Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Being Disagreeable – At Christmas

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It is increasingly difficult to articulate a sceptical perspective on catastrophic human-caused climate change and other such issues. Not only with colleagues, but also within extended families. This is especially the case at Christmas time when there is an expectation, we will all be agreeable, and get on with each other. The spirit of bonhomie and all that stuff.

In 2022, to be sceptical of the climate catastrophe is to be a social outcast, and this extends to wanting to celebrate the health of the Great Barrier Reef. We are meant to be crying over everything. Yet Christmas should be a joyous time.

According to clinical psychologist Mattias Desmet, the type of totalitarianism that insists we only speak of catastrophe does not form in a vacuum. It arises from a collective psychosis when members of a community share an underlying anxiety and lack a common purpose. It is a form of group hypnosis that destroys an individuals’ ethical self-awareness and robs them of their ability to think critically.

In his recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Prof Desmet suggests that it is incumbent upon each of us who can see through the soul-destroying propaganda to continue to speak out. That to be silent is not an option.

In my very first film, Beige Reef, I finish with comment that:

Filming corals at Beige Reef is a form of resistance – our purpose is very simple, to acknowledge Beige Reef. To be acknowledged is to be admitted and accepted as true.

As I explain in the film, the experts claimed that this coral reef had been destroyed by climate change. But it hadn’t.

If they can deny the existence of a fair-sized coral reef at the entrance to Bowen harbour with that false claim published by prestigious scientific journal Nature, what other mischief can they get up to?

Poet Dorothea McKellar was loving Australian as a land of drought and flooding rains at the beginning of the twentieth century – back more than 100 years ago. In 1908 she wrote:

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold –

These same natural climate phenomena are now touted as proof of recent human-caused catastrophe.

American Naomi Oreskes was given a whole hour on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Science Show (21st December 2022) to absurdly claimed that droughts and floods in Australia are proof of human-caused catastrophic climate change and that worldwide there are no peer-reviewed studies – that is right, not even one – that contradict the consensus position that climate change is entirely human caused.

These claims, and much of the rest of what Professor Oreskes said, are misinformation. Propaganda. And they need to be resisted.

As I document in my submission (co-authored with Chris Gillham) to the NSW Flood Inquiry, there has been no overall increase in the intensity or frequency of extremely wet days.

Once upon a time, presenter Robyn Williams, who has controlled the science show for decades, may have invited me on to put the alternative perspective. Afterall, I have even published in a peer-reviewed journal (GeoResJ Vol 14, Pgs 36-46) estimating the contribution of human-caused versus natural climate change to recent warming. My study (co-authored with John Abbot) suggests, that without the industrial revolution, there would have been a period of warming through the twentieth century. We estimate the human contribution to current warming as at most 0.2 °C. That is miniscule. And the mere presence of our published paper disproves Prof Oreskes claim that such studies do not exist.

It took an enormous effort, supported by the B. Macfie Family Foundation through the Institute of Public Affairs, for such research to emerge despite the gate keepers. That it is denied by Naomi Oreskes and Robyn Williams is disappointing. But not a reason to give up.

You may get cancelled this Christmas for having the type of opinion now denied on the Science Show, or it could be simply that you laugh inappropriately, or choose to point out a logical inconsistency in your favourite progressives’ argument or, worse, that you show them up to be bias.

I made a very short film earlier this year with my dear friend Jared, entitled Washed Away. It is how I feel sometimes. But, like the rocks that form the platform below Boiling Point Lookout in Noosa National Park, we can resist.

We can even be disagreeable at Christmas and explain that sea levels used to be 120 metres lower than they are today.

You read that correctly: sea levels used to be 120 metres lower. There is a chart, with a citation, in the film. I dare you to invite your most ‘progressive’ relative to watch it with you, this Christmas.

Best wishes, and more power to you.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Ian Thomson says

    Merry Xmas Jen and another great year of sticking it to ’em in 2023. Had exactly the scenario you speak of about 10 years ago, but we agreed to disagree. LOL

  5. Chris Harrington says

    Thank you Jennifer, your point is so well made as always. We sceptics must never lose sight of the fact that from a well (and reasonably) argued position, sceptics can beget more sceptics.

