Great Barrier Reef

The Carmichael mine being pursued in the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland is a dinosaur before its creation.  On paper, it is hefty – to be some five times the size of Sydney harbour, the largest in Australia and one of the largest on the planet.  Six open cut and five underground mines covering some 30 kilometres are proposed, a gargantuan epic.  The coal itself would be transported through the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and World Heritage Area, and would feature a rail line subsidised by the money of Australian taxpayers.

Australia’s environment has been in precarious hands since European settlement found its lengthy and persistent way to the continent.  It has been mined, mauled, drained, farmed, deforested and despoiled at a rate that was only restrained by the size of its small but rapacious populace.  When environmental matters have made an appearance, they have done so with a veil of political opportunism.  Few typify this more than Labor’s environment minister Senator Graham Richardson’s efforts r

Australia: Professor Peter Ridd, a noted coral-reef expert, is suing his employer, James Cook University, for violating his academic freedom by censuring him for criticizing research hyping the 'death' of the Great Barrier Reef. Professor Ridd said that "the science is coming out not properly checked, tested, or replicated, and this is a great shame, because we really need to be able to trust our scientific institutions, and the fact is I do not think we can any more." The University claims that Ridd's comments denigrated the school's reputation.

This week on the New World Next Week: the green Chicken Littles continue with their enviro doom porn; a Newsweek journo is caught fingering US intel in Putin-Trump conspiracy story; and Americans fear everything.

This week on the New World Next Week: the green Chicken Littles continue with their enviro doom porn; a Newsweek journo is caught fingering US intel in Putin-Trump conspiracy story; and Americans fear everything.

New images of the Great Barrier Reef show that rising water temperatures have severely damaged the world’s largest reef system, which stretches for over 1,400 miles off the coast of Australia. [1]
How bad is it? Hmm. It depends on who you ask.
One scientist who visited the reef said that “if it was a person, it would be on life support.”

By Judith Curry | Climate Etc. | June 13, 2016 Ridd was punished by James Cook University for “not displaying responsibility in respecting the reputations of other colleagues.” The university even warned that if he does this again, he’ll be tried for serious misconduct. The latest perversion in research ethics comes to us from James Cook […]