Professor Peter Ridd has made the mistake of putting scientific standards ahead of collegial comfort. What was he thinking? He seems to feel he should serve the people of the Queensland instead of helping the careers of co-workers and admin staff.
Ridd is being accused of “Not acting in a collegial way” (or something like that, no one is allowed to say for sure) and is now under investigation for serious misconduct.
Jennifer Marohasy has more details. Apparently, in The Australian, he dared suggest that we need a group of scientists to check other scientists pronouncements on the Great Barrier Reef:
The federal government is set to spend more than $1 billion on the Great Barrier Reef in the next few years to mitigate the effects of climate change, based largely on research that is claimed not to have been subjected to proper scrutiny.
James Cook University physics professor Peter Ridd writes in a new book that the credibility of key research papers driving investments in the reef rest on “a total reliance on the demonstrably inadequate peer-review process’’.
Professor Ridd argues for the establishment of a properly funded group of scientists whose sole job is to find fault in the science “upon which we are basing expensive public policy decisions regarding the Great Barrier Reef’’.
Listen to Professor Peter Ridd talk on 2GB: 2:12 minutes.
Ridd wants to get the Barrier Reef science (and policy) right:
“It’s [the Great Barrier Reef policy] affecting the sugar industry, the cattle industry, the mining industry, the tourism industry…”
“there is a certain duty of care on scientists to make sure they get it right. I don’t think they are..”
…in other areas of science when they do proper checking about half of it is wrong, so why aren’t they trying to check it.
They want to shoot the messenger…”
Peer review is a cursory look at the science, they don’t review the data, but if you are going to spend a billion dollars…
As Jennifer Marohasy says:
Rather than James Cook University sacking Peter Ridd for having the courage to speak out, it would be good if they would get behind him, and his calls for urgent reform.
The question is whether JCU care about getting the answers right?
Peter Ridd writes a lot more in his chapter in the new book Climate Change: The Facts 2017. Co-authors include yours truly, Clive James, Matt Ridley, Willie Soon, Roy Spencer, and Anthony Watts. Pre-order your copy now, the first edition, released last week, has sold out.h/t Jennifer M
Of professors, there are only a few,
Who dare challenge or doubt peer-review,
Of all topics climatic,
Which is so problematic,
For alarmists who think it taboo.
–Ruairi
Won’t even rate a mention in the MSM in oz .
212
He has committed Greenist heresy…..
82
I
am am very upset about this.
The lefty scientists (ie most of them) are still powerful enough to shut down debate on this critical issue!
At the same time the bleeding hearts are complaining that their own opinion venting is being stifled.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/a-chilling-effect-academics-accuse-university-of-melbourne-of-shutting-down-speech-20170824-gy3c2m.html
There must be a tipping point somewhere but it seems that we are still some way from it.
403
Roll on the coming Climate Nuremberg Trials I say…..
I will be sitting with my popcorn and deck chair, watching, that day….
“I was only following orders…..”
Yup…that worked as an excuse…not….
92
Nobody’s shutting down debate.
Ridd is being censured for using the mass media to spread his personal opinions that stem from his personal belief and not from any research he has conducted, for the specific reason that he is implicitly asserting that his colleagues are incompetent.
The *scientific* approach to disagreeing with another scientist’s research is to publish your own, not go to 2GB and tell cool stories.
339
Why is it acceptable for the likes of Tim Flannery, and Al Gore to express personal beliefs via the mass media…? They have done no research, they have not published anything, and indeed, their claims have been demonstrated to be cheap and tawdry hyperbole at best, and flat-out incorrect at worst.
Please, feel free to justify your hypocrisy.
393
There is no requirement for CT to justify his hypocrisy.
He is a natural-born rotten hypocrite, but I am not sure whether he is a human being.
84
I think CT is a cyberbot.
82
I’m flabbergasted by what you’ve achieved, the worst counter argument in the history of this blog.
So Craig puts forward a likely reason for James Cook University’s actions but you say those actions are wrong because Craig Thomas (WETFHI) supports a cause that includes people who you perceive to be acting in the same way as the person who JCU is actioning. To make things even better you did not name a single person whose research Flannery and Gore slandered in their media appearances.
I just hope that I never get accused of being a hypocrite because someone with a similar world view as me does something wrong.
421
I think you’ll have to look elsewhere if you’re expecting to get a rise out of me.
It’s the internet – your opinions are just as worthless as mine.
40
I was actually hoping you’d explain how Flannery’s statements negate claims by JCU academics against Ridd. And what were those statements.
25
Its unequivocal, coral bleaching happens when sea level momentarily falls within the coral triangle and not because of global warming catastrophism.
They are shutting down the debate.
113
and have achieved world class non sequitor status
49
Could you enlarge upon the non sequitur?
40
CT claims that JCU is investigating claims of personal misconduct and you come up with your own unsubstantiated statement of the cause of bleaching in response. They don’t connect or intersect.
25
WRONG , as always, CT.. and GA as always.
The GBR bed-wetters take their baseless propaganda and mis-information to the press with the intent of keeping the AGW lie going and getting their names up front.
The press is ABSOLUTELY the place where these lies and attention-seeking MUST be answered.
Trying to silence people from talking out most definitely is an attempt to shut down debate.
Its no longer “science” from the AGW bletheren.. its base-level PROPAGANDA.
123
what are you on about? Is this your opinion on what CSU did?
48
Your continued clown act is right down at the bottom level, GA.
Get a new script writer. !
63
That really was a slimy, weak diversion, GA.. worthy of you.
53
I’d like to answer you but I can’t decipher the meaning or its connection with anything I wrote.
36
“meaning or its connection with anything I wrote.”
No-one can decipher any of your gibberish, GA.
Apparently not even you !!
33
Andy is pointing out that we are indulging in a war of spin and hyperbole.
Of course, such a war is all about how clever you are in phrasing something to imply something other that what might be the truth. In fact, the truth becomes irrelevant, in the eloquence of the prose.
You are very good at it. I acknowledge that. And I must admit that in my history, I have had the occasional need to hide the truth behind a bodyguard of lies.
Craig, on the other hand, is not so good. Perhaps he will learn and improve. Are you coaching him?
53
You are too generous
20
By generous I only in reference to Andy actually pointing something out.
The other 3 paragraphs are outside the envelope of reality.
20
Craig, to say as you have done that nobody is shutting down debate is just not true; how many scientists in our university’s dare to speak out on their personal beliefs about what is occurring in their work place ? Not many I would say- and why? Because they know they will be taken to task by those in power and have their careers destroyed. Professor Ridd expressed the opinion that the science around the study of the GBR was poorly reviewed, and further more, vast amounts of taxpayer’s money is being used and potentially wasted in order to mitigate effects on the reef. If this is true, then under such circumstances he is absolutely correct in ‘blowing the whistle’ on this matter. I for one am 100% with him. We are all entitled to express our honest views/opinions and I am dissapointed that you cannot do so in this instance.
Regards GeoffW
141
so you don’t know but you wrote all this anyway.
48
There is this conspiracy of silence and anyone breaking ranks, criticising the AGW hypothesis, is marginalised.
41
So your evidence of a conspiracy to mute debate is that there is no debate? The null hypothesis is that there is no conspiracy and that the lack of debate is due to the fact that few disagree
26
But CT, he clearly out ranks the climate scientists and , as peer review is corrupted, he has no option but the mass media.
23
The scientific approach begins with serious peer review. Any papers that I have been involved with (as co-author) have been closely scrutinised line by line, and serious questions that needed to be answered. This included in depth scrutiny of the data and data collection methods.
