so it should really come as no surprise to find that yet another Monsanto genetically modified seed variety is not living up to its advertising hype:
A genetically modified cotton produced by Monsanto is failing to control pests in four Indian states, the company said last week. Read more »
In writing my previous post on the “Climategate” break-in to the University of East Anglia computer system , I remained unclear about who was actually responsible for the break-in theft of the emails, which were then selectively quoted to promote a bogus allegation of scientific fraud.
Looking over the evidence that is now available, I think there is enough to point to Steven McIntyre as the person, along with the actual hacker or leaker, who bears primary moral responsibility for the crime.
Here’s the timeline of key events
By July 2009, CRU had advised McIntyre that climate data used in their work was available from the original sources, and that he should seek it from them. Read more »
The United Nations is to review IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) processes. The IAC (InterAcademy Council) has been charged with this task.
It is not a review of the Climate science itself. It's about "quality control":
REVIEW'S TERMS OF REFERENCE
- Analyse the IPCC process, including links with other UN agencies
- Review the use of non-peer reviewed sources, and quality control on data
- Assess how procedures handle "the full range of scientific views"
- Review how the IPCC communicates with the public and the media
Scientists to review climate body (BBC 10 March 2010)
Let's hope it restores public trust.
The report, due in August, is a red herring. It's time for action not this distraction. Its results will be ignored or distorted by the climate contrarians. Read more »
Bring out your dead e-waste! Bring out your e-waste!
Heard that call from your local council sometime in the last two years? Then you are one of the lucky ones.
Responsible people are running out of room in their garages and sheds to safely store this waste, while local government often only pays lip service to policies on garbage, recycling, safe disposal and landfill.
Clean Up Australia Day founder, Ian Kiernan, has stepped up calls for national laws to crack down on e-waste producers, as almost 600,000 Australians rolled up their sleeves and got stuck into the annual litter bust. Read more »
Kangaroo Island Stare from Kevin Rennie on Vimeo.
Vimeo 1-minute-videos:
-Video must be exactly one minute long
-No camera movement (no panning, tilting, etc)
-No editing whatsoever
-Use original sound
Read more »
That’s the title of my Fin column for Thursday 11 March 2010, which naturally picked out The Australian newspaper as a prime vehicle for these attacks. The Oz replied next day, with characteristic mendacity, pointing out that, on the same day they
ran an opinion piece by climatologist James Hansen, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies chief who also happens to be known rather snappily as the “father of global warming”.
Only problem was, they weren’t running Hansen to defend science against their attacks, but because his policy views (he opposes an ETS and supports nuclear power) could be used in their continuing wedge campaign. The piece (can’t find it to link ran under the headline “”Only carbon tax and nuclear power can save us”
Anyway, here’s my piece
Read more »
Anyone who has been following the fortunes of biotech companies associated with genetically modified seed will recall Monsanto & Co's oft repeated claim that it's really in the business of feeding the world and not the simple pursuit of profit.
Once more in 2010 this monopolisitic multinational's actions give lie to the PR spin, as it is discovered trying to assert royalty rights over Cefetra's imported animal feed product made from GMO Roundup-ready soybean and accusing this company and others of infringing its patent.
The ruling mentioned below appears to be an interim opinion with the court's final ruling expected sometime later in the year.
Read more »
A few weeks ago, following the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society conference in Adelaide I drove with my Risk and Sustainable Management Group colleagues David Adamson and Sarah Chambers to Melbourne, going by way of the Murray River. David and Sarah had been to the Coorong in a pre-conference tour and on our trip together we managed to visit all the remaining ‘icon’ sites – these are the sites that are supposed to best represent the environmental values of the Basin. Read more »
The recent observations made in Antarctica support the patterns observed elsewhere, and support the conclusion that human systems and effects are disrupting the natural systems.
Steve Connor reports in The Independent:
It is only when the warming effect of emitting millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from human activity is considered that it is possible to explain why global average temperatures have risen so significantly since the middle of the 20th century.
The study updates a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and has discovered several new elements of the global climate which have been influenced by humans, such as an increasing amount of water vapour evaporating from the warmer oceans into the atmosphere and a corresponding increase in the saltiness of the sea. Read more »
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