Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Open Thread

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We must abandon completely the naive faith that school automatically liberates the mind and serves the cause of human progress; in fact, we know that it may serve any cause. [It] may serve tyranny as well as truth, war as well as peace, death as well as life . . . whether it is good or evil depends, not on the laws of learning, but on the conception of life and civilization that gives it substance and direction. In the course of history, education has served every purpose and doctrine contrived by man. If it is to serve the cause of human freedom, it must be explicitly designed for that purpose.
— George S. Counts

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. el gordo says

    ‘TONY Abbott appears likely to secure the numbers in the new Senate to repeal the carbon tax and mining tax …

    ‘But he could fail to legislate his $2.8 billion “direct action” plan to cut carbon emissions, according to early objections from those likely to share the balance of power in the upper house… ‘

    David Crowe / Oz

  2. Debbie says

    Well that would be an ironic outcome el gordo! 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Scrap the crap and then fail to pass any alternative action?
    What on earth are they going to do with all those public servants who are employed to implement and oversee the mitigation/control of climate?

  5. el gordo says

    ‘PUBLIC servants are drawing up plans to collapse 33 climate change schemes run by seven departments and eight agencies into just three bodies run by two departments under a substantial rewrite of the administration of carbon abatement schemes under the Coalition.

    ‘Coalition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt briefed public servants on the dramatic restructure of the federal climate change bureaucracy before the election was called and yesterday confirmed the Coalition was committed to proceeding with the plan.’

    Maher and Wilson in the Oz

  9. spangled drongo says

    Larry, I always felt that I was too busy getting educated to go to school, too. One of my best excuses was my horse wouldn’t cross the wooden bridge near school so I would go home and work on the farm which was much more educational.

    A pair of wild geese at our place had 6 goslings a few days ago and are now down to their last one. They bring the babies[y] to the house every day and even though we don’t feed them they always come.

    Still cooling:

    http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/uah-rss-numbers-for-august/

  11. el gordo says

    ‘Tony Abbott said then that he “didn’t see the point of paying Professor Tim Flannery about $180,000 a year for views which he considers already public knowledge”…

    Nova

  12. el gordo says

    Not wishing to put words into the PMs mouth, this is what he said back in April on Flannery.

    “It does sound like an unnecessary position given the gentlemen in question gives us the benefit of his views without needing taxpayer funding.”

  14. Neville says

    Bill Illis is one of the best bloggers at WUWT and has just graphed the temp increase since 1958.

    Bill Illis says:
    September 10, 2013 at 11:39 am
    The underlying warming trend (after removing the ENSO, AMO, solar cycle, and volcano influences) of the UAH/RSS average and the lower troposphere provided by the radiosonde balloons/HadAT going back to 1958 is a pretty steady 0.056C per decade.

    http://s22.postimg.org/jyr62xv35/UAH_RSS_Had_At_Warming_Trend.png

    The warming trend of 0.056 C per decade isn’t much when you remove the NATURAL influences above.
    Hardly CAGW at all.

  15. Jennifer Marohasy says

    Very interesting and thought provoking post by Beth here…

    http://beththeserf.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/268/

    I should really like it if she took an interest in the ‘history’ of the Lower Murray and how totally success attempts by bureaucrats, politicians and scientists to reconstruct its history have been… to the demise of the natural environment of the region and also upstream irrigated agriculture… an introduction to the issues can be found here…
    http://jennifermarohasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Plugging-the-Murray-Rivers-Mouth-120212.pdf

    no regard what-so-ever for the concept of history as promoted by Francis Bacon from the South Australian government and its scientists

  16. el gordo says

    ‘Coalition MP Dennis Jensen, who is a vocal climate science sceptic, has called on Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott to appoint him as science minister.

    “At the moment to be honest I’m feeling under-utilised,” said Dr Jensen, the member for Tangney in Western Australia, who has a master’s degree in physics and a PhD in material science.’

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/climate-sceptic-mp-dennis-jensen-wants-to-be-science-minister-20130912-2tltt.html#ixzz2eexp6ZHr

  17. spangled drongo says

    It’s a real test when a climate realist like Abbott feels he can’t employ another highly qualified and very suitable climate realist for the job he was designed for because of reaction from alarmists and catastros in influential positions all round the world.

    Is Abbott brave enough?

    Jensen is just the man to give the MSM a well deserved awakening but his chances are not looking good when he has to complain about being ignored to the press.

  18. el gordo says

    Spangles, my guess Jensen was flying a kite designed by Abbott to test public opinion and replace Mirabella.

    Bob Carter could then replace Chubb as Chief Scientist.