30
No-one’s shutting down debate, it’s just he’s being censured for debating…
So if he doesn’t debate in the “right” way he can’t debate. And as we have seen time after time, if you are not saying the “right” thing, you don’t get published, so he ends up silenced that way too.
What a mealy-mouthed argument.
110
That’s enough of personal attacks.
CT models himself on the Irish Revolutionary who fought Home Rule in Ireland, one
Michael Collins.
Northern Island is still part of the UK, but at least, after almost a century, no one is shooting each other.
‘He was Ireland’s first Minister for Finance (floating the National Loan that helped birth the inchoate Irish nation) and gained notoriety as the Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army. As DOI he formed his infamous assassination team – “The Squad” or “The Twelve Apostles” – who systematically executed the British Secret Service in Dublin on “Bloody Sunday,” November 21, 1920. Just over a year later, he negotiated the Treaty which freed most of Ireland from seven hundred years of British rule.’
https://www.irishcentral.com/travel/michael-collins-dublin-tracing-footsteps-irelands-greatest-revolutionary
The paradox here is that this blog is on the side of the poor and downtrodden, those who want to have clean water, food and sanitation.
We live in a land which finds it cheaper to use overseas gas and coal to make glassware and import it than to recycle our own.
A country that is exporting its industry and heading to a nation that makes boutique beers, basket weaving startups and hospitality, serving at tables for tourists.
Michael,was on the side of the poor.
Only his methods shamed him and his followers.
20
And you have personal knowledge of this, Craig? Do you have any tangible evidence? Are you privy to an employment contract, signed by him. that contains clauses that prevent his speaking in public on topics that he is well qualified to discuss?
A less charitable observer than I, might deduce that you are emotionally attached to your right hand.
Personal opinions are one thing. The research he has conducted, is quite another. You conflate the two concepts, which is a clear indicator that you are just creating spin.
And whilst you are fantasising, about the society you would like, as opposed to the one you have got, those of us in the real world, have recognised Ivy league professors demanding a resurgence in recapturing the spirit of truth-seeking and free debate.
Which of those two arguments will you side with, Craig?
52
A very “emotional” comment.
11
If it is not the result of staff complaints about specific incidents that are not about science but are more personal, I’ll eat my hat.
20
“implicitly asserting”…
So he didn’t actually say it in words?
Oh, no. it’s worse than that. He threatened their precious grant funding.
00
A “lefty scientist” is now becoming an oxymoron.
They are becoming purely political ” pseudo scientists” providing “pseudo scientific” support to politically determined outcomes and policies of the current ruling political elites.
They only get funding if they provide the “correct” answer.
Universities used to be centres of higher learning and pure research following scientific methods.
Management now appears to have been taken over by lefty/Greenies pushing their own narrow agendas.
Time to drain the swamp?
71
I agree, although if this does get a mention it will be to support the James Cook University. As I get older I’m becoming more cynical about just about anything. I think I maybe becoming a grumpy old man.
402
When my father became a grumpy old man, I pointed out that he would probably loose friends.
His reply was, “Yes, I will loose all of the weak-livered friends I have accumulated over the years.”
“But on the plus side, I will get to be friends with people who think for themselves, say what they think, and don’t give a …”.
When Mrs Whakaaro complains that I am being grumpy, I just smile at her. She ain’t seen nuffin’ yet.
501
Rereke:
A local winery (Artwine) sells a grenache called Grumpy Old Man. A good drop if a little pricey for the reserve grade which is even better.
The name is supposed to invoke thoughts of the gnarled old vines in the Barossa defying the elements* but still producing the goods.
* especially the last few icy mornings.
101
1000 thumbs up. My partner has already found out about that. I just asked her if I was becoming a grumpy old man. She said “No, but you’re getting there!”
91
I agree with your Dad about burning off the weak friends….rather it not happen, but I think as you go through life , you’d rather have the people you can count on and will stand shoulder to shoulder with you, around you.
81
.
To help Mrs Whakaaro in her estimation of her esteemed Husband [ spelt with a capital “H” ] I would suggest that she presents [ brands him / labels him ?? ] him with one of these caps
My grandkids presented me with one of these caps a couple of years ago for reasons we won’t enquire about outside of the family circle!
I can testify to their popularity as when I wear my cap at the various regional Farmers Markets where I sell the products of my industrious endeavours in the workshop, I get numerous enquiries from the women folk as to whether my “Grumpy Old Man’s” cap might be for sale.
They all claim it would be a perfect present for their “Old Man ” as it would be quite a good and accurate description of him.
51
Thanks for the link to the cap, I needed one of those.
My wife often tells me that I have “resting grump face”
41
I’ve got one which reads:
Danger: Curmudgeon.
It’s one of my favourites. 🙂
Another is:
Bah Humbug!
I wear that one for Halloween. 🙂
(It’s creeping in over this side of the Taz but everybody who tries to play it doesn’t know how to play it, so it’s a real PITA.)
30
Hey! What happened to equality? I’m a grumpy old woman and need a hat! 😉
20
I’m only Grumpy on days that end in ‘y’; the other days, I’m Dopey, or Sleepy, or Sneezy; never Happy or Doc.
And no one has ever called me Bashful … … …
… … … just Deplorable … … …
… … … … … … … … wait, … … … … was it Seven? … or Eight?
Vlad
10
We all of us have far fewer friends than we think we do. I started a little “phone book” of my own 40 years ago. Just some punched 3×5 cards in a ring binder. On the cover of the binder I put “Friends, Acquaintances, and Others”. People who think they have a dozen BFF’s don’t get that.
31
Or his friends just left because he was obnoxious and irrational. Being grumpy and thinking you are right when blind to your own inadequacies is very unsightly, but go ahead, I’m sure Ms W will make the adjustment she needs to.
loose… he he
48
.
Gee! Gee Aye, I’m sure a crowd funding effort here by the denizens of Jo’s blog might raise enough to buy you one of these shirts.
And I did have to tone down my first choice of any such labelled shirts for yourself to try and maintain some dignity here on Jo’s blog
72
Mea culpa … I am reduced to being naught but a slave to the vagaries of predictive text.
(or productive text, at the whim of whatever online dictionary my system is using this week)
61
rage against it RW. Predictive text? BAH! Modern rubbish.
The youth of today!
And what about ivankale??? Are they crazy? Give me meat and three veg any day. Do you know that teachers don’t even use blackboards anymore? No wonder no one under the age of 40 knows anything
46
Well, I would like to thank all youse guys for the helpful suggestions, or not, in the case of Gee Aye.
Of course, in the full tradition of such things no action whatsoever will ensue from all this advice.
40
well I wouldn’t take my advice even if it sounded helpful and well intentioned.
00
Only scientists who doubt the quality of their own work would oppose an in depth review of it. Maybe the university has doubts about the quality of some of its own research ??
432
Your first sentence is right on the mark, and the bottom line. Your second sentence, however, goes astray, in imagining a university’s “research”–a better word would be “administration”, or simply “rules”.
212
However Roger,
All the public have to remember is that hubris and stupidity go hand in hand, and this is more than mere correlation. In ‘climate science™’ upon inspecting all the available evidence, statistical indications strongly show, intelligent people are full of doubts, while the hubristically stupid are bursting with confidence.
Though, umm.., thinking about it, I may be proved wrong about this.
213
Excellent point Roger. A good scientist or engineer should ask for, and receive, thorough peer reviews and then respond to those indicating mistakes the author made or weak areas of the data, analyses, and conclusions. To do otherwise is to violate the ethical standards that all professionals should demand for themselves and others.
On the other hand, when requested to review someone’s work/publication then it is incumbent on them to give a good, detailed, and unbiased review to the best of their ability.
111
what can we do to help him? To whom do we write letters?
