The IPA team interview Peter Ridd. He explains that what’s happening on the Great Barrier Reef with coral bleaching is a normal cycle. He tells his story of being censured at James Cook university, but admits the state of free speech at universities in Australia is non-existent — even after his win. They discuss how we might reform science with audits (universities are almost a lost cause). We’ll probably never know how many scientists think similar thoughts to Peter Ridd. We know that they’ll need a $250,000 legal fund if they say so.
UPDATE: Importantly — Ridd says that the admin are still utterly convinced they are right. They have no remorse, no recognition of why they were wrong. Does this mean admin staff now decide what science is, not Profs? Apparently so. They hold the purse strings, not the Profs. Power follows the money. Indeed, JCU has no commitment to free speech; they’ve now removed the clause that ensured Ridd won. In their minds, their mistake was not in being draconian, but being careless with legal clauses. The Deep State tightens its stranglehold on science.
Peter Ridd: Of all the ecosystems in the world, the reef is one that’s best at adapting to climate change.
My jotted notes:
6:00 mins: Bleaching statistics
- In 2016, 8% of the reef died, but regeneration is rapid — it can recover in a year.
- The general rule for corals is the hotter the better. If you want to see the worst corals, go and see Sydney Harbour. There are even corals in Scotland. If it was warmer, there would be more corals. Temperatures for coral go right up to 38C in the red sea and corals are happy with that.
11:00 mins: The story of him starting to speak out in the media
17:00 mins: The replication crisis in modern science
- The problem is that there are no consequences when scientists are wrong. There is a drive to publish, and the more the better, but as much as half the research may be wrong, and there are no consequences for that.
- If you can’t replicated it, it’s not science, but the ARC (Australian Research Council) has a policy of only supporting new work, and thus won’t fund a replication study. Ridd tried to get funding to replicate other work, but the ARC wouldn’t do it.
- At its core it’s about quality assurance. If you don’t have a process you can rely on, even if you turn out to be right, you don’t have something worth having, you can’t rely on it if you can’t trust the process.
21:00 mins: the story of how James Cook Uni started to clamp down.
27:00 mins: The court judgement.
35:00 mins: what Peter Ridd’s learnt about academia
- That sadly, most academics don’t care about academic freedom. There’s no contrition. No remorse. The university system is in need of massive reform.
- The lesson from my case is that no academic can speak up.
- The professors have no power any more, no budget. Universities are controlled by administrators.
- We have to get other people into academia – diverse views.
- Peter Ridd relied on a clause 13.3, which has now been removed from JCU. It’s worse at Sydney Uni.
- How do we reform science…
h/t Jennifer Marohasy
It seems I am the first to comment !
What an honor !
What to say ?
First, a big thank you to Peter Ridd for speaking out an d setting the standards for good scientific research and open scientific debate in universities.
Second, Lots of so called scientists & fools will keep on trying to ignore and silence Peter Ridd and set standards that reek of censorhsip and quackery. But their attempt todo so will be fought.
Third : The Australian Research Council should be sacked.. If they will not fund research that attempts to replicate the scientific conclusions of other scientists, they do NOT understand the nature of research. Sacking the ARC is something that Morrison and this government can & should do as soon as possible.
631
It’s all part of The Agenda [2030].
It’s very interesting that JCU has removed the clause which bit the administrators. All universities through their administrators will now be combing their own contracts to ensure no member of their staff of `paid slaves’ can bite them in the same way.
There will be no dissension. Management will reign/rule supreme, ie: the official line decreed by management to support the propaganda and stay on story will succeed. Slaves have no rights.
One bright note on Australia’s horizon: it is no longer the only crash test dummy: the Irish Republic is about to take up that wonderful mantle and step up to the social deformation.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/06/20/ireland-ban-cars-climate-mass-migration/
How many years will it be before internal rebellion will rise up?
(It’s the bit about all the new taxes to enforce obedience and discourage individual independence from the serfs/slaves … )
King Richard II is still the most despised king in English history over 600 years later. Thatcher tried a similar tax which was almost immediately labelled a Poll Tax. The original Poll Tax by Richard’s advisors triggered open and overt rebellion. Interestingly, Thatcher’s tax was removed/cancelled before open rebellion arose.
The Irish Republic is going to be interesting to watch. Public transport will stagger and may even collapse.
How much loss of living standards will the population tolerate?
And, given that the politicians almost always get it wrong, where will that extra immigration come from? Will there be friction? Fraction? Rebellion?
In what time? 5 years? Less?
Will this presage the return of the `IRA’ but this time fighting an internal rebellion? ….
We certainly live in Interesting Times.
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Ive wondered about that….my thinking is that the Elite, if they feel sufficiently threatened, will engineer a conflict of sufficient magnitude to distract attention through diverting peoples energies, and also “mop up” the troublemakers…
You have to think like blood-thirsty machiavallians to understand the Elite…
220
George Orwell said, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
Such revolutions will not be tolerated by the puppet masters.
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Original Steve…IMO that’s what CAGW is…the manufactured ultimate threat…there can hardly be a greater one for those who swallow it…to make the populace clamor for ‘authorities’ to do whatever it takes …to them..to liberate them from the threat.
And so… many Australians would rather lose their freedom …sovereignty…their children’s futures…everything ….rather than do a bit of thinking and research for themselves…or even just deploy commonsense.
The idea that it could happen that some in the world would resort to military conflict over this issue has certainly been posited…by European CAGW-committed official Han-Werner Sinn in his original Green Paradox essay.
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There is more to this than engineering “a little conflict”, this has strong overtones of genoc!de. Herd everyone into cities and then starve them. They will be worse off than during the potato famine, none will have a patch of dirt.
I strongly believe that cities will become death camps in a zero emissions age. Whatever population the world had during the agrarian age will still be all the world can support again under that scenario.
I’m not accusing the Irish pollies of being in on it, they are simply useful id!ots. Maybe the Irish jokes are based on fact and we Aussies have never outgrown our convict mentality either.
90
Murphy is stuck in a major traffic jam just outside Dublin on the M50 motorway, nothing is moving.
Suddenly a Garda knocks on the window. Murphy rolls down his window and asks the officer, “What’s going on?”
The Garda says: “Dubliners, who have been told by the Green members of the Dáil Éireann that they must convert to EVs, have kidnapped several Green DTs. They’re asking for a €30 million in ransom, otherwise they’re going to douse them with petrol and set them on fire. We’re going from car to car taking up a collection.”
Murphy asks, “On average how much is everyone giving?”
Garda: “So far? About 2 litres.”
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LOL
Now THAT is Irish humour.
60
Thanks Sophocles. I’ve just added this to the post, so people don’t miss what’s really happening here.
