Jennifer Marohasy

 There were over 5,000 nomination for us to sort through and visit, and it was a very difficult task. When the process pushed the potential voting dates too close to Christmas we made the decision to hold off voting until after the New Year.

From all of the nominations we have selected nearly 500 finalists in

48 categories. The full list of finalists is here:

http://2008.weblogawards.org/site-news/2008-weblog-awards-finalists/

[JenniferMarohasy.com/blog has made it into the finals in the online community category!!]

Finalist badges will be available Wednesday. Voting is scheduled to begin January 5.

Thank you for participating and spreading the word!

_______________________________

Kevin Aylward

The Weblog Awards <http://weblogawards.org/> 

The rangelands cover some 81% of Australia and are popularly known as ‘the outback’.

A new report, ‘Rangelands 2008 — Taking the pulse’, is the first time that disparate datasets have been brought together at a national and regional scale to report change in Australia’s rangelands.

The hard copy version of Rangelands 2008 — Taking the pulse includes a CD with a hypertext-linked version of the complete report plus summarised information for each of the 52 bioregions wholly or partly within the rangelands. Copies can be ordered from Land and Water Australia at http://products.lwa.gov.au/products/pn21387.

The Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has published a booklet entitled Australia’s Rangelands 2008 — At a Glance which provides highlights from the complete report as well as the CD above. This booklet can be obtained from the DEWHA Community Information Unit.

Mars has a simple climate compared to earth  - but NASA now admits that its GCM for Mars just does not predict the climate.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4BF0AA20081216

Is it posisble that carbon emissions from the Mars Rovers is destabilising the atmosphere -  bringing the entire plaent closer to a “Tipping Point”?

I am pretty worried about this  -  so any comments would be welcome.

John Menzies

A note from the African Wildlife Foundation:

“We need to help develop understanding everywhere, seek the courage and energy to make change, and have the confidence to envision bold, new programs to effect permanent solutions to guarantee the perpetuation and growth of Africa’s unparalleled wildlife.

“Help save mountain gorillas, elephants, lions, rhinos, giraffes  (and more) – and their habitat!  When you do, you’ll receive AWF’s quarterly newsletter and our 15-month calendar with stunning photos of African wildlife. 

“Plus, you can take pride that you are  making a difference for Africa’s wildlife and wild lands. 

http://www.awf.org/section/engaging_you/donate/

Folks,

As you might expect, Australia’s Canberra Times is a conformist newspaper that mostly goes along with the capital’s political fashions, and has long run the alarmist AGW line.   Over the weekend there has been a turn-around. Their economics editor, a well respected David Alexander, has written a long opinion piece plus a news item, in which amongst other things to concedes that some of the climate critics are highly qualified and (based on the NZ precedent) suggests the possibility of a parliamentary enquiry into the ETS, about which he says “Much would be learnt, the public would be enthralled.  Surely there is nothing to be afraid of?”.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/news-features/melting-moments/1385602.aspx?storypage=0#  

This, and especially the understated rhetorical question, is a stunning development.

On top of which, retired ANU economics professor Richard Mulgan has an editorial in today’s Times that sings the praises of scepticism in general!

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/climate-scepticism-is-good/1386174.aspx?storypage=0#

Finally, at the same time, our ABC has run an article about “carbon baggers” (lovely term!) chasing aboriginal interests, about which the blog response is almost entirely “a plague on the ETS house”.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/15/2446106.html

Things are moving, and by the sweetest irony that on the very day that the Rudd government has plumped for a timorous (though still silly, because it won’t have the faintest possible influence on future
temperature) 5% ETS rate.

Cathy

YOU may find these new papers of interest:
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/climate_action_plans_fail_to_deliver.html
We update this paper periodically.
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/commentaries_essays/obama_on_the_urgency_of_combating_global_warming_.html
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/arizona_climate_change.html
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/commentaries_essays/saving_the_planet_.html
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/scarewatch/bank_of_america.html
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/scarewatch/coolest_year_for_decade.html
 
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/scarewatch/global_warming_spreads_malaria_.html
 
Let us hear from you about our site and papers. 
 
Regards,
Bob Ferguson, President SPPI

With reference to the crisis in financial markets, Sydney-based think tank The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) held a forum yesterday entitled ‘The End of Capitalism’.   

CIS Research Fellow, Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich, suggested that doom and gloom headlines in magazines such as Time, The Economist and Der Spiegel foretelling the end of capitalism were no different from other irrational scare stories.  Dr Hartwich referred several times to examples of global scares from the book ‘Scared to Death’ by Christopher Booker and Richard North.   

I am not sure that I agree with Dr Hartwich – he went as far as to suggest that with the fear of a depression we wouldn’t be hearing so much about global warming because the media could generally only focus on one major scare at a time.  But I can definitely recommend the Booker and North expose of a long list of media scare stories beginning with the great salmonella scare of 1988-89.

The book is dedicated to “all those scientists and campaigners who, amid the madness of our age of ‘scares’, have kept a sense of proportion and fought for the truth to prevail.”     

************

Scared to Death, From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth by Christopher Booker and Richard North, published by Continuum UK, 2007. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scared-Death-Global-Warming-Costing/dp/0826486142

Each year On Line Opinion and Club Troppo collaborate to publish a Best Blogs feature in January, which features the best blog pieces from the previous year selected from reader nominations.

This year we are doing it again.

What was the best blog piece that you read in 2008? It can even be one you have written yourself - so don’t be shy.

Let us know, by casting your votes here http://polling.nationalforum.com.au/index.php?sid=54429&lang=en

We will take look at your votes, weigh them up with our expert panel, and get the right to republish as many of them as we can in On Line Opinion over the January period. While you’re thinking, you might like to check out last year’s Best Blogs feature http://onlineopinion.com.au/feature.asp?year=2008&month=1

I have been a senior fellow with the Melbourne-based Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) for more than five years now.   I have written a lot for the magazine,  which used to be published by the IPA quarterly, but now comes out every two months.   A year’s subscription is not that much - just $33 a year.

Anyway,  Nichole Hoskin has made a list of many of the articles I have had published in the ‘Review’ over the years, and here goes:

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘Deceit in the Name of Conservation?’, IPA Review, March 2003, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/Review55-1%20Deciet%20in%20the%20name%20of%20conservation.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘Where’s the Data?’, IPA Review, June 2003, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/Review55-2%20Wheres%20the%20data.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘GM Fish and Chips? Already and Australian Staple!’, IPA Review, September 2003, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/Review553%20GM%20Fish%20and%20ships.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘How Useful are Australia’s Official Environmental Statistics?’ IPA Review, December 2003, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/review554%20How%20useful%20are%20Australias.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘The Taboo Food- Genetically Modified Anything’, IPA Review, March 2004, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/review56-1%20The%20taboo%20food.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘There are Votes in the Murray’, IPA Review, September 2004, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/56-3-%20there%20are%20votes%20in%20the%20murray.pdf

Jennifer Marohasy, ‘Time to Redefine Environmentalism’, IPA Review, December 2004, http://www.ipa.org.au/library/56-4-Time%20to%20Redefine%20Environmentalism.pdf

Read more »

ABARE released today, Thursday 4 December 2008, Australian Commodity Statistics 2008.

This report is an invaluable reference book with Australia’s agricultural and resources industries. It is a comprehensive publication, containing overview and macroeconomic information as well as key statistics on the supply of and demand for more than forty commodities.

It covers current and historical data on price, production and export information, with some historical series extending over forty years.

Download your free electronic copy or purchase a hardcopy from www.abare.gov.au