Eco-issues

Warning! This content challenges various environmental sacred cows and may offend some viewers.
 

Although many environmental problems are only too real there are also many purported ones that are exaggerated, dubious or do not even actually exist. Concern for the environment provides a convenient cloak for sundry other agendas and environmentalism now encompasses a quasi-religious blend of new-age nature worship, junk science, left-wing political activism and anti-profit economics. Environmental regulation has been hijacked by activists, bureaucrats and researchers all of whom have a vested interest in promoting the idea of dire threats which of course require more regulation, more bureaucracy and more research.

Ironically, those who profess a deep concern for our precious environment tend to predominantly be urbanites who themselves choose to live in an environment where the natural world has been almost completely annihilated. Incongruous too is their fierce rejection of any suggestion that anything may not be a bad as they fear (or apparently hope).

Contrary to popular perception, in most developed countries the overall environmental condition has greatly improved over the past few decades and although much remains to be done the situation good and getting better. Real problems are quite sufficient. We do not need to waste effort and resources on imaginary ones.

Australia with its vast area, small population, remoteness, and high standard of living enjoys one of the least polluted, unspoiled natural environments of any nation. Unfortunately, environmental management here has tended to become dominated by ideology, theories, and a proliferation of bureaucracy with minimal assessment of either the real environment or the socio-economic consequences. Exacerbated by the precautionary principle the result has been a growing morass of restrictions and demands to address problems that often do not exist or that could be addressed by more effective, less burdensome measures. With a prosperity based predominantly on primary production ill-conceived environmental regulations are becoming a far more real threat to national security than is the danger of terrorism.

In the prevailing climate of political correctness concerning environmental matters few scientists are willing to speak out in opposition to the misrepresentation, suppression and outright fraud that is often being perpetrated in connection with environmental issues. At best it means being shunned by colleagues and almost certainly will have negative career consequences. I have because a combination of age and independence permit, knowledge and experience qualify, and sense of responsibility impel me to do so. The response from those on the receiving end of environmental mismanagement has been gratifying and the private agreement of many researchers surprising.

Articles

• Daintree Delusions, myths and realities of saving the Daintree
  (address to a public meeting on Daintree issues in 1994)
   

• Barrier Reef Blunderland, blunderland being local slang for GBRMPA's chronically poorly attended Reef Wonderland aquarium 
  (unpublished MS July 2003)
   

• Conservation vs. Environmentalism
  (North Queensland Sunfish magazine January 2004 - also in Trailer Boating magazine March 2004)
   

• GBR Science Summaries,
  (prepared for The Fishing Party July-Sept. 04)
   

• Threats to the Great Barrier Reef
  (Institute of Public Affairs, Backgrounder May 2005, Vol. 17/1 - shortened versions in Go Fishing magazine Aug/Sept 05 and News Weekly 18 June 06.)
   

• Fishy Claims of Overfishing on the Great Barrier Reef
  (Professional Fisherman magazine September 2005)
   

• The Status, Importance and Future of Australian Fisheries
  (Fishing Boat World  magazine February 06. Copy here is slightly longer MS version with references.)
   

• By Way of Self Introduction, comments on Global Warming
  (Originally posted on the Climate Skeptics discussion list, 11 March 2006.)
   

• Environmentalism, How the Great Barrier Reef is mismanaged
  (News Weekly 29 April 06 - also published in Ausmarine magazine April 06 and The Fishing Party Newsletter March 06)
   

• Coral Bleaching & The Reef
  (Originally posted on the Jennifer Marohasy web blog, 12 April 2006)
   

• Models, Motives and Management
  (Ausmarine magazine May 06)
   

• Fuel for Thought, How to make Australia energy self-sufficient
  (News Weekly 10 June 06)
   

• MPA Mania
  (Ausmarine magazine August 06)
   

• AGW not a paradigm, a skeptical view of global warming
  (Climate Skeptics discussion list and Jennifer Marohasy weblog August 06)
   

• Exposing Environmental Myths About The Great Barrier Reef
  (NATIONAL OBSERVER No. 69, Winter 2006 - originally presented as a keynote address to the Queensland state meeting of the National Civic Council in Brisbane, 23 July 2006. Combines information from Fishy Claims and Status of Aust. Fisheries above.)
   