UPDATE: Importantly — Ridd says that the admin are still utterly convinced they are right. They have no remorse, no recognition of why they were wrong. Does this mean admin staff now decide what science is, not Profs? Apparently so. They hold the purse strings, not the Profs. Power follows the money. Indeed, JCU has no commitment to free speech; they’ve now removed the clause that ensured Ridd won. In their minds, their mistake was not in being draconian, but being careless with legal clauses. This is the Deep State strangling science.
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Jo I read about that clause being removed..
But the clause is still in the contract of every academic who signed the contract before this clause was removed.. I wonder how many hundreds those academics are….
They have not solved their problems..Just tried to shut the gate after the horses had left already.. And created a NEW problem..They have shown their absolute desire to silence any one who disagrees with their interpretation of the science….
What an absolute disgrace for a university..
The JCU should be de-funded by the federal government until freedom of speech is restored and the monsters who drive this censorship at the JCU are sacked and sent to the legal cleaners for their waste of public funds in
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Bill in OZ: They’d have to defund all the universities…since it appears to be across the board.
The audits IPA talks of would be great…but won’t happen IMO.
Tony Abbott tried to get that done and was kneecapped and then politically assassinated for it by his own party that’s now …..with GetUp’s help… put a final stake through his heart.
The only thing that will change the universities’ totalitarian attitudes IMO is a withdrawal of paying students …by their parents…but with most of that cohort being Chinese, the parents may be afraid to do so…and anyway the Chinese government would probably step in with more funding and interference than now…since Australian universities being as subversive as they are now and as draconian re the CAGW agenda …is massively in the interests of Communist China.
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Bill in Oz @ # 1.1.2.1:
That’s easy to fix; consider:
You are the administrators and management of the University. You have a problem with some “trouble makers you have to fix.
So you make a department or school “redundant.” Yes, a whole department. If the management of that department/school are useful and consenting, they are moved off into “planning and design” work — call what you like. They plan a new degree and the department/school to support it. This doesn’t even have to be kept secret, just the bit about this being the replacement for the one you’ve dead-ended.
Everybody is paid off at the contracted rate (if they are lucky enough to have a redundancy clause in their contract) and dismissed on the due date, say towards the end of the academic semester.
In the new year, a new department — with a very different name — is created. New papers appear on the old degree. If necessary, a whole new degree structure is created and approved. (The approval process burns up some extra time which can be useful.) Staff are taken on, many may be the more biddable from the pool of ex-staff. New papers are created and approved.
Yes, it’s costly, expensive, but when the taxpayer foots the bill, and, conveniently, your potential and real troublemakers are gone, then you are keeping your academic offerings up to date, moving your degrees and courses to modern requirements both commercial, industrial and student driven. (<– add your own favourite platitudes).
Grant generous cross-credits to the new degree for those students with credits from the no longer offered degree — that keeps them happy. You, as the administrators, who strangely were not made redundant, are doing your job by continuing to `future-proof' the institution through up-dating the University's offerings.
But the result: a bunch of staff are now on the all new contracts without managerial bum-biting clauses, no redundancy agreement (in case you have to do this again), and the contracts can be cancelled with a specific term of notice for any reason or none at all. You’ve Knee-capped staff with ideas of having rights …
In a year or two’s time, turn another department over in the same way. Pick off all the ones where there is discernible discontent first.
Eventually your whole university is on the new contracts. You earn high political plaudits — perhaps even knighthoods — for your improvements to tertiary education.
40
If Deep State means leftist academics then I suppose so. Vice chancellors are former academics and so are some of the other senior administrators (eg pro vice chancellors).
Professor Sandra Harding, Vice Chancellor of James Cook University, doubtless has no remorse and I image that she still feels that she acted correctly. But she did not act alone, or of her own volition. She was prompted by other senior academics at the university, who objected to Peter’s criticisms of their reef studies.
Peter Ridd says that universities are a virtual monoculture in terms of social and political outlook. That is the real problem and he does know how to fix it.
Peter thinks Science can be fixed, but it may require government intervention, such as insisting on some funding for verification studies. Getting the verification studies published is the next hurdle.
90
Read this Agenda 30 story, no doubt other states have the blue dot sustainability planning, not just confirmed to Queensland?
https://morningmail.org/the-latest-snag-for-queensland-rural-land-owners/#more-103640
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Which makes the pronouncements coming from our universities worth what exactly?
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ExWarmist @ # 1.1.4 said:
Yes.
20
Slightly off topic : Have just awoken to frost al over the grass and paddocks here at Mt Barker. It’s the sixth day of morning frosts since last Tuesday…Frozen pipes this morning as well
It’s a a real “Climate Emergency”. We urgently need lost more Gorebull warming here in the Adelaide Hills. Otherwise we will freeze this Winter..
(Sarc off )
220
No corals in the seas close by in South Australia ..
No Gore Bull warming
And the poor corals all died off
Yet another extinction event from want of Gore Bull warming.
Who can we blames and shame ?
90
Wood heater conditions here on the NSW Mid North Coast Bill, no more global warming this winter.
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Bill,
You are not suffering alone in Mt Barker in ‘sunny’ SA.
Try Sazons coffee to warm you up
John (in Mt Barker)
40
Hi John
I like Sazon and know Jose the owner. But I’ve been casting my net wider recently.
There is a lovely new cheerful cafe in Nairne.
It’s called Pallet”
Spent a lovely hour there yesterday staying warm
As of this morning we have had 7 days of frosts on the trot.
I’m considering doing a page on Change.com
Petitioning for more “Global Warming Please”
Or perhaps prayers to the Global Warming Goddess would do the trick ?
But I fear neither is worth the effort.
It’s just Winter in the Adelaide Hills !
Hooray for Winter !
10
Has Ridd actually presented any evidence ?
114
Have you?
90
Yes he has.
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I did mean peer reviewed evidence.
But that, of course, is just part of the kabal.
16
Peer Reviewed science is a joke.
The only thing it guarantees is the continuation of Research Funding.
Any other issue is sub-critical.
Might as well have Pier Reviews, where two blokes go down to the lake, sit on the end of the wharf and peer at the paper occasionally which drinking a dozen beers each.
It must be hard being Feter PitzRoy’s understudy.
KK
42
KK
You attack peer review because it continually shoots holes in your efforts, that’s the centuries old scientific method for you . Also, support from The Institute of Gina Rinehart is not something you’d put on your CV.
14
Me262 was an interesting piece of science but I note that you are a historian.
At all levels, Klimate Change™PRC. is a scientific joke.
Get a job.