  6. Anne Carter says

    very best wishes Jen. Fabulous research this year and am hoping it will gradually percolate through all the alarmist verbiage

  8. Rob says

    Thanks for another great year of common sense and facts Jen.
    We are very lucky to have you.
    Merry Christmas.
    Rob.

  9. richard bennett says

    Merry Christmas Jennifer and keep up the good work because the so-called scientific experts will soon totally ridiculed as the climate cools and refuses to conform to the political version of climate change. Please note that GBNews, available on-line or via YouTube gives a balanced account on climate (and other news) instead of the usual climate claptrap peddled by most of the mainstream media.
    A survey carried out on 22nd December 2022 in the USA showed that 93% of respondents did not think that the arctic conditions currently affecting the USA were caused by global warming.

  10. Don Gaddes says

    It is time Reality trumped Fantasy in the public ‘intellectual miasma’.
    A good start would be the replacement of the Gregorian Calendar with the Earth/Solar Orbital Calendar. It should have been done in 1582, (or at any time since.)
    There are ALWAYS 360 Day/Night Intervals in one 360 degree Earth/Solar Orbit.
    12 X 30 Day/Night Interval Months.
    Sorry kids – there is no Santa, no Easter Bunny – and no Rainbow Serpent.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TFFDXyhe5b0ZfLCiFt23W4PbubQaQfQo/view?usp=sharing

  12. Frances L. Wellington says

    I feel rather fortunate to be living at this point of time. I try to imagine how the Noosa Headland and foreshore would have looked back when water levels were many metres lower, and I can’t get my head around that image (yet). Though, that’s what it was and no one can deny it. Or a few metres higher. I can more easily imagine this.

    As for *being disagreeable*… this pays superb dividends once you are over the hump of another’s discontent and retaliatory behaviours. During this week I was superbly disagreeing with a neighbour whose cat was causing problems in my food garden and towards fauna that thrive here. It was so quiet for weeks as the animals fled. The Council is now acting on our behalf and the cat is contained. Then, yesterday a very social King parrot pair came to visit to check out what’s new and we had a wonderful joyfully boisterous interaction… then sounding the ‘all clear’ squawking for all to return. The place is noisy again. All is well. Superbly so.

    Be superbly wonderfully boisterously disagreeable Jen. It’s the best feeling when you are thanked in these ways by creatures and humans who notice everything that one does.

    Great footage, experiment. I particularly liked that graph. Thank you for speaking slowly so I comprehend well. Much appreciated.

  14. Mike+Burston says

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts Jennifer and compliments of the season.
    I wish something could be done about Ruby Williams and his execrable Science Show. There was a time about 20 years when interesting science stories were related. Note it’s mostly propaganda. Either Global Warming and get institutional funding.
    At least Nature had been kind to the Climate sceptics. That’s all we can count on so far

  16. Dr K.A. Rodgers says

    “Not only with colleagues, but also within extended families.” Not just extended families. Both my widowed daughters know better than to raise the topic at family gatherings if both are present in the same room.

  19. spangled drongo says

    Thanks once again for your great courage, honesty and hard work, Jen.
    We can only hope that when the bleedin’ obvious becomes obvious to the climate religious, that rationality will finally break through.
    That the world will work out who has really been in denial all this time.
    All the very best for Christmas and the New Year.

  20. John Hultquist says

    I think Jennifer needs a hug.
    Thoughts count.
    I’m 11932 kilometers away, so I suggest search-up

    cartoon hug polar bear (I’m in NH)

    Using images, find the one that fits your personality,
    and give it a virtual flight to Jen.

    I found one of a Polar Bear hugging a Penguin.

    Happy holidays to all.
    John

  21. Glen Michel says

    Greetings all! Thanks Jen for your continued efforts. I believe truth will come in time but it is up to all free thinkers to rationally claim the the mantle. On another note, my family had one of the first houses on the headland overlooking that ledge back in the early 1970s. Over time others crowded out the view and it was time to sell up and move on. Nice part of the world but I think I would not like to return.

  23. Tim Crome says

    Excellent thoughts, thank you Jennifer.

    Unfortunately it’s also becoming more and more difficult to spread such disagreeable opinions. I have previously had very good responses on LinkedIn but have now been banned from the platform. It appears there’s no longer free speech on certain topics!

    Happy Christmas from a wet and cold Norway.

  24. Julian Flood says

    Dr Marohasy, season’s greetings.

