become corrupted in particular “calculation has been replaced by writing”, “precision is gone”.  Indeed according to one physics teacher: while physics was once a subject unpolluted by a torrent of malleable words, now everything must be described in words.   

[Read more…] about Postmodern Physics

Warming of North America & People?

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Hello,

Even though I reside in upstate New York, I follow (and appreciate) your website and emails, and I was wondering if the community has looked at the final report(s) that are currently being unveiled by NOAA’s Climate Change Science Program? 

I am particularly interested in opinions on one of the most recent that attributes a significant portion of warming of North America to human causes.  The subject of this particular report is reanalysis of historical data.

http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap1-3/final-report/default.htm

http://www.climatescience.gov/

Thanks,
Doug White

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I usually post these types of requests at ‘Community Home’.  I am posting this note here, including to remind you that there is a Community Home.

Photograph of a seagull resting on a post in the Hudson River, New York, taken by Jennifer Marohasy in March 2008.

Sydney Morning Herald Open to Letters from Skeptics

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Some time ago Art Raiche suggested to me that, “In all honesty, I suspect that it would be easier to hold readings of Dawkin’s “The God Delusion” in Mecca than to get the Sydney Morning Herald to print letters critical of AGW.  At least the response would be more direct.”

Today, the Sydney Morning Herald Letters Editor wrote:

“CLIMATE change is always a problematic issue for the letters page, and Michael Duffy’s opinion piece last Saturday sparked vigorous exchanges all week. Readers on both sides hold views with something approaching religious fervour, while grounding their arguments in science. If we publish the views of sceptics, we are accused of airing theories with as little credibility as creationism. If we don’t, we are accused of censorship and taking sides.

“It seems to me much better to have all kinds of opinions in the open – the letters page is not a peer-reviewed journal, and even if it was that would not necessarily give it authority in this debate. All we can do is plead for politeness, brevity and a bit of nuance…”   Mike Ticher Letters editor

I am impressed!  Thanks Mr Ticher.