We learn things through experience and by association. When people whom we respect repeat nonsense over and over then we will tend to come to believe this information – even if it makes no sense, and especially if we have no first-hand experience of it to the extent that we can’t know otherwise from first-hand experience.
When on a boat, offshore at the Great Barrier Reef it is difficult to know exactly how far away the land is, and flat farmland could just as easily present as mangrove swamp.
We are told over and over that agriculture and the natural environment are incompatible, and we are taught to despise farming and to love corals. It is likely that most people who know this, and feel very strongly about this association, have no experience of either corals or farming.
The SS Yongala Shipwreck is a 110m long former steel passenger and freight steamer which sank during a cyclone in 1911, not far from the mainland, and not far from the mouth of the Burdekin River that drains a catchment replete with sugarcane and beef cattle.
It is arguably one of the ten best dive sites in the world, known not for its reliably good visibility but rather its super-sized marine life especially the great diversity and size of its fish, rays and sharks. There are also beautiful corals, especially soft corals including Gorgonia fans.
A little over a month ago I had the opportunity to dive the SS Yongala wreck. Then one week ago, by coincidence, I had the opportunity to fly over this same region in a commercial Qantas jet and I made sure I had a window seat on the side of the plane likely to give me a best aerial view.
I did manage to photograph sugarcane farms just to the west of this famous dive site.
You can’t see the corals or the big fish in these photographs because they are under the sea, to the east of the Burdekin River’s mouth that you can see in some of these photographs.
Over the last twenty years new heroes have emerged on both the left and right of politics and they have redefined what is acceptable to believe, particularly when it comes to the natural environment. Many of them were and are quite mad, but this has not limited their popularity not even on the right of politics.
It is seared into my memory, I can still remember where I was on Wednesday 6th June 2001, and how that day unfolded – World Environment Day over twenty years ago. That was the beginning of the end for local environment groups in Queensland as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched a massive campaign, that redefined how we came to view farming along the Queensland coast. The organisation already had the support of relevant environment ministers from the left and right of politics at the state and federal levels. From the very beginning their approach was top down and had nothing to do with evidence or science.
We are social creatures, and our communities have always been organised into hierarchies.
Australia is a constitutional monarchy, and the WWF has always had the support of the British monarchy, that has actively played a role including in the administration of that organisation.
Prince Philip (late husband of the Queen) was the first-ever president of WWF-UK from 1961-1982 and Prince Charles took over that role in 2011, etcetera. His cousin the current Dutch King (Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands) took more of an interest in WWF internationally and was particularly committed to the ‘Save the Reef’ campaign that was launched in Townsville on World Environment Day in 2001.
I am beginning to dig out my papers from this time, and it is interesting to see which James Cook University professors signed up to which nonsense consensus statements that year. This had everything to do with being fashionable and nothing to do with science.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
The more nonsense is repeated (like a “scratched hit record”) ad nauseoum the more I mock. To me the WWF has become the WWWWF (World Wide Wankers WankFest)… can I say that here to sum up my disdain? Perhaps “blithering !d!ots” might be more polite…
Well said Jennifer, Unfortunately, virtually every professional body organisation are strong associate members of WWWWF which I think has occurred as a result of these organisations’ volunteer office bearers are Public Servants with plenty of time to play the association ‘games’ and are also most probably ‘green lefties’.
Watching the CSU treatment and sustained nonsense propaganda is frightening example of the politicisation of “Science”.
Stay at it Jennifier – Good Luck
JRS
I am constantly amazed that people are opposed to farming, without being concerned about food supply.
I am constantly amazed how supposedly smart people can be so stupid. The evidence does not support their hysterical (politically biassed) claims that farming is destroying the GBR. I despair when this nonsense is repeated over and over. You go to great effort to dispute the nonsense, and we are so grateful to you. When will the madness stop? What will it take to make people realise that there is NO evidence to support the populist claim of a climate crisis due to CO2? Sustainable farming is exactly that, sustainable, and does not cause damage to the climate or to the GBR.
