JCU appeals Ridd decision: James Cook Uni vows to waste more funds in quest to stamp out opinions

JCU protects reputations not the reef

PEter Ridd, Free speech in Australia.

….

Despite losing on all 17 points in a case that should never have gone to trial —

Sarah Elks, The Australian:

James Cook University is appealing a decision …  Federal Court documents reveal JCU has briefed one of Australia’s top barristers, Bret Walker SC, to argue it was legal for the north Queensland university to sack Dr Ridd last year after he publicly criticised its climate change science.

Physics professor Dr Ridd will on Monday launch an online bid for crowd-funding to help pay his legal costs, asking for an extra $1.5m, after supporters already tipped in $260,000 to help fund his unfair dismissal claim. Dr Ridd has spent $200,000 of his own money.

“It’s diabolically expensive because we expect it to go all the way to the High Court,” he said. “In the end, this is a battle for academic freedom. It’s about not allowing universities to stifle free speech.

James Cook Uni will dig deeper into taxpayer funds instead of doing research, in order to protect the reputation of overpaid bureaucrats:

Liberal senator James Paterson tells Alan Jones: “It looks like, so far, James Cook University has spent almost $2 million in order to silence the free speech of one of their own academics. “It’s an outrageous case.”  – 2GB Alan Jones and James Paterson.

What’s the aim here? To protect the reef or protect the belief?

This case has already broadcast to the world that no Australian academic feels free to express doubt over the climate cult. How many have come out in defense of Peter Ridd? Not even one? Ridd’s crime was to talk about the replication crisis in science, to question “trusted institutions” and write satirically “for your amusement”. He helped expose manipulated photos of reef fish. He’s exactly the researcher the Barrier Reef needs. Instead he’s been thrown out for being the whistleblower.

Because this is the high court, it’s potentially a bonfire of money about to be burnt. The only winners are lawyers. Taxpayers, skeptics and the environment can only lose if the case goes ahead. Before that happens, let’s run a campaign to ensure free speech at universities and to sack any VC that won’t support that.

Now is the time to outflank them. Let’s get all that money back into research, not yachts for lawyers.

Instant fix: No more Taxpayer funds for any university that won’t protect free speech

Here’s the campaign skeptics, scientists and taxpayers must run:

No more funds for JCU until it guarantees free speech.

This could all be solved so quickly. Since losing the case JCU has changed its employment contracts, not to give their academics the unequivocal right to speak freely, but to make sure they can’t. Enough is enough — all universities need to guarantee free speech in employment contracts or no more government funds.

It’s time Dan Tehan, Minister of Education said to JCU — no more funds for you while you waste it on lawyers defending a case that — even if JCU wins — only shows that it’s not the sort of institution the govt should be funding. Even if the taxpayer wins, it loses. The nonsense must stop. The bonfire of money shows universities, particularly JCU, have lost their way in Australia.

Trump has done this in the US with free speech, and it just took a tweet.

Trump Tweets, If Berkley does not allow free speech and incites violencfe on innocent people -- no federal funds.

….

In March 2019 that tweet became an executive order. Academics tried to claim that it made no difference anyhow, as campuses were already “legally bound to do so by the First Amendment.” But nothing in the first amendment says anything about funding. Australia doesn’t even have a first amendment, so we need this more than the US does.

Vice Chancellor, Sandra Harding AO earnt $975,000 in 2018. Her package must be over a million dollars a year now. The problem with paying her too much evidently is that she thinks she is more important than the scientists and researchers she manages. Giving her an AO (for what — wasting two million dollars and trashing the reputation of JCU?) has apparently cemented her delusion. She must go. If JCU loses funding it will force them to dump the incompetent decision-makers who bear responsibility.

Follow the responsibility for this up the chain. The taxpayer is funding this debacle, so someone in government has to be signing those cheques above JCU admin. The Education Minister (Dan Tehan) is responsible for the kind of universities we have and the student funding. Research grants are likely also coming from The Minister for the Environment (Sussan Ley) and The Minister for Science (Karen Andrews). So there are three points to start asking why taxpayers are funding any university that will not guarantee free speech for staff?

Conservative politicians will go weak at the knees so easily, but we have to stop letting them get away with the easy option of giving in to the namecalling bullies.

Time to head the money off before it reaches the lawyers. Let’s fix the main issue: government funding is strangling science

Universities are so dependent on Big-Gov they have become a wing of it. None of them are independent in Australia. What do taxpayers want? Professors who talk propaganda or ones that tell us what their research shows? Without free speech academics are being turned into advertising agents whose primary role is to get more money from taxpayers. We know now that all academic research at JCU is worthless. Any researcher that finds anything “politically inconvenient” will not say so out of fear, so therefore the only thing we know for sure about JCU research is that any result or expert opinion may be cherry picked, skewed, biased or a lie by omission, and that if it is, no one at JCU will say so.

What does the reef need — solutions dictated by elite business managers or fearless discussion from experts that question every aspect and priority til we get it right?

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UPDATE: The IPA is raising funds for the legal case.

To donate, head to Peter’s GoFundMe page at GoFundMe.

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The Peter Ridd story:

9.7 out of 10 based on 108 ratings

330 comments to JCU appeals Ridd decision: James Cook Uni vows to waste more funds in quest to stamp out opinions

  • #
    PeterS

    To protect the reef or protect the belief?

    Latter of course. It’s to indoctrinate the people to believe in a lie, much like what the Nazis did with the Hitler youth. There are many similarities of what they did back then when compared to what the alarmists are doing with children of today. I wish we had a leader with the fortitude to put a stop to all this madness.

    430

    • #
      Dennis

      The cost to Queensland Tourism is substantial, overseas visitors alone spend huge amounts of their money in the GBR regional economy, or did.

      250

      • #
        Gee Aye

        yep. Follow the money.

        315

        • #
          AndyG55

          Money is JCU.. that’s where it starts and ends.

          191

          • #
            Gee Aye

            read my comment troll.

            he statement is IRRELEVANT, dolt.

            Learn, fool, if you are capable of it.

            127

            • #
              AndyG55

              I did read it, parrot-worm..

              Sorry if you are so dumb that you don’t realise that ALL the money is on JCU’s side.

              240

            • #
              Peter C

              read my comment troll.
              he statement is IRRELEVANT, dolt.
              Learn, fool, if you are capable of it.

              Not your best work Gee. I thought you were a clever academic at Sydney University.

              Why reduce yourself like this, and make typing mistakes as well? Have you become emotional?

              I think Andy actually did read your comment and made an appropriate response. Why then did you call him a fool?

              390

              • #
                theRealUniverse

                If he is an academic at Sydney Uni, he doesnt know much about the physical planet and how CO2 warming is a scam. (or pretends not to)
                Very stupid remarks, I know personally several geophysics prof and they wouldnt behave like that.

                60

              • #
                Gee Aye

                you don’t see what I am doing?

                It is a direct quote from a certain somebody who posts such stuff about 30 times a thread,

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              • #
                AndyG55

                “you don’t see what I am doing?”

                Yes, having a 5-year-old style copy-cat tantrum.

                Its Hilarious 🙂

                70

            • #
              Kalm Keith

              Tragic display of modern education.

              250

            • #
              LINDSAY PHILLIPS

              Good afternoon Jo,
              I don’t think there is any excuse for name-calling.
              Clearly this is a sign that both of you need to take a ‘chill pill’! … Yesterday!!
              BTW. This is a very sad day for Aust. Universities!
              Hither-to I haven’t contributed to this, but I did attend every day of Prof. Ridd’s case in Brisbane a couple of months ago.
              Last night I gave my 1ST donation to this extremely important cause.
              I’d like to steal a phrase from one of the bands from my formative years, Pet Shop Boys.
              “I don’t like much really, but what I do like … I love passionately!!”
              I am going to make this my cause celebre &/or raison d’etre for the rest of this year!!
              … And I hope that most of you who read this do same.
              If Prof. Ridd loses, all of us in Australia lose.
              The green boon-doggle is on the verge of bankrupting both Germany’s car industry (& Elon Musk is only a few months behind).
              The green movement’s dual raison d’etre of: sending the people of the world back to the mid-1800’s & taxing the be-jesus out of all OECD. countries is within a year of two of imploding.
              Please help Prof. Ridd (with both money & social media exposure), and help yourself in the process.
              White-hot regards!
              Reformed Warmist of Logan.

              152

              • #
                Kalm Keith

                Hi RWOL,
                unfortunately the name calling has developed in response to recurring situations that involve communicators whose presence here doesn’t involve communication.

                When these situations have continued some here have identified the situation and been told that it’s all about freedom of speech which seemed funny because nothing was being said and the end result was disruption.

                It has been a thorny issue.

                Regards KK

                50

            • #
              daw

              Come on Gee don’t start fighting amongst allies.We all need to stand together on the one side.

              20

        • #
          me@home

          Yes, follow the money. Jo says the “Vice Chancellor, Sandra Harding AO, and earnt $975,000 in 2018”. I would suggest it would be more accurate to say that is what she was paid.

          430

          • #
            Latus Dextro

            Ahh yes, nice point; the razor thin difference impossible to either measure or see between rank thievery and sanctioned theft.

            70

          • #
            ColA

            She led the charge to court and totally failed and now intends to flog the Uni further up the hill to the high court precipice, the real question is WHY is she still employed?? sher should have been sacked because she didn’t have the guts to say “I was wrong, I resign for my poor judgment and lack of unbiased leadership”

            190

      • #
        Graham Richards

        Pretty soon no tourists, domestic or international will not bother to visit when air travel is banned & it will take two weeks to get there using your flash new electric car. No doubt it’ll all be Donald Trumps fault.

        290

        • #
          theRealUniverse

          When the (un) renewables set in within the (fake, impossible) 0 target, they wont be able to charge their electric cars. Just read a beauty analysis, something I had suspected, of the real numbers for Californian all electric car charging from the grid, he worked out about 94 Nuclear power stations had to be built to supply the charge rate! And that was in one area not the whole state.

          240

      • #
        Gee Aye

        Yes Dennis is saying that the ones to lose if the Barrier Reef was showing signs of degradation would be those that receive the large amounts of money made from tourists. Add to that the fact that if it is degrading then several land based industries will need to spend money to clean themselves up. That is a lot of money to protect. So I’m following the money to some desperate interests needing to make sure that the reef is perceived to be just fine.

        JCU doesn’t have much money in comparison.

        241

        • #
          AndyG55

          “JCU doesn’t have much money in comparison.”

          Yet they are totally prepared to waste it fighting one person

          Gee you are a clueless parrot.

          All the money in this is from JCU, they are the one instigating and spending the money..

          … now I wonder where they are getting it from. 😉

          Surely not out of their meagre teaching and research fund, hey GA 😉

          Is there such a thing as a clown parrot ?

          280

          • #
            Gee Aye

            Evidence free AG.. as always
            Don’t get too upset at your ineptitude, petal. !!

            Some things you are destined to live with all your life.
            So Sad.

            19

            • #

              Gee — the only evidence that matters is whether Peter Ridd’s position on the reef is right. You are the one who is “Evidence free” today — and poking ad hom allusions that somehow JCU is fighting a wall of money.

              Big Government is the largest single organisation — domineering fully a quarter of the total economy. These are the deepest pockets in Australia and they are using their funds against one man to protect the multi-billion dollar reputations of all the agencies that depend on earning money to scare the public. Remember Turnbulls half billion dollar gift to a group that didn’t even ask for it? That’s a lot of money…

              If the health of the reef was fine the money for research into “acidification” and reef panic would shrink dramatically — like 75%. Tourism faces a decline due to “panic” but of a much smaller proportional change. Some vested interests are much more “vested” and are so aggressive and well funded they can afford to waste $2m to stop one voice from even raising doubt.

              261

            • #
              AndyG55

              Who is spending all the money, GA ????

              JCU.. that is who.

              Where is it coming from if not out of teaching and research.. a “sponsor” perhaps ???

              Peter Ridd is having to crowd-source to battle against this putrid attack of free speech.

              Wake up, GA. !!

              ps… your parrot act is making you look hilariously stupid. !!

              Stop worshiping me, I don’t need my shoes licked. !!

              110

              • #
                Gee Aye

                What a moronically stupid thing to say.

                111

              • #
                AndyG55

                It was about you, GA

                Had to be moronically stupid.

                70

              • #
                Gee Aye

                You prostrate themselves at Jo’s feet in worship, because she is so “sciency”.

                28

              • #
                OriginalSteve

                OK, I’m going to wade in here…..

                Gee Aye…firstly…behave!

                Secondly, no one “worships” Jo, thats a bit of a silly over-reach, even for you.
                Sticks and stones and all that.

                Dont forget everyone is able to post here ( unlike most leftist free-speech-free-zones like “The Inversion” ) in the spirit of democracy, which means some form of at least minimal courteousy is required.

                That goes for everyone else too…….*finger wag*

                50

              • #
                Gee Aye

                I’ll behave when others do not when you tell me to. It is a doctoredquote taken from someone else. Pity you didn’t admonish the original.

                16

              • #
                AndyG55

                “You prostrate themselves at Jo’s feet in worship” ????

                Nothing to do with Jo.

                You really gone mentally off the rails, haven’t you GA. 🙂

                50

          • #
            shannon

            …..”now I wonder where they are getting it from.”

            My suggestion is from the “piggy bank” … gifted by Malcolm !

            20

          • #
            daw

            Stop please Andy This argument between you and Gee Aye is doing nothing for the cause so PlEASE just move on to the real issue.

            30

            • #
              el gordo

              Andy thinks this place is a cone of silence, little does he know its the vanguard of a revolutionary movement, with the aim of bringing an end to mass delusion.

              Welcome daw.

              10

        • #
          el gordo

          Mr Leaf, we are upset because the GBR is in good health and JCU needs to be purged of global warming zealots because they are spreading lies that it has been bleached to death.

          Jennifer Marohasy is doing the hard yards to determine the health of the GBR.

          https://jennifermarohasy.com/2019/09/how-to-evaluate-the-evidence-of-contrarians-scientifically/

          350

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          No but the illusion that is created of the reef in “crisis” may scare of tourists, thus damaging queenslands economy…..

          But…..

          The aim of communists is to destroy the middle class…..paint the reef in crisis, collapse the tourist economy…job done.

          230

          • #

            This is the point. Money has already been lost by locals because the reef has been pre-deaded. You know, the way hurricanes and other disasters are portrayed vividly in the news before they happen, and if they don’t happen…next!

            Old Man has failed. Make way for New Man at Year Zero! Look, up in the laser projection! It’s Super Greta, showing her Aspy powers!

            We are, of course, being drawn into a nature cult doubled up with the cult of scienciness…to make one death cult. Look at the elaborate ceremony for the opening of the Gotthard Tunnel and the “accidentally” filmed ceremony on the CERN premises. You could also look at the shorts for the movie Midsommar, or catch the wink-wink messaging of Burning Man.

            Who finds the money and energy for this expensive creepery which is conditioning not just the young for the trans-everything era? Answer: the same manipulators who will find the money for JCU. I’m sure they’ll have the word foundation in their name. If you’re gonna save the planet while remolding humanity, get those tax breaks as well. Taxes are for Old Man.

            190

          • #
            el gordo

            ‘The aim of communists is to destroy the middle class….’

            Objection, the aim of the socialists is to lower the top and raise the bottom into one huge middle class. Do you have a problem with that?

            30

            • #
              Latus Dextro

              LOL. The reality is that everyone is crushed to the lowest common denominator, with the exception of a clutch of spouting elitists and eventually their gun toting, lawfaring entourage, Venezuela being a case in point.

              120

              • #
                Greg in NZ

                “destroy the middle class” or befuddle the muddle class?

                befuddle: make someone unable to think clearly ✓
                muddle: a disordered or confusing state ✓

                Thankfully I’m working class: I work and I got class 🙂

                110

              • #
                OriginalSteve

                I hope this case attracts even more attention – I am struggling to see how a case whereby every point was lost by the university has any grounds to come back from.

                The Ridd case is a critical situation, as once the protagonists get ground into the dirt ( yet again )! it will again highlight the nonsense about the reef and it alleged “poor health”…..which busts open the lies about the reef.

                The protagonists desperately need this legal appeal to succeed, as a plank of their power push rests on being able to point thier finger and say “see we told you so” – depsite being shamelessly caught cold with thier hand in the cookie jar…they desperately want to silence people like Ridd who dare give them a bloody nose by standing up against them.

                100

              • #
                el gordo

                Yes, your honour.

                10

            • #
              Independent_George

              Overruled.

              30

        • #
          Kalm Keith

          The Money, you gotta be joking.

          MalEx444. Seven and a half tonnes of Gold.

          Now that’s money.

          KK

          140

        • #
          rollo

          Leaf, when big farming and big tourism stump up $500 000 apiece for Dr Ridds appeal we will know you are right. There is about as much chance of this happening as Jo receiving half a million from big oil.

          230

        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          As usual, the truthiness brigade is attacking a perfectly reasonable comment. And how do they do it, I hear you ask? rule one – attack the man (this is rule one for all comments which do not follow the truthiness line). Rule two – never ever back up any statement with any verifiable facts. There are no more rules as two is at their intellectual limit.

          219

          • #
            AndyG55

            “the truthiness brigade is attacking a perfectly reasonable comment”

            1. not a reasonable comment.. a loaded comment saying the money isn’t being spent by JCU.