222
I have gone to the JCU website and expressed my views via the “Feedback” section.
232
He needs a an aggressive lawyer to help him bring a counter action against his employer.
312
I’ll leave that to you cohenite, but remember Bob Carter was dumped from his unpaid adjunct position simply because the Klimatariat couldn’t handle the truth.
283
Yes that is true,but if he had taken them to court and won,the $hit would have hit the fan in a big way.
122
OK, you cover the second part but are you aggressive enough?
How do we cover the costs of supporting him.
Perhaps we could send him a letter of support with a suggestion of more tangible help if needed.
I remember speaking to Bob Carter and Stuart at the Speers Point gathering; both of them lived in a difficult climate and it would be a fitting memorial to Bob if we supported Peter.
🙂
KK
101
JCU – hang your heads in shame.
It is about time the mining and sugar industries turned off their taps which supply significant research funds to this university.
This is the same lame-brained establishment which crucified the late Bob Carter.
I have been to three separate graduation ceromonies at JCU. At those ceremonies they read out the subject titles for Masters and Doctorate students.
The subjects, in the main, are ludicrous.
402
What were some of them; I need a giggle.
142
Another heretic to burn for not having followed a sacred rite of the church of $cience™
223
““there is a certain duty of care on scientists to make sure they get it right..”
Certain duty of care? How about duty of care full stop. Why these qualifiers?
This is why I can’t say that I am a geoscientist with pride anymore. I am a crazy machavielian Frankenstein now., monster that wants to poison earth, your children, my neighbours. I am a scientific Nazi on the par with Mengele and his best mates now.
Welcome to the fully preventable present.
273
A very good question, Dariusz. It is not what people say, when they are being guarded. It is how they say it, that is important.
People, especially those who believe they have power, can’t help but inject subtle phrases of warning, that they are to be obeyed.
I generally ignore such subtle warnings, because to enforce them, they have to be restated as an overt threat, and by being overt, they loose the game.
213
Darius, apart from a connection to mining with geology and the nonsense that goes with the anti-mining camp, why cant you say you are a geologist?
31
Although my qualitifcations are in geology, I prefer to call myself a geoscientist as I do
Geology
Geophysics
Petrophysics
Geochemistry
Plate tectonics
Paleoclimatic reconstructions
Paleogeographic reconstructions
Biostrigraphic analysis
Chemostratigraphy
Seeps,
Plus more
30
What do you do, in your free time? Curious people would like to know.
20
He does the same as I do — — he subducts into the local Pub trench …
00
Saving the coral is like saving the lantana. When conditions are right you can’t stop the stuff growing. When it cops a few whacks you wait for it to grow back.
There are always damage and bleaching, sometimes lots; there are always pretty spots where you can take the punters. Trouble is, the punters may not show up if you keeping spreading scare stories. (In the 1960s and 1970s it was a way to make a headline in Sunday papers after a dead news week. They didn’t have Anthony Mundine, SSM or Miley Cyrus then; so it was Tania Verstak in a one-piece, Princess Margaret’s scandals or Crown Of Thorns munching the Barrier Reef.)
And it’s time we stopped using high schools and universities as vast holding paddocks for unemployed youth. If you’re not seriously bright with a serious academic bent for something seriously challenging and in-demand, you should not go near a university. Just get a job. Or bludge, if you can afford it. Either is good. But stay out of poxy university courses which are largely about nothing. Anything ending in the word “Studies” will almost certainly be thin air enriched with bovine faecal aromas.
403
You got it there.
Buying votes by putting the unemployed and unemployable in a holding pen with intellectual status was a master stroke.
Now we have the unemployable teaching in far too many areas and producing graduates whose major skill is to be able to nod in time with the electromagnetic emanations from their ABC and their JUN.
Those teaching with rigour alongside these lechturers must feel very let down by all of this.
I feel sorry for a near neighbour who recently completed a “degree” at the local university and is now employed serving in a bottle shop.
There was a time when universities were restricted to produce only the numbers of graduates it was thought would be needed in the future. Now anything goes.
KK
131
JUN should read JJJ, their kool radio station.
61
Time to start drilling into ‘the reef’.
82
I think you’re onto something here , if the reef is dead why not drill for oil and gas or better still make it a big car park , why waste money on it .
10
O/T
Where did Turnbull get the idea for Snowy Hydro 2? He is too ill-informed to even dream up a non-viable idea such as this so who (or what) is injecting these multi-billion dollar thought bubbles into his head?
214
Turnbull’s mods operandi has been to throw out a few crumbs of conservatism or sound policy every now and then to either give false hope to those that want the LNP to suddenly behave like a conservative party or to boost his image of being a conservative when his ratings have dropped after a series of self serving moves catch up with him.
Either this or he’s possessed by the ghost of Saul Alinsky.
152
David
Try this
http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2017/08/malcolm-turnbulls-snowy-mountains-perpetual-motion-electricity-generator.html
61
Dave:
The idea has been around since the early 1970’s. There was enough preliminary planning to say that it was uneconomic. This was before the Whitlam Government and after that spending on uneconomic policies became the preferred method in Canberra for disposing of any spare money the public might have.
102
Perhaps it has been sold to him as the sequel to the original Snowy Hydro. This time with Carrie Fisher doing a hula hula.
50
Of professors, there are only a few,
Who dare challenge or doubt peer-review,
Of all topics climatic,
Which is so problematic,
For alarmists who think it taboo.
352
Can you do one with “Ridd” as the rhyme?
41
The good Professor Peter Ridd,
Didn’t do what others did,
Which was to speak as they were bid,
(while neath the consensus they hid),
Calling for their boss to be rid,
Of the inconvenient Professor Ridd.
80
The purpose of peer review never has been to guarantee the absolute truth of the work submitted, because science doesn’t work like that.
Otherwise every successfully peer-reviewed paper ever to appear would automatically replace any earlier contradictory papers and become the ‘new truth’, which is surely absurd.
132
I don’t think it has anything to with truth. It has more to do with quality control. And quality control can be interpreted as being “consistent”, or “aligned”, with other aspects of whatever is being discussed.
122
you are not a scientist are you oldbrew?
Peer review doesn’t work like that. It does not seek absolute truth, it just checks to see that the work done sufficiently supports the conclusions made. The journal also asks the reviewers to rate its significance so as to decide whether to publish or not. That’s it. It is not the reviewers job to make sure of absolute truth and contradictory papers can and do co-exist without either necessarily being held to be correct.
Some non-scientists find it hard to grasp that science is not black and white.
311
“it just checks to see that the work done sufficiently supports the conclusions made.”
Seems you don’t understand peer-review either, gee.
102
“Some non-scientists find it hard to grasp that science is not black and white.”
And most climate scientists… find it hard to grasp science.
142
.
Michael Nielsen;
About;
Scientific work
My interest in open science grew out of my work as a scientist. In the 1990s and 2000s I helped pioneer the field of quantum computation. Together with Ike Chuang of MIT, I wrote the standard text on quantum computing.
Three myths about scientific peer review
Myth number 1: Scientists have always used peer review
.
Myth number 2: Peer review is reliable.
.
Myth: Peer review is the way we determine what’s right and wrong in science;
———
81
In comparing the hundreds of articles provided by Oldbrew on Tallbloke’s Talkshop with your frequent feeble comments here GI, I conclude that Oldbrew is indeed a SCIENTIST, and you are not worthy of being even a scientists’ jockstrap.
41
then explain why he wrote that nonsense? Was he trying to trick you?
28
No trick, GA.. You obviously have a very juvenile, almost prepubescent view of what science is, and what science entails.
And you have very little understanding of what peer-review has been mutated into, especially in climate science.
