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 WattsU.S. Interior Department employee and climate science denier Indur Goklany, Perth philanthropist and IPA funder Bryant Macfie and author and political scientist Don AitkenThe 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.

O’Brien Solicitors, blog post, 5 April 2018:

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:

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."

The five accounts formed part of a group of seven that had $1.7 million deposited in them over four years. Among those to open and make deposits in some of those accounts were money launderers known as Person 66 and Person 67.

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.

* 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.

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.

None of the 238 apartments on the 38 residential floors below the three-story Trump penthouse have sprinkler systems installed.


On 8 April 2018 US President Donald Trump tweeted this ……




By the time that tweet was sent the man who died in the fire had been dead at least tweve hours.

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.”

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See:

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