    WUWT has a piece this morning about using geoengineering to cool the planet, one suggestion being to increase albedo. Bill Gates had a similar proposal about spraying reflective dust.

    How about stopping the lowering of ocean albedo by pollution instead.

    See Ruf and Evans paper on microplastic where they found smoothing of their examined area by oil/surfactant pollution. Cygnss?

    See Benjamin Franklin’s smoothing experiment on Mount Pond, Clapham Common.

    See SeaWifs data (outdated but a good indicator) of the extent of city oil drips and even the Up In Smoke smoothing.

    See Lord Raleigh’s experiment to measure the size of an oil molecule. A little oil pollution goes a long way.

    An ocean surface polluted by oil/surfactant will be smoothed. Lower albedo, warming. Evaporation will fall. Warming. Fewer breaking waves, fewer aerosols, warming. Less stirring, less nutrient mixing from below the light zone, less DMS, fewer CCNs, warming.

    For an example of the resultant warming see the Sea of Marmara, Black Sea, Lake Superior and Tanganyika …

    How big an effect is pollution warming? I’ve seen a huge smooth covering tens of thousands of square miles, seen oil smooths in the Med, the North Sea, etc. They are common. They will be causing warming

    Why is no-one looking?

    JF
    There might be an image of the huge smooth on the TCW Defending Freedom blog.

  25. Don Gaddes says

    Tell them around the Great Lakes and Buffalo NY there is no albedo.
    Think about the eruption of Hunga Tonga in late 2021 – early 2022, that caused the Lismore floods, or the eruptions in Indonesia that (due to Axial Spin,)caused the Sydney and environs flooding in 2022.
    The planet is cooling without any help from Bill Gates – and will continue to do so.

  26. Geoffrey Williams says

    I agree Jennifer it is difficult to have a point of view which does not conform with the majority. My honest belief is that the majority have been brain washed by the media and the education system. They are afraid to be different and so they accept the common narrative of man made climate change and all that goes with it . .
    Belated merry Christmas and a Happy new year.

  27. Rob says

    Stick to the truth… there is NO man made climate change… we all face challenges with this…even in our own families

  28. Karl Penna says

    Hi Jennifer, yes I have noticed where ever I have a discussion that is not main stream , I am usually castigated , but I feel this country is too important to give up and shall continue the fight for right and fairness . I really enjoy your blog and something fresh in this whole debate
    Regards, Karl, Mapleton

  31. billinoz says

    Here is a late comment for you Jen.

    My former family are all committed dedicated fervent Greenists. And I am person non grata in their homes. Even my Xmas greetings text messages go un-replied. So I have decided to exile them all from my life.

    Greenists are much the same as fervent Catholics of the 16th century. The facts simply don’t matter. The only thing that matters is whether one’s opinions conform with their Global Warming doctrine. And always they are on the lookout for persons with heretical views.

    As for Robyn Williams he is an arrogant prick. He long ago abandoned Science on his ABC program for propaganda.

    PS You presence is sorely missed here in SA where the biggest flood since 1974 is pouring down the Murray to the sea.

  32. hunterson7 says

    Thank you for this wonderful
    Christmas gift. Your steadfast cheerfulness as you battle against the dar age that has taken over the world is admirable and greatly appreciated. May the New Year bring you and yours much success and good fortune.

  33. Karl Penna says

    Hi Jennifer, just spoke with my son tonight after he had worked a 12 hour shift and it was nice to have a family member agree and put some thought into our world. We both think the same re the conversation with family, colleagues, and members of our mens shed and many are seeing the light .
    You bring strength to the debate and thankyou for you courage and thoughts, hope you had an awesome Christmas and a great 2023 is coming
    Regards
    Karl

  34. ianl says

    >”As for Robyn Williams he is an arrogant prick.” [from billinoz comment above]

    I’ve come across Williams three times in various geology forums. He was then, and likely still is, one of those people who believe that talking loudly and persistently over the top of someone is what wins debate.

    So I’d agree with billinoz, based on my experience with Williams.

  36. Tina says

    It’s always good to be reminded that there are others who think like me. The problem we face now is that every weather event anywhere in the world is now uploaded from numerous phones so it APPEARS that we are having more extreme weather than in the past when you only saw your local weather. So it’s all “unprecedented”- which can now apparently mean ‘not in the last 40 years’