30
Michael 262:
The High Priests of the Hockey Stick and CAGW at CRU and NASA have clearly spelt out in their Climategate emails…their efforts and intentions to very deliberately corrupt the peer review process…by ostracising non-compliant journals[ non-compliant in that they refuse to blacklist dissenting research that is]…having their editors replaced…putting sceptic scientists through the mincer before eventually rejecting their work.
Around the world ..except in a few brave governments like those of Hungary..Poland Czechoslovakia etc…the ones with deadly experience of Socialism…fearful or duped governments or opportunistic Socialist governments seeing a chance for Global Socialism…go to the lengths of denying FOI that citizens are supposed to have by law…to the lengths of setting up phony inquiries headed by people with personal monetary vested interests in continuation of the scam unfettered by questions from the people…of allowing universities to leave fraud allegations uninvestigated…of refusing to be audited…to the lengths of allowing publicly-funded scientists to destroy or ‘lose’ raw data…of refusing to allow other scientists to attempt to replicate their studies etc etc.
You’d think this wasn’t the ‘most profound transition’ in world history [as warmists describe it themselves when it’s useful]… would you not?
Do you truly think the actions of warmists were according to ‘scientific method’..in declaring consensus…shutting down questions on the science…refusing access to raw data to dissenting scientists…calling ‘science closed’/’over/’settled’ before most of the research had even been done…with many of the most important elements of climate science unknown…clouds not researched..earth’s climate sensitivity unknown…whether feedbacks were positive or negative unknown[ hugely game-changing]…with temperature of 70% of earth …oceans…unable to be reliably measured?
If warmists want science to work that way…we can only look forward to a new Dark Age and chaos.
40
KK
So the scientific method is corrupt too ?, great, all we have left is Jo.
10
mickey, iff you knew anything about the “scientific method”…
.. you would know that “climate science” does not, and never has had, anything remotely resembling the scientific method
70
“that’s the centuries old scientific method for you “
Your ignorance is quite funny.
Peer review nowadays refers to “acceptance for journal publication”.
It is NOT part of the real scientific method.
But from your comments it is patently obvious that you have never been anywhere near any real science.
40
Little mick doesn’t have ANY peer reviewed evidence for warming by increased atmospheric CO2.
He is GULLIBLE little tyke.
60
Andy
Where have you been ?, just look up The CSIRO or NASA sites.
What have the Catholics done to you ?, it’s left some deep scars.
14
Can you cite the actual evidence?
40
You have ZERO EVIDENCE of human caused “climate change”, mickey !
I bet you can’t cite one bit of actual EMIRICAL evidence from either of those sites.
You remain, as always, gullibly EMPTY. !
30
and WT* have Catholics got to do with it ?
“Definition of tyke. 1a : a small child.”
10
Andrew,
As you’re the one making the Trump like claim, where is your sovereign, empirical evidence that:
“climate science” does not, and never has had, anything remotely resembling the scientific method” ?
13
Poor little mickey..
When you look in the mirror do you see you blank VACANT eyes staring back at you.
Do you know the steps of the scientific method?
Hypothesis, test, and in climate science result is … FAIL, FAIL, FAIL.
You know that you are INCAPABLE of producing any evidence to back up the most basic fallacy of the climate change meme.
Produce empirical evidence of warming by atmospheric CO2 ..
… or DON’T 😉
Just stop your mindless yabbering.
40
““climate science” does not, and never has had, anything remotely resembling the scientific method”
Mickey.. EVERY prediction made by “climate science™” has FAILED to come to pass.
Hot spot.. NOPE.
Zero arctic Sea Ice… NOPE, just the normal AMO cycle.
Warming.. NOPE, the only atmospheric warming in the last 40 years has come from Ocean events like El Ninos. The only surface warming is from UHI effect and data infilling and manipulation.
Sea level rise…. NOPE.. steady as she goes. no acceleration, no CO2 warming signal whatsoever.
Extreme weather.. NOPE.. Cyclone and Hurricane data is currently rather low.
Come on, give one “climate prediction” that has come true without massive data adjustment ..
WE ARE WAITING !
This much FAILURE would, in any real science, cause a total re-think of the whole hypothesis…
… but nope, they just double down with even more outlandish fantasy garbage, push their FAILED predictions further into the future, adjust data to try to meet their FAILED predictions, and refuse to even consider that real data shows that they are highly likely to be totally and absolutely WRONG.
The actions of “climate science™”, in no possible way, even remotely resembles the scientific method.
30
Michael262 asked:
Michael:
That’s trivially easy to check: use a search engine and look for his papers. All his published ones will be found. Because he is a full professor and not a junior researcher, he should have a good list …
You shouldn’t have asked such a lazy question.
(DDG seems to do a better job of searching the literature than Google Scholar.)
You can regard all his published papers as, at the very least, foundational evidence.
40
Soph,
Don’t be so obtuse, I meant relevant to his claims.
And, as you should know , Sophocles once said ” The fool looks for proof of his ideas and then stops asking questions “
12
You truly are the most GULLIBLE of fools, are you not, mickey.
You have ZERO-EVIDENCE, and you know it.
We are waiting ! 🙂
40
Do try to keep up, little mick. !
50
Michael, You have come here to troll
And you are being treated as a troll
And this get just contempt and disdain
From most folks replying to you.
Peter Ridd has been researching the Marine science of the Great Barrier Reef for around 30 years.
He is a peer reviewed published researcher.
Your attempt to suggest that he is not a legitimate scientist
Is a blow below the belt
Much in the style of the JCU’s treatment of Peter Ridd himself .
“No, Don’t examine the evidence.
Just try to kill the messenger.”
Underhand dishonesty Michael.
40
Thanks for the summary.
Next:
“ If you want to see the worst corals, go and see Sydney Harbour. [Ridd]
Not temperature related; as the position in the text could imply. Maybe the “worst” is because of chemicals and waste in the Harbour.
Ideas, anyone?
Thanks.
100
Sydney Harbour has been cleaned out with major improvements observed by Dr David Suzuki who had earlier predicted that life would greatly diminished by 2000 commenting on the poor water quality however, during the early 1990s during a visit to Sydney he was complimentary about the improvement.
I rowed on the Harbour during the 1960s and clearly remember the foul odours in parts near Homebush Bay and other places where factories including an oil refinery operated, but no longer in business.
100
The harbour is good, not like the bad old days of raw sewage and tanneries, but I’ll draw your attention to a bleaching event.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-19/coral-bleaching-found-in-sydney-harbour,-rising-sea-temperatures/7336826
Since then the coral has recovered.
101
It seems quite bizarre to me that a climate scientist (TM) can insist that a coral bleaching event in Sydney Harbour is due to warmer water!
He admits that it was an El Niño year, ie less cloud cover, lower water levels and also notes that all the bleaching occurred on the most superficial layer, ie out of the water more of the time.