            2. you wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped you on the back of the head.

            Do you really DENY that JCU is spending money that it should be using for education and research.

            You have nothing but empty mindless rhetoric, as usual, PF.

            190

          • #
            AndyG55

            And no, I didn’t attack your groveller, GA, I attacked his dumb comment.

            110

          • #
            el gordo

            ‘ …. the truthiness brigade is attacking a perfectly reasonable comment.’

            Yeah there is a lot of money in jeopardy, do you believe that industrial CO2 is bleaching coral?

            100

            • #
              glen Michel

              ‘..do you believe that industrial CO2 is bleaching coral?’. Well that is a good question that deserves to get a direct answer from Peter. How many fleas on a full-grown Bactrian Camel?

              70

            • #
              Peter Fitzroy

              do I believe…?

              1) No I do not believe, However, I have an opinion based on the cognitive skills engendered by my education, and an acceptance of the available science

              Does industrial CO2 bleach coral?
              1) Industry is dumping CO2 into the atmosphere
              2) Increasing CO2 will increase atmospheric temperature acting as it does as a ‘greenhouse’ gas
              3) Increasing CO2 will also change the pH of the oceans, moving them to a lower value.
              3) Ocean temperatures will also increase as the atmosphere warms
              4) Specific species of coral will be affected by the increased temperature and lower pH, and “bleach”
              5) Unless reseeded by nearby coral of the same species, that coral will become locally extinct
              6) Other species of coral, ie those with a higher tolerance to temperature, lower pH or both will gradually colonise the bleached areas.
              7) Result – a reduction in diversity, particularly if that now locally extinct species provided resources for other species (there are lots of complex ecological relationships between corals and other species.

              So in answer to your question Does Industrial CO2…? – Not directly

              411

              • #
                AndyG55

                1. This is a GOOD thing. There is a deficit of atmospheric CO2 at the preset time

                2. WRONG. You have ZERO empirical evidence of that.
                This hypothesis has never been observed scientifically.
                It is a non-fact.

                3. WRONG Increased atmospheric CO2 DOES NOT change the ocean pH. There is no evidence of that. In fact , a compilation of all surface pH measurements in the last many years shows a very slight INCREASE in ocean pH.

                4. WRONG. Warm atmosphere does not warm the oceans. It causes evaporation instead.

                5. Seeing as CO2 does NOT warm the ocean or cause lower pH , this is also a fallacy

                6. WRONG. GBR has rapidly recovered from the low water level bleaching of
                2015, 2016

                7. WRONG..
                Another load of RUBBISH based on basically EVERY previous point being provably WRONG.

                150

              • #
                AndyG55

                “However, I have an opinion based on the cognitive skills engendered by my education”

                So, extremely LIMITED.

                Thanks, but we knew that. !!

                80

              • #
                AndyG55

                “and an acceptance of the available science”

                No, you accept junk science because of your brain-washed miasma…

                … and ignore the actual science that shows AGW to be a total farce.

                Heck, you can’t even tell us what has changed in the global climate in the last 40 years that is scientifically linked to human activity.

                You just run around in evasion, like a headless-chook.

                70

              • #
                theRealUniverse

                OH i forgot to add the ocean warming due to ‘warm’ air above it.
                The air over the ocean is significantly cooler! Due to the massive heat transfer to the cooler ocean below it. We dont get 40deg+ temps over the oceans. You can see this quite clearly go to https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/orthographic=-206.05,13.12,311
                You can see the hottest areas are over LAND.

                100

              • #
                glen Michel

                Points made Peter, but all presumptive- not science. Variable ,natural CO2 could account for the putative changes. That, I suppose, is what being a sceptic is- not being swayed by emotional and unsubstantiated projections.

                50

          • #
            theRealUniverse

            ‘Rule two – never ever back up any statement with any verifiable facts’ Well………………………PF where are YOUR ‘verifiable facts’ that CO2 causes catastrophic disastrous global warming that causes disastrous climate change that poor little (brainwashed) Greta had to yacht all the way to the USA to preach the Senate over.

            80

            • #
              Peter Fitzroy

              See – rules one and two in operation as described

              39

              • #
                theRealUniverse

                1) Industry is dumping CO2 into the atmosphere SO WHAT! Irrelevant. Its beneficial to all life on earth.
                2) Increasing CO2 will increase atmospheric temperature acting as it does as a ‘greenhouse’ gas. Totally incorrect physics.
                3) Increasing CO2 will also change the pH of the oceans, moving them to a lower value. Totally incorrect chemistry.
                3) Ocean temperatures will also increase as the atmosphere warms. Incorrect the air cannot warm the oceans, the thermal mass difference is enormous. The ocean surface water is armed by the incident solar radiation on it.

                I wont bother with the rest.
                dumping CO2..CO2 is a byproduct of combustion, its not ‘dumped’.

                110

              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                1) Industry is dumping CO2 into the atmosphere SO WHAT! Irrelevant. Its beneficial to all life on earth. https://www.google.com/search?q=co2+emissions+from+industry&oq=CO2+from+in&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l5.12353j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8. Obviously not beneficial to certain type of corals
                2) Increasing CO2 will increase atmospheric temperature acting as it does as a ‘greenhouse’ gas. Totally incorrect physics http://www.skepticalscience.com/empirical-evidence-for-co2-enhanced-greenhouse-effect.htm
                3)Increasing CO2 will also change the pH of the oceans, moving them to a lower value. Totally incorrect chemistry.
                https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=wjelp
                3) Ocean temperatures will also increase as the atmosphere warms. Incorrect the air cannot warm the oceans, the thermal mass difference is enormous. The ocean surface water is armed by the incident solar radiation on it. https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/ocean-warming

                Dumping: deposit or dispose of (rubbish, waste, or unwanted material), typically in a careless or hurried way.

                Now see – I have provided references

                But you have not.

                311

              • #
                AndyG55

                1. Absolutely nothing relevant.. just a childish Google search link because you have nothing else.

                2. Poor PF thinks measured spectrum causes warming
                WRONG. No empirical link to warming, just suppository anti-science nonsense.

                3. WRONG The Mauna Loa short term result was TOTALLY destroyed by the huge cyclic swings on other reefs nearby.. I’ll post that when I get home this evening.
                You are displaying your lack of learning , because that has been posted before

                4. SOLAR warming bozo. Atmosphere cannot warm the ocean. You are displaying your abject ignorance, yet again

                You have posted all this CRAP before and been shown that it is a load of bollocks

                Just keep reguritate FAKE, DISPROVEN JUNK-SCIENCE . PF.

                It makes you look incredibly DUMB.

                80

              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                Andy – refute the references if you can. Truthiness does not count.

                And stop with the insults – or that your idea of reasonable discussion

                38

              • #
                AndyG55

                You are the one insulting yourself,.

                You have refused to look at all previous proof that these references of yours are a load of junk-science.

                You have shown you are incapable of taking in anything that counters your mind-numbed brain-washing

                They have been countered before, with actual data, which you have WILLFULLY IGNORED.

                You remain deceitfully and willfully ignorant and totally susceptible to junk-science, because you have no science knowledge or comprehension of your own.

                I will destroy them again when I get home this evening, if someone else doesn’t do so first.

                80

              • #
                theRealUniverse

                None of your links prove you correct.
                “The ocean absorbs most of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions, leading to rising ocean temperatures.”
                WRONG again.

                Obviously not beneficial to certain type of corals. Corals have bee naround for a few million years nothing new to them.
                So which corals?

                From your link..
                “s temperatures started to rise, scientists became more and more interested in the cause. Many theories were proposed. All save one have fallen by the wayside, discarded for lack of evidence. One theory alone has stood the test of time, strengthened by experiments.
                We know CO2 absorbs and re-emits longwave radiation (Tyndall) WRONG its has to be at a LONGER wavelength to comply with the laws of conservation of energy AND its only at one wavelength which doesnt heat. The theory of greenhouse gases predicts that if we increase the proportion of greenhouse gases, more warming will occur (Arrhenius)” WRONG.There is absulutely NO empirical evidence that this is the case. there is NO correlation with CO2 and climate.

                Disproved bunkum! especially Arrhenius.

                The only property of CO2 is that it is a slightly better conductor of heat.

                Basically PF those sites you quote are misleading science with bunkum physics that is part of the endless lies of the alarmist point of view designed to keep people in the cushy govt (green) jobs, hoping the world will not collapse (that is public opinion, not climate)

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              • #
                AndyG55

                Ocean pH change, NOT HAPPENING.
                Compilations of all surface pH reading since 1910.
                Very slight increasing trend.

                Moana Loa pH short term measurements are meaningless in view of long term cycles at reefs. https://i.postimg.cc/CLbgSsVH/pHandCO2.png

                DWLW radiation (IR) cannot penetrate more than a fraction of a mm. Evaporation actually cause surface COOLING of about 0.3ºC. ….MEASURED. !!!!

                Only short wave radiation from the SUN and from light can penetrate to any depth to cause changes in temperature.
                http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/hodges/site2006/documents/thermodynamics.pdf

                Most of the time, the air above the ocean is COOLER anyways, so cannot warm the surface even if it could penetrate more than a fraction of a mm.

                Only SOLAR energy can effectively warm the oceans, and we have had PLENTY of it since the cold times of the LIA.. https://i.postimg.cc/9z3X4LYv/SolarActivityProxies.png

                There is also NO EVIDENCE of any heat being trapped. At the sun warms the atmosphere, the OGLWR increases in line with the atmospheric temperature.
                https://i.postimg.cc/QdXnDknT/CERESvUAH.png

                PF: ZERO from many !!

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              AndyG55

              “Dumping: deposit or dispose of (rubbish, waste, or unwanted material”

              So you ADMIT we are NOT dumping CO2. Well done. 🙂

              We are finally replenishing the atmosphere from a long term deficit of CO2

              CO2 is NOT rubbish.

              Every bit of that CO2 gets used, so not wasted, ever.

              The atmosphere and all life on Earth WANTS that CO2, for its very existence.

              Yes, even you PF. !!

              The only “dumping” of rubbish, waste and unwanted garbage, is coming from your comments. !

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      The children deserve better leadership.

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        AndyG55

        They have princess Greta.. what more could they need 😉

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          Leonard Lane

          It is a shame what unscrupulous fanatics have done to this and other children.
          A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Nothing good can come from indoctrinating children to the false and base things of the world.

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          Latus Dextro

          That Stepford doll with the indoctrinated faux-temerity to spout at the UN, the very institutional author of the UNEP, UNFCCC and ‘transformational chaos’?
          Talk about the dirty thumbprint of rank Marxist insanity.

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          glen Michel

          I’m told by teachers that their children understand the science. I gather they display a diagram of the “greenhouse effect” with all those nasty carbon bits.Beaming smiles all round from the teachers: mission accomplished!

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            theRealUniverse

            They should explain why the world is flat too while they are at it!.

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            • #
              Greg in NZ

              Every child understands under the sciency scientism stuff that J.C.
              (he which the JCU named itself after) fell off the edge of the world
              on some beach in the Hawai’ian Sandwich Islands.

              After all, he was a murderous thieving colonising duty-bound explorer/cartographer Yorkshireman who died from carbon pollution (clubbed to death) and was ceremoniously eaten by an angry mob. Obviously the locals were way ahead of us Westerners when it comes to cannibalism to save the Earth

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                theRealUniverse

                Thats what happens when you insult the natives and they throw spears at you..

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              • #
                glen Michel

                Headline: Carbon-based life form killed by other Carbon-based lifeform wielding an implement made from carbon. Could have been a bit of stone or Ferric material involved. Apologies to JC.

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    • #
      ross

      Yeah…. we need a strong leader to get rid of these infernal “kids”. Hitler would have sorted this mob out, quick smart.

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      • #
        Ross

        I beg your pardon? I was replying to someone comparing child protesters (like mine) as akin to the Hitler Youth. What’s the problem?

        [I understand what you were doing. And as you can see, one mention leads to another and then another and Hitler is a highly charged name that can get out of hand. The original post is there and has been read by everyone who looks at this thread. So on reconsideration I will allow your original comment. But no more mention of Hitler.] AZ

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  • #
    Steve of Cornubia

    I have a very low opinion of JCU, yet I nevertheless struggle to imagine that those at the helm are stupid enough to spend yet more money fighting one, solitary man and one who has so far been shown to have right on his side.

    And so I’m left wondering if perhaps they are doing the bidding of some moneybags somewhere. It would be interesting to audit the university’s accounts when all of this settles down, because it may well be that their legal expenses will be more than made up somewhere else, perhaps under ‘sundry donations’ or similarly devious description.

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      TdeF

      They have to shut him up. Get a deal. Force him to agree to stay quiet and away from the likes of Jennifer Morohasy and friends and the evil Murdoch press. Now Peter is working with others and not able to be fired, he has to be forced into quiet retirement.

      In hindsight they made a big mistake in firing him, let alone illegally. Now he has freedom and cash and uncontrollable.
      That’s why the multi million dollar appeal. Now they are really gambling he cannot afford to fight the appeal.

      What’s wrong with throwing good money after bad? After all, it’s not their money, it’s ours and the boss earns $20,000 a week throwing money away.

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      • #
        theRealUniverse

        if the appeal goes ahead, thatll be the test. Same decision? Lets hope so, who then will be wiping of the egg?

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      History of these types of appeals. If you have overwhelming judgement (in this case for the plaintiff) from a lower court on a matter, whats the probability that the high court will follow the same ruling? Was the first judge way out of line? Dont think so in this case..

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  • #
    TdeF

    Perfect. One phone call from Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan and the whole circus would stop. It’s all about the money, a lot of money. Plus the absurd, almost criminal salaries of the Vice Chancellors especially when you see their priority is their income, not the reputation of the University or freedom of speech for scientists.

    They have not been punished for what they did to Professor Ridd. Mr Tehan could ask they be removed for what has been judged reprehensible conduct and another massive waste of public money. To protect themselves and punish their enemies and make an example of Professor Ridd so no one dares question ‘The Science’ and their expenses.

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  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Its, debate must be stamped out at all cost (ours) before people catch on to their phony data and science.
    A few sackings would and should be in order. But thats well in the ‘never happen’ period.

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  • #

    I emailed Phillip Thompson first as I’m in his Herbert constituency.
    Got a very prompt acknowledgement (not an autoreply) from Ashleigh Scott his Electorate Officer.
    [email protected]
    Next is Dan Tehan
    [email protected]
    It’s a good idea to do an individual response.

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    Dennis

    Art Of The Deal …. whatever the appeal costs JCU deduct double from the next federal budget grant.

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      PeterS

      Have as much chance of that happening as the LNP government cutting the funding of the ABC in proportion to the time they spend on spreading leftist propaganda on the climate change hoax.

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    M Allinson

    But why would our Warmist LNP government want to support anyone who wants to blow the whistle on a con they are up to their eye-balls in?

    They recently gave over $400 million to “protect the reef” – why would they want to give a voice to those who argue there is no problem?

    The Morrison government is still quite firmly committed to the Paris con, so people like Ridd are natural enemies to them.

    I can’t see them raising a finger to help him out.

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      Tdef

      That was Green Malcolm and Lucy’s friends. They ran riot with public money but Morrison may want it back. No one even asked for the $444 million! And this was to fix a reef which does not need fixing even if that was possible. Green bankers with other people’s money. We will see.

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    PeterS

    It really saddens me as well as sickens me to see a University stoop this low. Most other Universities would do the same, especially those with courses and institutes focused on the study of man-made climate change. Universities used to be a great place for study and research. Now they have become the modern political wings of the extreme left not much unlike the old Soviet Pravda newspaper that used to be the leader of propaganda in that old Communist world. Truth no longer matters in Universities. I spoke not long ago with one ex-student. He considers truth is relative. What is truth for one can be a lie to another. With that sort of logic, not only science is being debased so is society as a whole. Not good.

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    The trick with upper uni staff was to get a huge boost just before retirement so the parting package could be calculated much higher. I don’t know what goes on now, but I’d check out Ms AO’s salary in the months leading to retirement to get a real picture of what she’ll cop for her services to higher learning.

    The VC I knew was as frugal, quiet and far-left as you please. But, hombre, I’d rather get between Tony Lockett and a ball he wanted than get between that churchmouse and a government quid.

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    pat

    some people are too scared to speak until they are out of the place!

    22 Sept: Breitbart: BBC Veteran: ‘Kremlin’ Style ‘BBC Thought Police’ Want to ‘Mould’ UK In Liberal-Left’s Image
    by Jack Montgomery
    John Humphrys, the veteran British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalist who helmed its flagship Today programme for 33 years, exposed the publicly-funded broadcaster “institutional liberal bias” within days of his retirement.
    Mr Humphrys expressed his relief at being free from “the BBC Thought Police” which he claims has “tried to mould the nation into its own liberal-Left image”, despite the broadcaster’s notional legals requirement to remain balanced and impartial, in memoirs which are being serialised by the Daily Mail.

