Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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What to Listen to, and Read, This Week

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1. Michael Duffy in Conversation with Stewart Franks

This afternoon at 4pm the very clever climate scientist Stewart Franks will be on ABC Radio National’s Counterpoint in conversation with Michael Duffy.  Make sure you listen in.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/default.htm

2. Bronwyn Herbert asks why there is no water in Lake Eucumbene

Sometime this week I am hoping the ABC TV 7.30 Report will feature a story from Bronwyn Herbert on the mismanagement of Snowy Hydro waters.    

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/

And the story started at this blog, scroll here, https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/tag/snowy-hydro/

3. Graham Young on enlightenment values and gay marriage

My advertising revenue, which would add up to about $7,000 per year at current readership levels (nearly 20,000 page views each week), has plummeted because of a boycott of On Line Opinion and Domain blogs (of which I am one) by activists within the gay lobby.

Graham Young explains today:

“We published a series of articles on gay marriage after we were approached by Rodney Croome calling for a conscience vote on gay marriage, and in the context of the Prime Minister urging all parliamentarians to go out and consult with their electorates on the issue.  It is important to us that we cover the ambit of arguments as much as possible, so of course we approached writers from all sides, and received submissions from many more…

“For 11 years On Line Opinion has been my passion. It’s been my passion because I’m a child of the Enlightenment and I was raised to believe that not only do people have a right to an opinion, but they have a responsibility to continually test and examine that opinion in the light of what others think and believe…

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11583

It was Graham Young who got me blogging, and who has insisted I keep blogging.

4.  And More

Later this week I plan to post part 2 from Luke Walker on finding that AGW signal (amongst all the natural climatic variability) and part 4 from Max Talbot on Snowy Hydro.

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Consider this an Open Thread and I will try for the same each Monday.
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More Politics from Ross Garnaut: A Note from Des Moore

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LAST November Ross Garnaut was commissioned, for an unknown fee, to produce an Update of the Review of climate change he completed in 2008. Garnaut is an economist who describes himself as an independent expert but he acts like a believer in a greater role for government and has worked closely with Labor governments. As one commentator put it yesterday, “his work has been a key feature of Labor’s campaign to introduce a carbon trading scheme”. Indeed, his first Update and associated comments present a blatantly political perspective in portraying all developments since the Review as supporting the need for emission reducing action by government and dismissing or ignoring the reality that those developments have clearly heightened the uncertainties about the so-called science and whether there will be any agreed international political action.  

[Read more…] about More Politics from Ross Garnaut: A Note from Des Moore

Gay & Lesbian Lobby Attacking Freedom of Speech

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Two corporations, IBM and the ANZ Bank, are part of a boycott of this blog and my advertising revenue has plummeted.   It was never a lot of money, but it had helped pay the bills.

The boycott is a consequence of an article attacking gay marriage published at On Line Opinion.   I have never published anything on gay marriage, and I am not against the concept, but because advertising for this blog is sold as a block with advertising for On Line Opinion, and because the gay lobby is apparently intolerant of alternative views, I am suffering.

And it is not as though On Line Opinion is running a campaign against gays, lesbians or their right to marry – quite the contrary.  On Line Opinion publishes a diversity of opinions with the aim of promoting Socratic dialogue.  

As Christopher Pearson writes in The Australian today, issues of principles are at stake here concerning freedom of political debate in this country and the character of our civilization.

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The Offending Article:
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11268&page=0

Skeptical Lawyer on the Boycott:
http://skepticlawyer.com.au/2011/02/05/of-secondary-boycotts-free-speech-and-revenue/

Christopher Pearson explains the situation in today’s The Weekend Australian:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/oversensitivity-can-only-compromise-debate/story-e6frg6zo-1226000416817

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Britain’s Forests for Sale

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In Australia the general trend is for governments to lock-up more and more forest often through the conversion of land managed as forest reserve into national park.   The conversion of land into national park is often accompanied by a reduction in the level of active management of the area.

Australia has vast areas of both forest reserve and forest in national parks.    Not so in the United Kingdom where there are only 15 national parks and a relatively small area of state owned forest commission. 

Now, in the UK, the new conservative government is planning to sell-off the state-owned forest commission estate and apparently without placing caveats on how this land is used after its sale.

According to The Guardian’s environment blog late last year:

“We now know, thanks to the junior environment minister Jim Paice’s frank evidence to a recent House of Lords select committee, that the government is considering the sale of not just “some”, or even “substantial”, amounts of woodland as the public was originally led to believe, but of all state-owned English trees across the commission’s 635,000-acre Forestry Commission estate. This includes many royal forests, state-owned ancient woodlands, sites of special scientific interest, heathland, campsites, farms and sporting estates.”

Various campaigns have sprung up and it was recently report that the National Trust is planning to buy much or the forest:

“The initiative, says the trust’s director, Dame Fiona Reynolds, could protect in perpetuity not just large areas of heritage areas such as the Forest of Dean and the New Forest, but other woodland expected to be offered for sale to communities and commercial enterprises in the biggest change in land ownership for more than 80 years.”

What is it that governments in Australia and the UK no longer want a part in forestry – they don’t want to be involved in active land management – perhaps reflecting the popular mood which sees such areas as either wilderness or with commercial potential – but not able to reconcile that they can be a source of income and recreation and wildlife refuges and have historically been successfully managed as such by government forestry services?

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/dec/22/tory-privatisation-all-state-forests 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/28/national-trust-save-english-woodlands

Daintree Intact: A Note from Neil Hewett

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Dear Jennifer,

It was a torrid night, but we survived.  Already exhausted from the preparations, the ensuing challenges of responding to the impacts of Yasi as its devastation was unleashed, has left us utterly humbled and in a presently unrecoverable energy debt.  But the important thing is that we are all healthy and the Daintree Rainforest has been remodelled on the outside and remains mostly intact on the inside.

The kids slept through the bulk of the maelstrom, bedded down in their customised refuges, beneath shelves in the purpose-built stronghold of the pantry.  They are now engaged in the novelty of weaving and carving from the inexhaustible supply of fallen forest products and occasionally delighting in the discovery of previously unfamiliar insects.

Please excuse the brevity of this message, but I am sure you appreciate the demands for our attention.  We will keep our friends and family informed of the effects on wildlife and the regeneration of forest in future weeks.

Thank you for your expressions of concern and best wishes.  These came from all over the world.  Coming after 2010, the wettest year in the Daintree Rainforest in recorded history, Australia’s largest cyclone, Yasi has brought world attention to Tropical North Queensland. Looking for remote Python developers ? Contact us.

Neil, Angie, Prue and the rainforest rascals, Tulli, Taiga & Tkoda.
 
http://www.ccwild.com/blog/?p=3605&utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Cyclone+Yasi