Yet his fixation on water temperature is so firmly planted that he is unable to consider the more likely explanation that coral bleaching is due to drying out and UV, as the name bleaching clearly implies.
On top of all that no data on water temperatures was given.
120
That’s the nature of the beast, coral WILL grow upwards until, like Icarus, it gets too close to the sun. In this case bleaching is no more than pruning a tree.
120
Here is a recent abstract on the bleaching and they say that harbour water was a couple of degrees above the average max.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-019-01797-6
20
I wonder what that means exactly? Maxima is plural. How many long term mean summer maxima can there be? Is >2C common, rare or unprecedented?
I am still sceptical that warmer water causes coral bleaching (although Peter Ridd does say that on the intertview).
60
Would you believe it was a marine heatwave? These boffins say humans caused it, but I’m fairly sure it has something to do with El Nino.
https://www.imas.utas.edu.au/news/news-items/study-finds-201516-tasman-sea-marine-heatwave-a-sign-of-things-to-come
30
Informative site for Great Barrier Reef water temperature : https://seatemperature.info/great-barrier-reef-water-temperature.html
30
Thanks Bill,
They give a daily temp for the GBR.
That is a long way, Torres Strait in the North to Lady Ellis Is in the South. There must be a temperature gradient over that distance. So the quoted figure is some sort of estimate.
50
It seems like I’ve been hearing about the dying Great Barrier Reef for 50 years.
I assume the predictions will last another 50 years ?
I’m glad to hear they’re still around.
The only coral I’ve ever seen were in a fish tank, and also near Key West Florida.
A recent study says coral can easily adopt to changing conditions, as you already know in Australia :
https://elonionbloggle.blogspot.com/2019/06/coles-et-al-2018-coral-adapt-to-higher.html
160
You’ve been hearing about it for 50 years because it is 50 years since the first COT outbreak did massive damage to the GBR. No reef was spared from Cape York to southern tip. It has never recovered.
12
Hanrahan:
I was not referring to COT.
I don’t recall even hearing about Crown of Thorns Starfish 40 or 50 years ago.
They seemed to be under the radar until about 20 or 30 years ago.
I should have specified claims of: FUTURE CORAL DAMAGE FROM CLIMATE CHANGE.
Does the fact that some starfish eat coral relate to climate change in any way ?
While I’m sorry to know some starfish eat coral, I’m also sorry to know polar bears eat seals, and lions eat antelopes, and I eat hamburgers.
Nature is so vicious I can’t watch nature shows on TV anymore, except for “Crikey, It’s The Irwins” which I consider one of the best shows on American TV, especially starlet Bindi Irwin, under five feet tall, with about ten feet of charisma.
00
From the JCU Enterprise Agreement :-
13.3. The parties note that the Code of Conduct is not intended to detract from Clause 14, Intellectual Freedom.
14.1. JCU is committed to act in a manner consistent with the protection and promotion of intellectual freedom within the University and in accordance with JCU’s Code of Conduct.
14.2. Intellectual freedom includes the rights of staff to:
• Pursue critical and open inquiry;
• Participate in public debate and express opinions about issues and ideas related to their
respective fields of competence;
• Express opinions about the operations of JCU and higher education policy more generally; • Be eligible to participate in established decision making structures and processes within
JCU, subject to established selection procedures and criteria;
• Participate in professional and representative bodies, including unions and other
representative bodies.
14.3. All staff have the right to express unpopular or controversial views. However, this comes with a responsibility to respect the rights of others and they do not have the right to harass, vilify, bully or intimidate those who disagree with their views. These rights are linked to the responsibilities of staff to support JCU as a place of independent learning and thought where ideas may be put forward and opinion expressed freely.
The most worrying part of Peter’s interview is the fact that JCU have now removed Clause 13.3 from the Code of Conduct, meaning that the Code of Conduct now trumps Clause 14, Intellectual Freedom.
As Peter said, they have learned nothing from the loss of the court case and still believe that their actions in dismissing him were justified. Tragic!
360
It will be for a court to decide if the removal of 13.3 can actually undermine or weaken the effect of 14 Intellectual Freedom, Recall the High Court’s ‘liberal’ interpretation of the Constitution regrding proposed advertising bans in the few days before elections ( under Hawke I recall). The basis was that to have free and fair elections there had to be open access for comments and advertising.
I think if you have a clause enabling ‘intellectual freedom’ then some other instrument that effectively undercuts that is little more than a scheme of arrangement to achieve such an outcome rather than being of merit in itself or such an outcome would be an unreasonable application of say a Code of Conduct. In other words the Code of Conduct cannot unreasonably frustrate Intellectual Freedom.
I am not a lawyer but….
30
i guess it would come down to interpretation of ‘harass, vilify, bully or intimidate’ in a particular case..but it would seem that Peter Ridd himself…and no one else…. has been subjected to those particular treatments.
20
It drives me crazy that what Peter Ridd and Nils Axel Morner and others have to say is just ignored by MSM. Alan Jones (radio 2GB, Sydney) seems to be the only exception but it just gets stuck at that point.
Jones has interviewed both Morner and Lomborg in the last couple of weeks.
What they have to say, along with Peter Ridd is sensational stuff and yet nothing appears to happen. If this was medical research it would be on every Television news bulletin and plastered across the front pages of the Metropolitan daily newspapers.
We have a couple of lunatics glueing themselves to the roadway in Brisbane protesting about human extinction or some such rubbish and they get saturation coverage.
It’s just maddening.
Keep up the good work Jo, we need you.
441
‘ … and yet nothing appears to happen.’
I have faith in Lachlan Murdoch (Sky) and Antony Cartalano who has just acquired the old Fairfax stable. The times they are a changin’.
110
el gordo,
My fear trumps your faith, at least in my mind. The corporates are being bullied to pull advertising from commercial media, by the likes of the sleeping giants, should they not toe the party line. As well, the corporates are being overrun by a malady known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). They are employing neophytes fresh out of university to work in PC virtue signalling departments.
We have all known about this malady in government bureaucracies for years but it is spreading rapidly into private enterprise now.
Dr.Jeremy Sammutt has written an interesting piece in this weekend’s Australian Newspaper about it. He has just released a new book entitled “Corporate Virtue Signalling” . I have only read a precis but that was enough to send a shiver down my spine.
We need some big names with big money to take up this battle.
We laughed when PC first arrived and said that’ll never happen.
We laughed when PC “gone mad” arrived and said that’ll never happen.
Time to stop laughing, methinks.
170
Sky News won the Coalition election and there is a better than even chance that the Murdocracy will buy WIN.
Catalano’s intentions are unknown.