    The 76-year-old Welshman revealed (LINK) the BBC’s “[great] fear of the politically correct brigade and the most fashionable pressure groups — usually from the liberal Left, the spiritual home of most bosses and staff”, and how the “disaster” of the British people’s vote to Leave the European Union in 2016 — against the advice of the left-neoliberal establishment — sent them reeling…

    “There is, I believe, a groupthink mentality, an implicit BBC attitude to what makes news,” Humphrys opined, suggesting its “institutional liberal bias” was not so much a product of conspiracy as of its tendency to recruit middle-class liberal arts graduates–” a disproportionately large proportion of whom had been to private schools” — trained by left-wing academics…

    “By far the most popular and widely read newspapers at the BBC are The Guardian and The Independent,” he revealed, referring to two major left-wing, europhile outlets…
    “In the later stages of my career, I lost count of the number of times I asked a producer for a brief on a story, only to be handed a copy of The Guardian and told ‘it’s all in there’.”…
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/09/22/bbc-veteran-kremlin-style-bbc-thought-police-want-to-mould-uk-in-liberal-lefts-image/

    21 Sept: Daily Mail: The Terrier unmuzzled: Days after leaving his beloved BBC, Radio 4’s John Humphrys lambasts the corporation’s liberal bias, craven PC culture and slavish support for the EU in his explosive new book
    by John Humphreys for the Daily Mail
    Now that I’ve finally taken the decision to retire from Today, this is the first time in half a century that I have been able to write a single sentence for publication without the tiniest fear, somewhere in the back of my mind, that the BBC might not approve.
    The rules are perfectly clear. If you are employed by the BBC as a journalist, you have to submit to a higher authority everything you write for publication…
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7487737/Radio-4s-JOHN-HUMPHRYS-lambasts-BBCs-liberal-bias-craven-PC-culture.html

    spoiler alert: Humphreys still defends the Beeb.

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    pat

    the inevitable Guardian response…which fails to mention his criticism about the Beeb being devoted to The Guardian! he’s an ungrateful rightwing and anti-EU, even tho he voted Remain!

    22 Sept: Guardian: John Humphrys attacks BBC’s ‘liberal bias’ days after retiring
    Broadcaster presented Radio 4’s Today show for 32 years, earning a reported £600,000
    by Mark Townsend
    The broadcaster John Humphrys has launched a scathing attack on the BBC days after receiving a lavish send-off from the corporation.
    Despite earning a reported £600,000 annual salary and fronting flagship Radio 4 programme, Today, for 32 years, the 76-year-old provoked scorn after fiercely criticising the employer who had granted him a back-slapping tribute when he retired on Thursday…

    Some, however, felt that his attacks on his former employer of 53 years were ill timed and corroborated previous claims that the broadcaster harboured rightwing and anti-EU views…

    Many, however, empathised with Humphrys, praising him for exposing the “liberal bias” of the BBC while others said they agreed that the corporation seemed out of touch…
    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/sep/21/john-humphrys-attacks-bbcs-liberal-bias-days-after-retiring-from-radio-4

    taking pay cuts didn’t pay off for him, with the Guardian anyway:

    21 Sept: UK Telegraph: John Humphrys says BBC ‘simply could not grasp’ why anyone would vote for Brexit in new memoir
    by Telegraph Reporters
    His last years in the job have been accompanied by scrutiny of his salary. He took several pay cuts to bring his wages closer to those of his female colleagues.
    Writing in The Telegraph as Humphrys bowed out from the Today show on Thursday, the BBC director-general Lord Hall of Birkenhead said: “There is perhaps no greater tribute than the collective sigh of relief that will be issued by leaders and public figures all around the country.”
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/21/john-humphrys-says-bbc-simply-could-not-grasp-anyone-would-vote/

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    Latus Dextro

    Until you’re certain that your centre right politicians are not devout globalists, which they usually are, I guarantee that,
    “Conservative politicians go weak at the knees so easily, and nothing short of not electing them will prove the only way to stop letting them get away with the easy option of giving in to the name calling bullies.”

    “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” MT

    “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is equality of misery.” WC

    JCU and its captive, voiceless collective of NPC faux-academics, imprisoned as they are by a University administration that embodies the unelected, unelectable bureaucrat, the sort that flourish like fungi in unaccountable shadowy crevices like the EU, UN, the civil service or for that matter in editorial corner offices of the MSM, NYT or the Con, providing as they do, a realistic facsimile of the Borg chant, ‘resistance is futile’.
    Only, it was never futile to fight for freedom from censorship, intellectual incarceration or the subversion of science in general and evidence in particular. Leftist regressivism looks the same any time, any place and this exemplar is turning into a most revealing expose of institutional ideology, and eco-Marxist political correctness. If they want to take it down to the wire in some blazing financial haemorrhage of win or bust, let them, even it is the tax payers money. Let us pay them to sail themselves onto the unforgiving shoals. The entertainment alone is priceless. The tragedy and the victory is that one man stands supported by many. Who is John Galt?

    I believe that there is only one possible outcome here. JCU will lose its appeal and the Chancellor and VC, and perhaps some of the administration will be compelled to resign. This may be the watershed moment politicians are looking for, the excuse if you will, to finally reject the rancid creeping k’rruption of science and tertiary education by ideology before it ruins all.

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    • #
      TdeF

      No one will resign. After all, they didn’t and no one said anything nasty and the Vice Chancellor still picks up her $20,000 week, so why worry? Spend another $2-$3Million of R&D money on persecuting a staff member.

      It is up to their employer to discover this is just too politically embarrassing and that employer is technically the Queensland Labor Government but in terms of funding, the Federal Government. They cannot afford to lose funding. Education minister Dan Tehan can end this with a phone call. Stop or your’e sacked. He as a pile of good reasons, all court judgments saying that what was done was wrong and all to protect a Labor government stand of danger to the Great Barrier Reef. What’s to lose in stopping this nonsense and firing the people pushing it?

      Remember the Federal government does not have any schools. They do not have universities. This is Dan Tehan’s turf, funding this centre of make believe Reef science. It is in his interest not only to save millions, but to stop the Great Barrier Reef from being presented to the world as an example of gross mismanagement by his government and turning away tourists and their money, a real problem for Queensland.

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        TdeF

        And the Queensland Labor party and Greens are passing laws to create taxes and penalties far inland on National Party and Liberal and Katter and One Nation voters
        to prevent degradation of the reef which Professor Ridd says is not happening and not possible. They will all look to the Federal government to stop this fake reef science and Professor Ridd i is the expert. Pauline Hanson in the Senate will want action to save Ridd and allow him to speak, quite apart from the total unfairness of the situation.

        If Dan Tehan does not take this opportunity to stop this fake science, he will pay with many seats in Queensland was the cornerstone of the Coalition victory. The inner Brisbane Greens and Labor are the enemies of the Queenslanders, especially those in Northern Queensland dependent on the farms and the reef and tourism. Saving Professor Ridd and his story must be a high priority for a Morrison/One Nation/Katter/National government in Queensland. They will be heroes. Just threaten the funding.

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        Latus Dextro

        Fair point.
        Nevertheless, the politicians may deem intervening in the legal process too much of a political gamble, a Catch 22. After all, virtue signalling Green appears to remain a virulent infection of the political class. But when the threat of economic ruination bites home, when more valuable and critical R&D is compromised, when education is seen to become indoctrination, then they might act, and that might take the haemorrhage of an appeal. After that, if JCU loses, about which we have every expectation, the politicians will have all the righteousness and justification to instigate full push back including some JCU on-sword falling.

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      • #
        glen Michel

        What I would do is drop around to JCU with a ALDI bag containing some form of inducement to withdraw. Such is life.

        30

        • #
          Annie

          I have quite a few Aldi bags….you can have them so long as you leave one filled with the readies! (AU$100,000 will do nicely).

          40

  • #
    pat

    I’ve said all along that RT had more in common with Bernie Sanders (and Corbyn) than with the Trump campaign, and here is more proof. of course, these people can say anything they like without being questioned:

    15min to the end: XR’s Tim Jones, Teachers Group (secondary school teacher from Lewisham).

    at 23min15sec: Jones: we’re not heading for 1.5-2 degrees…we’re heading for 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 degrees.

    VIDEO: 27min26sec: 23 Sept: Russia Today: Going Underground: Global Climate Strike special: What are Extinction Rebellion’s demands? (E794)
    Presenter: Afshin Rattansi (formerly Today programme, BBC Radio 4, CNN International, and Press TV)
    On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to a teacher who has joined Extinction Rebellion, Tim Jones, about the Global Climate Strikes, what Extinction Rebellion’s demands are in fighting climate change, how democracy is central to the movement, and the role of children and young people in the climate strikes. Next, we speak to progressive Democratic candidate Lawrence Nathaniel, running in South Carolina’s SC-D2 district, about the Green New Deal, the rise of AOC and the progressives in the party, the DNC’s hostility towards progressivism, and why he can no longer support Joe Biden. Finally, we speak to Humphrey Milles, the founder of COPI and addresspollution.org about the true cost of air pollution on our NHS, its rising lethality, how Oxford Circus is one of the most dangerous places for air pollution and how it must be tackled.
    https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/469373-extinction-rebellion-global-strike/

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  • #

    Well, I spoke out when I first heard about it http://chrisfellows.blogspot.com/2016/06/peterridd.html?m=1
    And last year when my alma mater called for nominations for a “Distinguished Alumni” award Prof John Nicol and I nominated Prof Peter Ridd.
    -An Australian Academic

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    pat

    Guardian’s Ben Smear…er Smee:

    23 Sept: Guardian: Climate-sceptic academic seeks $1.5m in donations to fight unlawful dismissal appeal
    Peter Ridd’s former employer James Cook University appealing after a court ruled the professor’s sacking was unlawful
    by Ben Smee
    The site has collected more than $350,000 in total public donations, including about $100,000 in the past 24 hours…

    In a statement soliciting donations, Ridd cites his position on the reef issue – which disputes the scientific consensus and has been compared with the strategy used by the tobacco industry to raise doubt about the impact of smoking – as a “point of principle we must fight for”…

    In April federal circuit court judge Salvatore Vasta found the actions of the university, including Ridd’s repeated censure and ultimate dismissal, were unlawful.
    Vasta made clear the case was about employment law and not – as Ridd, his supporters and conservative media outlets have repeatedly stated – about academic freedom…

    “Some have thought that this trial was about freedom of speech and intellectual freedom,” Vasta said. “Media reports have considered that this trial was about silencing persons with controversial or unpopular views.
    “Rather, this trial was purely and simply about the proper construction of a clause in an enterprise agreement.”
    JCU’s appeal argues there are “errors of law” in the judgments
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/23/climate-sceptic-academic-seeks-15m-in-donations-to-fight-unlawful-dismissal-appeal

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    pat

    Youtube: 1min49sec: 22 Sept: Sky News: Matt Cunningham: James Cook University appeals unlawful sacking decision
    James Cook University has appealed a Federal Circuit Court decision that found it had unlawfully sacked an academic who criticised the university’s climate change science.
    Guest: Gideon Rozner, IPA
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMaBTL1dGWs

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  • #
    Roy Hogue

    I no longer remember how IPA got a hold of my email address. That detail is buried somewhere in the past. But because they have my address I’ve been getting regular email updates on this case. And it doesn’t look all that good for JCU.

    There’s no chance that I’ll ever get to examine the Great Barrier Reef myself and I wouldn’t have the background to be worth listening to even if I did. So I can’t tell if Dr. Ridd is correct in his assessment or not. The trouble is, there’s no way that JCU can be sure their position is correct either. And that’s what smells like dead fish about this whole affair.

    JCU is clearly wrong but what’s wrong has nothing to do with academic freedom or even about honesty or the terms of Dr. Ridd’s employment. It’s about plain old raw power. Thou shalt conform or be persecuted for your heresy. What can you say about an organization that when it loses every single point right down the line in a suit against it is still determined to appeal to preserve its power?

    The funny thing is, I don’t remember that anyone was ever appointed god over science or academia so that they could dictate the facts to the rest of the world. In the meantime Dr. Ridd’s life has been made a living hell for the non crime of daring to think for himself, the very thing anyone calling himself a scientist should be doing.

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      And frankly, Ridd vs. JCU is not nearly the only place in this world where what’s really at stake is plain old raw power.

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      • #
        TdeF

        and truck loads of cash. The gift from the ex Prime Minister Turnbull to his wife’s friends unasked was 7 1/2 tons of gold to ‘save’ the reef without even proof there was a problem let alone a plan to fix it. The only certainty is that the surprised recipients plan to spend $130 million in administration. Give the money back!

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        We understand Roy.

        Before I stopped watching TV I was astounded at the blatant craziness of US politics and now we have the same thing here.

        KK

        50

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          It was not always this crazy either. It has never been perfect but I remember a time when politicians and would-be politicians were not so willing to openly pander to voters like a prostitute on a street corner selling themselves and me along with them to the lowest bidder.

          Sorry for the term but it’s the truth about our political left wing.

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    • #
      beowulf

      Roy, here are the results of a recent independent survey of parts of the reef reported as dead where natural dynamic, episodic events are now routinely ascribed to human causes.
      https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2019/09/reef-alarmists-find-what-they-need-to-find/

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    Steve of Cornubia

    If the Morrison Government doesn’t smack JCU down soon, then they are either willing, or weak.

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    mmxx

    James Cook University is absolutely undeserving of its moniker, preferring instead to reject bold factual discovery over leftism’s snug academic consensus.

    As a consequence, its woke attitude can only lead to rejection of the name James Cook University.

    Lenin-, Marx-, Castro- or Chavez on the Great Barrier Reef University names may come next if the present power clique endures.

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  • #
    Peter C

    James Cook University vs Professor Peter Ridd
    minister @education.gov.au

    The Honourable Dan Tehan, Minister for Education,
    23 September 2019

    Dear Minister,

    James Cook University has announced that they will appeal the judgement in which it was found that they unlawfully sacked Professor Ridd, losing on all 20 points of the judgement.

    It seems that they have learned nothing, nor understood anything about the importance of Academic Free Speech.

    Professor Ridd was making important points about the validity of Barrier Reef Science. If he is correct Australian citizens and Agriculture in Queensland will not pay a massive penalty to prevent a Non Existent Problem. Surely we need to hear these arguments, not have them suppressed by easily offended academics and University Councils.

    The Ministry of Education has responsibility for funding our Universities. I do not think that they should spend our money pursuing Professor Ridd any further. Why should they be entitled to do that? Would you please intervene now and ask the Vice Chancellor and the Council why they think their decision to appeal is appropriate?

    Yours Sincerely.
    Peter C

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Thanks for writing that Peter.

      It adds pressure.

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      John of Cloverdale, WA, Australia

      Thanks for the email address, PC. I will send my protest as well.

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      Michael262

      Peter C,
      “if he is correct” – succinctly underlines Ridd’s inability to provide evidence, only misinformation.

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        theRealUniverse

        When you are writing to ministers , esp if you want a reply, you have to choose words carefully or they will bin it! Idiot.
        Theres nothing wrong with PeterC’s letter. Ridd knos exactly what hes talking about and has plenty of evidence.
        So what exactly are you on about?

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        Serge Wright

        Really ?

        The judge agreed with Ridd on all 20 counts. That would indicate wrong doing by the university. Only a loony lefty would consider otherwise.

        30

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Email sent today…

      ‘Thank you for your email to the Hon Dan Tehan MP, Minister for Education. This is an automatically generated response.
      Due to the large volume of emails received, the office is unable to acknowledge receipt of each email personally.
      Your email is important and will be dealt with put in file 13 as soon as possible. ‘

      Well he has to read something during his coffee break.

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    thingadonta

    JCU are still trying to contend that there is a link between code of conduct and one’s opinion. The same sort of thing happens in religion, where one is ‘evil’ simply if one disagrees. This kind of view mostly died hundreds of years ago, but is apparently being revived at JCU.

    Amongst other things, JCU think Peter Ridd should not be allowed to go on something like the ABC and state his opinion-such major differences of opinion in the science should only be done within the ‘journal process’, at least according to JCU. This is similar to how sporting contests are run, where if you have an issue it’s supposed to be resolved internally.

    However science differs in several important ways from a sporting contest, where for one thing, sport is a physical contest with superficial/constructed rules whereas science is more of a social process, and some of the very ‘criteria’ which are being discussed/debated haven’t even been decided or ‘formally agreed’ as yet. Sport is also not nearly as subject to institutional bias, and the uncertainties and unknowns can be much more significant, necessitating difference of opinion, and to some extent, how one plays, and what one can achieve. The level of ‘trust’ in institutions is very open in science, as opposed to sport, and is much more like problems that occur within government, to which we had to invent democracy. Some kind of reform of science is also likely needed, to make it more transparent and better regulated, which we haven’t really found as yet. At the moment science relies largely on internal regulation, which has failed in religion, in government, in finance (GFC), and arguably is failing in science as well. It shocked Greenspan, and it shocks those within science as well; human nature just doesn’t seem very good at internal styles of regulation.

    JCU also say one should not be allowed to say that ‘an institution can’t be trusted’-again like in a sporting contest where you can only criticize a decision internally. But you cannot separate one from the other; one is allowed to disagree with an institution and say it, much the same as one is allowed to disagree with a journal article, and publish it. This sometimes also means people will get offended, there have even been attempts to sue because one researcher disagreed with another when publishing-which is exactly what journals are supposed to do. Science isn’t a place for a ‘manners’ contest, where one normally wouldn’t say one is ‘slim-challenged’ at a dinner table for example; in science you report levels of obesity whether it becomes offensive to certain people or not. You don’t change the science just because some people get ‘offended’, and this also means you can go on the ABC and report it, as well as reporting your expert opinion that certain institutions can get this sort of thing wrong as well.

