Wednesday 11 April 2018
It seems climate change deniers may be looking to that far-right lobby group the Insitute of Public Affairs (IPA) to organise defence fund appeals in the future
For more
than a decade, Ridd
[Peter Vincent Ridd] has been happily criticising the science linking dangerous climate
change to greenhouse gas emissions and the science showing the impacts of
humans on corals.
Ridd has also
repeatedly, over many years, said that the impact of agricultural runoff and
water quality on the health and growth rate of corals is overstated.
But his employer, James
Cook University, initiated its own action against Ridd after he had criticised
specific organisations at his own university in media interviews, saying they
could not be trusted. This, the university alleged, went against the
university’s code of conduct.
So this is not about
Ridd’s “freedom” to say what he wants but is about an alleged breach of
the university’s code of conduct — whether you agree with that code
or not.
When the university
censured Ridd in 2016, he ignored them. He gave an interview
in August 2017 to another climate science denier, Alan Jones, on Sky News.
Ridd was there to talk about his chapter in a climate science denial book produced by the Institute
of Public Affairs (IPA).
Ridd said 'we
can no longer trust' the Government-backed Australian Institute of Marine Scienceand
the Center of Excellence for Coral
Reef Studies, based at James Cook University…..
The university alleged
this constituted further “serious misconduct”, so Ridd took the issue to his
lawyers and a case is proceeding.
To help fund his legal
bills, Ridd got some help from the IPA (a key organisation pushing
climate science denial in Australia for two decades) to set up a crowdfunding
campaign that raised the necessary $95,000 in just 49 hours.
The IPA’s executive
director John Roskam was
the first donor with $500. Other notable givers included climate science denier
and blogger Anthony
Watts, U.S. Interior Department employee
and climate science denier Indur Goklany, Perth
philanthropist and IPA funder Bryant Macfie and author and political
scientist Don Aitken. The Washington Post and others have also reported how
Goklany has had a key role in re-writing Department of Interior
climate documents.
Many of Ridd’s
cheerleaders have taken his scientific claims without scepticism and have not
entertained the idea that he might be wrong.
Ridd’s marine pollution?
But Ridd repeated in
detail several of his criticisms in a November 2017 "viewpoint" article in the journal Marine
Pollution Bulletin — opening up his arguments for scrutiny.
Now, as reported in The Guardian Australia, a team
of nine scientists, many based at the Australian Institute of Marine Science
and the James Cook University centre Ridd has attacked, have issued a response through the same journal. Their
assessment of Ridd’s claims is sharp.
They say Ridd’s
criticisms are based on 'misinterpretation, selective use of data and
over-simplification' and that they ignore 'formal responses to
previously published critiques'.
Tuesday 10 April 2018
Big banks get hammered in first round of Banking Royal Commission hearings
I am sure
that the Turnbull Coalition Government was hoping that voters would not form
opinions such as this when it set up the deliberately ‘hobbled’ Royal
Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial
Services Industry.
First
Round of Banking Royal Commission Reveals Systemic Issues in the Banking
Industry
Customers are falling victim to the
misconduct of banks with evidence being presented at the Banking Royal
Commission (BRC) of fraudulent
conduct, approval of inappropriate loans and excessive interest rates. The
first round of public hearings have finished with the big four banks (NAB,
Westpac, ANZ and CBA) being scrutinised by the Commission over its
inappropriate behaviour.
The
big banks get hammered in first round of BRC hearings
NAB’s employee
incentive scheme saw fraudulent conduct by its bankers making unsuitable loans,
the dishonest use of customer signatures, and false documentation being provided
to support loan applications. Even worse, staff in some branches accepted
bribes to facilitate loans they knew were based on fraudulent documents.
Whistleblowers called out the fraud, but the bank did not notify the regulator
until months after they were required to.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has also been criticised for
its brokers fees and commissions for home loans and associated CBA insurance
products that customers purchased. Brokers failed to clearly disclose upfront,
on-going fees and incentives to stop people paying off their mortgages sooner.
CBA was also under fire after they admitted to waiting two years before
reporting a problem with their personal loan insurance program that affected
over 20,000 customers.
ANZ have
also been scrutinised with the bank failing to check customers’ expenses before
approving them for a home loan. Their car finance business, Esanda, was also
found to have been undertaking dodgy practices before it was sold in October
2015. This included the inappropriate use of customer’s financial information
and increasing interest rates for better commissions.
