Jennifer Marohasy

Earlier this year, ex-prime minister Tony Blair signed up to the EU target of 20 per cent of all European energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. New prime minister Gordon Brown is now likeky to be advised that the target is too expensive and difficult to meet. The UK government will hope that [...]

The UK government’s chief scientist has advised ministers that badgers should be killed to prevent the spread of TB among cattle.
Sir David King says culling could be effective in areas that are contained, for example, by the sea or motorways.
His report follows a previous study that said culling badgers would be ineffective.
Read the rest of [...]

The Greenhouse 2007 presentations, papers and panel sessions are now available online:
KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS
I can’t wait to view Sir David King’s presentation to see how his plans for us all moving to the Antarctic are shaping up. Sir David is also a Bovine TB and Badger ‘expert’ – he plans to cull 80 per cent [...]

The outer-wing coverings (tegmina) of the Snub-nosed Katydid (Mastigaphoides sp.) are remarkably leaf-like, even to the extent of the centrally prominent vein and subordinate branches. They blend splendidly within rainforest foliage and are found most easily at night, after summer rains, when singing.
Such a marvellous design, but to what extent do we over-interpret the [...]

Orphaned baby hedgehogs need feeding by hand every two hours day and night for the first two weeks of their life. Then every four hours for the next two weeks until they can lap on their own.
They are fed with a milk substitute, called Espilac (a dog milk substitute), which is the closest thing to [...]

Bush fires are threatening suburbs in Southern California. …several homes in Los Angeles and Ventura counties were evacuated. Seven-hundred fire-fighters battled the blazes, the largest covered 2,800 hectares. The fires were whipped by high winds of up to 70 km/h. Some homes were destroyed and flames and smoke were visible for several kilometres.
Read more [...]

The French unit of US Biotech giant Monsanto has filed a lawsuit following the latest destruction of some of its test fields for genetically-modified maize. In a statement issued on Friday, Monsanto said that unidentified activists had ransacked three test fields in Valdivienne in central France after dark on Thursday.
Read more here: http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/44924/story.htm

Press Release
GAO Says Agencies Could Improve Data Sharing in Climate Research
October 22, 2007
WASHINGTON – The Government Accountability Office reports that federally funded climate researchers aren’t always required to follow the government’s own data-sharing policies, and the Republican lawmakers who sought the inquiry say that’s a mistake that needs correction.
“We want to know that critical [...]

An unusual paper has appeared in the journal Technological Forecasting & Social Change:
Sunspots, GDP and the stock market
Theodore Modis
Abstract
A correlation has been observed between the US GDP and the number of sunspots as well as between the Dow
Jones Industrial Average and the number of sunspots. The data cover 80 years of history. The observed correlations [...]

This week’s climate doom and gloom story comes from the unsurprising source of the University of East Anglia, reported in an unsurprising place – the BBC website:
Oceans are ’soaking up less CO2′
The amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the world’s oceans has reduced, scientists have said.
Results of their 10-year study in the North [...]