    Freedom to publish in a journal is the very same thing as freedom to publicly criticize the science. If you aren’t allowed to publicly criticize the science, especially if you have published in that field, it isn’t science anymore.

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      Roy Hogue

      Stop me if I’m wrong but Peter Ridd did take his complaints to JCU internally first. He received a cold shoulder for his trouble. Now in sports people get excited but there’s no one’s money wasted but the team owner’s and the league’s. And no matter the sports dispute, it ain’t no life or death situation for no one. JCU is spending (read wasting) money that is not JCU’s to waste and if the cause was medical research instead of the GBR, lives might hang in the balance.

      Once someone tells you that you have a problem and you tell him to buzz off. You lose your right to say he didn’t follow the rules if he goes public. And having a court rule against you point by point you’re just foolish to make any of this Dr. Ridd’s fault. The legalities may be different in Oz from what they are here in the states. But I’ll bet the basics of honest relationships are not even different by so much as a comma or a period.

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        thingadonta

        Yes I agree with you, they are really trying to force a kind of code of conduct on what results one gets-and to disagree and to act publically on it means you are being ‘uncollegial’. It’s similar to the concept of blasphemy in my opinion. It’s a shame that JCU can’t see that this is not a religion where one is assigned to hell by what one believes.

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    TdeF

    Possibly there is no one more qualified in the world to speak on the reef and especially the newly alleged damage to the reef by farms in the hinterland and Labor’s punitive taxation of farms to stop this alleged problem. Professor Ridd’s professional opinion is that it is a ridiculous story without foundation. That’s why they have to shut him up, quite apart from his detailed knowledge of the reef itself and the physics of the region. The ABC/Labor/Greens/JCU cannot afford to have him able to speak freely. They are probably hoping to stall for years like Michael Mann and buy time, while getting a gag order on his opinions.

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Sounds like we need a political solution then.
      Something very public, as a start the one million dollar salary of the university executive endorsing this would make a lot of people think.

      Another show of public support for Peter in his GoFundHim campaign is definitely going to show up the university position as lacking public endorsement.

      1. Her high salary.
      2. The abuse of public funds in prosecuting a situation that had already been ridiculed by the judge at the first trial.
      3. The made up manipulative science that has damaged Queensland: no basis in fact.

      JCU executive must have rocks in the head.

      KK

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      • #
        ivan

        JCU executive must have rocks in the head.

        No KK, they are following the diktat of their lords and masters the UN Church of Climatology. But then this is the stance of most of academia today – ‘the science is settled’ we can’t have people rocking the boat, it might reduce the grants from the hoodwinked.

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  • #
    Kalm Keith

    The endless, mindless media focus on Climate Change™ which everyone knows was caused by the current batch of “old white men” who burned coal and had an easy life, is attached to one end purpose; the denigration of the older generation who paradoxically worked harder and longer than the new crop could ever dream of.

    Sorry, that’s not quite true, there’s the other issue of power and control beloved by so many at so many different levels.

    The Manipulation of thought is absolutely astounding.

    The first and most obvious thing in response to this sham is a relentless and thorough takedown of the ICU hierarchy who created this Monster.

    It needs to be confronted.

    KK

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    Kalm Keith

    Thank you JCU for giving me the chance to register my disgust with the JCU Hierarchy by donating to the Peter Ridd defense fund.

    The size of this fund is the best way we can show our rejection of your ugly behaviour, low ethical standards and pathetic self interest.

    Hardly intellectual models for our youth.

    KK

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      Peter C

      It is a great pity that we even have to donate to the Peter Ridd defence fund.

      Yes we must register our disgust, and funding the Peter Ridd defence fund is one way.

      But I think that letters to the minister carry even more weight. So please everyone , register your disgust by writing a letter to
      minister @education.gov.au

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  • #
    Serge Wright

    Having lost the case in such a comprehensive fashion, the decision by JCU to appeal the indefensible can only be interpreted as an act of bastardy. The aim here is to use their infinite bucket of taxpayer funds to defeat and silence their enemy by way of bankruptcy. To JCU, this method of financial extermination, if successful, would be seen as the sweetest result of all as it would defeat both our legal system and their target by stealth and in their minds will demonstrate they are above the law and effectively run the show.

    It is for these reasons that I express a combination of immense sympathy and admiration for Peter, who will be undoubtedly involved in a case that will now be dragged through the courts system for years. JCU already know the case is lost in a legal sense, so they will create as many delays as possible and appeal at every loss. If there is a single grain of leadership left in Canberra the obvious step would be to remove all funding to JCU until they had a change of mind, however we all know this won’t happen. All we can do is donate to the cause and support Peter in this fight to the bitter end.

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      PeterS

      Unfortunately money speak louder than words. Hasn’t changed for centuries. If it needs to go to the High Court I do hope enough noise is made throughout the world to fund his way.

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      theRealUniverse

      One real solution , sack the VC! (or/and sack the whole administration)

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    Tim Spence

    This wasn’t just predictable, it was inevitable. These people don’t take no for an answer.

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    el gordo

    O/T

    Chris Kenny (Sky) interviewed Misha (Conversation) and cut off his legs below the knees, a joy to watch.

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    pat

    what a con:

    23 Sept: Carbon Pulse: Industry can compete amid higher carbon prices, say business leaders
    Carbon prices of up to $50-100/t could be introduced over the next decade without jeopardising industrial competitiveness, according to a report backed by nearly 50 businesses and business groups.

    22 Sept: World Economic Forum: Carbon pricing is the way to rectify runaway climate change
    by Feike Sijbesma, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Managing Board, Royal DSM NV
    Although climate change represents perhaps the largest, most complex economic opportunity since the industrial revolution(s), many investments are needed to make the transition. Most of the money required (up to 80%) needs to come from the private sector. It is therefore critical that the financial contributions from investors and business are unlocked…

    Two years ago, the High-Level Commission on Carbon Pricing, chaired by Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern, suggested a carbon price needs to be in the $40-$80 per tonne range by 2020 and $50-$100 by 2030 to achieve the Paris Agreement target. A World Economic Forum survey of 80 CEOs found the same: a price of at least $30 per tonne is needed to impact emission reductions and investments to decarbonize fast enough…

    Since the Paris Agreement, the price of carbon in Europe has increased by 350% to €27 per tonne of CO2 equivalent. Next year’s update to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) provides a clear opportunity to step up carbon pricing ambitions – especially since it is now clear a meaningful carbon price will not harm competitiveness…

    This week’s report by the High-Level Commission on Carbon Pricing and Competitiveness, which I co-chaired with Anand Mahindra (LINK), shows that for companies, additional costs created by carbon pricing are small relative to other factors affecting the competitiveness of a company…
    In our view, this is especially the case if the price is within the $30-$100 (or more) range…

    By embedding emissions firmly in our financial systems and by putting this meaningful price on carbon, we can unlock trillions of dollars in climate finance from companies and investors in the private sector…
    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/how-do-we-fund-the-sdgs-by-putting-a-price-on-carbon/

    23 Sept: International Chamber of Commerce: ICC endorses new report presenting case for carbon pricing to address industrial competitiveness
    The new report published by the High-Level Commission on Carbon Pricing and Competitiveness calls on industry peers and governments to adopt strong carbon pricing policies. As more businesses develop low-carbon strategies, supportive government policies can act in tandem to unlock economic opportunities and manage competitiveness concerns…

    John W.H. Denton AO said: “The International Chamber of Commerce – as the institutional representative of 45 million companies worldwide –recognises the urgent need to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius and work towards net-zero emissions by 2050. Climate action is everyone’s business and achieving our collective climate goals will require a mix of voluntary action and coherent policy frameworks. This flagship report from the High-Level Commission on Carbon Pricing and Competitiveness is a critical contribution to this debate…

    The report has received broad support and endorsements from businesses, and leading organisations. The full list of endorsing companies can be viewed on the CPLC website (LINK).

    Convened by the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) at its 2018 High-Level Assembly Meeting—and supported by the World Bank Group— the High-Level Commission on Carbon Pricing and Competitiveness brings together private sector leaders and senior government officials to explore the evidence base, concerns, and lessons learned from the design and implementation of carbon pricing policies vis-à-vis competitiveness.
    https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/icc-endorses-new-report-presenting-case-for-carbon-pricing-to-address-industrial-competitiveness/

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    pat

    22 Sept: WSJ: How to Cut Emissions Without Wrecking the Economy
    A proposal for carbon dividends, backed by the broadest climate coalition in American history.
    By Christopher Crane and Ted Halstead
    (Mr. Crane is president and CEO of Exelon, a provider of emissions-free energy. Mr. Halstead is chairman and CEO of the Climate Leadership Council)
    In a major shift, the Business Roundtable recently embraced the idea that the purpose of a corporation should go beyond serving shareholders and include responsibility to the environment and the broader community. On no issue is this more true than climate policy—which affects all sectors of society, but where market prices do not internalize environmental costs. So what exactly would a pro-business, pro-environment and pro-consumer climate solution look like?

    To answer this question, the broadest climate coalition in U.S. history has met in private over the past two years. Brought together by the Climate Leadership Council, of which Exelonis a founding member, this coalition includes corporate sector leaders from a range of industries, environmental nonprofits, economists and opinion leaders from across the political spectrum. The outcome of this two-year dialogue is a breakthrough plan to cut U.S. carbon emissions in half by 2035—while benefiting American businesses, workers and consumers…

    The Council’s Bipartisan Roadmap will be released in the coming months, but we can preview here three of its salient features…READ ON
    182 COMMENTS AT TIME OF POSTING
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-cut-emissions-without-wrecking-the-economy-11569184262

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    pat

    worth reading for all the names:

    19 Sept: Economist: Climate capitalists have serious money in climate-friendly investments
    Climate issue: Many expect serious returns
    BETS ON CLEAN technologies have ballooned this decade. Over $2.6trn has flowed into low-carbon energy alone since 2010, according to BloombergNEF, a research firm (see chart 1). Now that some ventures have soured, after green subsidies grew stingier around the world, many investors are thinking again.
    Many, but not all. A clutch of industrialists and entrepreneurs are doubling down. The Economist’s unscientific survey has identified 12 with notably climate-friendly dispositions, and a combined net worth of $200bn (see chart 2). Some, like Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, are household names. Others are little-known outside their industry. Their wagers cover mature technologies (electric cars, wind turbines), fast-maturing ones (high-voltage grids, meatless burgers) and out-there ideas (turning carbon from the air into useful stuff). All want to do good by the planet. Most expect to do well for themselves…

    The last kind of climate tycoon does not seek returns, at least directly. Jeremy Grantham of GMO, a $70bn investment fund, is giving away most of his $1bn fortune to climate politics and research. It isn’t really philanthropy, he says. “It’s sensible defensive investing in the broadest sense.” Mr Bloomberg has poured $500m into Beyond Carbon, an initiative to kill off coal plants in America by financing green lobbyists and politicians at state and local level.

    Our twelfth apostle of climate action is not himself deep-pocketed. But Pope Francis, the greenest pontiff to date, has ultimate control over the Vatican Bank’s $3bn-worth of assets—and a bully pulpit to exercise moral suasion over much more. In June he rounded up oil bosses from BP, ExxonMobil, Shell and Total, and strong-armed them to support “economically meaningful” carbon prices and disclose risks posed by climate change to their companies (see article)…
    Other fat cats back clean investments. So do firms, even historically carbon-cuddling ones like GM…
    https://www.economist.com/business/2019/09/19/climate-capitalists-have-serious-money-in-climate-friendly-investments

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    pat

    a Canadian perspective:

    23 Sept: National Observer: Pricing pollution won’t kill growth, World Bank report finds
    By Fatima Syed
    Pricing pollution doesn’t kill growth or scare away business, the World Bank has concluded in a new report…
    “Carbon price levels have generally been moderate and existing programs include protection for at-risk sectors,” states the report, written by the High-level Commission on Carbon Pricing and Competitiveness…

    The report was released two days before the 2019 UN Global Climate Summit, where Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has made four specific requests of all nations, one of which includes taxing carbon.
    The study by the group of business leaders, public sector leaders and academia was convened by the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, a public-private partnership with civil society created by the World Bank…

    A debate over the relative merits of these approaches is currently playing out on the campaign trail in Canada….

    ***Nicholas Stern, an eminent London economist who helped author the report, said at the launch that carbon pricing “is the story of the 21st century.”
    Stern told the New York audience that the use of carbon pricing needed to be “broadened” around the world and that saving the planet is not “a burden.”…
    https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/09/23/news/pricing-pollution-wont-kill-growth-world-bank-report-finds

    fact-free:

    21 Sept: Economist: Firms face physical, regulatory and legal risks from climate change
    Climate issue: Most still do not own up to their vulnerabilities
    Physical effects of global warming — ***rising sea levels, drier droughts, stormier storms—imperil factories and other assets, as well as transport and energy links that knit supply chains together…
    Of the 195 signatories of the Paris climate agreement, 81 mention a carbon price in their pledges to limit global warming. Half of those have announced a carbon tax, cap-and-trade scheme, or both. Add state and local schemes, and they cover 15% of the world’s emissions, up from 4% in 2010…

    The final threat looms in the courtroom. It is the hardest of the three to assess. This month PG&E reached an $11bn settlement with insurers seeking compensation from the Californian utility for payouts they made to homeowners and businesses in connection with wildfires. These were sparked by its power lines — ***and climate change increased their likelihood…
    https://www.economist.com/business/2019/09/21/firms-face-physical-regulatory-and-legal-risks-from-climate-change

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    pat

    they’re all in on it:

    23 Sept: Reuters: Banks launch framework to track carbon footprint of investments
    by Valerie Volcovici
    UNITED NATIONS – Over 50 banks and other financial institutions representing nearly $3 trillion in assets announced on Monday they will assess and disclose the impact their loans and investments will have on climate change using common carbon accounting standards.
    They launched the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), an industry-wide effort to standardize how companies measure the carbon footprints of their investments, at a time when activists and stakeholders are pressuring the financial sector to pull back from heavily polluting fossil fuel projects…READ ON
    https://www.reuters.com/article/climate-change-disclosure/banks-launch-framework-to-track-carbon-footprint-of-investments-idUSL2N26C07N

    28 Aug: AFR: Macquarie readies for $1.6b global binge
    by Vesna Poljak and William McInnes
    Investment bank Macquarie Group will raise up to $1.6 billion from investors to meet demands for higher capital, and heed the federal Treasurer’s call for companies to back themselves and invest, by targeting opportunities in renewables, technology and infrastructure…
    The investment bank said in a statement it would invest about $1 billion in the current quarter, spanning renewables, technology and infrastructure…

    Institutional investors will provide $1 billion, and up to $600 million will come from a share purchase plan…
    (Wilson Asset Management lead portfolio manager Matthew Haupt) was confident in renewables as a credible source of growth…
    Some of Macquarie’s investment will be directed offshore, where it has eyed projects such as a UK offshore wind farm and further investment in a Taiwanese wind farm…
    https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/macquarie-readies-for-1-6b-global-binge-20190828-p52ln0

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    pat

    The UN is on a collison course with democracy
    by Jennifer Oriel
    The Australian – 23 Sept 2019
    The UN is on a collision course with democracy. It is treating free world states with contempt by silencing developed nations that depend on…
    Developed nations are villains even if they are the means by which the poor flourish…

    23 Sept: Fox News: Pastors praise Trump for skipping UN panel on ‘imaginary’ climate crisis for ‘real’ problem of religious persecution
    By Caleb Parke
    “This is the first time any leader of a nation has addressed the UN on religious persecution,” Robert Jeffress told “Fox & Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt. “A third of the world is living under religious persecution…and it is a remarkable thing that this president would skip a UN climate change summit on an imaginary problem to address the very real problem of global persecution of believers.”

    Jeffress added: “What president in history would have the guts to do what President Trump is doing?”…
    White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told “Fox & Friends” it “wouldn’t surprise” her if Trump makes a surprise visit to the climate change event at the UN.
    https://www.foxnews.com/faith-values/trump-un-religious-freedom-persecution-climate-change

    “businesses and activists” – and the children marched on their behalf!

    23 Sept: Politico: Trump threatens to overshadow U.N. climate push
    Here’s what to watch at Monday’s summit as governments, ***businesses and activists*** seek to move past a likely no-show United States.
    By ANTHONY ADRAGNA and RYAN HEATH
    At this one-day climate summit that kicks off the annual U.N. General Assembly, the star attractions are Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Narendra Modi, joined by leaders of 60 countries and dozens of multinationals. Donald Trump will likely skip it — as will the Japanese and Australian prime ministers and Chinese President Xi Jinping…

    Recent scientific studies say nations may have as little as 12 years to cut their greenhouse gas emissions sharply enough to allow human civilization to avoid serious harm from rising seas, spreading illness, worsening storms and other effects of a warming planet. More bad news is expected Wednesday when the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports on oceans, following up on its negative assessment on land use in August…

    But without the U.S. on board, isn’t any climate push hobbled from the start?
    Yes and no…
    But here’s a reality check: For all their sincerity — or, depending where you fall politically, sanctimony — there’s only so much that business or local leaders can do without the backing of the U.S. government…
    For one thing, there’s a lot less money for the Green Climate Fund, a U.N.-created pot meant to help developing nations adapt to climate change…

    …Beijing is only promising to peak its carbon output no later than 2030. By then, according to current estimates, its emissions will be 33 to 47 percent above what they were in 2010…
    https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/23/trump-united-nations-climate-summit-1758605

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  • #
    Bill Capron

    I can only give my opinion from the USA. This is an important fight on the world stage, and its conclusion will have repercussions beyond Australia. The Left means to hoist us all on its petard of climate change. This is another ‘brick in the wall’ of defending civilization from these hooligans of the Left. I worry for Australia. I worry for the United States. But I am 72, and it’s not my generation I’m worried for; in fact, it’s not a generation I worry for, but the world as it is engulfed by an amoral socialism that values by reducing the value of the individual … the world does not value ‘rights’, inalienable rights as guarantied in the Constitution, which is really no more than the right of you to be you. Even now I have relatives and friends who believe it is more important ‘not to offend’ than it is to be myself.

