Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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Defining the Sceptics (Part 2)

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A true sceptic, following in the path of British biologist Thomas Huxley, is a truth seeker.*  A true sceptic will place their search for the truth above all else.  

As such a true sceptic will usually be an outsider, because the masses like to agree and are rarely too concerned with the truth.

Indeed if we accept, as Mr Huxley explained, that the brains of apes and humans are fundamentally similar it is not surprising that most Homo sapiens value belonging and status above the truth.   

Indeed explaining why someone in a position of authority is wrong, rarely aids survival or improves status in a communal society (ape or human).  

Of course, politics and values are important, even if they rarely have anything to do with the pursuit of the truth.   [Read more…] about Defining the Sceptics (Part 2)

Wheat Crops and Sunspots

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“IT is now more than 200 years since the great astronomer William Herschel observed a correlation between wheat prices and sunspots. When the latter were few in number, he noted, the climate turned colder and drier, crop yields fell and wheat prices rose. In the past two years, sunspot activity has dropped to its lowest point for a century. One of our biggest worries is that our politicians are so fixated on the idea that CO2 is causing global warming that most of them haven’t noticed that the problem may be that the world is not warming but cooling, with all the implications that has for whether we get enough to eat.

[Read more…] about Wheat Crops and Sunspots

Masses Protest for More Government

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Hundreds of environmental activists took to the streets of Australia’s main cities on Saturday, saying the Labor government was not doing enough on climate change.   The protests came ahead of a vote in the upper house Senate next week on the government’s planned emissions trading scheme, which the protesters regard as inadequate.   Read more here.

New Book on Climate Change

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 IN his book ‘The Climate Caper’, with a light touch and nicely readable manner, Professor Paltridge shows that the case for action against climate change is not nearly so certain as is presented to politicians and the public.  Read more here.