In that particular branch of non-science, it is now used mostly as a publication gateway.
Absolutely NOTHING to do with any real science.
41
Er…isn’t that exactly what he wrote? You don’t seem to be willing to actually read what is written before deciding it’s wrong – that makes you an honorary climate scientist I guess.
10
Jo, no offence but do think the university gives a #### what you think? Please understand I’m fully behind you but this is the mindset ‘ I’m right you’re wrong’, ithat we are are dealing with.
82
The University itself, became irrelevant, as soon as they attempted to enforce a particular point of view, by overriding the core academic freedom to question.
Above the door of the Royal Society building, in London, is the motto, “Question Everything”.
Of course, from time to time, students append the word, “Why?” And from time to time, people come to remove the graffiti.
The concept of being able to question everything is at the very heart of academe. What the University has done to itself, is to lower its standard to that of a polytechnic. If I were on the academic staff (deity forbid) I would be up in arms.
282
Universities have been taken over by Cultural Marxists and no longer represent scholarship or the scientific method.
333
My old University may not give a #### about what I think.
However I have told them that they will not get any donations from me so long as they persist with;
1. supporting the AGW theory/agenda,
2. shutting down free speech by skeptics and conservatives.
142
.
No! they probably don’t!
But and it is a very big BUT indeed, Jo and the commenters on here with their comments along with many others elsewhere who are expressing similar contempt for the actions of JCU against Peter Ridd in this case, actions which seem to be quite repetitive amongst some instutuions of academia , are like water on a stone.
There does not seem to be any percievable effects on that academic stone at all from all those negative comments.
But people and funders in government and industry do listen when the volume gets high enough and often enough and began to take note of the actual actions compared to the proffessed aims of such a tax payer funded institution. [ see #27 ]
So come back some time later and all those water drops of negative comments on the way in which that academic institution and its academics have been behaving and operating have been wearing away the very foundations of that apparently immoveable and monolithic academic stone until it becomes increasingly unstable and finally cracks and begins to break up.
Leading to it losing nearly all of its credibility and perhaps a critical balance of its finance as well as quality students and good researchers and so becoming nothing more than a low value and derisory labelled supporter of a failed science and a failed ideology as recorded in the history books of the future.
21
“Ridd is being accused of ‘Not acting in a collegial way’.”
So, it’s “not collegial” to tell the truth, or at the very least to not refrain from telling it?
Riiiiiight.
251
Political correctness, at a family gathering or in the hallowed halls, means that there must be no doubt about the course the world is embarked upon. Questioning the veracity of AGW is forbidden and will be punished.
132
Just as well for Jim Steele he isn’t at JCU
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/08/26/an-ecologists-plea-to-dr-terry-hughes-the-public-needs-robust-science-regards-coral-bleaching-not-fearmongering/
112
Comment by Bob Fernley-Jones in the WUWT post by Jim Steele
re Dr Terry Hughes of James Cook University.
‘Prof Terry Hughes was convener of the 12th International Coral Reef
Symposium (ICRS) culminating at James Cook University in 2012, with
a predetermined outcome.
STEP 1) In June, three eminent scientists including Hughes gathered at
Stanford*[1] and drafted the consensus.
STEP 2) They also launched an endorsement form on their websites at COS
(Centre for Ocean Solutions) and ICRS which could be actioned by the
unqualified without any affiliations other than their hometown name.
STEP 3) They also made the following request on the COS and ICRS
websites:
“To build a large base of support in preparation for the pubic launch of
the statement (during the opening ceremony of the 12thInternational Coral
Reef Symposium on July 9, in Cairns, Australia), please click HERE to
join other scientists from around the world by adding your name to the
list of endorsees.”
STEP 4) The ICRS website published a list of almost 2,500 endorsees*
[4] dated 6/July/2012 that being three days before the five-day symposium
started.
STEP 5) The consensus statement launched at the opening ceremony and media
announced that over 2,000; or 2,200; or 2,400 or 2,500 scientists had
endorsed the alarmism.
STEP 6) Convener announces success*[6] of the Symposium and the return home
of 2,000 “of us” to 80 countries. Also a plea to continue endorsing the
consensus statement….. more than 3,000 signatures so far and we would like
to keep the momentum going.’
*[1] http://www.centerforoceansolutions.org/content/support-consensus-statement-climate-change-and-coral-reefs
*[4] http://www.icrs2012.com/List of Endorsees as at 6 July 2012.pdf
*[6] http://www.icrs2012.com/Default.htm
Bob Fernley-Jones
42
Similar scene in a different paddock
“Delingpole: ‘Harvey is What Climate Change Looks Like…’ (See Also: Katrina; Sandy; Matthew; Every Storm Ever…)”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/29/delingpole-harvey-is-what-climate-change-looks-like-see-also-katrina-sandy-matthew-every-storm-ever/
82
This morning’s SMH editorial voices the same fallacy, with gusto!
Roy Spencer has a slightly different view, thank the Lord.
52
This story cheered me up somewhat:
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/08/29/professor-fired-saying-hurricane-harvey-instant-karma-pro-trump-texas/
103
A turning of the tide?
Hope?
32
Would the last Academic to leave the University, please ensure that all the lights of reason are extinguished?
30
This is clear proof that today’s University community in the field of some science faculties have moved from true science to pseudoscience. If they had kept to the age old traditions of the scientific method, common sense and logic they would have denounced publicly and very loudly that AGW is a very weak and far from proven theory at best and a scam at worst. But then again why should we be surprised? The tempo today is to be progressive, which really means replace the past with a fictitious past in order to create a fictitious present and future. This is along the lines of what George Orwell meant when he stated “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past”.
72
“common sense” is what pseudo scientists say to back their claims.
77
Verbal diahorrea.
Smothering reality with verbiage is the modern way of controlling the masses and more importantly their Tax contributions.
Well done, thou true and faithful serf of the modern era.
Long live diffusion of thought and the proliferation of nose rings.
Yee Hah!
KK
44
that’s common sense what you said right there. No need for experiements, just make your conclusions using your own sense of what is right.
You forgot tats and labia reduction.
[You should know?] ED
59
HMU for some pics ED
47
It is interesting that you picked up use of the phrase, “common sense”, Gee Aye.
“common sense”: the default position of understanding of a topic by, “the commons”, being the majority of people within a society, or a professional discipline.
It is therefore simply the opposite of specialised knowledge and in-depth expertise.
30
Good comment RW.
Common sense implies that the proposition under examination is readily tested by anybody who takes the time to assess it. A very down to earth peer review is at work.
Common sense is of no use to those pushing the CAGW barrow. For them, the challenge is to dominate verbally. This form of slick, content free domination can be heard on the government kiddy radio state, JJJJ. You don’t need any science to engage in this type of propaganda dissemination.
No wonder that young people are so confused when they take their ABC and JJJ as gospel.
KK
20
thanks for the etymology lesson RW I didn’t know that. KK’s comment is also an appraisal of how common sense can be used. The problem is though that it isn’t used that way. It is almost universally used to mean, “the most likely explanation for something that I can think of”, which can be right or wrong but it is not based on a careful examination and certainly not on a good sample size of data.
12
True, and also what normal people use to dispel nonsensical claims. Common sense is sometimes right, sometimes wrong. Claiming it is always wrong is as dumb as claimig it is always right. You do the first, so see if you can work out what that implies.
11
That’s odd, haven’t heard any of the pseudo-scientists that stand behind the façade of “climate science™” ever speak any common sense.
Looks like you are WRONG as always, GA.
Your AGW pseudo-scientists don’t have ANYTHING to back their claims.
23
As an alumnus of JCU, I’ll be applying some pressure.