• Little Green Lies
  (Media release in response to claims of a dramatic increase in coral trout numbers on
  protected reefs, 18 September 2006)
   

• Marine Resources and The Growing Cost of Precaution
  (address to Australian Environment Foundation Inaugural Conference, Brisbane 23 Sept. 2006.  Also published in Ausmarine magazine Feb. 2007)
   

• Comments on the Ernst & Young 2006 report:  Australia's Marine Protected Areas: Challenging Times Ahead
   

• Selected Excerpts and Commentary on: 2006 Review of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975
   

• Are GBR Shark Populations Really Collapsing?
  (A  recent research report purports to have found a widespread and dramatic decline in shark populations on the Great Barrier Reef due to fishing mortality.  This report has attracted considerable  media attention and seems likely to become the basis for further restrictions on reef activities. There are, however, a number of  serious doubts regarding the methods and conclusions of this study.)
  
  .pdf copy as published in January 2008 issue of Go Fishing magazine , 1.2MB (click here).
  
  MS copy of the article with references cited. 41KB (click here).
   

• As Good as it Gets
  (Account of a fishing, diving, exploring trip to the far northern GBR and Cape York in November 2006.  Published in Go Boating magazine, March 2007)
  
  

• Where Our Fish Comes From, Thai fisheries, from an Australian perspective
  (Australia has the world’s third largest EEZ and lowest fishery harvest rate. Seventy percent of domestic seafood is imported. Thailand, which has only 1/20 the EEZ area of Australia, is Australia's largest supplier. This is an overview of the Thai fishing industry from an Australian perspective with particular reference to comparative conditions, resource management and outcomes.)
  
  .pdf copy as published in a four part series in the March, April, June and July 2007 issues of Ausmarine magazine, 4MB (click here).
  
  MS copy of the article with higher resolution graphics, 2MB (click here).
  
  DVD video on Thai Fisheries, 71 min. (click here)

• Straight from the Horse’s Orifice, What the managers really think about themselves and the Australian fishing industry
  ( Revelations from an extraordinarily frank seminar not intended for public consumption, Ausmarine magazine May 2007 )
   

• Thou Shalt Not Fish
  (Essay on Australia's growing problems in marine management.  Club Marine magazine, June 2007.)
   

• Postmodern science - a contradiction in terms
  (Special feature - News Weekly, 4 August 2007)
   

• Green Manure Continues to Pollute the GBR
  (Media release in response to claims of declining water quality on the GBR)
   

• MPAs – A Problem Not a Solution
  (Media release on proposed Moreton Bay MPA expansions, 23 August 2007)
   

• Energy Crisis: The real threat of global warming
  (Cover story - News Weekly, 13 October 2007]
   

• Choked by a Bloated Bureaucracy
  (Editorial in Ausmarine magazine on the ongoing decline in Australia's fisheries and aquaculture, October 2007)
   

• Seafood and Health: Government's state of confusion
  ( Government is encouraging greater seafood consumption while increasingly restricting already inadequate supply, Ausmarine magazine, December 2007)
   

• Enmeshed in a bureaucratic delusion
  (Critical review of a new study from the influential Lowy Institute for International Policy which claims that the fisheries of our near neighbours in S.E. Asia and PNG are overexploited and headed for collapse. The high quality of our own management is asserted and  the suggestion is made that with due diplomacy we can show them how to do it right. Reality presents a different picture.)
  
  .pdf copy of condensed version published in the February 2008 issue of Ausmarine magazine, 1.2MB (click here).
  
  MS copy of full article with higher resolution graphics, 2.6 KB (click here).
   

• The Great Barrier reef and the Prophets of Doom
  (Commentary of another doomsday prediction for the GBR, ON LINE opinion, 8 May 2008)
   

• A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way
  (Pictorial story on tame giant tarpon in the Florida Keys, Go Fishing magazine, April-May 2008)
   

• What’s Wrong in Wonga, a case study of the malaise in Australian aquaculture
  (uncompleted MS of a story in progress that has already gotten even worse)

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