10
There has been a lot of coverage about universities in The Australian recently, with the Chancellors apparently agreeing that the French report should be adopted. However, the Vice-Chancellors and their union have strongly opposed the adoption of this report. In the end it may be up to the Federal govt to step in since the universities are publicly funded.
60
Trump has told the federally funded unis to pony up on free speech, or lose funding.
We could do the same here…..sack all VCs and Chancellors, require them to sign a “Right of Free Speech for all academics” clause in thier contract under pain of unemployment ( as such that underpins democracy ) or go look for a job in a 3rd world dictatorship….
That would sort them out.
80
Then you will like/love Kip Hansen’s op-ed in Wattsupwiththat this week.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/06/22/a-national-narrative-for-media-on-climate-change/
September will be a month of infamy… the month of global LIES.
So do your best to hang onto your sanity.
10
I agree Aussie Pete.
Most journalists apparently don’t give a damn about a lot of things…all of them things that serve to disempower Australians and empower a LW juggernaut towards Leftist ends …no matter which government is in power.
They’ve had open slather with this ‘Australia as sacrificial goat’ project since their political assassination of Tony Abbott in 2015…a few ups and downs but they’re still on course.
Eg…Turnbull’s ‘profound transition’ continues at a blistering pace behind the scenes according to reports of the huge intermittents projects either under way or in the planning stages….myriad contracts locked in etc.
The Morrison government dodges talking about their energy policy …so presumably when the last few coal plants are about to close forever….it will just be ‘oops…what happened?
They’ll justify it by saying the whole thing’s ‘consumer-driven’.
IMO the Morrison government [ or the Photios faction dominating Cabinet anyway]…actually wants Australia to be the only developed democracy 100% reliant on a 100% weather-dependent electricity system….when all of our competitors have the security of abundant baseload….every one of them…forever.
The question is will they go all the way by ending coal exports and decimating agriculture…necessarily kneecapping military security and therefore massively weakening the US Alliance in dangerous times?
If not why not …since they say we must do as PARIS says…despite the fact that …even when ratified…it’s not supposed to be binding ?
The other question is why would they want to do Australia such harm…and that can only be..IMO…that they have the same internationalist mindset that the Remainers have in the UK…our country’s sovereignty means zilch to them …because being part of a fashionable group and having that group’s approval …especially if it provides a great personal image to display….is everything.
10
My hope is that Peter Ridd is able to take heart from the support given by so many concerned citizens of Australia.
An ugly event that has exposed the current state of our Universities, the moral decay in Australian public life, and the Politically Appointed “Ring Ins” who are still in place in universities and statutory government bodies.
MalEx444 has left a legacy of hate towards the good people of this nation and this needs to be righted.
And can we also have our $444 Million back and an investigation into this bizarre transfer of our nation’s cash by an elected official!
We have lost our Democracy and have effectively been Enslaved.
KK
311
KK a Good proportion of the slave shave revolted !
And Malcom is no longer in politics !
60
It’s true Bill that Malco is in one sense, “no longer in politics”.
Another side of the problem has been shown up on this thread:
http://joannenova.com.au/2019/06/peter-ridd-the-great-barrier-reef-has-about-the-same-amount-of-coral-as-in-1985/#comment-2153771
Malcolm is just the tip of the iceberg and the rot that has to be cleaned out and/or dismantled is Immense.
We have been taken for a big ride.
KK
40
Off Topic Keith but I fear you might need to change your “signature”, given that it could be mistaken for that of Shorten’s “attack puppy”.
10
Kerry Keneally, or as you suggest KK, is a reminder of why we need a reframing of politics in Australia.
I have thought of changing to better reflect my current circumstances: how does Old Keith sound.
Being old is not necessarily a problem but I do feel Tired when thinking about the lack of progress made by humanity in my lifetime. So may be TK, but definitely not Kalm Kool Keith.
KK
10
And scientists wonder why they are increasingly compared to the media when it comes to trustworthiness (at least amongst those who are aware). And if that distrust is growing now, just wait until the global warming farce is fully revealed in a few years. How long will it take for science to become respected once again?
190
Here are two examples of exactly what I mean, both articles from the Age.
A completely irrelevant story from what the click bait heading suggested. This is another attempt to try and upsell electric vehicles as if they prevent health problems.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/how-a-sore-throat-drove-daryl-to-buy-an-electric-car-20190622-p5208q.html
Very selective research and when you look at the accompanying graph, the research separates alcohol and every other drug by type. Put all illicite drugs together and they far outweigh alcohol. This is an attempt by the Age and the researchers to play down the very real drug issue affecting all of Australia and Australians.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/alcohol-causes-most-overall-harm-of-any-drug-says-study-20190620-p51zo3.html
90
This is a great quote from the article, and should be framed as a fine example of the “rush” to embrace the lunacy of the extreme-green movement :
“Put another way, about one in every 1800 passenger vehicles registered in Victoria is an electric vehicle.
That’s about the proportion of people in the state who were born in the central American country of El Salvador, or the percentage of the population aged 98 or above.”
120
The first thing you’ll notice is that the government has priced tobacco out of the market, so they could do the same with alcohol but they won’t.
The illicit intoxicants are all different and for research purposes cannot be lumped into the same basket.
50
The first thing my wife said when I pointed out the alcohol article was why didn’t the researchers separate the alcohol types into spirits, beers, ciders, wines etc like they did with the drugs. They didn’t for very obvious reasons.
80
Kava should be lumped with alcohol.
31
And Daryl still has his sore throat.
No mention of medical advice either. A bit like all the alarmists who believe the non scientists in regard to climate change.
50
Unfortunately scientist’s output is now sliced, diced and sexed up by the ‘science communications’ units and peddled to the media for their latest DEADLY STORY fix and its the scientist who get the blame.
Some more crap in the Age yoday about sea level rise causing damage in Port Phillip Bay and Gippsland. It quotes a SLR rate of 1 cm per year (20 cm in about 20 years) whereas the long term rate is about 3 mm per year. As I said, sexed up to maximise the headline punch.
30
Then prepare yourself for September.
Follow the link I left at #5.3 …
00
‘The general rule for corals is the hotter the better.’
We have a scoop, warm water doesn’t bleach coral, its a drop in sea level which exposes the corals to radiation for too long.
290
To be honest EG I would have thought that was bleeding obvious. That you had to say it shows I’m wrong.
30
The science is not settled, the Sydney Harbour discussion up thread suggests the bleaching there was an anomaly caused by a heatwave.
10
It’s a worry for a “free” society when it takes at least $250,000 to defend yourself in the case of Peter Ridd, or upwards of $1 million for Israel Folau. Seems the law is a bottomless pit, but lawyers are bottom feeders who rake in excessive profits. Charging at $1,000 per hour means that the longer any dispute goes on the greater the profit.
