Jennifer Marohasy

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Update on Whaling in Iceland – A Note from Ann Novek

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International media reported back in August that Iceland will not issue new whaling permits for commercial whaling next season due to a “ lack of markets and demand”. Unfortunately for the whales , the Icelandic Government did a turn –around some weeks later and extended the commercial whaling season to November 1st , allowing whalers to kill the 23 minkes from last years quota.

It’s unclear what caused the turn-around , but according to the Foreign Minister “ whaling is a matter of compromises” . The Foreign Minister is herself opposed to whaling.

According to the Minke Whaler’s Association ,
The hunting did go well and the purchase of whale meat has never gone better since the resumption of whaling in 2003. All meat from the 45 minkes that have been killed during 2007 has been sold out and no more whale meat will not be available in the stores until next spring when commercial whaling starts again. ( Note this is VERY surprising that the Whaler’s Association states that commercial whaling will resume again next season).

Icelandic export market to Japan

In an article that has been published on mbl.is , is an agreement on export of whale meat from Iceland to Japan soon finished. Probably it’s about whale meat from last year’s hunt as well as from future hunts. This announcement comes from an interview with the Icelandic Fisheries Minister and a Japanese news agency.

According to the Whaler’s Association “ one should welcome the decision that Iceland and Japan have agreed on to resume trade in whale products , as there seems to be a market in Japan. In this interview it’s again stated that whaling permits will be issued for the next season, which resumes in the middle of of next year. However, the quotas will only be issued if there is a market.

Tourist industry
The Icelandic tourist numbers increased despite worries that commercial whaling should have a negative impact on numbers. From a report from the Icelandic Tourist Council , has never so many tourists visited Iceland as this summer. Despite of threats from NGOs.

In the first 9 months of this year, 379 000 tourists arrived to Keflavik Airport. This is an increase with 16,5 %. This is contrary to the prognosis that the tourist industry and the NGOs made. So it seems like commercial whaling has had no negative impact on tourism?

The Icelandic Minke Whaler’s Association makes finally this statement , “ they who claim that we sacrify bigger interests ( whale watching, my note) for lesser( whaling) , must now reconsider their arguments. Whalers claim as well that whaling has made Iceland more familiar and famous? for tourists , that’s why there has been an increase in numbers of tourists.

What do ‘Climate Sceptics’ Really Believe?

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Richard Black from the BBC News website sent out a questionnaire to climate sceptic groups in order to test the alternative ‘consensus.’ He is now able to report the results:

What do “climate sceptics” believe?

Despite having reported on climate change for more than a decade, I realised at the beginning of the year that I was not entirely sure.

Read ‘Unravelling the sceptics’

See also ‘Climate scepticism: The top 10’

After the ‘Top Island’ Fire in the Barmah Red Gum Forest

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Aborigines managed much of the Australian landscape with fire. This management strategy favoured fire tolerant and fire resistant species – perhaps why gum trees dominate so much of the Australian landscape. But river red gums, Eucalyptus camaldulensis ssp., unlike most gum trees, are not particularly fire tolerant.

Barmah Speedboat (copy of Redgum 069).jpg
A boat on the Murray River in the Barmah Forest. Photograph taken last Tuesday.*

The timber cutters and cattlemen who live and work along the middle Murray (river) have gone to great lengths to keep fuel-loads in red gum forests low through controlled grazing and the collection of firewood. This, combined with a network of rural fire fighting brigades, has made it possible to stomp out fires started from lightening strikes or camp fires.

This may explain why some foresters and aboriginal elders call river red gums ‘white fellas’ weed’ and why areas which were once open woodland are now covered in dense red gum forests including at Barmah.

Barmah Duck Hole Plain (copy Redgum 043).jpg
This area in Barmah Forest was once known as Duck Hole Plains

But the situation is changing. The Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC) wants more wood and grass on the forest floor apparently to increase biodiversity. This means higher fuel loads and according to some white fellas** the forests will ultimately be severely degraded by uncontrolled and uncontrollable feral fires.

A wildfire in the Barmah Forest, in an area known as Top Island, burnt out 800 hectares last October.

Barmah Fire blog (Copy Redgum 026).jpg
Burnt forest at Top Island in October 2006, photograph taken Tuesday November 6, 2007.

Old habitat trees are apparently the first to go when a hot wildfire burns through red gum forest. Last week the Barmah woodcutters showed me how the old trees ‘burnt like chimneys’ from the inside – out.

Parts of ‘Top Island’ look like they are regenerating. But I’m told that the green coppice growth will eventually fall off – that these fire-damaged trees will never develop as habitat trees. Habitat trees have hollows for wildlife.

Barmah Fire Regrowth blog (Copy Redgum 028).jpg
Coppice and a burnt-out old habitat tree.

Where the forest has been completely burnt, for example after the sand-spit fire of the late 1960s, and where there has been no management, the red gum regrowth can be very dense.

Barmah Sandspit fire growth (copy Redgum 072).jpg
Regrowth from the 1968 Sand-spit fire, Photograph taken November 6, 2007.

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* All the photographs in this blog post were taken in Barmah forest last Tuesday – on Melbourne cup day.
** I use the term ‘white fellas’ to refer to the guardians of traditional European knowledge in the Barmah forest.

Glacier Dynamics and Why Greenland Not in Danger of Collapse

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Dear Jennifer,

Professor Ollier takes on James Hansen’s claim that the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are in danger of collapse due to global warming. Hansen’s claims are the basis for Al Gore’s suggestion, in An Inconventient Truth, that the seas may rise by 20 feet in the near future.

Professor Ollier argues that, “Hansen’s seeming ignorance of the mechanism by which glaciers flow leads him into major errors.”

You may have seen Professor Cliff Ollier’s write up of glacier dynamics originally circulated by Benny Peiser’s excellent CCNet newsletter. The Center for Science & Public Policy has published a paper adapted from the original article with expanatory footnotes and diagram added to clarify some of the more technical parts of the article.

This paper describes glacier dynamics, such as the glacier budget, how glaciers flow (through a process known as “creep”), how creep is related to temperature and stress, and how the simple rules of creep allow us to understnad some observations of glaciers.

We hope you find this paper useful.

http://ff.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=396&Itemid=77

Paul Georgia
Center for Science & Public Policy
Frontiers of Freedom

Bias and Concealment in the IPCC Process

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The climatic “hockey stick” hypothesis has systemic problems. I review how the IPCC came to adopt the “hockey stick” as scientific evidence of human interference with the climate. I report also on independent peer reviewed studies of the “hockey stick” that were instigated by the US House of Representatives in 2006, and which comprehensively invalidated it. The “divergence” problem and the selective and unreliable nature of tree ring reconstructions are discussed, as is the unsatisfactory review process of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report that ignored the invalidation of the “hockey stick”. The error found recently in the GISS temperature series is also noted. It is concluded that the IPCC has neither the structure nor the necessary independence and supervision of its processes to be acceptable as the monopoly authority on climate science. Suggestions are made as to how the IPCC could improve its procedures towards producing reports and recommendations that are more scientifically sound.

Continue reading: BIAS AND CONCEALMENT IN THE IPCC PROCESS: THE “HOCKEY-STICK” AFFAIR AND ITS IMPLICATIONS by David Holland

Weather Channel Founder Calls Global Warming ‘A Scam’

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Environmental extremist, notable politicians among them then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda.

Now their ridicules manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmental conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minutes documentary segment.

I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party.

However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a nonevent, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it.

Read the rest of John Coleman’s comments about global warming.