It was found that Westpac also had its own dodgy
practices. Similar to the other banks, the commissions attached to Westpac
employees’ approval of car loans has caused issues of inappropriate loans being
made. It has also been found that the bank increased credit card limits without
checking customer’s current employment status.
Systemic
change required in the banking industry
It is clear that there is a lack of accountability mechanisms and
internal controls to manage potential conflicts of interest and the
detection of fraud within banks. Commission based incentive programs have
resulted in the approval of inappropriate loans and fraudulent conduct.
Customers are falling victim to greedy banks with higher interest rates and the
misuse of their personal information. It is only now that the banks have been
caught out that they are apologetic and pledging to change their practices. It
is unacceptable that this has been occurring on a consistent basis throughout
all banks, and requires a systemic
change to be made in the banking industry.
The findings during the Banking Royal
Commission’s first hearing indicate two key things. Firstly, commissions and
employee incentives are a key contributor to misconduct. This needs to be
regulated in some way. Customers should enquire about commissions and any
associated fees before purchasing any banking services. Secondly, the industry
regulator ASIC needs to implement proactive measures to monitor the
practices of financial institutions. Many of the reported cases of misconduct
were only made aware to the regulator years after, or even swept completely
under the rug. They need to be prevented from occurring in the first place.
While this from the Australian Transactions Reports & Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) CEO Nicole Rose via
ABC
News on 5 April 2018 would have been as welcome as seven day old fish heads in the prime ministerial letter box:
Australia's
financial intelligence czar Nicole Rose says she is shocked at the depth of
money laundering in the economy involving organised crime, child exploitation
and drug importation.
"I
thought coming from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission that I had
a pretty good handle on serious and organised crime," she told the ABC's
AM program.
"I
didn't appreciate the depth and breadth of involvement with private entities
and banks. I didn't appreciate how many industries it does actually touch.
"There's
a misperception that money laundering is a victimless white collar crime that's
probably just looking at tax avoidance.
"It
has a massive impact on everyday life whether that's child exploitation,
serious and organised crime or drug importation. It all involves money
laundering." [my yellow highlighting]
In December 2017 AUSTRAC filed a further 100 alleged contraventions against the Commonwealth Bank amending the statement of claim in the current civil penalty proceedings:
In December 2017 AUSTRAC filed a further 100 alleged contraventions against the Commonwealth Bank amending the statement of claim in the current civil penalty proceedings:
AUSTRAC CEO, Nicole Rose
PSM, said that the additional alleged contraventions were identified after the
civil penalty proceedings were instituted through AUSTRAC’s ongoing
investigation into CBA.
‘These allegations are
very serious and reflect systemic non-compliance over approximately six years’,
Ms Rose said.
AUSTRAC now alleges over
53,800 contraventions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism
Financing Act 2006.
Financial
Review, 9
April 2018:
The financial
intelligence regulator AUSTRAC has stolen the spotlight from Commonwealth Bank
CEO Matt Comyn on his first day in the top job with allegations that the bank
broke the law by knowingly opening transaction accounts for customers it had
reasons to suspect of money laundering.
Among the transactions
AUSTRAC says the bank ought to have known, or at least suspected, were not
legitimate was $250,000 deposited by an Iranian salesman and a second unemployed
customer and a $150,000 deposit made through a Russian Bank from company
located in a known tax haven.
AUSTRAC's reply
yesterday to CBA's defence of the money laundering allegations made it
difficult for Mr Comyn to clear the air as he promised the
bank would be more accountable and more transparent under his leadership…..
"We have been too
slow to fix mistakes and we have failed to meet some important regulatory and
compliance obligations. This is unacceptable," Mr Comyn said in a
reference to the bank's fraught dealings with regulators including AUSTRAC,
ASIC and APRA.
By late morning,
however, AUSTRAC's new claims showed that the two parties were some way from
settling the issue the bank has set
aside $375 million to resolve, which relates to the regulator's claims it
has repeatedly breached transaction reporting requirements.
"CommBank suspected
on reasonable grounds that the opening of CommBank Accounts 78,79, 81, 82 and
84 were 'specifically generated for the purpose of laundering money',"
AUSTRAC said yesterday.
"Commbank's failure
to give the AUSTRAC CEO an SMR (suspicious matter report) in respect of its
suspicion ... constitutes a contravention of Section 41 (2) of the Act."