111
Would you like to borrow my marshmallow squeezer?
10
My God! Just when I think it’s reached as low as it can go the hole turns out to be even deeper. If someone has a problem with Ridd’s statements, then question him, debate it, hash it out. But misconduct for an opinion? No! After all, the proposed billions to be spent also rest on nothing but an opinion.
Where is their objective evidence? It must be hiding under the prime minister’s bed somewhere. That’s certainly where I would go if I wanted to escape detection. No one would dare to look there. 😉
Or it doesn’t exist. 🙂
121
Roy,
Possibly our Prime Minister has an interest in promoting the ongoing myth of CAGW.
Perhaps he is involved, at arms length, with a renewables “venture”.
KK
122
KK,
I have no trouble imagining that he does. But I’m half a world away and so I think it behoves me to do no more than make a joke at the expense of Australian politics.
I have enough trouble as it is just trying to keep climbing my way toward the top of the hole we’re all in. So far, so good…
52
Roy,
I wouldn’t worry yourself over making a joke at the expense of Australian politics. It is, to all appearances, a farce within a comedy, within a satire, within a tragedy in three acts.
20
RW,
I’m not worried about making a joke at the expense of Aussie politics. But more serious comments are something I haven’t the qualifications to make in almost every case. I do not have the time to follow all he ins and outs of everything going on in my own backyard, much less half a world away.
But I’ll certainly agree with you that it looks quite farcical sometimes.
00
I’m pretty sure that tenure is there to stop censorship of research and the price paid for that is a lot of lame academics. But I know that it has been used for a very long time that its a sweetener on a bribe for those who sold their soul to Satan.
51
Points of contact at JCU other than the “feedback” provisions:
For alumni (eg former students and former academic staff): [email protected]
Vice Chancellor’s Office: [email protected]
30
I read the JM piece and there was nothing there about an investigation. Where is the evidence for this?
cunder… he he
46
found it myself in the comments in the JM piece. It is an article in the Australian (maybe needs to be referenced above)
45
If you want to do JCU watch to see if Ridd is being written out of history maybe monitor this search which brings up Ridd’s publicised activity.
https://www.jcu.edu.au/search?query=ridd&collection=jcua&Search=Search
and these are his research profiles https://research.jcu.edu.au/portfolio/peter.ridd/
http://www.marinegeophysics.com.au/
If you are into theories about money talking then JCU would be losing a lot of grant money and causing themselves a lot of legal headaches if they were to terminate his tenure.
72
Their past history with Bob Carter does not stand them in good stead.
KK
63
that is a lazy common sense type of audit.
36
Can’t Really Accept that Proposition.
31
thanks for that. You are such a crostic old man
24
‘Peter Ridd raises almost all of his research funds from the profits of consultancy work which is usually associated with monitoring of marine dredging operation.’
A conflict of interest, perhaps.
10
He studies sediments, it is hard to see the conflict
13
a couple of pieces worth reading in light of the flooding in Houston:
28 May 2016: HoustonChronicle: For years, the Houston area has been losing ground
By John D. Harden, Data reporter
Houston is sinking – and has been for decades.
As torrential rains have pounded the city in consecutive years (LINK), leading to repeated, heavy and deadly flooding, this inconvenient fact contributes to the region’s misery.
Parts of Harris County have dropped between 10 and 12 feet since the 1920s (LINK), according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey…
State and local officials have made various efforts over the past 40 years to stabilize the ground, but some areas continue to sink – by as much as 2 inches per year.
Spring Branch, where Interstate 10 and Beltway 8 meet, has dropped 4 feet since 1975. Jersey Village, along Route 290 and to the west of Beltway 8, is almost 2 feet lower than it was in 1996. And Greater Greenspoint, where Interstate 45 intersects with Beltway 8, has given up about 2 feet in the last decade alone, according to USGS data (LINK).
“When you lose that much, it makes an area prone to floods when they weren’t historically,” said Mark Kasmarek, a hydrogeologist for more than 30 years with the USGS…
There is little mystery to why this is happening: The developing region draws an excessive amount of groundwater to keep itself quenched. Over the last century, aquifers here have lost between 300 and 400 feet, leaving the land to collapse.
The science behind this phenomenon is called subsidence…READ ALL
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/For-years-the-Houston-area-has-been-losing-ground-7951625.php
PDF: 221 pages: July 1998: National Wildlife Federation: Report: Higher Ground
A Report on Voluntary Property Buyouts in the Nation’s Floodplains
A Common Ground Solution Serving People at Risk, Taxpayers and the Environment
We especially thank the following foundations for their generous support and contributions to Higher Ground:
The Compton Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The American Conservation Association
p13: Nearly one out of every ten repetitive loss homes (5,629 in all) have had cumulative flood insurance loss claims that
exceed the value of the house — in some cases many times over. Table 3.III presents the top 200 homes with payments
exceeding building value, beginning with a home in Houston, Texas, valued at $114,480 which received $806,591 in flood insurance payments for 16 flood events over the 18 years studied.
Over half of all the repetitive loss property insurance payments Nationwide have been made in Louisiana and Texas.
Fifteen states account for 90 percent of total payments for repetitive loss properties.
p199: Chapter 6: A Climate Change Warning
PHOTO: Caption: We are evaporating our coal mines into the air.” — Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist
who, in 1896, predicted that carbon dioxide emissions would increase average global temperature.
This brief closing chapter presents a warning that damage may mount further because of human-induced climate change.
The term climate change has largely overtaken that of global warming, and for good reason. Global warming carries only a descriptive connotation of a gradual rise of temperature around the Earth.
Climate change, however, embraces a broader and more complex horizon of concern, which includes temperature increases; extreme drought, rain and snowfall events; implications for world agricultural production, new disease vectors, and migration of vegetative zones; and alterations of the surface-to-deep-water ocean conveyor system that profoundly influences the habitability of various parts of the planet…
The consideration of climate change in this chapter is limited
to only those aspects with direct implications for people and property located in and along the Nation’s floodplains…
In preparing this report, however, the authors found that the federal (CLINTON) government was neither prepared to respond to increasing flood intensity because of climate change, nor considered the consequences of climate change to be its responsibility…
The Clinton administration has not submitted the Kyoto agreement
to the U.S. Senate for ratification, and does not intend to do
so until after additional negotiations in the fall of 1998, when it
is hoped that nonindustrialized nations will join the emissions
reduction regime…
https://www.nwf.org/pdf/Water/199807_HigherGround_Report.pdf
40
thanks for those
859 Words
5,580 Characters
16 Sentences
37 paragraphs
[61 characters no paragraphs, no sentences, no sense. Do you have a point?] ED
74
“859 Words”
820 too many for you. !
63
“5,580 Characters”
5,440 to many for you.
Stick to twitter, it suits you better.. !
43
are you a follower of mine?
46
Just trying to throw out the trash.
22
Hi ED… I was thanking Pat mostly for posting after my very important contribution.
[No, you were attempting a diversionary tactic, by implying that it is not worth the effort of reading the subject matter. /Fly]
44
Thanks ROM. It’s always of interest when someone raises a serious conservation matter like subsidence while we are being swamped with green religion and its twisty dogmas.
If Cat 4 hurricanes like Galveston 1900 and Houston 2017 can hit the Texas coast, there’s no reason to believe a Cat 5 won’t one day connect. The first of Galveston’s many known hurricanes was in 1527, causing a death toll of up to 200. While there may be long pauses between disasters, these pauses are like all trends: they end. Californian or South Australian renewables won’t do anything to avert weather extremes which are as old as history. Helpful conservation measures (eg as engineered on Leyte with Japanese support, and post-1900 in Galveston) are usually possible and must be taken.