150
The legal team for Israel Folau is the same Stuart Wood that Peter Ridd used.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-06/israel-folau-sues-rugby-australia-for-breach-of-contract/11185064
However, Folau’s GoFundMe appeal has been closed down:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-24/israel-folau-gofundme-campaign-deleted/11240354
“The company said it would not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion.” So they exclude him!
10
“Universities are controlled by administrators”….This is the fundamental statement of all. I have seen it manifest and grow in a number of Universities over time. Simply look at the fastest growing sectors in Universities,..Admin and Bureaucracy. It is to the point now that Academics must complete all of their own admin and fulfill all administration tasks,…so what the hell are admin doing, except growing in number and thus, needing more admin to administrate and HR to help them all. If you want more proof look at the full time continuing roles at Universities, admin by far are the largest percentage with full time positions and they are deciding over research roles (which they are not capable of doing yet here we are) and as such all other roles are short term contract or casual (by far the most preferred as it means greater control of spending). Further, it is easier to spend $350k on a piece of equipment that is used for about 4 hours a year (direct knowledge of this) than is is to employ staff at any level. It is now a regular occurrence that PHD students, once that pass their first confirmation can refer to admin rather than their direct academic supervisor if there is a disagreement. Bureaucrats are notorious for being risk averse and this is being borne out by Peter Ridd’s case where the image of the behemoth and the money must be protected at all costs.
70
The simple fact is that there are way too many universities in the first world. And the universities are top heavy with administration devoted to rent seeking grants. Learning and research have become just a facade secondary to the promotion of the university organism.
20
Not really surprised, I live approximately 100 kms inland from the reef. When I had a quick look at average mean monthly temperature data for the period 1985 to 2018 for Charters Towers, I discovered a slight cooling from 24.3 to 24.0 degrees. Not bad for runaway global warming.
90
A bit cold in Charlies Trousers last few mornings?
40
They (lawyers) have a monopoly. That’s why monopolies of any sort are economically dangerous.
130
Australian is turning out too many law graduates and there is no work for them, so they’ll have to move sideways and become real estate agents.
70
Australia is turning out too many graduates full stop.
Higher education is a business. It is in the university’s interest to have students, not their interest to ensure Australia gets what it needs.
40
They become Labor politicians or ABC ‘comedians’.
20
I had a conversation with a person I wont name, who , assuming I understood correctly, and his info was correct, that such was the concern over freedom of speech at universities, that VCs have lost such control over that issue, and it has now been assumed by the Chancellors.
Whether that was a panic play by the Elite to ensure maintaining control, or a genuine attempt at getting freedom of speech back on track, I dont know…..time will tell.
If nothing chnages, you can effectively write of universities as pure indoctrination centres and fly the hammer and sickle flag over them….
101
Firstly I thought it was the Chancellors who demanded free speech at their meeting last week at Deakin Universities. The Vice Chancellors go along with the staff and groupthink. Secondly there are two universities, the science universities who concentrate on science and the vast bulk of the universities where people often attend only 8 hours a week and learn very little. Like an Emma Alberici’s economics degree where she never learned that taxation is on profits, not turnover. Chief Economics Correspondent for the ABC attacking the mining companies for massive turnover and no profits.
The second group is against free speech. Against Climate Change. Against everything frankly, simply because that it what they do and they fill the halls of Canberra and the cafes of the inner city with their socialistic dogma.
Dr. Peter Ridd is a physicist. He explains why they cannot speak out. To even dare to do so will bring the world crashing down on you. So it is clear that many of the eminent scientists who speak out are retired, independent, past caring. I personally have never read anything which made me think for a second that there was any truth in man made global warming. As for Climate Change, it is just an vaugue idea based on nothing. In Brietbart today, according to 24 year old US congresswoman AOC, the explosion at the oil refinery was Climate Change. What can you say? Climate Change is a fact free, science free zone.
110
Or to put it another way, the Chancellor position is ceremonial although they can be paid $6K per week.
The Vice Chancellor however is the Chief Executive of the Corporation and generally represents the views of his or her staff.
The Vice Chancellor is on an extraordinary salary around $32,000 a week. They will do nothing to jeapardise that.
70
Not sure about the entire story, but I believe a VC of a well-known Uni lives in a house paid for by the Uni. He then hires the house out for uni functions and pockets the money.
40
From the articles recently in The Australian, I believe you are correct. The unis are run by the Vice-Chancellors.
40
Take RMIT University in Melbourne, 90,000 students, 11,000 staff. Vice Chancellor Martin Bean on over $1,000,000 a year. I have no idea why such people are paid so much. Glyn Davis of Melbourne University is over $1.56Million a year and it seems to be going up by about $100,000 a year. Why?
However you cannot expect the recipients of such inexplicable public largesse to rock the boat. After all the PM Scott Morrison is on $534,000 a year. There are even 10,000 public servants in Brussels who earn more than the British Prime Minister and the salary of the US president is only $400,000 a year, even if there is free rent and transport.
70
You can understand the entire public service of the EU countries are against Brexit, especially the unelected officials who write 60% of Britain’s laws and are not accountable to the British public or parliament. Britain objected formally to 300 such laws in one year. Every objection was ignored. BREXIT is essential for democracy to survive in Europe. The takeover of our universities is similarly dangerous.
I read that 60% of US universities do not have a single Republican voter on staff, although how anyone knows that it hard to understand. And 98.4% of Washington DC voters voted for Hillary. They are hunting down the last 1.6%.
70
The EU is a hive construct as distinct from a cellular model family, village/neighbourhood, town, county, state, national construct. The two are incompatible.
20
OriginalSteve @ # 13:
That’s a cosmetic detail, OS. Chancellors are basically “big-name” figureheads. They can be easily replaced. They are the “fall guy.” They can “step down to pursue other interests/opportunities. It’s been a great pleasure to serve … blah blah blah” and they will be soon forgotten as the next one steps up.
VCs are where the real power resides … and they keep their heads well tucked in.
You don’t see VCs being interviewed all that often, and those which are, are very careful. (or should be)
20
science, replication – what do they matter?
Gender issues top Bonn climate summit
The Australian-21 Jun 2019
Australian officials attending climate change talks in Germany are being grilled on how the country is tackling global warming by addressing gender and indigenous issues…
70
ROFL!!!!!
90
read all about it!
23 Jun: Global Landscapes Forum: No shield stronger against climate change than rights
by Gabrielle Lipton
“When will we realize that the savior we’re waiting for is us? / We are the hope for the future because we are the future.” –Aka Niviâna, “We are the future”…
On 22–23 June 2019, more than 600 people from across the world gathered in at the Global Landscapes Forum (LINK) (GLF) in Bonn, Germany to rally behind a new approach to achieving this future – a future that is more inclusive and sustainable than the present – through the establishment of secure and proper rights for all.