Labels:
banks and bankers,
royal commission
So many Newspoll losses mean democratic processes at risk as Turnbull Government strives to claw back political ground
“The Coalition now trails Labor by 47.5 per cent to
52.5 per cent in two-party terms across the four polls. This reflects a 48:52
result from Fairfax/Ipsos, the same from Newspoll, the same from Essential and
a 46:54 result from ReachTel on March 29.” [The
Sydney Morning Herald, 9 April 2016]
From
May 2014 to September 2015 the Abbott
Coalition Government experienced 30 consecutive negative Newspoll federal voting intentions
opinion polls*.
After
the sacking of Tony Abbott by his party and the installation of Malcolm
Turnbull as prime minister the Turnbull Coalition
Government saw 12 positive Newspolls before this second rendition
of a Coalition federal government itself experienced 30 consecutive negative
Newspolls from 12 September 2016 to 9 April 2018.
This
polling history indicates that the Liberal-National federal government is
likely to have only had the national electorate’s approval for around ten of
the last thirty-seven calendar months.
According
to the Australian Electoral Commission;
As
House of Representatives and half-Senate elections are usually held
simultaneously, the earliest date for such an election would be Saturday 4
August 2018. As the latest possible date for a half-Senate election is Saturday
18 May 2019, the latest possible date for a simultaneous (half-Senate and House
of Representatives) election is also Saturday 18 May 2019.
Given
that (i) between them the Abbott and
Turnbull governments have
experienced experienced only 12 positive
polls in the last 68 Newspolls; and (ii)
the Liberal Party has already admitted that during its successful March 2018 South Australian
election it had utilised
the services of one of the known “bad actors” on the international election campaign
consultancy scene, the US-based data miner i360;
it is highly likely that “bad actors” will be employed once more and over the
next four to thirteen months voters will be subjected to a barrage of
misinformation, bald lies, vicious rumour and false promises from both
Coalition politicians and their supporters in mainstream and social media.
Voters will have to fact check what they hear and read as never before.
Voters will have to fact check what they hear and read as never before.
* A
federal voting intentions Newspoll is
considered negative for one or other of the two main political parties based on two party preferred percentage results.
Newspolls surveys normally occur every two to three weeks outside of election campaign periods when they are likely to occur more often.
Newspoll results can be found at https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/newspoll.
Newspolls surveys normally occur every two to three weeks outside of election campaign periods when they are likely to occur more often.
Newspoll results can be found at https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/newspoll.
Monday 9 April 2018
Donald Trump's callous disregard for the reality of this situation knows no bounds
Trump Tower is a 58 story building containing a
mix of residential apartments, business premises, retail stores and restaurants
in mid-town Manhattan, New York.
The
thirty-four year old building has been the site of two fires this year.
An
electrical fire in the air conditioning-heating system in January 2018 which injured
three people and a 50th floor blaze at approx. 5.30pm on 7 April 2018
which killed one person and injured at least four others.
None of the 238
apartments on the 38 residential floors below the three-story Trump
penthouse have sprinkler systems installed.
….firefighters
and Secret Service members checked on the condition of Mr Trump's apartment on
the top floors of the 58-storey building.
TrumpTower residents were not advised there was a fire in the building. With the exception of one celebrity resident who was contacted by President Trump's personal attorney and told to leave the building immediately for their own safety.
TrumpTower residents were not advised there was a fire in the building. With the exception of one celebrity resident who was contacted by President Trump's personal attorney and told to leave the building immediately for their own safety.
By the time that tweet was sent the man who died in the fire had been dead at least tweve hours.
Labels:
#TrumpFAIL,
Donald Trump
Trump called out for untrue personal attack
Fox News pointed out in polite terms that US President Donald J. Trump is telling wall-to-wall lies in his personal attack on the founder of Amazon (an American electronic commerce and cloud computing corporation) and owner of The Washingtom Post, multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos.
It also linked this attack to newspaper's reporting of the the DOJ-FBI investigation into alleged links between the the Trump presidential campaign and Russia's interferrence in the 2016 US national elections.
Perhaps Trump should cast his mind back to the last American president that tried to silence The Washington Post - in that case for it's reporting of the Watergate political scandal.
He might also care to recall that Bezos (the world's 'richest' man in 2018) only holds est. 16 per cent of Amazon shares - there are another 2,447 shareholders of record and est. 60.53 per cent of the share pool is owned by institutional investors, who as representatives of a host of beneficial shareholders won't be happy with Trump's crude attempt to force Amazon share value down.
