It is often reported that the Great Barrier Reef is half dead, specifically that the corals are bleached, and the water quality is degraded with pesticides and plastics. If I didn’t know better, I might never want to visit a coral reef, lest I be forced to confront this reality – apparently all our fault. […]
Fundamental to science is measurement. It is a way of objectively assessing something, anything, even the state of a coral reef, even of an individual coral. Historically coral growth rates were measured by coring the really old massive Porites. Like tree rings in temperate forests, the massive old Porites can be cored to see the […]
The word ‘unprecedented’ is often applied to destructive climate-related events, as though they could not have been predicted, and have never happened before. Last summer’s bushfires were no different. But were they really unprecedented? This narrative creates anxiety because it follows that there really is a climate emergency and that we have pushed nature out […]
A new scientific paper, received with great fanfare among international media and Australia’s public broadcaster, the ABC, claims half the corals of the Great Barrier Reef are dead. The paper is by academics at James Cook University’s ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. It is a scary headline. But is it true? This […]
Saturday night, I was eating chocolates at Catherine’s (remember my friend who tutors kids in maths), when Rowan phoned. Not any Rowan. The Rowan Dean from Sky Television. He was working late. We had just been talking about him at dinner, because I was meant to be on his Sky TV ‘Outsiders’ program the next morning, […]
The Great Barrier Reef – Still Colourful Corals and Curious Fish What is the true state of the Great Barrier Reef? If you asked most Australians, they’d say the Great Barrier Reef is at risk of imminent collapse from climate change. It was for questioning this claim, and the quality of science behind it, that […]
IPA Senior Fellow and Editor of Climate Change: The Facts 2020 joins Sky News Outsiders to discuss the new book that has been described as “The thinking sceptics guide to climate change” – buy your copy today www.climatechangethefacts.org.au
This article from the Winter 2020 edition of the IPA Review is written by IPA Research Fellow, Tristan Prasser. Filmmaking activist Michael Moore’s most recent documentary, Planet of the Humans, was released earlier this year to a storm of controversy and criticism. The film, directed by Jeff Gibbs and executive produced by Moore, takes aim at the green energy industry—predominately […]
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology deleted what was long regarded as the hottest day ever recorded in Australia, Bourke’s 125°F (51.7°C) on Sunday, January 3, 1909. This record* was deleted, falsely claiming that this was likely some sort of ‘observational error’, as no other official weather stations recorded high temperatures on that day. However, the […]
Once too scared to speak out, finally, Michael Shellenberger, is explaining some inconvenient facts about environmentalism and how it is hurting our Earth in a new book published by Harper Collins. In a synopsis Shellenberger articulates what I have known for so long: ● The most important thing for reducing pollution and emissions is moving from wood to […]