Held alongside the UNFCCC’s Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB50), the GLF summit began with Niviâna’s poem to set the tone for two days focused on the rights of the world’s most important environmental stewards, who are also among the most threatened, criminalized, and rights-less: Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and youth…
https://news.globallandscapesforum.org/36755/no-shield-stronger-against-climate-change-than-rights/
11
When I hear stories like this, the image that springs to mind is some fringe eco-hippy get together that talks about auras and balloon waving to save the planet…..
50
not o/t because this is what Peter Ridd and the rest of us are up against.
just a couple of speakers from Day 1:
Global Landscapes Forum: Agenda
Saturday, 22 June 2019
Opening Plenary: Inspirational Leadership
includes:
***Alec Baldwin (video address), Actor and Environmental Activist
Landscape Talks – Earth Speakers
***Bill McKibben (video address), Author and environmentalist
The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use, dedicated to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement…
It is led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in collaboration with its co-founders UN Environment and the World Bank and Charter Members. Charter members: CIRAD, CIFOR, Climate Focus, Conservation International, Ecoagriculture Partners, The European Forest Institute, Evergreen Agriculture, FSC, GEF, IPMG, CIAT, ICIMOD, IFOAM – Organics International, INBAR, IUFRO, Rainforest Alliance, Rare, Rights and Resources Initiative, UN Environment, Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation part of Wageningen Research, World Agroforestry, World Resources Institute, WWF Germany, Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL), World Bank Group.
FUNDING PARTNERS
(German Govt) Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety;
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperaton & Development
EVENT SPONSORS
includes: Ford Foundation; GEF (Global Environment Facility); Carbon Offsets – Climate Neutral Event
https://events.globallandscapesforum.org/bonn-2019/agenda/#day-1
from Day 2:
Plenary: Whose Rights?
Alec Baldwin (video address), Actor and Environmental Activist
from Side Events:
A Just Future – Social Justice in a Changing Climate
On 20-21 June, two-days before the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Bonn 2019, 40 young people from around the world will gather in Bonn, Germany to embark on a journey where they will learn about rights, social equality and the climate crisis.
A two-day packed agenda, combined with the active involvement of participants during GLF Bonn 2019, will empower and train young leaders to adopt rights-based approaches in climate action, and champion rights for Indigenous peoples…
DOWNLOAD WORKSHOP AGENDA
https://events.globallandscapesforum.org/bonn-2019/youth/
31
South Park on Alec Baldwin, saving the planet by acting.
20
To OriginalSteve @# 14.2.1:
and don’t forget the crystals! OS! They’re so important!
To be sure you and your messages are in safe hands, you
have to pass your prayers on through the WTP Crystals to
ensure they are propagated to the whole world.
Only that way can your message get right around.
If you don’t have a WTP Crystal, just ask around the gathering.
Someone will have brought some … and you can acquire your very
own one at a very reasonable price.
WTP = What The Phooque …
10
The main-stream media operates in a similar manner.
There is a drive to publish first, and the
moresooner the better, but as much as half theresearchstories may be wrong, and there are no consequences for that.It’s bad enough that journalism cares more about being “first” than being “accurate;” but it’s worse when science places “simply publishing” above “publishing something that is true.”
80
It’s only about publishing first. If what you publish is rubbish it’s still around the world before Truth can even get its socks on. That’s what it’s all about.
30
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-23/wa-electricity-demand-set-for-first-fall-amid-rooftop-solar-boom/11234184
“The body that runs the national wholesale electricity market is forecasting demand for electricity from households and businesses in WA will fall for the first time as the extraordinary uptake of solar panels reshapes the power system.
“Key points:
“Operational consumption” of power is set to fall almost 4 per cent by 2027-28
“At the same time, the share of homes with solar panels is set to top 50 per cent
“The change highlights the financial problems facing power retailer Synergy
“In its latest report on the south-west wholesale electricity market, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said it was no longer expecting the use of power drawn from the grid to increase as the state’s population grew.
“Instead, AEMO said it was forecasting demand — or “operational consumption” — to fall almost 4 per cent between 2019–20 and 2027–28, bucking long-held assumptions that link power use to an economy’s size.
“At the heart of the operator’s latest forecast is the “extraordinary” take-up of rooftop solar power, with more than one in four homes in the south-west grid now having a solar system.
…………..
“Power stations forced to pay to stay online
“The most notable incentive was the renewable energy buyback scheme, which was administered by Synergy and regional provider Horizon Power and paid eligible customers 7.13 cents for every surplus unit of electricity their solar panels pumped back into the grid.
“Mr Davis said customers were paid the same rate for their surplus power regardless of how much or how little it was needed at various times of the day.
“An example of where this caused problems was the middle of the day, when solar output was at its highest but demand for electricity was often relatively low, especially in mild and sunny conditions in spring and autumn.
“In this scenario, Mr Davis said wholesale electricity prices were sometimes being driven into negative territory, meaning big fossil fuel-fired power stations were having to pay to stay online.
Does anyone have figures on whether there is a corresponding trend in grid instability increasing at the same rate as panel takeup?
30
We’re a wee bit luckier than the much-vaunted, fabulous, “national energy market”. Coz WA stands alone (not worth the cost of an interconnector across the Nullarbor) grid stability can be monitored a bit easier, and adjusted a bit quicker. Sure, there’s quite a LOT of home solar systems being installed, but the grid is not as big or as complicated as the so-called “national energy market”.
But my understanding of the issue is no doubt WAY less than that of Tony from Oz – Tony, are you able to add the key points, please?
30
Peter Ridd: The Great Barrier Reef has about the same amount of coral as in 1985
Damned by faint praise.
20
So on the basis of Ridds problem with peer review, how many of his papers are therefore rubbish also, or is he perfect.
13
22 Jun: UNFCCC: Experts to meet in Bonn to Drive Forward Action on Adaptation Finance
Accessible, adequate, and predictable finance is critical for developing and implementing adaptation action, from the local to the regional level, around the globe. Leading authorities on adaptation and finance will convene in Bonn on 25 and 26 June for the 2019 technical expert meeting on adaptation (TEM-A) to survey the adaptation finance landscape and discuss concrete actions that can help it better serve adaptation action for vulnerable countries, groups and communities. Now in its fourth and penultimate year, this year’s TEM-A is focusing on the topic of “Adaptation finance, including the private sector”…
The 2016 UNEP Adaptation Finance Gap Report (LINK) estimated that adaptation finance costs in 2030 are likely to range from USD 140-300 billion per annum, requiring finance that is approximately 6 to 13 times greater than international public finance for adaptation today…
The meeting is organized jointly by the Subsidiary Bodies, guided by the High-Level Champions, and conducted by the Adaptation Committee with the goal of bolstering adaptation action.