The US has experienced a Cat 5, but that affected Florida and the Keys in 1935. While New York was hit squarely by a Cat 1 in 2012, it was shaved by a Cat 3 in 1938. It’s likely that the Great Colonial Hurricane which pummeled New England in 1635, was similar in force to 1938. Yet when the World Trade Centre was being built back in the 1960s, rubble from its contruction was used to narrow the mouth of the Hudson, for more real estate. I’m sure the people responsible for that were more than happy, in the wake of Sandy, to change the subject to climate change or squirrels.
The North American Atlantic coast, even as far up as Canada, is hurricane alley. When the big ones blow, people won’t like it. And the Great Barrier Reef is going to get clobbered by the likes of Mahina 1899 and Yasi 2011. And the coral won’t like it.
61
I meant thanks pat. But I said ROM. Not my fault. The sinus pressure ate my homework.
61
You are forgiven!
Pat after all provides far more and far better information than I ever could and have.
He [ I assume “He” ] deserves avery large lot of Pats on the back for his diligence and constant attention to providing informative information and informed perspectives on the whole range of subjects that Jo and the denizens comment on.
51
you said ROM because you recognise the excellent length of his posts.
34
.
Thank you, Gee Aye.
I always appreciate a compliment even from the occassional mental midget who makes the odd short cameo appearance here on Jo’s blog.
72
James Cook has to perceive the difference between expert specialist review and peer review.
When the peers are starkly divided then collegiality is of no use to scientific method.
Saying this is not a crime or occasion for rebuke.
Its the outcome of a robust, healthy conversation on the spending of billions of our dollars.
Only scientific method can benefit.
91
There is a quite unique quality to be found amongst most hard line leftist academics.
They regularly pull the triggers before both guns has left their holsters.
In the case of Proffessor Peter Ridd they condemn the man soley because he dares to publicly question supposed research findings, no doubt because he wasn’t getting anywhere when he privately expressed his doubts and opposition to a lot of those supposed research findings in his academic unit..
He therefore publicly and openly challenged the academically enforced consensus on thesupposed science particularly on the claimed destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, a claim that is suposedly backed by consensus of other academics, academics that have been supported and I would suggest are almost totally reliant on tax payer funded grants, academics who could probably be classed as mainly tax payer funded Grant Farming academics rather than true and guenuine researchers of the Great Barrier Reef
Their collective timing is simply a superb example of shooting oneself in both feet when we take into account the front page article in The Australian this morning [ Wed 30th August 17 ]
.
Uni’s “blow out nations debt”.
I have no doubt that the case of Professor Ridd has been bought to the attention of Senator Birmingham and has been duly noted particularly when the universities are trying to sell themselves as bastions of free thinking and free speech from where the ideas and research and culture flows from that will supposedly shape the Australia of tomorrow.
71
ROM –
then there’s this:
28 Aug: SMH: Pallavi Singhal: The Australian universities with the worst employment outcomes
Students at the University of NSW, Sydney University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Western Australia have some of the highest entrance scores in Australia, according to this year’s Good Universities Guide.
However, none of these universities are in the guide’s top 10 for staff qualifications or overall experience, which measures engagement, resources, skills development, support and teaching quality.
All four scored below the national average for overall experience and nationally, UNSW, Sydney and UWA ranked among the bottom seven in this category…
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/the-australian-universities-with-the-worst-employment-outcomes-20170828-gy5hs1.html
the Chinese have taken note:
29 Aug: Xinhua: Leading Aussie universities deliver poor employment outcomes: report
Australia’s most prestigious universities have poor full-time employment outcomes, a study has found.
Chris Lester, chief executive of the Good Universities Group which compiles the guide, said that the poor performance of the in-demand universities was due to their high intake of students straight out of school rather than mature-aged students…
He said that the high demand for the institutions was linked to reputation rather than outcomes…
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-08/29/c_136564417.htm
51
Client Earth: ***Sophie Marjanac
Prior to joining ClientEarth, Sophie was a senior lawyer at Clayton Utz, Australia’s largest independent law firm, where she specialised in environmental and planning law…
Sophie was awarded a Bachelor of Laws with first class honours and a Bachelor of International Studies with distinction from the University of New South Wales in 2009.
29 Aug: ClimateChangeNews: Megan Darby: Hurricane Harvey: lawyers warn of climate lawsuits over damages
As science tying disasters to climate change becomes increasingly accurate, victims could seek legal redress for failure to plan for predictable events
Increasingly, such questions will be litigated in courtrooms and rely on climate science to answer, three environmental lawyers wrote in the journal Nature (LINK) on Monday…
“In a world where events like Hurricane Harvey are predicted to increase, and predicted confidently by scientists… courts will be called upon more and more to disentangle these issues,” co-author ***Sophie Marjanac, an Australian-qualified lawyer with Client Earth, told Climate Home…
Marjanac give examples of potential targets for lawsuits. In Houston, Texas, developers were allowed to build on wetlands that otherwise would have helped to drain floodwaters. If it can be shown those decisions endangered people and property – and failed to anticipate known climate risks – the relevant authorities could be on the hook for payouts, she said…
Then there are businesses. At least 10 oil refineries along Texas’ gulf coast have reportedly been forced offline by flooding. Marjanac said they could be liable for any environmental damage resulting from taking inadequate precautions, or face wrangles with insurers…
Several climate scientists have confidently asserted that climate change worsened Harvey’s impact, based on observations and physical principles…
For example, ***World Weather Attribution established that torrential rains in Louisiana last August were made twice as likely by human activity. The coalition of scientists is considering whether it can undertake a similar analysis of the flooding brought by Harvey…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/08/29/hurricane-harvey-lawyers-warn-climate-lawsuits-damages/
Oxford Uni: ECI: Dr Friederike Otto
Friederike is a senior researcher in the ECI Global Climate Science Programme and leads and coordinates the distributed computing climate modelling project climateprediction.net…
She is the ECI lead scientist on the international project ***World Weather Attribution which aims at providing an assessment of the human-influence on extreme weather in real-time and co-investigator of the project ACE-Africa…
28 Aug: ClimateChangeNews: Link between Hurricane Harvey and climate change is unclear
Reports the devastating storm was made worse by humanity’s carbon emissions fail to grasp climate change is not just about warming
By Friederike Otto
(Dr Friederike Otto is a senior researcher at Oxford University’s ECI Global Climate Science Programme and leads and coordinates the distributed computing climate modelling project climateprediction.net.)
…READ ALL
AT END OF ARTICLE:
Editor’s note: The Science Media Centre in London has been canvassing opinions of climate scientists. As they come in, we will post their responses below, unedited.
(QUOTES AT TIME OF POSTING FROM)
Prof Stephen Belcher, Chief Scientist at the Met Office
Julian Heming, tropical cyclones expert at the Met Office
Dr Ilan Kelman, Reader in Risk, Resilience and Global Health at the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction and Institute for Global Health, UCL
Prof Richard Allan, Professor of Climate Processes at the University of Reading
Prof Dave Reay, Professor of Carbon Management at the University of Edinburgh
Prof Mike Hulme, Professor of Geography at the University of Cambridge
Prof Tim Palmer, Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/08/28/link-hurricane-harvey-climate-change-unclear/
20
If you want to listen to a good conservative commentator that regularly talks about the electricity crisis you could listen to Alan Jones on Sydney radio station 2GB. You can stream it from anywhere in the world from a 2GB App on your phone or http://www.2gb.com/listen-live/
Alan Jones show http://www.2gb.com/show/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/
530am to 930am Australian Eastern Standard Time.