The biographer of G.K. Chesterton commented that when people abandon Christianity, the problem is not that they believe in nothing; it’s that they believe in anything. People have a need to believe in something that seems to integrate their understandings. The world-government Marxists have discovered that man-made carbon-dioxide-emissions global warming is a dogma that fits the bill, and they have been successful in using it for their aim of destroying what they call “the capitalist system”; by that, they mean our culture and nation. People uncritically build systems of thought around that dogma. They build layers upon layers of psychological defences around it. The Reef is a great site for building pictures and stories.
Christopher Game, you may be right. What can we do about it except continue to present the evidence that puts lie to the propaganda?
The present Australian Government, in its zeal to act in accordance with its belief that the world is on the way to becoming uninhabitable through the emissions of CO2 , which they believe wrecking the world’s climate, is arranging the closure of all coal burning electricity generators in our country ( and the construction of huge numbers of wind farms and solar panel conglomerations.)
Even if CO2 had the climate wrecking effect that they claim, the closure of the Australian coal driven generators would make absolutely no difference.
Because the Chinese, for example, are building two new coal burning power generators each week, to add to the huge number that they are already operating.
Shutting down the Australian generators would make absolutely no significant difference to the world’s CO2 production.
It is the same as pissing into the wind to prevent your house being blown down in a storm.
But it is having the effect of wrecking Australia’s economy and wrecking our natural biodiversity.
We are committing suicide to demonstrate that we are virtuous.
The present-day obsession with the presentation of unsubstantiated “statements” as fact is the method by which the political elites attempt to brainwash the population into believing what is said is actually true. This is the socialist corruption in operation. The people are fast realising that they are being conned by disreputable politicians and their stooges. Elections in Europe have shown that the people are totally fed up with all the lies coming from the political elites and voters have kicked them out big time. In Australia voters need to wake up and kick out the discredited and corrupt elites before they do any further damage to Australia.
Thanks Jen for these revealing facts. This should be a wonderful story for the news media to promote and show the world how we are being duped by leading “environmentalists” such as the WWF but I wonder why it is they don’t want to know about such a great, revealing story?
Agree with ALL ABOVE. I watch TV & so called experts & ask why they’re not talking to you, then grab the remote frustrated, it does my head in. I only quote you & Peter Ridd in any conversation on the subject. I think / hope the pendulum returns SOON before it’s too late. COAL, 4B going to bed tonight without access to electricity. What’s the PLAN Lefties?
I’m just filing this here:
“Sent: Tuesday, 18 June 2024 12:22 AM
To: jennifermarohasy@gmail.com
Subject: Yongala dive site
One weekend a few years ago, I was at the VMR radio building at Alva Beach on the radio roster. At that time, the Burdekin was emptying a lot of silt-laden fresh water into the GBR Lagoon, and the dirty water extended well past the Yongala.
The Yongala Dive boat from Alva was out with a full crew of divers on board, and as they call their base on our radio channel, I heard them talking so I knew that they were out there and I also knew that the dive site was covered with the dirty, brown fresh water from the Burdekin River.
So, I called them up to enquire about the visibility for their dive. The answer was that there was about 2 metres of fresh water which you couldn’t see through, but beneath that the visibility was as good as at any other time, and was perfectly clear.
So much for the river sediment ruining the reef…
In those days I quite often fished on Old Reef, and I believe that some of the core samples collected by the AIMS people came from there and Stanley Reef, and their conclusion were that every time the Burdekin ran fresh, those reefs were covered by the river run-off; but from my observations, they have never been damaged by the fresh, silt-laden river water.
Your email reminded me of that time and I thought that I would share it with you…
Yours faithfully
Robert (Bob) Kennedy
Hi Jennifer,
I really enjoy reading your blogs and how they have shown the other side of this whole sick debate. the way forward is to keep our kids and grandkids informed so that they can have the discussion with the people on the left who do all they can to denigrate good thought process. i found that by giving my grand kids, especially the 20 yr old and 18 yr old good info with solid facts , i tink i can change their perception and hopefully have some decent discussion with their friends . i”ve said to them it will be a hard road but worth it
regards
Karl Penna, Mapleton, Qld