The meeting’s sessions are designed and led by six volunteer expert organizations, namely, the Green Climate Fund, the Stockholm Environment Institute, the UNEP-DTU Partnership, the Adaptation Fund, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, and the Climate Technology Centre and Network, with the Green Climate Fund volunteering to take on the overall coordination of the meeting.
LINKS Agenda, Live webcast etc
https://unfccc.int/news/experts-to-meet-in-bonn-to-drive-forward-action-on-adaptation-finance
20 Jun: UNFCCC: Food Experts Call for Climate-Friendly Diets
On the occasion of this year’s UN Sustainable Gastronomy Day, experts gathered at the Climate Change Conference in Bonn (to 27 June) to discuss the need to transform the way we produce and consume food. More sustainable practices in the food industry and more climate-friendly dietary habits are essential to achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Change Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals…
“The food sector is a strong lever to optimize human health and environmental sustainability”, said Ovais Sarmad, Deputy Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, at the event, organized in collaboration with the food industry experts. “It’s not about targeting any particular areas of the society, consumption and markets, it’s about innovation, raising awareness and taking action”, he said.
Science-based targets for healthy, sustainable diets
Keeping the food systems within planetary boundaries can be achieved through the adoption of science-based targets to measure and reduce emissions from the food sector, experts stressed.
“The only way to achieve the goals of Paris is to be able to track and monitor emissions. The tricky thing for food is that we don’t have that kind of monitoring process in place,” said Dr. Brent Loken, director of Science Translation at Norway-based EAT Foundation, who highlighted the need to integrate food into the solutions to climate change…
Science-based targets are increasingly gaining traction across the world, notably in the business sector…
Climate-friendly burger and shake…
Dr. Sarah Nischalke, Senior Researcher at the Center for Development Research of the University of Bonn, highlighted the benefits of the consumption of harmless and nutritious insects as a way to enhance food security and lower emissions…
Watch the full panel discussion here (LINK)…
https://unfccc.int/news/food-experts-call-for-climate-friendly-diets
20
No need for warmists to fret,
As corals are not under threat,
Thanks to Dr. Pete Ridd,
From research that he did,
To whom science now owes a great debt.
150
I was expecting Gee Aye to have something to say about this topic.
He has been conspicuously absent for many weeks.
40
What I do not understand is why scientists, other than “climatologies” are playing their role in this hoax ?
The normal human behaviour would be to object to shear imbalance in funding, media coverage, public interest, everything…
It is like nothing ever happens in this Universe besides temperature going up or down 0.1 degree a decade.
Do, say – metallurgists or child speech specialists want to survive in future?
Every time a scientists on TV talks about his/her subject it is somehow tied to catastrophic tomorrow.
20
Well… duh…
Seriously – anyone really that surprised? Science is under the control of the Globalists nowadays, and it’s used just like any other propaganda machine – to control the masses.
You can’t have truth and reality interfering in that “control”; can’t have anything that might make the mass-morons starts to think, even a little.
We are heading into a Dark Ages that will make the last one look like a minor eclipse.
70
Many Australian universities have taken steps to divest investments in mining companies, especially those involved in oil, gas and coal. They claim this is for ethical reasons. eg. http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2014-10-07/anu-joins-mining-divestment-campaign/5795922
On the other hand these institutions train engineers and geoscientists, many of whom will expect to find employment in these companies. They also readily accept research funding and scholarships from mining companies.
I find this investment behaviour quite hypocritical and another example of university administrator bullying.
Perhaps mining companies should have a similar policy when it comes to employment of graduates from universities with anti mining investment policies.
20
If there was ever a thread to give us a clear picture of our predicament it was this.
Centred around Jo’s response @ 1.1.2 there are important things being said that identify and detail the working of the Great Force that has taken over Australia and other, formerly Democratic, nations in a form of enslavement that has largely gone unacknowledged by taxpayers and voters.
The universities are just one of our National Treasures that are lost to the cause.
Every taxpayer now funds huge amounts of payments to university operations which are perhaps five times what a true university task would need.
The excess is vote buying from university staff and students.
Your taxes at work producing unnecessary graduates with skills that will never contribute to the national good.
On another point of attack, never forget that every Australian household is now paying an excess of $1,000 per year on manipulated electricity bills.
Others have recently pointed to the business choking that is another form of attack from all levels of government with red, green and other forms of tape.
We have lost our democracy to MalEx444 and associates.
The current Mo is only the least worse off the choices at the last election. He’s doing nothing.
We need this problem acknowledged and fixed.
KK
30
Scottish schools are also well advanced in outlawing dissension, as official policy:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kzEKw1YPec8
10
Let’s not fool ourselves, University Admin (code for apparatchiks with public service [political] roots) have always controlled Universities. For academics to be successful, they need to 1.) publish a lot, and 2.) have the “right” connections in the Admin. Point 1 might get you a position as a junior researcher. Point 2 is what counts to be able to move up the ranks – so career progression does not necessarily depend on how good you are as a researcher. And that’s where the problem lies – we need to know what kind of beasts we’re dealing with. They’re politicians not academics.
20
He even uses the phrase ‘fair dinkum’ at 15m25s
10
https://notrickszone.com/2019/06/24/coral-mortality-rates-higher-during-cold-periods-and-theres-been-recent-cooling-in-coral-environments/
In the coral habitats of the Western Indian Ocean, SSTs have cooled by -0.8°C since the 1980s (Watanabe et al., 2019).
It has long been established that exposure to extremely low temperatures induce coral bleaching and high mortality rates just as much as warm SSTs do.
Further, colder periods – which are associated with falling sea level, habitat diminution, and increased exposure to UV radiation – have been documented to coincide with dramatic reef “switch-off” phases (Yan et al., 2019, Humblet et al., 2019).
10
It’s no surprise that universities are run like public companies, that is the way they are now structured, meaning there is pressure to conform to what suits the direct interests of the institution. However in fact they are different to public companies in that they don’t get to choose who to employ, who to favour, who to train etc , simply by virtue of who fits into an academic culture. As training institutions, they are required to train irrespective of what benefits the academic institution directly, not not what benefits the individuals within it. This is different to a private company where there is no such requirement.
To take an example, a company is not required to train someone to leave the company, whereas academic institutions often are. This creates a potential conflict of interest since individuals will be tempted to only train and teach and structure research according to what directly benefits the institution and themselves, not greater society. This has always been a problem, and has caused much damage in history before.
How to resolve these things however I’m not too sure, but part of it lies in community representation-in other words democratic principles.
00