43
Yes indeed, his criticism of the hierarchy couldn’t be tolerated.
http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/lifestyle/professor-peter-ridd-says-dr-charlie-verons-prediction-of-death-of-great-barrier-reef-are-overblown/news-story/d05a1b8af93854c83728fdbb1c2127b0
31
Alannah MacTiernan released findings of feasibility study that shows solar power WA’s next export
Perth Now · 2 days ago
Pilbara sunlight could be sold to world
The Australian – 11hrs ago
Jobs bonanza in plan for Pilbara’s sun to power SE Asia
The West Australian-21 hours ago
it’s only a ***PRE-feasibility study, not made public as yet, but never mind, it’s great says the MSM:
29 Aug: ABC: Solar energy exports from the Pilbara to Indonesia the focus of new WA Government-backed study
WA Country Hour By Bridget Fitzgerald
A report commissioned by the Pilbara Development Commission and authored by Australian and Indonesian researchers looked into the potential to export electricity generated by photovoltaic (PV) solar in the Pilbara to Asia.
The study found it was ***feasible to deliver energy generated from a Pilbara solar facility and send it via a high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable under the sea to Indonesia.
Project manager Geoff James said the aim was to deliver a pilot project which would involve the development of a three gigawatt solar farm and a subsea transmission cable by 2030.
Dr James said the solar technology existed now but plans for the subsea cable would need further investigation.
“Our proposition is that the solar industry [in the Pilbara] should be scaled up right now so that when the link comes into existence it’s ready,” he said…
Dr James said solar PV potential in the Pilbara was “absolutely massive” and Indonesia had a “massive growth target” for increased energy generation.
“[Indonesia] wants 80 gigawatts more capacity, which is much more than Australia’s entire generation capacity at the moment,” he said.
He said Indonesia wanted to incorporate renewable energy into its target.
The WA Minister for Regional Development, Alannah MacTiernan, launched the study on Tuesday.
She said the study established dialogue with Indonesia about WA’s capacity to export renewable energy…
Renewable energy generated in the Pilbara region could produce four times Australia’s total power needs, according to new research.
In his report The Pilbara Powerhouse, Australian National University research fellow Dr Matthew Stocks found that there was huge potential for renewable energy production in the region.
Dr Stocks said that if the existing grid, the North West Interconnected System (NWIS), was replaced by hydro, solar and wind power, the Pilbara region could make significant contributions to the National Electricity Market (NEM)…
Dr Stocks also conceded that “the costs would be massive” to initially transform the north-west’s energy system to renewables.
But he said the investment into new, clean technology would be well worth it.
“The thing about renewable energy is that you pay for 25 years of electricity up front. It’s very expensive capital, but then very, very low running cost,” he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-08-29/pilbara-renewable-energy-potential-to-power-indonesia/8853238
RE’s Vorrath is comparatively sober:
29 Aug: RenewEconomy: Sophie Vorrath: WA could be solar exporter, but it needs a solar industry first
Western Australia’s Pilbara region must first prove its ability to deliver cost-effective utility-scale solar and storage, before it can become a regional hub for solar energy exports to Asia, a new report has found.
The Pilbara Solar Export Pre-Feasibilty Study, which was officially released by the Pilbara Development Commission on Tuesday morning, examines a ‘pilot’ project, to provide 3GW of Pilbara-generated solar to the Java grid.
As we reported here yesterday (LINK), the report found that a commercial case for the project could be established within five to 10 years, including the construction of a $9.5 billion, 1500km sub-0sea cable from the Dampier Peninsula to east Java and three 1GW solar farms…
The figures the report comes up with on cost are 18-25 c/kWh “over the long term,” with earnings of 19-20 c/kWh from the solar feed-in tariff applicable in Java.
But, as the report’s authors – Samantha Mella, Geoff James and Kylie Chalmers – point out, these figures are subject to numerous uncertainties and even a few unknowns.
“There are technology and supply chain uncertainties on the cost side, and the need for a negotiated outcome recognising strategic benefits on the revenue side,” the report says.
But perhaps most importantly, the report finds that the successful export of solar PV generation from WA’s north-west would depend on first building up a local large-scale solar industry in the Pilbara, where virtually nothing of the sort currently exists…
http://reneweconomy.com.au/wa-could-be-solar-exporter-but-it-needs-a-solar-industry-first-73134/
40
Why would the Indons want to import expensive and unreliable daytime solar electricity from Australia when they can just build cheap and reliable coal, gas and nuclear plant? They are not stupid like we are. In any case, they are closer to the equator than we are so even IF they were stupid enough to want solar they would get more solar radiation there than we do.
42
The longest DC undersea transmission cable currently in use is 580km long in Norway and they are looking at 1500km.
We are seeing yet another random thought bubble, which common sense indicates is non-viable, get turned into a huge waste of money.
52
There will be a lot of resistance in pumping electrons over 1500km. I might raise the sea temperature as well.
20
Graig @ #2.2 Your comment that
is incorrect.
Ridd does compare his research and those of others that show predictions of the imminent death of the Great Barrier Reef are unfounded. He does this by pointing out errors in the research that purports to show the demise of the reef. This kind of debate is essential for the advancement of science and should not be shut down by charges of misconduct from his university.
80
a little background on Dr. Geoff James, of the Pilbara/Solar PRE-feasibility study, which ABC could have mentioned:
LinkedIn: Geoff James, Research Principal at the University of Technology Sydney
Previous Dufresne Research, Reposit Power, CSIRO Energy Technology
Co Director, Pilbara Solar, August 2017 – Present
We are building the solar industry in Western Australia to GW scale, in partnership with Traditional Owners of the sun-rich land, for export to ASEAN markets to replace Australia’s fossil fuel exports…
Research Principal, University of Technology Sydney, February 2016 – Present
In the Institute for Sustainable Futures we work on high-impact client projects to create change. For example, a current major project demonstrates voltage regulation services by customer inverters (PV or battery) to help distribution networks host more rooftop solar generation.
Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Energy Technology, 2008 – 2013
Examined the changing role and design of electricity transmission and distribution networks in a sustainable energy industry. Developing energy storage applications and demonstrations to encourage the use of new energy storage technologies in Australia’s electricity system, enhance the market value of renewable energy, and enable the grid to manage a diverse mix of energy sources.
Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre, 2002 – 2008
2003-2008: Provided strategic leadership and research know-how in energy management technologies, enabling and promoting the uptake of demand management and distributed generation, as early-action mechanisms to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
2002-2004: Led project in Self-organising Smart Spaces researching distributed intelligent systems across eight disciplinary areas. The common goal was to design complex interacting systems so that their emergent behaviours lead to useful outcomes…
Research Scientist
CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory
1991 – 2002
Publications:
AEMO 100% Renewable Energy Study: Energy Storage
Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency
September 2012
In July 2012, CSIRO was contracted by Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to provide information on renewable energy supply, electricity generation opportunities and storage for the National Electricity Market (NEM) region of Australia. CSIRO was asked by AEMO to investigate a subset of technologies while other organisations have investigated the remaining renewable options. This report examines the opportunities for several storage technologies: solar thermal molten salt storage, biomass, biogas, compressed air energy storage (CAES) and batteries. Comparisons of cost per delivered MWh are presented and show biogas, pumped hydro, and CAES to be the cheapest forms of storage in this context, while batteries are valuable for their flexibility and responsiveness.
Authors: Geoff James, Jenny Hayward
The Future of Renewables linked by a Transnational Asian Grid
Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 100, no. 2, pp. 348-359 July 2011
This paper looks at the factors surrounding why Asia’s unique geography, abundant low emission energy resources, rapid economic growth, and rising energy demands merit consideration of a Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure.
