Wednesday 10th October 2007
"An Inconvenient Truth"
In order for the film to be shown, the Government must first amend their Guidance Notes to Teachers to make clear that:
1.) The Film is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument.
2.) If teachers present the Film without making this plain they may be in breach of section 406 of the Education Act 1996 and guilty of political indoctrination.
3.) Eleven inaccuracies have to be specifically drawn to the attention of school children.
The inaccuracies are:
The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government’s expert was forced to concede that this is not correct. The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The Court found that the film was misleading: over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years. The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that it was “not possible” to attribute one-off events to global warming. The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that this was not the case. The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm. The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant’s evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility. The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim. The film suggests that the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously. The evidence is that Greenland will not melt for millennia. The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting, the evidence was that it is in fact increasing. The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration. The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.
Sent to by the Professor, but Never appeared in the Bay Post (Batemans Bay Newspaper) on Wednesday 3rd Oct 2007 - yet the Narooma News published the Fleming article below this one...... Controlled media at it's best but our 380,000 readers will do for a start.
The Editor, Bay Post,
I am responding to your article “Critics call for marine parks to go”, 29/9/07, and in particular the statement, “MPA’s Tony Fleming said Professor Kearney’s critique had a number of flaws”.
Primarily, I am supposed to have “confused the paper – which was for the general public – with planning principles for marine parks which had been developed over a number of years”. I did indeed comment on the papers which were “for the general public” because these were the ones the public was given during the consultation period as the justification for the Batemans Marine Park. If it now turns out, as Tony Fleming contends, that there are other principles which over-ride the ones given to the general public then the whole consultation process was a sham and a waste of time for the general public and all who accepted the Marine Parks Authority’s invitation to contribute.
My paper pointed out that the documentation given to the public on the justification of the Batemans Park was grossly and consistently biased and abused the principles of sound and objective science. Correct interpretation of the science quoted by the Marine Parks Authority shows that the Batemans Marine Park will not protect the estuarine or beach ecosystems against even the threats identified by the Marine Parks Authority.
If, as Tony Fleming contends, “It is clear that the protection offered by marine parks also relies on a range of other estuarine and marine management initiatives that we have in place”, what are these other initiatives, additional to the obvious restrictions on fishing, and why were they not set out in the documentation given to the public and included in the scientific assessment of the collective actions? It would appear even Ministers Debus and Macdonald were not aware of these other alleged significant restrictions, otherwise why would their joint Media Release of 14 July 2006 on the Batemans Draft Zoning Plan state, “People can generally continue to do what they’ve always done within the sanctuary zones except commercial and recreational fishing”?
Fleming’s statement, “The key threats that are managed by marine parks include some damaging types of fishing, such as fish and prawn trawling” confirms rather than counters my assessments. Again, the only threat that the Batemans Park attempts to ‘manage’ is fishing. And again, no evidence is given as to how even fish and prawn trawling are damaging and absolutely no assessment is provided on why exclusion of these activities from small areas of the coast represents the most effective or efficient management. If these activities can be shown to be damaging then this damage should be managed over the whole of New South Wales by the legislated fisheries management agency, the Department of Primary Industries.
Bob Kearney
Emeritus Professor of Fisheries
University of Canberra
From this article you can assess what a $400,000 salary ($7690.00 per week) gets for your taxpayer dollars from Dr Fleming, who thankfully has resigned from NSW National Parks
Large infrequent fires have been caused by years of deliberate government decision making dating back to 1982 when the John Cain Government sacked the three Commissioners of the Victorian Forests Commission and disbanded it.
The three Commissioners were replaced in the superseding department, Conservation, Forests and Lands by ALP Party people who knew nothing about forest science but were aware of the need to obtain preference deals at the polls.
In the current corridors of power, the same political ideology continues to blind the same type of political guru despite the obvious evidence that politics cannot supersede the needs of a natural environment. The forest worshippers continue with their failed mantras and continue their pressure through promises of giving or withholding preferences at the forthcoming election. There can be little doubt that, in metropolitan areas around Australia, there is a great deal of support for the Greens. Rural folk are not so easily hoodwinked.
Current management are too proud to look at the record of their predecessors and find out why, from the time of Judge Stretton in 1944 to Athol Hodgson, President of Forest Fire Victoria (PDF 90KB), in 1982, Victoria enjoyed the peace and protection of good fire management. Government agencies rely upon Memoranda of Co-operation to silence any stakeholder organisation that is in a position to criticise their mismanagement.
The advent of aircraft and other modern appliances that have been thrust into the fire management equation have given current management the opportunity to promote fire suppression rather than fire prevention. The temptation to provide big toys for big boys has been irresistible. Government “spin doctors” enjoy highlighting “your taxes at work” while totally neglecting past research which shows that fire prevention is less costly and more productive than fire suppression.
Historically, forests around the Australian continent have supported an Indigenous population with food, clothing and shelter. Scientists have found evidence of widespread burning from ridge top to riparian zone, probably performed in the cooler months of the year. In thousands of years they have never been locked up and left alone - at least until 1982.