    So, Professor Ridd, fight the good fight; there are people throughout civilization hoping you will make a successful stand against the Barbarians of Education.

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    bobn

    Here’s the site you are all looking for – send it far and wide. I’m in UK and have donated. This is a global fight to preserve truth and science from fascists like JCU.

    https://www.gofundme.com/f/peter-ridd-legal-action-fund?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-156914784148-0a0f2272c4d5470e&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

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    Kalm Keith

    From Pat,

    “The UN is on a collison course with democracy”

    A Good heading to grab attention in an age when Verbalism has become the weapon of choice for our new rulers.

    Confuse, Control and Dominate.

    KK

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  • #
    Ruairi

    J.C.U. closing ranks in their fort,
    Will pursue Peter Ridd into court,
    Who, forced to ‘Go Fund Me’,
    Just to keep science free,
    So deserves our financial support.

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  • #

    […] to award Peter Ridd 1.2M for unfair dismissal. More adverse publicity for James Cook? Jo Nova updates the news, provides a scan of the issues raised about the governance of James Cook, the free speech situation […]

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    mem

    This is what they are trying to hide from the public. Watch the video and send it on to as many as possible.
    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/09/exposing-junk-climate-science.php

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    bobl

    Jo, Not good enough you need to call for the deregistration of JCU until it adheres to the premise of being a University IE academic freedom. Until then it should not be allowed to fraudulently trade as a university. This means its student funding gets withdrawn as well/

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    • #
      glen Michel

      I wish. I’m starting to have real negative vibes about this institution man. The Federal minister should act forcefully and pressure JCU to drop this, otherwise I’m going to get a little bit cranky.

      10

  • #
    David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

    Morning Jo,
    The article below is about a different case, but includes a couple of things which I think also apply here.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-18/what-is-next-for-cardinal-pell/11521418

    Two things in particular stand out for me, but I must hasten to add that my qualifications in this area just reach “interested observer”, not legal practitioner.
    My first is that the convicted person must initiate the appeal ” By filing an application for “special leave” to appeal within 28 days of the prior decision. ”
    So it’s not an automatic right.

    My second is that the success rate of such requests is quite low, ” A 2019 study found only 23 out of 161 applications in the criminal jurisdiction were successful over two years (14.29 per cent). ”

    My hope is that the special leave is not granted, so that Peter Ridd will not have to go through that ordeal, and the JCU application is rejected, with prejudice, if that’s possible.
    Cheers
    Dave B

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      Serp

      Pell’s is leave to appeal to the High Court subsequent to a Victorian Supreme Court appeal having not been successful.

      JCU is a step below this as it will be appealing to the Queensland Supreme Court to overturn Vasta’s judgment; should this appeal fail then the next step would be to seek leave to appeal to the High Court (which would be some time off). My guess is that so many of Vasta’s judgments are overturned JCU has decided the gamble’s worth a go irrespective of the intricacies of the legal points.

      Interestingly, JCU has engaged the same top silk Pell’s team chose for its Supreme Court appeal, Brett Walker.

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        Serp

        I’ve just reread Jo’s account above and it appears that I am on the wrong bus as she writes that this is an appeal to the High Court from the Federal Court so please forget the foregoing and accept my apologies for having delivered a misleading account.

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    OriginalSteve

    Jo, we have a major ( carbon neutral…ha ha ) tantrum here……this is hilarious….

    Yup…a 16 yo telling off adults who actually have a clue…hmm……

    It would be great to see who are the professional handlers are for this “climate prodigy”.
    Does anyone know?

    https://news.yahoo.com/greta-thunberg-un-climate-speech-how-dare-you-151148559.html

    “”In an angry and emotional speech at the United Nations climate summit on Monday, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg tore into world leaders for failing to act.

    “”This is all wrong,” Thunberg said, reading from a piece of paper. “I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean, yet you come to us young people for hope. How dare you.”

    “”People are suffering,” the 16-year-old continued through tears. “People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are at the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you.”

    “”How dare you continue to look away and come here saying you are doing enough,” Thunberg added. “You say you hear us and understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.”

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      Annie

      Has that child been to drama school? She seems to be a good actress. The way she is being used is child abuse, it is evil.

      100

      • #
        beowulf

        The scary part is I don’t believe she’s acting, although of course her actor father could have done some coaching. The video is most disturbing, seeing a sick, manipulated mind in action. Those facial expressions are something else. Worst of all is the applause her rampant drivel receives from UN delegates. When are the adults going to take back control from the brainwashed kids?

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        • #
          theRealUniverse

          They should all be ashamed of themselves . Just goes to show that the UN is a useless bunch of delegates mouthing off about nothing, and solving nothing that matters.

          40

          • #
            glen Michel

            Yep, entropy has set in. Probably time ro reset the universe.

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            • #
              Greg in NZ

              Barking News!

              Grøté Tur d’ Burger took the Gяammӱ Award for Gullibility (GAG) for Best Child Actress in ‘You’ve Stolen My Dreams‘ today. Also known as Based On A Tyrannical Scam, or BOATS, it was written & directed by Non UN Kon for the $oro$ Corporation & Co.

              President Donald Trump made a fleeting appearance, providing succour to the weeping and wailing adults among the horde of believers, as Ms Tur d’ Burger looked on, scowling from her high and mighty Altar of Ignorance (AI). She yelled something about ‘forgiveness’ but her words were drowned out by the mass of heaving, exhaling humanity.

              * Anonymous sources stated the CO₂ level in the main auditorium fluctuated between 1,000 and 2,000 ppm, yet nobody died and the world didn’t come to a shuddering end. Perhaps this was the reason the child actress appeared, and sounded, so angry – maybe it was just part of her gong-winning performance. Who knows. Holy-Weird next?

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      bobl

      Every point she made was wrong, People are not dying, there is no ecosystem collapse, the one thing she is right about is that the UN only care about the money.

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      • #
        Greg in NZ

        Unfortunately, bobl, I suffered the misfortune of hearing a 10-second audio clip of her agonising & breathless performance on the UN stage today (on the radio while stuck in traffic on my day off) which caused great anxiety: do I laugh at her, or do I shout at the radio?

        Her well-polished* delivery – drama! tension! emotion! anger! – was only let down by her, as you say, complete and utter lack of realism, facts, truth, science, whatever ya wanna call it, bo!!ocks. Yet apparently ‘grown ups’ fell for it, including the BBC and RNZ reporters repeating the pre-prepared scripts they were given. Puke!

        * See my GAG critique (#42.1.1.1.1) above. Perchance the foreseen false prophet has arrived and she is it.

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  • #
    Yonniestone

    Hero’s often emerge during a war, and while the halls of academia or courtrooms of a nation don’t immediately conjure up images of reckless gallantry lets not forget that these public institutions gift a very important lesson in history where the passing on of knowledge is vital to the progress of a fair society .

    When this knowledge is distorted, stopped or undermined with the intent of intellectual sabotage for the result of promoting and installing a political system that history has proven time and time again to the detriment of the majority then it must be stopped.

    The Peter Ridd’s of the world did not ask or seek out this fight, I’m sure he considers himself an ordinary man with the human failings we all endure, but history, our history is strewn with people just like him that rose to a challenge without fear or hesitation.

    God speed sir.

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    pat

    being played more than once daily since Friday on community radio around Australia (part taxpayer-funded).
    a MUST LISTEN. unbelievable stuff. love the Freudian slip at the start re ***35,000 protesters, which is probably closer to the truth than the 300,000 figure being pushed by the MSM:

    (paraphrasing a few bits)
    GUZMAN: today ***35,000 people are expected to take part in the global strike for climate change in 110
    towns & cities across Australia…

    JON BRODIE/JCU: i think it’s very difficult now to stop the coral being damaged so badly that it stops growing as a coral reef etc…coral reefs will look nothing like they do at the moment within a few years and that is sad…

    MIK AIDT: tipping points. there will be losses…in particular the GBR is in trouble.

    JON BRODIE/JCU: quite supportive of the strike. radical action is needed now. our politicians and Govts – especially the Australian Govt – are doing very little to protect the GBR…the politicians in Canberra on the Coalition side denying climate change is really happening. only step left for young people is quite extreme protest…

    AUDIO: 4min41sec: 20 Sept: The Wire: Climate strike a ray of optimism amid climate despair
    Produced By Isabella Guzma
    Featured in story
    ***Jon Brodie – Professional Fellow ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cooke University

    Millie Biggs – Young activist at School Strike 4 Climate
    Mik Aidt – Journalist and Host at community radio show The Sustainable Hour
    http://thewire.org.au/story/the-global-strike-4-climate-opens-a-scientific-debate/

    hope Peter Ridd hears this; also the Govt, given what Brodie has to say about them.

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    • #
      pat

      should note – again – that The Wire is a daily program, and there are 2 new programs on their website, but 4RPH Brisbane(& possibly other community radio stations) are choosing to keep repeating this episode from 20 Sept, just as they broadcast an XR story for an entire week recently, despite new shows being available.

      community radio is partly Govt funded.

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  • #
    pat

    dreadful summary below. who wrote it? it gives no indication of the insanity going on in our energy industry. a MUST LISTEN:

    AUDIO: 9min04sec: 24 Sept: 2GB: Wake Up Australia: EnergyAustralia to buy gas from a Japanese-backed joint venture
    Presenter: Luke Grant
    Guest: David LLewellyn Smith, Macrobusiness.com contributor & founder
    EnergyAustralia, Australia’s third-largest energy retailer, agreeing on Wednesday to buy gas from a liquefied natural gas (LNG)import terminal planned by a Japanese-backed joint venture… in the first of several deals needed for the project to go ahead.
    The Port Kembla LNG terminal is one of five proposed LNG import terminals that could help meet a looming gas shortage in southeastern Australia, even as the country is set to become the world’s top LNG exporter.

    EnergyAustralia is the first customer to sign up to buy gas from Port Kembla, to be operated by a joint venture called Australian Industrial Energy (AIE) consisting of Japan’s JERA and Marubeni Corp and mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Squadron Energy.
    https://www.2gb.com/podcast/energyaustralia-to-buy-gas-from-a-japanese-backed-joint-venture/

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  • #
    pat

    where to begin with Al Gore’s financial interests in the following CAGW propaganda?

    20 Sept: NYT: Al Gore Op Ed: The Climate Crisis Is the Battle of Our Time, and We Can Win
    The destructive impacts of the climate crisis are now following the trajectory of that economics maxim as horrors long predicted by scientists are becoming realities.
    More destructive Category 5 hurricanes are developing, monster fires ignite and burn on every continent but Antarctica, ice is melting in large amounts there and in Greenland, and accelerating sea-level rise now threatens low-lying cities and island nations.
    Tropical diseases are spreading to higher latitudes. Cities face drinking-water shortages. The ocean is becoming warmer and more acidic, destroying coral reefs and endangering fish populations that provide vital protein consumed by about a billion people.

    Worsening droughts and biblical deluges are reducing food production and displacing millions of people. Record-high temperatures threaten to render areas of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, North Africa and South Asia uninhabitable. Growing migrations of climate refugees are destabilizing nations. A sixth great extinction could extinguish half the species on earth.

    Finally people are recognizing that the climate is changing, and the consequences are worsening much faster than most thought was possible. A record 72 percent of Americans polled say that the weather is growing more extreme…
    I often echo the point made by the climate scientist James Hansen: The accumulation of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases — some of which will envelop the planet for hundreds and possibly thousands of years — is now trapping as much extra energy daily as 500,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs would release every 24 hours…

    Are we really helpless and unwilling to respond to the gravest threat faced by civilization?
    This is our generation’s life-or-death challenge. It is Thermopylae, Agincourt, Trafalgar, Lexington and Concord, Dunkirk, Pearl Harbor, the Battle of the Bulge, Midway and Sept. 11…

    Consider the progress made by the world’s top four emitters of greenhouse gases. Last year, solar and wind represented 88 percent of the new electricity capacity installed in the 28 nations of the European Union, 65 percent in India, 53 percent in China and 49 percent in the United States…
    In Australia, a high-tech entrepreneur, Mike Cannon-Brookes, is reportedly planning to sell renewable electricity generated in the Northern Territories to South Asian cities over a long-distance undersea cable…
    he number of electric vehicles on the road has increased by 450 percent in the past four years…

    More broadly, the evidence now indicates that we are in the early stages of a sustainability revolution that will achieve the magnitude of the Industrial Revolution and the speed of the digital revolution, made possible by new digital tools. To pick one example, Google has reduced the amount of electricity required to cool its enormous server farms by 40 percent using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence…

    The people, in their true function as the sovereign power, are quickly understanding the truth of this crisis, and they are the ones who must act, especially because the president is not on speaking terms with the truth and seems well beyond the reach of reason.
    This will require a ferocious attack on the complacency, complicity, duplicity and mendacity of those in Congress who have paid for their careers by surrendering their votes and judgment to powerful special interests that are sacrificing the planet for their greed…

    Next year’s election is the crucial test of the nation’s commitment to addressing this crisis, and it is worth remembering that on the day after the 2020 election, the terms of the Paris climate accord will permit the United States to withdraw from it. We cannot allow that to happen…
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/opinion/al-gore-climate-change.html

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    • #
      Zane

      Gore was a divinity school dropout so it is not surprising that he decided to form a cult and preach.

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      • #
        Greg in NZ

        And lo, thusly, the GORE did say aloud
        (from his high & mighty chair upon a gold-plated cloud)
        ‘Tis worserer, way worserer, than what I said before!
        Send money here, send money there, send money ever more!
        Amen Agore

        20

  • #
    pat

    23 Sept: CBS: Trump drops by United Nations climate summit
    By Emily Tillett
    And Mr. Trump did end up dropping by a morning session, where he was seen listening to the climate discussion inside the General Assembly Hall. Seated with new U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft and Vice President Mike Pence, the president listened intently for about 10 minutes before departing for his religious freedom event…

    Under the terms of the Paris agreement, the U.S. withdrawal will not be final until November 4, 2020, the day after the U.S. presidential election…

    The president has also expressed skepticism about government research that shows carbon emissions are warming the planet and warns of potentially catastrophic consequences if the trend continues…
    Recent CBS News polling found most Americans say climate change will be a factor in their vote…
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/un-climate-summit-trump-drops-by-climate-meeting-at-start-of-united-nations-general-assembly/

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      Greg in NZ

      I chuckled when the man on the radio said the Hurty-Gerty child-actress “scowled” at Trump as he fleetingly soiréed through her finest theatrical moment so far. She ain’t gonna forgive Orange Man for that one! Excellent play, Donald.

      10

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Scientific institutions contaminated by Marxism must perpetuate falsehood at any cost. Morality and the immutability of the Scientific Method are anathema.

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  • #
    pat

    and, of course, a Greens MSP is given a platform to express his concern!!!

    23 Sept: HeraldScotland: Warm homes for all ‘makes sense for people and our planet’
    By Maureen Sugden
    SCOTTISH ministers will be urged to carry out a radical overhaul of how fuel poverty is tackled – by ensuring warm homes for all are central to its climate change bill…
    MSPs will vote on government proposals at Holyrood this week. But in an eleventh hour intervention, Climate Change secretary Roseanne Cunningham and her fellow cabinet colleagues will be pressed to look again at how fuel poverty can be tackled.

    ***It comes as temperatures are expected to dip, leaving thousands of Scots households suffering through winter…

    (Scottish Greens Energy and Climate Spokesperson Mark Ruskell MSP) told the Herald: “Far too many families live in fuel poverty, unable to heat their homes adequately due to exorbitant energy prices and a lack of energy efficiency measures.”…“Everyone should be able to live comfortably, but we know that a far too many can’t and that often leads to damp and mould, which can cause serious health problems.”…
    That’s why I’m demanding that the Scottish Government gets behind my proposal by committing to delivering warm homes for everyone.”…

    Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) survey from June revealed one in 10 workers in Scotland was unable to pay a gas or electricity bill at least once last year due to a lack of money. The poll, conducted for CAS by YouGov, found seven per cent of respondents had run out of funds once or twice, while 2% had done so “more than six times”. Renewed definitions of fuel poverty in May revealed 583,000 Scottish households are in fuel poverty and 293,000 are in “extreme” fuel poverty…
    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17919488.warm-homes-makes-sense-people-planet/

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  • #
    pat

    only five-fold? easy…

    23 Sept: RenewEconomy: Climate effort must be boosted five-fold to limit global warming to 1.5°C
    by Sophie Vorrath
    The world needs to ratchet up its emissions reduction ambition at least five-fold for there to be any hope of limiting global warming to 1.5°C and avoiding dangerous climate change, an important new report has warned as global leaders meet to discuss the issue in New York.

