AN unfortunate characteristic of most of the public discussion on global warming is the name-calling peppered with false claim suggesting that there are very few so-called “sceptics”. Last week Liberal Senator, Nick Minchin, was identified as not only a climate change sceptic but labelled a “denier” because of his stand against the emissions trading legislation which was being debated in the federal parliament. In fact, there are sceptics in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s own Cabinet but for the sake of politics they are keeping quiet, or gagged. Read more here.
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Postscript
Update August 1, 2010 – There will be a federal election in Australian on August 21, 2010. Neither of the major parties has a serious climate change policy. ‘Least-worst climate policy?’ by Jennifer Marohasy at Quadrant Online.
Update June 21, 2010 – I am back publishing in the peer-reviewed literature. First article for a while: ‘Accessing environmental information relating to climate change: a case study under UK freedom of information legislation’, by John Abbot and Jennifer Marohasy, Environmental Law and Management, Issue 1, Volume 22 [2010].
Update December 12th, 2009 – Jennifer Marohasy is no longer regularly posting at this weblog. But occasionally posts information from friends at the community thread [ https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/category/community/ ]. Dr Marohasy is still writing for The Land and some of her columns for this and other newspapers can be read at her website [ https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/articles.php ].
Dr Marohasy was publically documenting discrepancies – including incomplete data sets being used by top UK climate scientists that spuriously support the case for global warming – before the now infamous emails from the Climate Research Centre in the UK were leaked. She gives informative and entertaining talks on global warming and other environmental issues [ https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/display/speaker.html ].
Lance Endersbee (1925-2009): Civil Engineer, Academic, Scientific Sceptic, Mentor
I NEVER met Professor Endersbee, but we corresponded by email.
He contacted me about six years ago when I was working on the Murray River and water issues. He expressed concern about Australia’s great artesian basin and over extraction of what he considered a finite resource.
We later corresponded over climate change issue. Lance believed we must try harder to understand the causes of natural climate change instead of assuming anthropogenic global warming. He was particularly interested in the oceans as a source of carbon dioxide. On June 24, 2009 he wrote:
“The relationship between CO2 and ocean temperature is ordained by the solubility relationship. I attach [see above] a chart showing my experience curve for the only reliable temperature records we have. It is difficult to argue against a correlation of 0.99. [Read more…] about Lance Endersbee (1925-2009): Civil Engineer, Academic, Scientific Sceptic, Mentor
Scientist Steve Schneider Flips Fears
On the TV show In Search Of…The Coming Ice Age, Steven Schneider wonders whether mankind should intervene in staving off a coming ice age. Watch the old footage on YouTube here.
Learning Dust Lesson to Fight Wildfires
IT is generally agreed that the worst dust storms since European settlement were during the 1944-1945 period.
In his book Out of the West: A Historical Perspective of the Western Division of NSW, former Western Lands Commissioner, Dick Condon, says there were 34 severe dust storms at Wagga Wagga during the period 1944-45, many so bad that it would have been necessary to turn the lights on in order to see inside the average sized house.
Mr Condon suggests the dust storms during the 1982-83 drought were not as bad as those during the period 1885 to 1945 because of the much improved conditions of the landscape in the semi-arid and arid grazing country in western New South Wales.
In contrast, it is generally agreed that bushfires are getting worse. [Read more…] about Learning Dust Lesson to Fight Wildfires
Early Warning of Massive Earthquates Possible: John McRobert
EARLY Wednesday morning a 8.3 magnitude earthquake caused a tsunami in the Pacific, killing at least 140 people in Samoa and Tonga. Later in the day a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit western Sumatra in Indonesia, drowning hundreds of people and burying thousands more under rubble.
Many in Samoa claim the warning system in place failed because an alert was only received after the tsunami hit. The official line has been that when the earthquake is close to land, the technology is such that there is simply not time for adequate warnings.
Brisbane-based engineer, now publisher, John McRobert, disputes this assessment claiming major earthquakes have precursor seismic shocks hundreds of kilometres below the Earth’s surface, and the transmigration of the energy, and the path to the surface can be accurately predicted: [Read more…] about Early Warning of Massive Earthquates Possible: John McRobert
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.