UPDATE SEPTEMBER 11, 2009
Friends, Colleagues,
I received an email from a friend not so long ago suggesting that while peer reviewed papers in journals still command some prestige, when it becomes clear that the peer reviewed papers were wrong, the journals were wrong and the blog sites were right and where the real debate was being carried out ...
He was of course referring to global warming.
In fact Fred Pearce writing for New Scientist reported on September 4 that we may not have a climate crisis. He wrote that Mojib Latif from Kiel University recently announced to a gathering of climate scientists at the UN's World Climate Conference we could be about to enter one or even two decades during which temperatures cool.
The same article suggested that the dramatic Arctic ice loss in recent summers may be partly a product of natural cycles rather than global warming... and preliminary reports suggest there has been much less melting this year than in 2007 or 2008.
Anyway, the reason I am posting this September update early is to let you know there is a new film about to be released. Not Evil Just Wrong explores society's interest in Armageddon-type scenarios with a particular focus on the cost, and potential costs, of the policies following concerns about DDT and global warming.
I was lucky enough to be given a sneak preview of the feature length documentary by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney last week. The movie is an exploration of the fears and aspirations of an ordinary small town American woman - Tiffany McElhany from Vevay - and her quest to get a message to Al Gore. Interwoven with this story are interviews with some of the most famous climate scientists of our time including James Hansen and Richard Lindzen.
Not Evil Just Wrong is politically incorrect, compelling and spans several continents including Africa while exploring its subject matter with harshness and humour.
Anyway, with resistance from the mainstream film industry, McAleer and McElhinney are planning the premiere, not in Hollywood, but through the hosting of a mass screen in homes and community centre across the globe on Sunday October 18.
Perhaps this is your opportunity to come out - at work, on Facebook, over the dinner table - and tell your colleagues, friends and/or family you are not completely convinced by all the global warming hype... and invite them to a screening at your place on Sunday October 18.
Almost everything you need to make the evening a success comes with the party pack your can buy online for US$30 by clicking on the advertisement at the top right hand side of my blog's home page.
http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog
Cheers, Jennifer
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Some Popular Reports & Articles by Jennifer Marohasy
When the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, recently announced that there was insufficient water in upstream dams to flood the lakes at the end of the Murray River, ABC Online ran with the headline "Government says the Murray's Lower Lakes can’t be saved." But that's not what she said, and furthermore the lower lakes can be saved. The Murray River is at far greater risk and the solution for the river is not nearly as simple: Saving the Coorong by restoring its native state, Online Opinion, August 14, 2008.
As sea levels rise coral reefs can keep growing up, it is when sea levels fall that coral reefs are left high and dry: Reef may benefit from global warming, The Australian, January 31, 2007.
Let's acknowledge that the Murray River is an old river, running through a semi-arid environment and accept it as such. Let's not pretend it should be, or ever was, fresh, blue and always brimming with water: On Saving the Murray River, Counterpoint, May 22, 2006.
A critical review of the chapter on Australia in Jared Diamond's book Collapse, showing that many of his claims of environmental degradation are not supported by the available evidence: Australia's Environment Undergoing Renewal Not Collapse, Energy and Environment, Volume 16, 2005.
If it is true to say: "if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it", then koala conservation is far from secure: Are Koala's in Decline, IPA Review, June 2005.
Why is it that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) condones the slaughter of rare whales by indigenous peoples using what are arguably inhumane traditional methods, while ruling against the commercial harvest of more common species by more humane methods:No science and no respect in Australia's anti-whaling campaign, Online Opinion, July 2005.
A critical review of The Australian newspaper's 'Save the Murray' Campaign: Why "Save The Murray"?, Quadrant Magazine, December 2004 - Volume XLVIII Number 12.
Predetermined beliefs rather than science are driving public policy on environmental issues, warns Jennifer Marohasy in Environmental Fundamentalism , Policy, Vol. 20, No. 3, Spring 2004.
This report challenged conventional thinking on the Murray River and influenced national water policy: Myth and the Murray: Measuring the Real State of the River Environment, IPA Backgrounder, December 2003.
Why was the allegation of pesticide in dugongs included in the original summary report? Why was the allegation not corrected after I brought the error to Dr Baker’s attention in December 2002: Deceit in the Name of Conservation, IPA Review, March 2003.
Other Articles by Jennifer Marohasy
Jennifer's opinion pieces in e-journal Online Opinion are listed here. Her columns from The Land newspaper are listed here. Leave a comment at her popular 'Politics and the Environment' blog founded in April 2005. Some of her more recent pieces in the IPA Review can be found here.
You can read about Jennifer here and about her blog here.
A Book
Jennifer is currently writing the story of an enviornmental campaign to save a bay and its fringing coral reef that spins out of control eventually destroying the fishing community it is meant to save. The genre is dystopian fiction exploring modern environmentalism and the universal values of hope and truth.
Recent Newspaper Opinion PiecesNow that Timbercorp has gone bust – voluntary administrators were appointed on April 23 – I’m wondering if someone will cut down all its trees.
Read more... WE were all appalled by the death and destruction from the Victorian bushfires early this year.
Nearly 200 people died on Black Saturday. The number of koalas incinerated probably runs into the thousands, the number of native birds dead in the millions.
Read more... Responses to the concern that there is too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere tend to fall into one of two categories.
Read more... For a long time now the doomsayers have been telling us we are about to run out of oil – at least since the 1970s. Now, with the world financial crisis, its price is actually dropping.
Read more...
I have it on good advice, from the cabbie who drove me to the airport in Canberra recently, that South Australian senator Nick Xenophon is the most powerful politician in Australia.
Read more... |