    The “United in Science” report, published ahead of this week’s 2019 Climate Action Summit sponsored by the United Nations, says that despite promising signs of ambition from many countries, the world is currently on track for a more than 10 per cent rise in emissions above 2016 levels by 2030.
    This, according to data compiled by the World Meteorological Organisation, would lead to an increase in average global temperatures of between 2.9°C and 3.4°C by 2100, paving the way for catastrophic and irreversible climate change across the globe.

    To get back on track – which the report stresses is still possible – will require an “urgent response,” including firm national commitments to cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. (This, of course, is the same target stipulated several years ago by Australia’s Climate Change Authority, which is now largely de-funded and ignored by the current Coalition government)…

    In fact, Australia falls into the dismal category of nations that did not get to speak at this year’s global climate summit, because they have nothing to offer, and no one willing to offer it…READ ON
    https://reneweconomy.com.au/climate-effort-must-be-boosted-five-fold-to-limit-global-warming-to-1-5c-88884/

    22 Sept: WMO: Landmark United in Science report informs Climate Action Summit
    https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/landmark-united-science-report-informs-climate-action-summit

    11

  • #
    pat

    Climate change: Propaganda ‘accelerating’ as leaders gather for UN talks:

    22 Sept: BBC: Climate change: Impacts ‘accelerating’ as leaders gather for UN talks
    By Matt McGrath
    The data, compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), says the five-year period from 2014 to 2019 is the warmest on record.
    Sea-level rise has accelerated significantly over the same period, as CO2 emissions have hit new highs.
    The WMO says carbon-cutting efforts have to be intensified immediately.

    LINKS:
    ◾BBC Briefing: Your energy and climate facts guide
    ◾Offshore wind expands at record low price
    ◾Thousands join UK climate change protests

    VIDEO: BBC Weather examines what effects a warming world could have had on 2019’s extreme weather.

    Perhaps most worrying of all is the data on sea-level rise.
    The average rate of rise since 1993 until now is 3.2mm per year. However, from May 2014 to 2019 the rise has increased to 5mm per year. The 10-year period from 2007-2016 saw an average of about 4mm per year.
    “Sea-level rise has accelerated and we are concerned that an abrupt decline in the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, which will exacerbate future rise,” said WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas.
    “As we have seen this year with tragic effect in the Bahamas and Mozambique, sea-level rise and intense tropical storms led to humanitarian and economic catastrophes.”

    The report also highlights the threats to the oceans, with more than 90% of the excess heat caused by climate change ending up in the waters. The WMO analysis says 2018 had the highest ocean heat content values on record…

    “Climate change due to us is accelerating and on a very dangerous course,” said Prof Brian Hoskins, chair of the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, and professor of meteorology, University of Reading.
    “We should listen to the loud cry coming from the schoolchildren.”….

    VIDEO: Millions of people join the environmental strike led by schoolchildren across the world on Friday

    While China, India, France, Germany and the UK will speak at the meeting, there is no place on the podium for Japan or Australia…
    The US, Brazil and Saudi Arabia will also not be taking part…
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49773869

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      BBC Briefing: Your energy and climate facts lies guide
      Offshore wind expands at record low high price
      Thousands A few idiots join UK climate change protests

      60

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        Proof of the second (fake) statement ‘SA also suffers the world’s highest power prices.’ stopthesethings.com

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    • #
      Zane

      Warming would be a blessing for Britain, but it ain’t gonna happen. The Ice Man cometh.

      50

      • #
        Greg in NZ

        The Gang wants to listen to tantrum-throwing teenagers,
        yet not “Japan or Australia…The US, Brazil” nor even Wahhabi Sauds.

        As for the Ice Man cometh… he’s here! Frigid winds today, ski areas CLOSED due to snow blizzards and -15˚C wind chill on the tops, your Thredbo burned on -4˚C, Canberra -2˚C, while Antarctica was melting on -72˚C. But no, let’s “listen to the loud cry coming from the schoolchildren”.

        Hang on, who’s that hiding behind the curtain . . .

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    • #
      Gee Aye

      yep… a cheap shot.

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        I heard some of it on the radio.
        All adults, especially those in the U.N.are idiots.
        They are leaving a mess behind for the children to clean up.

        Guilt allocation to old white men.

        Anyone who can’t see what that speech is really about can’t be helped and the interesting thing is that The Gretas are unable to see the real future where they’ll be working alongside the old white men in the salt mines.

        Complete arrogance on her part but those pushing her are the true evil.

        KK

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      • #
        AndyG55

        truth hurts..

        all part of the socialist agenda.. and guess where the Nazis came from.. !

        Are you saying that using young innocent-looking girls in pigtails wasn’t a Nazi ploy ???

        despite the evidence right in front of you ???

        Deep form of denial, GA.

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        • #
          Gee Aye

          As you have shown, you have zero understanding about CO2.

          As usual, you have limited knowledge of what you are gabbling on about.

          17

          • #
            AndyG55

            poor GA.. beaten to a mental pulp. 🙂

            20

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Gee Aye, i actually think youre a decent chap with a brain, what irks me ( and others ) is sniping.

            By all means jump into the convo of the day, but please add to the convo not stir stuff up…..

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Having observed a video of master propagandists in full flight……hmmmm…..

          The whole climate nonsense doesnt stand up to scientific scrutiny, which is why they need to harass, cajole or physically beat up anyone who resists thier lies.

          Leftists thugs have been atrtempting to bashing in doors of at least on right wing us senator.

          Brown shirts…green shirts….the colour is irrelevent….

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            Gee Aye

            This language is permitted here don’t you know. Maybe I should embed links to the originals? And I agree the originals are posted by someone attempting to bully the people they disagree with into silence.

            15

            • #
              AndyG55

              No GA, I’ve spent lots of time trying to make you SAY SOMETHING.

              To answer simple questions.

              But all you can manage to is a copy-paste of comments.

              Not an original thought of your own.

              So funny… in a very sad, pathetic sort of way. 🙂

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          • #
            Kalm Keith

            Highly relevant.

            10

      • #
        glen Michel

        Squeals of indignation from the usual “offenderati”, mostly well off, smug, privileged twits who don’t know much about anything relating to reality. Never contributed much to society generally, but loves taking- like a succubus.Or Incubus if you like.

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    • #

      I saw an extract from the speech, with the dry blubbering.

      To kick-start the first Gulf War a teenage girl (daughter of Kuwait’s Washington ambassador) was groomed by a PR firm with a ten million plus contract to pose as a Kuwaiti nurse. Her testimony to the world, completely fictitious, about babies taken from incubators and left on the floor, worked like a charm. While all this is known, nobody has ever gone after the tricksters involved. Who picks on little girls, right?

      Thunberg’s cheesy blubbering tantrum was rehearsed acting to a malevolent purpose. Time to ridicule this charlatan and her charlatan minders. Yes, we should pick on the little girl. And if she does have a “condition” – though all should be doubted now – it will be on the heads on her parents if it ends badly for her. The world needs to defend itself from media contrivance and malevolent agendas. Putting a kid in the front line is their choice. I say blast away. She is a charlatan of the worst sort: namely, a moralising cynic.

      20

    • #
      Brian the Engineer

      She is really more a modern day Joan of Arc.
      Hopefully a better fate awaits.
      Brian

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      The big green climate lie IS like NAZI propaganda. Greta has been brainwashed, we feel sorry for her. So in that sense she is a propaganda girl (used as one).

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      • #
        Gee Aye

        Any advertising campaign, any and every effort someone makes to promote an idea they want others to embrace is “like” Nazi propaganda. Maybe be a bit more sophisticated with your sycophancy.

        08

        • #
          theRealUniverse

          So the big green climate lie is what you call ‘An advertising campaign’? Really, its total propaganda, well organized and presented as a fait accompli by those who want to destroy hydrocarbon fuels and push there fake green utopia.

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    • #

      I’ve made a comment about this person and her entourage which has finished up in moderation.

      All I’ll say is this: we have got to do something about media and its fictitious creatures presented as reality. All the foundations, NGOs, sort-of public bodies and sort-of private corporations in league with refuse media need to be exposed, along with the refuse media.

      The girl as presented is not real. She is an actress from a family of actors and performers. What she lacks in talent she makes up for in ham. She is a production costing millions.

      There is no Road Runner, no Wile E Coyote, no Rocky, no Bullwinkle. There is no Super Greta. Stop believing these creatures are real.

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      • #
        AndyG55

        Yet the likes of GA and PF prostrate themselves at her feet in worship, because she is so “sciency”.

        (compared to them, anyway)

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        • #
          Gee Aye

          So What !

          Again with the deliberate slimy innuendo of misinformation.

          Your lack of awareness is again leading him to make DUMB comments.

          You have FAILED MISERABLY at all attempt to produce any empirical evidence of anything.

          What a loathsome creature you are.

          16

          • #
            AndyG55

            GA has morphed into a mindless parrot with no thought process of its own.

            Making a right muppet of itself.

            Keep up the self-mockery, pet !!

            20

          • #
            bobl

            You refuse to engage

            0.9= K x ln(410/270), K = 0.9/ln(415/270)=2.09

            dT= 2.09 ln(2)
            1.4 degrees per doubling if all temp rise since preindustrial times was due to CO2. But IPCC say half.

            Therefore demonstrated dT per doubling = 1.4/2 = 0.7 degrees

            Hmm Gee Aye, what a little math tells you.

            Even you could handle this trivial math boundary test but you refuse to do it in order to keep your delusion alive.

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      • #
        Annie

        I was very struck by a clip of her being ignored by POTUS…the anger she was showing was palpable.

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        • #

          Annie, the scowling and frowning are rehearsed, like everything else. I get the impression that the freak aspect appeals to many. Others go for the stern Calvinism projected. (I had a Swedish mate in Sydney who was loved by all and who loved all, especially Aussies. Finding him too good-natured and tolerant for this world, I once asked him if there was anyone or anything he didn’t love. He thought a moment then said: “Yes. Sweden. I hate ******* Sweden!”)

          I prefer the humour-tinged mumblings of that other cartoon fake, Elon Musk, to the tantrums of this cartoon fake. But I really could do without the lot of them.

          The off-button is my friend.

          20

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Well….maybe a princess mentality at work…she has been centre of attention for a long long time.

          And…I hate to say it, but the ugly truth may be that if she has a mental disability, she could potentially be easily manipulated, especially at the emotional level.

          As such she may be like a wind up programmable toy in the hands of her media savvy handlers….

          20

        • #
          Greg in NZ

          Palpable anger, eh. Some radio jock said she “scowled” at the man. Ha! As for princess mentality:

          PM Jacindarella (the fishmonger’s fiancée) said “over 80 percent of our electricity already comes from renewable hydro and wind… We have introduced in parliament the zero carbon bill… to ensure New Zealand lives within the threshold of 1.5C of global warming [sic] necessary to avoid catastrophic weather events for our Pacific neighbours“.

          Say what? Nothing for us – it’s for our neighbours? Eh? What’s that word that starts with ‘T’ again?

          https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/399463/greta-thunberg-leaders-failed-us-on-climate-change

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  • #
    David Maddison

    This is a shameful waste of taxpayer funds. Surely the court ruling is so solidany appeal is unlikely to succeed?

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  • #
    Brian the Engineer

    I decline to comment on this story lest I lose my job
    Brian

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  • #
    David Maddison

    THE NAZI ROOTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT
    Steve Busch
    2 years ago
    Simply put, radical environmentalism, a.k.a. the GREEN MOVEMENT, DEEP ECOLOGY, or REWILDING, is a philosophy that elevates nature over man. Hitler incorporated this naturalistic philosophy in his infamous treatise, Mein Kampf, where he blamed the entire Jewish race for what he called “the pacification of Nature”.

    According to Hitler, the Jews, and to a lesser extent, the Judeo-Christian ethic that stemmed from a belief in a “transcendent God”, were responsible for wrecking the environmental health of the planet. Jews and Christians accomplished this evil deed through the promotion of capitalism, international commerce, and/or the communitarian values of communism.

    https://oldmanoftheski.com/2017/11/30/the-nazi-roots-of-the-environmental-movement/

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    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      Bit of a stretch is this David? As you quote he incorporated natural philosophy into his work, but to paint that over the green movement is a bit of a straw man. Firstly the environmental movement started well before ecology etc was even a science. Secondly, The elevation of nature over man has been disputed by early philosophers such as Date who said “Art imitates nature as well as it can, as a pupil follows his master; thus it is sort of a grandchild of God.” Man has always had the mastery

      25

      • #
        AndyG55

        The green movement has been infiltrated by the socialist agenda.

        They go hand in hand.

        Even the most stupid ignorant fool could see that, unless in complete DENIAL.

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        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          I’m surprised that a push back against pollution, and a desire for the preservation of the natural world is seen as socialist. Mind you using the environment to dump toxic materials, cover the oceans in microplastics, and fill everyone up with growth hormones (from our diet) is capitalist, then it deserves to be replaced

          17

          • #
            theRealUniverse

            Noone is against fighting real pollution. So i gather you believe that the life gas CO2 is a pollutant? As declared by the EPA.

            70

            • #
              Peter Fitzroy

              Yes, but because it is dumped at no cost to the polluter. If you want to dump into the environment you should pay.

              03

              • #
                AndyG55

                CO2 is released, not dumped.

                CO2 is NOT pollution at any level possible in the atmosphere.

                It is NOT waste, it is used by all life on Earth.. even you, PF.

                If you use it from the environment YOU should pay, PF.

                10

          • #
            AndyG55

            Real environmentalists understand that plant need CO2 and that there is a deficit.

            ACTIVIST SOCIALIST non-environmentalist like Greenpeace, who DUMP oil on the GBR, and DESPOIL national heritage sites, are the people you worship, PF.

            You are a PRETENDER when it comes to the environment. !

            Just as you are with everything else.

            30

          • #
            AndyG55

            “Mind you using the environment to dump toxic materials”

            You mean like when manufacturing wind turbines and solar cells.

            Solar cells are massively TOXIC all on their own. It will not be easy to get rid of either wind turbines or solar cells as they die a short-lived life.

            But YOU DON’T CARE, do you, PF.

            CO2 is NOT a toxic material, it is not dumped, it is RELEASED.

            Coal ash is a highly useful by-product that is all around you in basically every structure built by man.

            None of todays modern society could have been built or could continue to exist WITHOUT COAL and FOSSIL FUELS.

            40

          • #
            AndyG55

            “cover the oceans in microplastics”

            LOAD OF BS !!

            40

          • #
            AndyG55

            “and a desire for the preservation of the natural world “

            So NOT Greenpeace. They left there ages ago,

            Only small pockets of environmental sanity still exist within the “environmental” societies like Greenpeace and WWF. The gullible worker ants.

            The companies themselves are now run by socialist activists who only care about the socialist agenda.

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            • #
              Peter Fitzroy

              You are one of the few people who thinks that a gas can not warm a fluid, astounding. Also you do not seem to understand back radiation, stay with the ranting, you have a minor talent there. Leave explanations of science to those who understand it.

              As to your last 3 posts, the 2 rules apply, all you do is rage at the commentator, without any supporting evidence (and yes I did read your ‘rebuttals’ – they all missed addressing the science I had linked) so back to the fail army for you.

              05

              • #
                AndyG55

                Poor PF .. Still in your fantasy land

                ” Leave explanations of science to those who understand it.”

                So anyone BUT you. !!

                Still thinking he can heat water from above with IR. Funny.

                Lack of science and physics in your education was there, PF ??.

                Your little list elsewhere just got eviscerated., poor fella. !!

                “they all missed addressing the science I had linked”

                You didn’t link any “science” what there was there was non-science

                One google search link, meaningless.

                The other parts provably incorrect or irrelevant, and based on garbage assumptions.

                You batted ZERO out of the whole bunch, PF.. !!

                Now, how has the global climate changed in the last 40 years that can be scientifically linked to human activity.

                Still waiting for an answer. ! 😉

                30

              • #
                AndyG55

                Poor PF still in fantasy land

                Tell us next time you heat up your kettle with a match from above. So funny, so dumb

                “Leave explanations of science to those who understand it.”

                So basically anyone but you.

                “they all missed addressing the science I had linked”

                You didn’t really link any science, a google search link is not science, did you know that?

                The other parts have been totally dismantled as either unproven nonsense or totally irrelevant.. Real physics and data will do that to fantasies.

                Your comments got ground into the dust, PF, pity you can’t let that fact into you mind, the non-cognitive dissonance would be hilarious.

                PF, batting ZERO from many.. !!

                ——

                Now PF, Where is your empirical evidence of warming by atmospheric CO2

                and How has the global climate changed in the last 40 years that can be scientifically linked to human activity

                Still waiting for your non-answer. 🙂

                scuttle and run !!

                20

              • #
                AndyG55

                Sorry, I thought the first one hadn’t posted.

                Well, it bares stating twice, so be it. 🙂

                10

              • #
                theRealUniverse

                Also you do not seem to understand back radiation I put it to you that YOU dont either or youd realize it doesnt exist.

                20

              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                Keep up, those references were empirical. (And not naked, as you suggest)
                I’ve seen pond scum with more integrity than you.

                and therealuniverse, saying something like back radiation does not exist puts you into fail army with Andy.

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              • #
                AndyG55

                Real DATA scares you doesn’t it PF

                That is why you are always running away from it.

                So, no evidence of warming from atmospheric CO2

                … and no changes in global climate from human influence.