Australian eucalypts and many other species have always grown while shedding branches, bark and leaves onto a forest floor. In southern Australia it is usually very dry and consequently this has not aided the mulching of this dead vegetation. The lack of rainfall ensures that the dead foliage, full of highly inflammable eucalyptus oil is ready for ignition during any dry period of the year - but especially in late spring through to early autumn, when dry storms with a lot of lightning will provide ignition.
The fire fighting pyramid consists of low humidity; moderate to high northerly winds coupled with an ignition source and fuel on the forest floor. The only factor within the control of humans is the amount of fuel on the forest floor. The heavier the fuel load the more intense the fire and the higher its temperature.
Heavy fuel loads generate enormous amounts of heat energy which burns humus and causes erosion. It destroys burrowing animals and colonies of insects. Where fire intensity is too high, the soil is made hydrophobic. Where this happens the fire has already left the ground and is up into the tree tops where it destroys the tree top animals and the canopy and even kills some types of eucalypts.
The forest floor, without the protection of trees, branches and leaves is subjected to the scouring force of the rain. Earth is eroded resulting in mudslides and damaging torrents of water. This is what happened in Gippsland this year.
The Australian forest is predictable and uniformly demanding. If it is to be managed in accordance with an ideological gospel of the Greens, the consequences of human folly compound the innate problems of eucalyptus forest management and catastrophic bushfires are inevitable.
Hyper fires started in 1998 with the Caledonia River fire. This event went virtually unnoticed except that in the little north Gippsland township of Licola the water supply was severely compromised. Residents made their feelings known then and have done so, with justification, ever since.
Early 2007 saw Licola left to defend itself or burn. It then suffered a huge mudslide in February 2007 followed by savage torrents of sediment laden water bursting the banks of the Macalister River, carrying all before it. Roads, bridges, fencing, dwellings and any man made structure that got in its way.
The 59 days of fires in 2003 were bad enough to require an official response and Commissioner Esplin was detailed to write a report to excuse the bad land management of the government. He could not hide the fact that in the years since the Caledonia River fires there had been no measures taken to reduce forest fuels. This lack of basic management has been reported upon by the Auditor General of Victoria on at least two occasions
To his credit, in his 2003 Preliminary Report, at Section 5.5, Esplin draws attention to the protection of the Melbourne Water catchments located in rural Victoria. He notes Melbourne Water’s co-operation with the Country Fire Authority and recognises the extensive network of well maintained 4WD fire access tracks and the availability of trained, well equipped fire fighters who are located close to the catchments that they protect. Melburnians may rest easy with respect to their water supply.
Rural water catchments do not attract that level of protection.
Fires in Central Gippsland and Western Victoria in 2005-2006 were followed by 69 days of fires in the summer of 2006-7.
The total area incinerated in Victoria, due to the deliberate neglect of our forests is now an area of two and a half million hectares, or about eleven million acres.
The next fire season is probably starting within two months. There is no indication of any correlation with global warming, nor climate change and if we are subjected to further hyper fires it will be due to the deliberate inaction of the Victorian Government.
John Cribbes is a retired, 68 year old public service accountant with some commercial accountancy skills. Trained at one time as a Business Analyst by Dun & Bradstreet, he also has analytical skills. He is very comfortable with extracting information from people who have qualifications that authenticate their conclusions. This has enabled him to track down and examine various documents that are relevant in the current debate. His attitude to the environment is simple. Whatever man does to alter his environment, if nature does not like it, the venture will fail. It is no good hugging trees and worshipping at that high altar when the basic principle of fire in forest management is ignored or suppressed. He believes that without human intervention and science based management it is obvious that Australian forests are in decline.
John Cribbes
Editors Comments:
An extract from Judge Stretton's report:
Another important recommendation by Commissioner Judge Stretton after the 1939 Victorian firestorm was that for fire suppression and prevention, the Forests Commission should have complete control of all forests except where exemptions had been recommended.
There were also recommendations concerning the early detection of fire, methods of firefighting and the protection of forests through a strategic program of burning selected areas of forest in a controlled way during spring and autumn.
Now for this classic comment:
This is a comment on the above article from a person not willing to offer a name other than "Taswegian"
But it reeks of radical green mythology and could be the brother or sister of that mental giant greenie from Albury "Greenie Candidate" who suggested that by setting up chicken runs around rural land was the answer to fuel load management for prevention of bushfires.
Try not to laugh, but read on ...
I take it the author thinks a golf course is an example of a well managed native forest. At least the implausible claim isn't being made that frequent burning reduces CO2 emissions. The problem with burnoffs is that they sometimes go wrong and many people have asthma or respiratory problems. I suggest keeping fire out of the equation by sending in large mulchers with bin trailers. The mulch can be composted or burned offsite, perhaps converted to charcoal. In Germany they make Sundiesel (biomass-to-liquids) from forest waste. I agree we have to do something, I just don't think more fire is the answer.
Posted by Taswegian, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 9:48:02 AM
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