Land degradation will be main cause of species loss & driver of the migration of millions of people by 2050
IPBES:
Science and Policy for People and nature, media
release, 26 March 2018:
Worsening Worldwide Land
Degradation Now ‘Critical’, Undermining Well-Being of 3.2 Billion People
Main cause of species loss & driver of the migration of millions of people by 2050 In landmark 3-year assessment report, 100+ experts outline costs, dangers & options
Worsening land degradation caused by
human activities is undermining the well-being of two fifths of humanity,
driving species extinctions and intensifying climate change. It is also a major
contributor to mass human migration and increased conflict, according to the
world’s first comprehensive evidence-based assessment of land degradation and
restoration.
The dangers of land degradation, which
cost the equivalent of about 10% of the world’s annual gross product in 2010
through the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, are detailed for
policymakers, together with a catalogue of corrective options, in the
three-year assessment report by more than 100 leading experts from 45
countries, launched today.
Produced by the Intergovernmental
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the
report was approved at the 6th session of the IPBES Plenary in Medellín,
Colombia. IPBES has 129 State Members.
Providing the best-available evidence
for policymakers to make better-informed decisions, the report draws on more
than 3,000 scientific, Government, indigenous and local knowledge sources.
Extensively peer-reviewed, it was improved by more than 7,300 comments,
received from over 200 external reviewers.
Serious Danger to Human
Well-being
Rapid expansion and unsustainable
management of croplands and grazing lands is the most extensive global direct
driver of land degradation, causing significant loss of biodiversity and
ecosystem services – food security, water purification, the provision of energy
and other contributions of nature essential to people. This has reached
‘critical’ levels in many parts of the world, the report says.
“With negative impacts on the
well-being of at least 3.2 billion people, the degradation of the Earth’s land
surface through human activities is pushing the planet towards a sixth mass
species extinction,” said Prof. Robert Scholes (South Africa), co-chair of the
assessment with Dr. Luca Montanarella (Italy). “Avoiding, reducing and
reversing this problem, and restoring degraded land, is an urgent priority to
protect the biodiversity and ecosystem services vital to all life on Earth and
to ensure human well-being.”
“Wetlands have been particularly hard
hit,” said Dr. Montanarella. “We have seen losses of 87% in wetland areas since
the start of the modern era – with 54% lost since 1900.”
According to the authors, land
degradation manifests in many ways: land abandonment, declining populations of
wild species, loss of soil and soil health, rangelands and fresh water, as well
as deforestation.
Underlying drivers of land
degradation, says the report, are the high-consumption lifestyles in the most
developed economies, combined with rising consumption in developing and
emerging economies. High and rising per capita consumption, amplified by
continued population growth in many parts of the world, can drive unsustainable
levels of agricultural expansion, natural resource and mineral extraction, and
urbanization – typically leading to greater levels of land degradation.
By 2014, more than 1.5 billion
hectares of natural ecosystems had been converted to croplands. Less than 25%
of the Earth’s land surface has escaped substantial impacts of human activity –
and by 2050, the IPBES experts estimate this will have fallen to less than 10%.
Crop and grazing lands now cover more
than one third of the Earth´s land surface, with recent clearance of native
habitats, including forests, grasslands and wetlands, being concentrated in
some of the most species-rich ecosystems on the planet.
The report says increasing demand for
food and biofuels will likely lead to continued increase in nutrient and
chemical inputs and a shift towards industrialized livestock production
systems, with pesticide and fertilizer use expected to double by 2050.
Avoidance of further agricultural
expansion into native habitats can be achieved through yield increases on the
existing farmlands, shifts towards less land degrading diets, such as those
with more plant-based foods and less animal protein from unsustainable sources,
and reductions in food loss and waste.
Strong Links to Climate
Change
“Through this report, the global
community of experts has delivered a frank and urgent warning, with clear
options to address dire environmental damage,” said Sir Robert Watson, Chair of
IPBES.
“Land degradation, biodiversity loss
and climate change are three different faces of the same central challenge: the
increasingly dangerous impact of our choices on the health of our natural
environment. We cannot afford to tackle any one of these three threats in
isolation – they each deserve the highest policy priority and must be addressed
together.”
The IPBES report finds that land
degradation is a major contributor to climate change, with deforestation alone
contributing about 10% of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. Another
major driver of the changing climate has been the release of carbon previously
stored in the soil, with land degradation between 2000 and 2009 responsible for
annual global emissions of up to 4.4 billion tonnes of CO2.