Authors: Geoff James, Stewart Taggart (first author), Chris Russell, ZhaoYang Dong
Pilbara Development Commission, August 2017
This prefeasibility study evaluates the potential to export Pilbara photovoltaic (PV) solar electrical generation to the proposed ASEAN Grid via a subsea high voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnector…ETC
https://au.linkedin.com/in/geoffcjames
11
Australia exports around 400 million tonnes of coal per year.
About one tonne of coal produces 2MWh of electricity.
Therefore we export 800 million MWh of electricity.
That is 91.3GWh per year or 91 x 1GW power stations.
Exactly how many solar panels are we going to need to replace these 91.3GWh of coal exports?
These fools have a complete disconnect with reality.
61
They just can’t handle large numbers. Especially when related to time, as in “… all of that large number in just one hour?”
30
They have looked at every snake oil witch doctor scheme for generating electricity while coal keeps putting its arm up saying pick me pick me .
30
It’s still a NO from me, and if that tiny minority keeps demanding a yes vote and jumping up and down I will follow union rules of engagement and vote early, and vote often.
41
***IF…
29 Aug: CarbonBrief: Jocelyn Timperley: Climate change could flip European peak power demand to summer, study says
***IF global greenhouse gases aren’t curbed, rising temperatures will lead to increased use of air conditioners in the summer and less need for heaters in the winter.
Energy systems have traditionally been designed around the ability to meet demand on the day with the highest peak each year. If this day moves from winter to summer as a result of climate change, it will have significant impacts on grid planning, says the study, published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (LINK)…
Dr Leonie Wenz, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and lead author of the paper, tells Carbon Brief:
“Generally, generating and transmission infrastructure is designed to meet the highest demand in a year. Increases in peaks will put additional pressure on the grid when it is already stressed and will likely require additional investments in this infrastructure.”…
Prof David Sailor, professor of geographical sciences at Arizona State University, who was not involved in the study, says there is a “good likelihood” that actual outcomes will differ due to factors not represented. This would be the case with any study that attempts to explore future scenarios, he says…READ ON
https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-change-could-flip-european-peak-power-demand-to-summer-study-says
lol:
25 Aug: The Hill: EPA cancels sponsorship of awards for climate leadership
By Devin Henry
The Environmental Protection Agency has dropped its sponsorship of a climate change awards program co-sponsored by two environmental organizations.
“The Agency has decided to discontinue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) involvement with the 2018 Climate Leadership Awards program,” the EPA said on its website.
“This includes canceling the 2018 Climate Leadership Awards as well as EPA’s sponsorship of the Climate Leadership Conference.”…
***Winners in 2017, which were announced at the Climate Leadership Conference in March, include Goldman Sachs, IBM and Lockheed Martin Corp., as well as a California assemblyman, the climate policy director for Atlanta and a sustainability officer for JetBlue Airways…
Organizers of the leadership awards and the climate conference said there were “disappointed” by the agency’s decision, but that the awards program and conference will move forward without the EPA…ETC
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/348026-epa-cancels-sponsorship-of-climate-leadership-awards
11
28 Aug: UK Express: ‘Absolutely bonkers’ EU ban on powerful vacuum cleaners set to spark major sales rush
EU RULES that will suck the power out of vacuum cleaners are poised to cause a stampede at electrical stores.
By Nathan Rao
It is predicted that buyers will want to snap up more powerful models before the legislation kicks in. Imports of machines which operate at more than 900 watts will be stopped from Friday.
It is the second blow in a round of regulations brought in three years ago to curb household energy use.
Initial legislation slashed 2,000 watt motors to 1,600 watts, with the latest drop set to render the motors of some weaker than those of food blenders…
Retailers have stocked up on powerful machines ahead of the ban…
Dr Benny Peiser, of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, said the move will simply force people to use less-efficient machines for longer.
He said: “This is of course absolutely bonkers and has nothing to do with energy, climate or saving the planet.
“I suspect it has more to do with businesses in Europe wanting to compete with successful industry in Britain. All that will happen is appliances will be less efficient and people will have to use them for longer.”…READ ON
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/846560/EU-rules-legislation-vacuum-cleaners-UK-limit-sales-Brexit-news-latest
26 Aug: UK Telegraph: Sam Meadows: Smart meter roll-out in question as only a fraction of households sign up
The Government’s smart meter roll-out is in peril as energy customers are so far failing to sign up. A Telegraph investigation reveals for the first time that less than half of households have accepted one, with take-up rates as low as one in five.
The meters – which have been widely promoted via government-backed campaigns and by individual energy suppliers – are supposed to eliminate the need for manual meter reading, fix the industry-wide problem of billing errors and help households ***reduce consumption.
The £11bn initiative requires suppliers to offer every household a smart meter by the end of 2020, with those which don’t comply facing fines…
Of the 29 million customers of the “big six” energy suppliers, just over six million have a smart meter in their home…
SSE, by contrast, has so far offered only 18pc of its 7.8 million customers a smart meter. Of this group, less than half – 43pc – said yes to the device…
Scottish Power has offered half its 5.3 million customers the meters but has seen an exceptionally low take-up rate, with only one in five of those offered a meter accepting…
There have also been problems with meters “going dumb” when consumers try to switch provider. The Government has said this issue will be fixed when the current meters are upgraded…READ ALL
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/bills-and-utilities/gas-electric/smart-meter-roll-out-question-fraction-households-sign/
11
talk about FakeNews! another gotcha that wasn’t?
25 Aug; Corrected 27 Aug; Clarified 29 Aug: Nature: US energy agency asked scientists to scrub references to climate change
Researchers were told to censor descriptions of projects funded by a Department of Energy laboratory.
Jeff Tollefson & Amy Maxmen
Multiple researchers who received grants from the US Department of Energy (DOE) say that they have been asked to remove references to “climate change” and “global warming” from the descriptions of their projects, they say…
(Biogeochemist at the Woods Hole Research Center Jonathan) Sanderman also lamented the fact that scientists are being forced to change the way they talk about their work. “But if that’s what it takes to keep science going for ***a couple of years, we will I guess play along,” he adds…
Corrections & Clarifications…ETC
http://www.nature.com/news/us-energy-agency-asked-scientists-to-scrub-references-to-climate-change-1.22513
25 Aug: InsideClimateNews: Sabrina Shankman: Energy Dept. Asks Scientists to Remove ‘Climate Change’ from Grant Proposal
The scientists say the unusual request connected to a government grant under Trump won’t change how they do the research or report the findings
The researcher, Jennifer Bowen of Northeastern University, shared a screenshot of the email in a Facebook post that sparked outrage among scientists online. In the email, someone whose name is not shown asks for the alterations…
The Department of Energy did not reply to a request for comment from InsideClimate News, but a spokeswoman told Nature (LINK) that there was no departmentwide policy banning the term “climate change” in Department of Energy materials…
“My take on this is that someone within the labs is proactively going through new awards and trying to make sure they don’t get into any trouble,” said Bowen’s colleague in the study, Jonathan Sanderman of Woods Hole Research Center…
Sanderman said he and Bowen had received no indication that their final report should avoid use of language related to climate change. The request appeared to apply only to the abstract of the proposal…
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25082017/energy-dept-asked-scientist-remove-climate-change-project-description
10
Jo Nova- I would love to purchase and read the book but don’t want the paper copy and don’t use Amazon or iTunes. Why is the book not for sale using the standard epub format that most generic ereaders support?
Please let me know – keen to purchase!
I’ll ask Jennifer M. — Jo
Jen and the IPA responded that it’s difficult to maintain copyright with electronic copies, so they have gone with tried and tested systems and most people seem to be OK with that. Perhaps you know of some other system? I don’t know much about epub. — Jo
00