  20. el gordo says

    Chubb’s contract as Chief Scientist is up in May 2014, so in the meantime Carter could get Chubb’s other job on the Climate Change Authority until its dismantled.

  22. Neville says

    More vile filth from their ABC and the idiot AGE. And the AGE wonders why their readership is dropping like a lead balloon.
    Why would anyone pay good money to buy this imbecillic rag or watch this sort of garbage from their ABC.?

    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/from_the_s_bend_of_the_media_left/

    BTW it would be great if Jensen could get the job as Science minister. It would be a change compared to the clueless fools we’ve had to endure over the last 6 years under K/G/K.

  24. Neville says

    A very good article on the Greenland ice sheet over the last 100 years and 20 million years ago.

    http://www.climatewiki.org/wiki/Greenland_ice_cap All the references and studies are included and seem to tell a different story than the nonsense force fed to us by the MSM.

    Even Briffa, Jones, Vinther etc concluded that the 1930s and 1940s were warmer on Greenland than today. They found 1941 to be the warmist year. ( see Lomborg– Cool It )
    But precipitation has definitely increased over the higher elevations recently and some studies show that this compensates for any ice lost on the coastal areas.

    Some of the latest studies have found that 20 million years ago there was ice on Greenland when temps were 5c to 8c higher than today and co2 levels were 4 times higher.
    Also this article quotes a study showing that SLR from Antarctica and Greenland is expected to be just 3cm by 2100, or just 1.2 inches.

    So where is this dangerous SLR to come from over the next 100 years?

  29. hunter says

    Watching your new government step right up and start dismantling the crap programs of the AGW kooks is impressive.
    In the US, where a dysfunctional oligarchy has developed, there is a nasty ratchet effect that only permits lefty/progressive crap to get started, but never ended, while moves to reform and repair the things lefties break never quite happen.
    Good luck pushing through the agendas and reforms the people voted for.

  32. Neville says

    More good news from our new Abbott led govt.

    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/new_pm_dosses_down_with_the_police/#commentsmore

    Not just Abbott saving us money but Julie Bishop as well. That’s why I voted Coalition well before the Labor and Green idiots in the Reps and Senate.
    And funnily enough I still don’t have any respect for Rudd about his supposed concern ????? for CAGW. You see I’m a bit hostile about blatant BS stories.

  34. sp says

    Dr Tim Ball on the IPCC:

    Would you even listen if you learned that :

    -their research of global warming/climate change was deliberately narrowed by definition to only studying human causes.
    -you cannot determine human causes if you don’t know or understand natural causes.
    -the demand for political action was based on an untested hypothesis.
    -the standard scientific methods and tests of the hypothesis were ignored.
    -computer models were created to produce the predetermined outcome.
    -all predictions made for 23 years were wrong.
    -after five years they abandoned calling them predictions and opted for the term projections.
    -projections were created with low, medium and high potential scenarios.
    -even the low projections were greater than what actually occurred.
    -their claims of increased severe weather events proved wrong.
    -their claims of sea level rise were incorrect.
    -the actual record since 1998 shows temperatures leveling and declining while CO2 increased.
    instead of admitting their hypothesis was wrong and amending or rejecting it, as science requires, they changed the hypothesis from global warming to climate change.
    -instead of admitting their claim of 90+ percent certainty that human CO2 was the cause was –wrong, they raised the claim to 95 percent certainty.

    http://drtimball.com/2013/ipcc-ar5-renews-demand-governments-buy-their-climate-change-pig-in-a-poke/#sthash.GIFHXe0i.dpuf

  38. spangled drongo says

    They’re more certain we’re doing it [from 90 up to 95%] but they’re more certain we’re only doing it half as much.

    I reckon they’d sound more credible if they said they were POSITIVELY CERTAIN we were only doing it a tiny fraction as much.

    They might even get a genuine 97% consensus then☺.

    The Wall Street Journal said the updated report, due out on September 27, would show “the temperature rise we can expect as a result of manmade emissions of carbon dioxide is lower than the IPCC thought in 2007”.

    The WSJ report said the change was small but “it is significant because it points to the very real possibility that, over the next several generations, the overall effect of climate change will be positive for humankind and the planet”.

  40. Neville says

    Fairfax is supporting the warmist fools now that Abbott is closing down the C Com etc and saving the taxpayer a bundle.
    But the Bolter has included some of the stupid propaganda and delusion from some of these twits to prove it is the correct move.

    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_age_cries_for_warming_alarmists_it_should_hold_to_account/#commentsmore

    His links also provide a good recent history of the nonsensical meanderings and illogical reasoning of these prominent numbskulls.