Given the importance of soil’s carbon
absorption and storage functions, the avoidance, reduction and reversal of land
degradation could provide more than a third of the most cost-effective
greenhouse gas mitigation activities needed by 2030 to keep global warming
under the 2°C threshold targeted in the Paris Agreement on climate change,
increase food and water security, and contribute to the avoidance of conflict
and migration.
Projections to 2050
“In just over three decades from now,
an estimated 4 billion people will live in drylands,” said Prof. Scholes. “By
then it is likely that land degradation, together with the closely related
problems of climate change, will have forced 50-700 million people to migrate.
Decreasing land productivity also makes societies more vulnerable to social
instability – particularly in dryland areas, where years with extremely low
rainfall have been associated with an increase of up to 45% in violent
conflict.”
Dr. Montanarella added: “By 2050, the
combination of land degradation and climate change is predicted to reduce
global crop yields by an average of 10%, and by up to 50% in some regions. In
the future, most degradation will occur in Central and South America,
sub-Saharan Africa and Asia – the areas with the most land still remaining that
is suitable for agriculture.”
The report also underlines the
challenges that land degradation poses, and the importance of restoration, for
key international development objectives, including the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. “The greatest
value of the assessment is the evidence that it provides to decision makers in
Government, business, academia and even at the level of local communities,”
said Dr. Anne Larigauderie, Executive Secretary of IPBES. “With better
information, backed by the consensus of the world’s leading experts, we can all
make better choices for more effective action.”
Options for Land
Restoration
The report notes that successful
examples of land restoration are found in every ecosystem, and that many
well-tested practices and techniques, both traditional and modern, can avoid or
reverse degradation.
In croplands, for instance, some of
these include reducing soil loss and improving soil health, the use of salt
tolerant crops, conservation agriculture and integrated crop, livestock and
forestry systems.
In rangelands with traditional
grazing, maintenance of appropriate fire regimes, and the reinstatement or
development of local livestock management practices and institutions have
proven effective.
Successful responses in wetlands have
included control over pollution sources, managing the wetlands as part of the
landscape, and reflooding wetlands damaged by draining.
In urban areas, urban spatial
planning, replanting with native species, the development of ‘green
infrastructure’ such as parks and riverways, remediation of contaminated and
sealed soils (e.g. under asphalt), wastewater treatment and river channel restoration
are identified as key options for action.
Opportunities to accelerate action
identified in the report include:
Improving monitoring, verification
systems and baseline data;
Coordinating policy between different
ministries to simultaneously encourage more sustainable production and
consumption practices of land-based commodities;
Eliminating ‘perverse incentives’ that
promote land degradation and promoting positive incentives that reward
sustainable land management; and
Integrating the agricultural,
forestry, energy, water, infrastructure and service agendas.
Making the point that existing
multilateral environmental agreements provide a good platform for action to
avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation and promote restoration, the authors
observe, however, that greater commitment and more effective cooperation is
needed at the national and local levels to achieve the goals of zero net land
degradation, no loss of biodiversity and improved human well-being.
Knowledge Gaps
Among the areas identified by the
report as opportunities for further research are:
The consequences of land degradation
on freshwater and coastal ecosystems, physical and mental health and spiritual
well-being, and infectious disease prevalence and transmission;
The potential for land degradation to
exacerbate climate change, and land restoration to help both mitigation and
adaptation;
The linkages between land degradation
and restoration and social, economic and political processes in far-off places;
and
Interactions among land degradation,
poverty, climate change, and the risk of conflict and of involuntary migration.
Environmental and
Economic Sense
The report found that higher
employment and other benefits of land restoration often exceed by far the costs
involved. On average, the benefits of restoration are 10 times higher
than the costs (estimated across nine different biomes), and, for regions like
Asia and Africa, the cost of inaction in the face of land degradation is at
least three times higher than the cost of action.
“Fully deploying the toolbox of proven
ways to stop and reverse land degradation is not only vital to ensure food
security, reduce climate change and protect biodiversity,” said Dr.
Montanarella, “It’s also economically prudent and increasingly urgent.”
Echoing this message, Sir Robert
Watson, said: “Of the many valuable messages in the report, this ranks among
the most important: implementing the right actions to combat land degradation
can transform the lives of millions of people across the planet, but this will
become more difficult and more costly the longer we take to act.”
Unedited
advance Summary for Policymakers of the regional assessment of biodiversity and
ecosystem services for Asia and the Pacific
EN
PDF
EN
Word
Unedited
advance Summary for Policymakers of the thematic assessment of land degradation
and restoration
EN
PDF
EN
Word
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