                Yes, we know that you cannot produce any of either

                But you refuse to admit it, just the deceitful lying to yourself..

                Totally lack of self-honesty and self-credibility.

                So PF, So sad. !

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              • #
                AndyG55

                “those references were empirical”

                LOL

                Come on petal, show me the exact spot where it shows empirically that CO2 warms the atmosphere.

                You know you can’t.. you know you run and hide every time you have been asked to.

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              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                refute this http://folk.uio.no/gunnarmy/paper/myhre_grl98.pdf

                I repeat, either insult me to my face, or [snip]

                You are a degrading every thread you comment on.

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              • #
                AndyG55

                “back radiation does not exist'”

                CO2 does not emit below about 11km.

                Its mean free path of CO2 frequency radiation is 10-100m

                Net energy flux is upwards from warm to cold so and CO2 can not and does not alter the controlling gravity based thermal gradient.

                As you are well aware, little-F.

                THERE IS NO WARMING FROM ATMOSPHERIC CO2.

                You do the basic maths, little-F.

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      • #
        el gordo

        With the fall of the Berlin Wall the Marxist sympathisers all around the world were at a loss as to what to do. Julia Gillard’s memoirs will give us a closer look at those extraordinary days, anyway they decided to become Cultural Marxists.

        From my understanding it was the Balmain Branch of the Greens Party which became the template for ‘evolution’ and was adopted around the world.

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        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          I Lived in Balmain for a decade from the mid 70’s. Reno’s and house price comparisons were the go, don’t believe there was much about being green, despite the basket weavers tag. That tag, was because there were a lot of academics situated there, as it was handy to the big 3 uni’s.

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          • #
            el gordo

            I was over the way in Annandale, bought a DMR affected house and Laurie Brereton lifted the zoning, and it doubled in value.

            Of course I could be wrong about the Balmain Greens, I’ll do a bit more digging.

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      • #
        glen Michel

        Not at all Peter. Read Walter Darré and his influence on the Nazis.”Blood andn Soil”

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  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    Dante (curse you autocorrect)

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  • #
    theRealUniverse

    More mindless crap from Aunty midday BS news from BB(ulshyte)C dolt telling everyone that (stupid enough to swallow it) CO2 is increasing, and temperatures will reach a the levels of a furnace by 2050 (4C warmer, totally based on fake models of course). OMG we will all be cooked in our beds.
    Added in was the usual pics of smoke stacks belching steam, and some of nuclear cooling towers! Im sure these charlatans are living on Venus.

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  • #
    Tristan

    The case has been repeatedly framed in media reports as one about academic freedom, or about the validity of the minority and controversial views held by Ridd about climate change and the health of the Great Barrier Reef.

    Vasta made clear in his judgment in April those matters were not on trial.

    “Some have thought that this trial was about freedom of speech and intellectual freedom,” he said. “Media reports have considered that this trial was about silencing persons with controversial or unpopular views.

    “Rather, this trial was purely and simply about the proper construction of a clause in an enterprise agreement.”

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    • #
      el gordo

      Yes and his honour saw in Ridd’s favour on that matter, yet JCU cannot give up the battle. Do you know why?

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      • #
        Tristan

        I presume, that like most parties who go to trial, they want to win for financial and face-saving reasons.

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        • #
          el gordo

          At a time when the credibility of marine science is being seriously questioned, it would have been better if JCU paid the fine (oops our bad) and disappeared from the MSM.

          They are on a hiding to nothing, I’ll bring the popcorn.

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        • #
          theRealUniverse

          Why on earth would Peter Ridd want to win just for financial reasons? What part of ‘unfairly sacked’ dont you understand. The whole excercise has been of great financial and personal hardship for him.

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      • #
        Michael262

        Yet the sceptics keep painting this as freedom of speech BS

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        • #
          AndyG55

          Which is exactly want it is by JCU, and attack on freedom of speech.

          BAD science should be shown up for what it is, Peter Ridd did exactly what any honest scientist should have done.

          Pity more of his colleagues are not so brave, this whole AGW farce would be ground into the dust of history.

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        • #
          Lewis P Buckingham

          One has to be careful not to conflate what Justice Vasta said about the general principal of freedom of speech and what he actually enforced by his decision on the obligations of JCU to uphold free enquiry, its called ‘academic freedom’.
          He interpreted the work place contract and the mission statement of the Uni as if they were to be read together.
          This then bound JCU.
          The consequence for JCU was damming.
          A lot has been said about the JCU administration’s failure to obtain outside barrister’s opinion about the situation JCU found itself with Peter Ridd.
          This is a far cry from what happened in the days of the student occupation of the administration at Sydney Uni, which occurred under the watchfull eye of Bruce Rodda Williams.
          https://sydney.edu.au/arms/archives/history/FUO/VC_Williams.shtml
          He organised three legal opinions and chose the one he thought was the best fit.
          Yet JCU appears to have collectively or through poor leadership skill, failed to obtain independent opinion at an opportune time.
          It now seeks to extricate itself by the use of the very best legal minds.
          But the ‘Genie is out of the bottle’.
          Rather than defunding Unis that discourage freedom of discourse, it would be better to licence them ,as they already are.
          Within the licence are placed minimum standards of contract with academic staff.
          It worked with pet shops, the minimum standard being vaccinated pets.
          That cleaned up a lot of problems.
          The present productivity commission inquiry identifies best practice as being a criteria for formulating policy on such things as the GBR.
          https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/resources/terms-of-reference
          It should stipulate minimum standards of behavior for uni administrations when it comes to academic freedom and the propensity of academics to challenge
          findings that are slipshod and non repeatable, particularly regarding unique Australian habitats.
          The win win is that our funds are more likely spent on productive, accurate scientific work, and persons of competence will be attracted to outfits like JCU,
          rather than leaving the country as some, in dismay, have done.
          As a start this site could publish the ‘new’ JCU academic contract and have a few people work on it.
          When Bruce Williams was Vice Chancellor of the then University of Sydney, the SRC, Sydney Uni Staff Association and Sydney Uni Post Graduate Representative Association set up committees to iron out the
          rights of students and staff when hauled before the Proctorial Board, which at that stage did not even allow representation.
          It was akin to a Star Chamber.
          Much valuable discussion and work was done.
          This JCU Administration needs to relearn the lessons of the past.
          What is sad is that it did not appear to even know them.

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  • #
    pat

    Misha has all the charisma and credibility one would expect from a former ABC Media Watch researcher:

    VIDEO: 10min30sec: 23 Sept: Sky News: ‘Repeated offenders’ banned from climate discussion
    It is now policy to ban individuals who continually use “discredited science or discredited arguments” to push alternate climate change ideas, according to the editor of media outlet The Conversation.
    Misha Ketchell said The Conversation is now trying to “weed out” those who “attack the idea that there is a strong scientific consensus on climate change”.
    Mr Ketchell told Sky News the website does welcome the climate change debate “in so far as it’s occurring among scientists who have got expertise in the field”.
    https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6088670578001

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  • #
    el gordo

    I was replying to Latus when it came to me that its the top of the thread, so down here in the basement …

    ‘The reality is that everyone is crushed to the lowest common denominator …’

    That was last century, in the new world order there will be four economic classes, China and Australia are on the same plate.

    The small elites are an integral part of society, the entrepreneurs and of course the ‘old money’ accumulated within families. Malcolm Turnbull fits nicely, having come from poor family he still managed to amass millions of dollars.

    In China there are the ‘princelings’ who have inherited wealth and power through their revolutionary forefathers. These grandchildren are now going out into the world to legitimise their activity as dictated by capitalist norms and international convention.

    The upper middle, lower middle and the poor are similar to Australia.

    ‘Venezuela being a case in point.’

    Its a tragedy what has happened there, but its not that straight forward. In political science they suggest to really understand the situation we have to go back to the time when Venezuela was prosperous and then move forward in time.

    I would like your opinion on where it went wrong?

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    • #
      Latus Dextro

      I serendipitously wandered into the basement wondering what illuminated comments were hiding in the dark and lo, I discovered to my pleasure none other than el gordo, #60

      The reality is that everyone is crushed to the lowest common denominator, with the exception of a clutch of spouting elitists and eventually their gun toting, lawfaring entourage, Venezuela being a case in point.
      So far, 15% of the population has left. 4 million Venezuelans are exiles, of which 1 million are refugees in Colombia.

      el gordo, forgive me, I am not entirely sure what you meant by ‘it’ in your final question. I am assuming you mean Venezuela?
      Like many I am the recipient of second hand information, YouTube doco and commentary and the commentators section of Disqus following articles on the degradation of a once ‘rich’ country with some unique problems, recurrent autocracy. My opinion is based on what I read and observe one step removed, so to speak. The maternal side of my family are from Brazil, not indigenous Indians of Amazonia but German migrants in the late 19th early 20th Century, so I consider I have a soupçon of cultural empathy beyond the occasional harangues of an elderly uncle, sadly socially narcotised by decades of Leftist dependence and vacuous promises.

      Therefore permit me to direct you to what I think of as contrasting views, aspirations and analysis of causation, replete in both cases with the comments of viewers. Often the latter, as you know, is as instructive and insightful.

      From Democratic Socialism to Total Destruction in Venezuela
      How Democratic Socialism spawned Hugo Chavez (PanAm Post March 2019)

      The Brazilian Renewal: A Conversation with Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo
      We talk about the rise of President Jair Bolsonaro and the Brazilian conservative renewal, the influence of Olavo de Carvalho, and post-secular international relations (September 2019)

      You asked: ‘I would like your opinion on where it went wrong?
      I think the interview with Olavo de Carvalho highlights peak wrong and its address. The article at PanAm suggests how Venezuela arrived at peak wrong and is cross referenced by another earlier article from an economic platform, Mises Institute).
      The précis of both, socialism.

      For a little intersectional analysis from an alternative platform and perspective (Mises Institute), How Socialism Ruined Venezuela (10/13/2017 Rafael Acevedo, Luis B. Cirocco)

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    Ross

    This a very long read (I have not read it all yet) but it makes for interesting reading about how the money guys are manipulating the NGOs for their own ends. But it is also about how the socialist dreams and the environmental movement (or parts of it) are all inter meshed.

    http://www.theartofannihilation.com/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-a-decade-of-social-manipulation-for-the-corporate-capture-of-nature-crescendo/

    The author is not some anti environmentalist or right wing capitalist :

    “Cory Morningstar is an independent investigative journalist, writer and environmental activist, focusing on global ecological collapse and political analysis of the non-profit industrial complex. She resides in Canada. Her recent writings can be found on Wrong Kind of Green, The Art of Annihilation, Political Context, Counterpunch, Canadians for Action on Climate Change and Countercurrents.”

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    • #
      Zane

      NGOs, non-profits, and charities are a real racket these days, parasites on the productive sectors of the economy and often sucking up tax dollars via grants.

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      • #
        Latus Dextro

        NGOs, non-profits, and charities are a real racket these days, parasites on the productive sectors of the economy and often sucking up tax dollars via grants.

        When ‘accredited’ by the UN they become part of what the UN define as ‘civil society‘, with whom the UN work in intimate guiding partnership to advance UN ideals ideology of globalism. From human trafficking, boats across the Med, to escorting migrants across borders, they unfailingly beg the questiom, how are you described by the UN when you are not an accredited member of ‘civil society’?

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      Zane

      Jennifer Morgan appears to be Thunberg’s handler. As that excellent link states, Ms Morgan has decades of involvement in the environmental movement. It’s her career and her living. No climate scam and she might have to get a real job… Maybe AOC can share some waitressing tips with her.

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  • #
    pat

    no FAKENEWSMSM coverage whatsoever, tho CBS regional covered the Baltimore clean-up early September. Daily Caller/Breitbart/Townhall/Hannity have it:

    22 Sept: Daily Caller: ‘Stop Talking, Start Doing’: Conservative Who Organized Massive Clean-Up In Baltimore Takes On Los Angeles
    by Audrey Conklin
    •Conservative activist organized a street clean-up at a homeless camp in Los Angeles on Saturday.
    •He estimated that his team cleared about 50 tons of trash in the community.
    •“If people are feeling inspired, don’t just tweet and Facebook,” Presler told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Stop talking, start doing.”
    Presler has organized clean-ups across the country in Baltimore; Los Angeles; Newark, New Jersey; and Virginia Beach, Virginia. He’s also planning to organize more cleanups in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit in the coming months…

    The pro-Trump activist said he got a group of about 200 volunteers together in Los Angeles by using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to get his message out and encourage people to sign up for his nine-hour cleaning haul.
    His team was equipped with hazmat suits — many of which were donated — as well as masks to cover their mouths, heavy-duty gloves and safety instructions to avoid being exposed to life-threatening diseases including typhus, typhoid fever and flesh-eating bacteria…
    Anyone interested in helping Presler clean up America’s cities can sign up as a volunteer on his website (LINK).
    https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/22/presler-los-angeles-clean-up/

    MULTIPLE VIDEOS: 23 Sept: Townhall: Scott Presler and His Volunteer Team Took On LA This Weekend. The Results Are Incredible
    by Leah Barkoukis
    In a video showing the final result of a completely cleaned up homeless camp, Presler said it was “one of the proudest moments of my life.”
    Presler pointed out that if this is what could be done in a matter of hours with volunteers, “imagine what we could do with the millions California receives in taxpayer $.”…
    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2019/09/23/scott-presler-la-n2553482

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    • #
      AndyG55

      “Anyone interested in helping Presler clean up America’s cities”

      A list of Democrat politicians would be a good place to start the clean-up. 🙂

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      • #
        Greg in NZ

        Barack and Michelle have a little spare time on their hands now (in between book promos and movie deals). Oh right, wrong coast.

        10

  • #
    James Murphy

    As much as I hate despise the idea of JCU wasting yet more money, and I look forward to seeing them fail miserably in their appeal, I also think it could set a bad precedent if the Minister intervened in legal proceedings. Lawyers will get rich, taxpayers get ripped off, but do you really want politicians intervening in court cases any more than they (presumably) already do?

    30

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    mostly OT but close to the hearts of many who post here, From the Guardian

    “New South Wales has been secretly exploring a highly controversial plan to turn the state’s coastal rivers inland to provide more water for irrigators and towns in the west of the state.
    The proposal, put forward by WaterNSW, echoes the plan for turning rivers inland first mooted by John Bradfield, the engineer who designed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in 1938. He was unable to convince government of its merits before he died in 1943.”

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    • #
      beowulf

      Not a fan of that plan. Most NSW coastal rivers are already under stress and most are fully committed for irrigation and town water supplies which are already tenuous. A massive dam-building spree would be required up and down the coast to store flood flows and what are the chances of that? The Port Macquarie district (on the Hastings) ran out of water some years back. They woke up one morning with no water and quickly had to dig holes in the river bed and extend suction lines to get a trickle of water back into the system.

      From an engineering point of view it might be slightly easier than imagined to get water across the range because a few NSW coastal rivers have paleo-courses that naturally flow westwards but which reversed flow towards the coast during the orogenic phase of the Great Dividing Range. Some of that westward flow is still in existence. I’m rusty on this stuff but from memory the Clarence River is one such and it is probably one of the very few that isn’t fully utilised.

      There is already one river that is pumped westwards over/through the range — the Barnard which flows into the Manning but has been re-directed into the upper Hunter to top it up and also I believe to irrigate Kerry Packer’s polo field at Ellerston. The Hunter requires a top-up because so much of its water is drawn off for towns, irrigation and power stations.

      The other thing is of course that people on the eastern side of the Divide pay more for their land because it has more reliable water. Why should they have their water rights restricted to shove water at people who bought low-value, lower-rainfall country in the west? An analogy: if I choose to build my house in a swamp, why should I ask the public to fund drainage works to increase the value of my house?

      Taking a lot of water out of coastal rivers will affect the estuarine fisheries industry too — especially the prawn runs I think and recruitment of juvenile fish from brackish wetlands.

      Lest I be thought of as heartless, I come from a farming background: I’ve watched cattle starve to death and sheep bog to their bellies in muddy dams. I’ve also irrigated my guts out for years on end. Bring in water from the Ord if you want extra water, not from NSW coastal rivers.

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      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        I’m in agreement with you beowulf. I think is a stupid idea, for all the reasons you list.

        Port Mac, running out of water? I’ve been here for 25 years and that’s the first I heard of it.

        20

        • #
          beowulf

          The pump station was next to the property of a farmer I knew. One morning there was a flurry of activity and when he went for a look they were excavating the river bed to pond some water to get enough to pump. It was panic-stations. The pumps were sucking air and cavitating. That would have been during the 1990-92 drought from memory.

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      • #
        Latus Dextro

        Bring in water from the Ord if you want extra water, not from NSW coastal rivers.

        Whoa!!
        Please leave the river Ord and Lake Argyle the hell alone without some seriously empirical evidence. You’ll give some vacant bureaucrat a ‘clever’ idea.

        From the WickedPedo
        The Ord River Irrigation Scheme was built in stages during the 20th century. Australia’s largest artificial lake by volume, Lake Argyle was completed in 1972. It has not been economically successful; $1.45 billion has been spent on the Ord Irrigation Scheme for a return of 17 cents on the dollar, and only 260 jobs created.

        The lower reaches of the river support an important wetland area known as the Ord River Floodplain, a protected area which contains numerous mangrove forests, lagoons, creeks, flats and extensive floodplains..

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    • #
      glen Michel

      More dams would be detrimental. Thermal pollution(cold water) impacts on ecosystems below impoundments. I saw Copeton go from being full to dead water in 2 years. Greedy irrigators make no mistake. Take all mentality.

      10

  • #
    pat

    final 40 secs – Rozner: not only ha tshe Morrison Govt failed to talk common sense into JCU, late last year the Govt appointed JCU Vice-Chancellor Sandra Harding – who has overseen this whole mess – to an expert panel on their new funding model:

    VIDEO: 4min10sec: Sky News: Bolt Report: University dismissal ‘goes beyond climate change’
    Gideon Rozner, the director of policy at the Institute of Public Affairs, says universities are “using taxpayer dollars and taxpayer resources to shut down dissenting views” on climate change.
    Speaking with Sky News host Andrew Bolt, Mr Rozner said the recent dismissal of academic Peter Ridd by his employer James Cook University “goes beyond just a debate about the Great Barrier Reef, it goes beyond just climate change”.
    “This goes to the heart of what our universities should stand for,” said Mr Rozier, who continued to note Australia’s teaching instructions should be “public squares of open leaning and intellectual enquiry”…
    https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6088640315001

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    pat

    dated 24 Sept (23 Sept program):

    VIDEO: 6min30sec: 24 Sept: Sky News: Bolt Report: Professor Peter Ridd says universities no longer value the truth
    Mr Ridd – who a court determined was wrongly sacked by the university – told Sky News host Andrew Bolt he questioned whether the university valued academic debate and the truth.
    “In many regards this is not just a climate change thing,” he said.
    “This is an insult to the farmers of North Queensland because this is me saying well maybe the farmers are not killing the reef and James Cook University decided to fire me for saying these things.
    “You have to wonder whether the universities are on the side of the truth and of the people of north Queensland.”
    https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6088866266001

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    pat

    writer at first link:

    Wikipedia: Johannes Vogel
    German botanist, who since 1 February 2012 has been Director General of the Museum für Naturkunde and Professor of Biodiversity and Public Science at Humboldt University (Berlin)…
    In 2003 he married Sarah Darwin, a great-great-granddaughter of the naturalist Charles Darwin…

    23 Sept: ClimateNewsNetwork: Scientists need to learn from the young
    by Johannes Vogel
    We urgently need political decisions in line with scientific findings. Otherwise I fear the street protests by Europe’s youth are just the beginning.
    Science needs to change in three ways: to become open, to engage with society and to think across the disciplines. Why has its voice not been heard? Why does it need a 16-year-old Swedish girl as a champion? Science likes to focus on excellence. Now dialogue, impact and relevance are to be added…
    Open and Citizen Science must be strengthened nationally and globally…

    ut leaving the ivory tower will not be enough; science needs to break its self-imposed barriers and become more interdisciplinary. Glaciologists and botanists, oceanographers and atmospheric physicists, meteorologists and ichthyologists − all confront the same global emergency…
    We cannot afford to leave the discourse to a small group of committed climate change deniers, and we cannot surrender our planet and our democracy by clinging to “business as usual”…

    As a research institute and public space/museum, we play our part. Since March 2019, every Friday afternoon and after the demonstrations, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin becomes a much-appreciated forum for pupils and students to talk to scientists about climate change, biodiversity and possible solutions…
    https://climatenewsnetwork.net/scientists-need-to-learn-from-the-young/

    TWEET: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
    #FridaysForFuture Germany presented political demands today at #mfnberlin. Our Director General Johannes Vogel opened the press conference: “The museum is a space to enhance the dialogue between #science and society. It’s time to act #ClimateAction #ClimateChange
    8 Apr 2019

    16 Sept: Action day at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin on the global climate strike on 20 September
    On the occasion of the global climate strike on 20 September 2019, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin will open its doors to all citizens free of charge throughout the day. Experts are available in the exhibitions to explain the links between climate change, extinction of species and ecology and to enter into dialogue with visitors. In addition, two workshops offer the opportunity for discussion and exchange with scientists on the subject of climate change. The special exhibition ARTEFAKTE, which has been extended until 20 October, invites visitors to look more closely at the catastrophic effects of human activity on nature.

    “Especially in the case of nature and climate change, we need a stronger orientation of political decisions towards scientific findings. At the same time, however, society needs to be involved in decision-making and knowledge generation processes,” says Director General Johannes Vogel. “Young people are taking to the streets to demand global, social and environmental justice, a future worth living and the political action necessary to achieve it. Politicians should finally take science and its findings on climate change and the destruction of nature seriously and gear their actions to them.”

    At 10:00 a.m. workshops with discussion and exchange (without registration, in German):
    – Dr. Ilona Otto from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research: Fundamentals of Climate Change
    – Dr. Nils from the Moore: Why is a comprehensive CO2 price the best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
    Active members of the Fridays for Future movement are ready for talks and inform about their goals and demands.
    At 11:30 a.m. all those interested can go to the demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate from the museum together with the active members of the Fridays for Future movement.
    https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/press/press-releases/action-day-museum-fur-naturkunde-berlin-global-climate-strike-20-september

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    • #
      pat

      reminder about Climate News Network:

      About Climate News Network
      Welcome to The Climate News Network. It’s free, it’s objective, and it publishes a daily news story on climate and energy. It is run by ***four volunteers (details below), ***all veteran journalists who have covered climate change for many years for international newspapers and broadcasting organisations and are now freelancing.
      We use our contacts and experience to help both scientists and journalists to overcome the difficulties they face in telling people the facts about climate change. We offer scientists an unbiased way to report their research. For journalists, we provide reporting that spells out explicitly and authoritatively the context and the implications of the news…

      Paul Brown is a former environment correspondent for The Guardian newspaper, and still writes columns for the paper…In 1997, he began training journalists by running workshops in developing countries. These have been for a number of different organisations, including The Guardian Foundation and the UN Environment Programme, and he has now conducted more than 40 workshops in 20 countries…

      Kieran Cooke is a former foreign correspondent for both the BBC and the Financial Times, and continues to contribute to the BBC and a wide range of international newspapers and radio networks…
      He trains and mentors journalists around the world, under the auspices of the UN Environment Programme and other organisations, including an extensive journalists’ training programme in the Himalayan region…

      Alex Kirby is a former BBC journalist and environment correspondent. Before joining the BBC, he was a Reuters news agency stringer in Burkina Faso, and later the BBC Maghreb correspondent. From 1987 to 2005, he was environment correspondent for BBC Radio and TV News, and latterly for the BBC News website. From 1999 to 2005, he presented BBC Radio’s environment programme, Costing the Earth…

      He now works with universities, charities and international agencies to improve their media skills, and with developing world journalists keen to specialise in environmental reporting. This has involved conducting workshops across Eastern Europe, Central and South Asia, Malaysia, the Pacific and East Africa.
      He is a former honorary visiting fellow of Green-Templeton College, University of Oxford, a member of the consultative committee of the China Center for Climate Change Communication, and a board member of the Geneva-based Zoï Environment Network…

      Tim Radford worked for the Guardian for 32 years, for most of that time as science editor. He has been covering climate change since 1988. He joined the New Zealand Herald as a reporter at 16, and moved to the United Kingdom in 1961, to spend almost all his working life in weekly, evening or daily newspapers…
      He has lectured on the media and science in Europe, China, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and the US. He has also written for Nature, The Lancet, New Scientist, and the London Review of Books.
      https://climatenewsnetwork.net/about/

      23 Sept: ClimateNewsNetwork: Extremes of global heat bring tipping points closer
      by Tim Radford
      https://climatenewsnetwork.net/extremes-of-global-heat-bring-tipping-points-closer/

      20 Sept: ClimateNewsNetwork: Scientists back global climate strike
      by Alex Kirby
      In a statement (LINK) published by the Earth League, headed Humanity is Tipping the Scales of the World, 20 respected scientists throw their weight into the argument. Among a stellar company, they number Lord Nicholas Stern, Johan Rockström from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, its founder…
      https://climatenewsnetwork.net/scientists-back-global-climate-strike/

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    theRealUniverse

    ’20 respected duped/big govt paid scientists throw their weight into the argument. ‘ Well thats at least 98% consensus isnt it..sarc.

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    pat

    don’t know who has written the following or what order the excerpts come in, so posting both results I got. maybe someone can excerpt more:

    A royal commission on climate would see a shouting match
    The Australian – 17 hours ago
    I would love to see the likes of Ian Plimer, Peter Ridd, Jennifer Marohasy and other qualified sceptics from this country, not to mention those who might come in…

    A royal commission on climate would see a shouting match
    The Australian – 17h ago
    Alan Kohler calls for a royal commission into climate change with the expectation that it will duly report the consensus position and recommend some rapid shift to renewables…

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    pat

    the anti-democratic, fact-free forces are at it again:

    24 Sept: ABC TripleJ Hack: David Attenborough slams Australian PM on climate record
    Listen to Tom Tilley’s interview with Sir David Attenborough today on Hack at 5:30pm or watch on 7:30 tonight on ABC TV.
    VIDEO: 1min55sec

    Sir David Attenborough has slammed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s support for new coal mines and lack of action on climate change, in his most damning assessment yet of Australia’s environmental record.
    In an interview with Hack, the world’s most renowned natural historian said previous governments had been “saying all the right things” but this had suddenly changed.

    “You are the keepers of an extraordinary section of the surface of this planet, including the Barrier Reef, and what you say, what you do, really, really matters.”
    “And then you suddenly say, ‘No it doesn’t matter … it doesn’t matter how much coal we burn … we don’t give a damn what it does to the rest of the world.'”…

    He also commented on the recent federal election, which Mr Morrison won with a platform of support for new coal mines, including the proposed large Adani mine in Queensland, as well as a less ambitious emissions reduction target than Labor.
    Asked how politicians can carry the public with them on taking action on climate change, he said politicians had “to appeal to what people think is right.”
    “Do you think it’s right that we go on destroying the natural world?” he said.

    But he also made an economic argument for action: “We have to convince bankers and big business that, in the end, the long-term future lies in having a healthy planet. And unless you do something about it … you’re going to lose your money.”
    And one for basic self-preservation: “The world is going to be running short of food, seriously short of food.”…

    Speaking to Hack ahead of last week’s global climate strike, the 93-year-old threw his support behind young people taking to the streets in protest.
    “Young people see things very clearly. And they are speaking very clearly to politicians,” he said.
    “They [people under 18] may not have the vote … but it’s their world that’s coming along and they want to make it clear to the politicians that they know that.”…

    “If they just sit on the sidelines, and [debate] in a nice, reasonable way, you know, they’ll say, ‘oh kids’. But if they actually do something in the way that they have been doing in this era, then politicians have to sit up and take notice.”
    “And you can say, ‘It gets you nowhere, just stopping the traffic’. But it gets you notice. People listen to what you say. And that you’re important.
    “And they are important. They are the people who are going to inherit the mess that we’ve made.”

    “A bleached reef is a tragic sight,” he said of his last dive there, 10 years ago.
    “A desperately tragic sight, particularly if you’ve seen it before, and you know what it could have been like.
    You just see acre after acre of deathly white coral.
    Since then, the reef has had at least two more severe coral bleaching events.

    Sir David has previously said Australia will face some of the worst effects of climate change. He told Hack the country has been having “a really bad time”.
    But the present impact of climate change paled in comparison to his description of the refugee crisis predicted to occur as the planet warms.
    “The drought areas of this world, and you have more than your fair share, are due to spread, simply because of the rise in temperature.

    “The front line is southern Europe.”
    “We’re talking about tens of thousands of people who suddenly won’t have a bit of land in which they can grow their food.”
    “And, poor souls, they want somewhere to live, and raise their kids. Now are you going to turn them away?
    “And if you are going to turn them away where are you going to put them?”…
    https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/sir-david-attenborough-slams-scott-morrison-on-climate-record/11533566

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      pat

      Pedestrian TV, owned by NineEntertainment (Peter Costello, Chairman):

      24 Sept: Pedestrian TV: David Attenborough Gives Scott Morrison A Thorough Rinsing Over Climate Change Inaction
      By Brad Esposito
      Attenborough refused to buy into the claims of Morrison and his supporters that the then-Treasurer was merely having a laugh, and the fact that ScoMo did so in celebration of opening a coal mine means he’s probably right, yeah?

      The nature documentary godfather is probably privy to more high-stakes corporate fat cat conversations than most of us, and does appear to be aware of the need for an economic argument for climate action.
      He told ‘Hack’ there was a need to convince bankers and businesses that the long-term future is a healthy planet. And yes, that might seem obvious to you – but for the people who are paid millions to Not Think About That At All it really is something that needs to be emphasised.

      The one bright light in the darkness that is Planet Earth’s crawl into the climate change-induced hellscape has been the way youth have been mobilising. “They are the people who are going to inherit the mess that we’ve made,” said Attenborough…
      https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/david-attenborough-gives-scott-morrison-a-thorough-rinsing-over-climate-change-inaction/

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    pat

    24 Sept: Reuters: BOE’s Carney urges financial sector to transform management of climate risk
    by Matthew Green
    UNITED NATIONS – Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Monday that the financial sector must transform its management of climate risk, warning that global warming would prompt reassessments of the value of every single financial asset.
    “Climate disclosure must become comprehensive, climate risk management must be transformed, and sustainable investing must go mainstream,” Carney told a United Nations climate summit…

    As climate impacts – from wildfires to sea-level rise and hurricanes – intensify, investors are increasingly concerned over the risks that extreme weather could pose to assets and companies in their portfolios.
    The valuations of fossil fuel companies could also be at risk if governments act to spur stronger action to curb greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the adoption of renewable energy, analysts say…

    “The world won’t get to net zero if the financial sector doesn’t know how companies are responding,” Carney said. ***“To watch, you need to be able to see.”
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-un-carney/boes-carney-urges-financial-sector-to-transform-management-of-climate-risk-idUSKBN1W825B

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    pat

    who will stop these people?

    23 Sept: Reuters: Pension funds and insurers pledge climate action at U.N. summit
    by Matthew Green
    UNITED NATIONS – Insurers and pension funds managing $2.3 trillion pledged on Monday to shift their portfolios away from carbon-heavy industries in the hope of triggering snowballing climate commitments from other big investors.
    German insurer Allianz, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), and Swedish pension fund Alecta were among the founders of the new “Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance” launched at a United Nations climate summit.

    “Mitigating climate change is the challenge of our lifetime. Politics, business and societies across the globe need to act as one to rapidly reduce climate emissions,” Oliver Baete, chief executive of Allianz, said in a statement.
    As accelerating climate impacts become increasingly apparent via heatwaves, wildfires and receding coastlines, the financial sector is under growing pressure from activists, shareholders and regulators to respond…

    These types of companies — called “asset owners” because they are the principal holders of retirement savings, or are investing customers’ insurance premiums — represent some of the world’s largest pools of capital.
    Members of the new grouping pledged to align their portfolios with a goal enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat global warming to limit the increase in average temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius…

    “CalPERS recognizes that climate change poses urgent and systemic risk given our responsibility to protect our members’ financial assets and provide the long-term returns that can pay pensions for this and coming generations,” said Marcie Frost, chief executive of CalPERS.

    THREAT TO DIVEST
    The pension funds and insurers said they would rebalance their portfolios to ensure their investments were carbon neutral by 2050, with intermediate targets set for 2025, 2030 and 2040. They also pledged to make regular public progress reports…
    But members of the new grouping said they might also have to divest from heavily-polluting industries as a last resort if they proved unwilling to change their business models so they no longer pose a danger to the stability of the climate.

    Michael Sabia, the chief executive of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), one of Canada’s biggest pension funds, said there could be huge opportunities for investors willing to finance a fast transition to clean energy.
    “There’s a lot of people who don’t get it, but I do think it’s moving – the issue is whether it’s moving fast enough,” Sabia told Reuters. “It’s speed that matters here.”…

    The new coalition was organized by groups including the Geneva-based United Nations Environment Finance Initiative and Mission2020, a network to spur faster climate action led by Christiana Figueres, a former U.N. climate chief.
    Among the other founding members are PensionDanmark, Swedish pension manager AMF, Nordea Life & Pension, Norwegian insurer Storebrand (STB.OL), and Swiss RE (SRENH.S).
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-un-investors/pension-funds-and-insurers-pledge-climate-action-at-un-summit-idUSKBN1W81AG

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    Peter C

    Return of the Trolls!

    So far on this post:

    Gee aye
    Peter Fitzoy.
    Michael262
    Tristan

    Ok, Gee aye and PF are regulars but the other two have been absent for a while. Lets see who else gets motivated

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    Bushkid

    Very pleased to be able to contribute to the fund today. It felt so good to be supporting an honourable man and a cause we should all be concerned about.

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    Antoine D'Arche

    probably someone has already said this, but we’re looking at this all wrong.
    We WANT this to go to the High Court. That would be the best outcome.
    When the High Court upholds Vasta, and the Appellate decision which will be Ridd’s favour, what’s going to happen?
    A new, High Court legal precedent will be set, that will inform lower courts for DECADES to come.
    There will be an explosion in free speech, unfettered publication of counter-AGW research papers, and more.
    I’m here to say, in sign writing in the sky…
    JCU, stick your guns. Appeal. Then appeal leave to the High Court. Please. We WANT this legal precedent. We will pay $1.2 million for it. That’s chump change in comparison to what AGW garbage could still cost us.
    BRING IT ON!

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