The War On Science - an update

The Australian Press Council published thirty-eight adjudication notices on a variety of issues in 2010 and is off to a good start in 2011 with five listed so far this year. However, complaints about inaccurate or misleading reporting on the subject of climate change appear to be thin on the ground.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority received hundreds of complaints in the 2009-10 financial year - none of which appear to have involved radio presenters speaking about climate change.

Last Tuesday Simon Sheikh for the GetUp! team sent out an email which stated in part that this organisation had; Put the shock jocks on notice with formal complaints about their misinformation.

Hopefully he will succeed and hopefully he will also consider objecting to some of the more outrageous claims made in the print medium. Particularly those claims published by The Australian newspaper, often referred to on Tim Lambert’s Deltoid blog as The Australian’s War On Science.

Scientists don't solely rely on computer modelling when it comes to climate change

Investigations into Anthropomorphic Global Warming are not confined to computer modelling conducted in the safety of laboratories or offices - scientific teams often experience uncomfortable extremes in their search for reliable data.
A fact which is sometimes lost in the noise created by climate change denialists.


The terrain for the scientific work conducted by ICESCAPE scientists on July 4, 2010, was Arctic sea ice and melt ponds in the Chukchi Sea. The five-week field mission was dedicated to sampling the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the ocean and sea ice. Impacts of Climate change on the Eco-Systems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment, or ICESCPE Mission, is a multi-year NASA shipborne project. The bulk of the research will take place in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas in summer of 2010 and fall of 2011.

Image Credit: NASA/Kathryn Hansen

So who is homeless in Oz? Will we ever find out?

As part of preparations for the August 2011 Census of Population and Housing, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is revisiting how it estimates the number of homeless people across the nation. It was fascinating to find that here in Oz we actually have a minimum community standard as to what constitutes a home of your own - a small rental flat with a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom and an element of security of tenure.
Don’t have that or something very like and you don’t have a permanent home it seems.
Regardless of this definition, apparently our statisticians are running through a bit of a longstanding maze when it comes to calculating homelessness.
Undercounting and over counting are just as likely across different groups and it was no surprise to find that rural and regional areas were more of an accuracy challenge than cities and suburbs.
In 2006 there were 173,000 people in homeless services accommodation on census night and several thousand sleeping rough, but nobody really knows exactly how many don’t have a roof over their heads. Probably because rough sleepers often need to hide where they kip outdoors for the night to keep safe and indoor couch surfers don’t always like to admit how precarious is their situation.
Anyways ABS is trying to do something about the head count problem and is holding consultation nights at these venues in April and May.
I wish them luck but I’m not holding my breath when it comes to a head count of the homeless in the Northern Rivers - so many places to hide if you don't want to be noticed.

Wild About Wooli Art Show 22-23 April 2011

The Art Show kicks off at the Wooli Hotel Motel with the Opening Night Cocktail Party at 7pm on Friday 22nd April, and continues during Saturday 23rd April.

A craft market in conjunction with the exhibition will be held on April 23 from 7am-12pm.

Proceeds from the ArtShow 2011 will support the efforts of the Coastal Communities Protection Alliance-Wooli (CCPA)

Enquiries: gayeshield@hotmail.com

Fortescue Metals may be intent on winning the war but it's not covering itself in glory

The tactics used by Fortescue Metals in its patronising, heavy-handed and divisive negotiations with the Yindjibardi people is mirrored by details found in this application to the National Native Title Tribunal on the 15 April 2011 concerning negotiations with the Njamal people and in this 2009 press release

Looks like Andrew Twiggy Forrest is a serial offender. My way or the highway could very well be his personal motto.

* The Sydney Morning Herald photograph of Forrest when he topped the BRW Executive Rich list 2011

The Independent highlights a problem with MSM software

It was a ridiculous story to start with, Kate Middleton jelly bean expected to fetch £500, and some joker thought that royal wedding mania had gone far enough because this URL (censored here to avoid the Filtering Dragon) was inserted on The Independent newspaper’s website:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/utter-PR-fiction-but-people-love-this-shit-so-f*ck-it-lets-just-print-it-2269573.html

Despite its explanation and apology the Indie (like many other online media organisations) can’t get rid of that usurper URL. Every so often the website’s software redirects from the legitimate URL back to the fake. Classic! So I tried to spoof a couple myself and to my surprise it worked - albeit briefly for The Oz URL:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/rupert-murdochs-news-corp-about-to-screw-a-sporting-event-for-fun-1-2270217.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/tony-abbott-confirms-barnaby-joyces-low-iq-problem/story-fn3dxity-1226042203332

Houston, the MSM has a problem. J

Weighing up the poll-driven media

Sometimes it is hard to decide whether media reporting driven by opinion polls represents solid fact or ephemeral fancy………

On 18 April 2011 The Age published an article based on the results of Nielsen survey from 14-16 April 2011 based on 1,400 respondents:

a carbon price has become steadily more unpopular

On the same day The New Zealand Herald told the world that:

Prime Minister Julia Gillard's fragile minority Government continues to sink in the polls as Australians increasingly turn against her proposed carbon tax.

While ABC Radio AM online echoed these reports with:

Criticism of Julia Gillard's carbon tax has broadened, with the latest Sydney Morning Herald/Age AC Nielsen poll showing that opposition to a price on carbon has jumped three points to 59 per cent…..

Based on the same Nielsen poll used by the mainstream media, Crikey opined:

opposition has mounted

Then the BusinessGreen news site on 18 April decided to muddy waters by mentioning a second survey taken in March 2011:

The Australian government's flagship plans for a new carbon tax and emissions trading scheme are facing growing opposition, according to two new polls suggesting that public and business support for the proposals is wavering. A survey of 1,400 people commissioned by Fairfax newspapers and published earlier today found that 59 per cent of respondents opposed the government's proposals, up three points on the last survey in March. Another Essential Media poll of just over 1,000 people carried out late last month reported that 51 per cent of respondents opposed the plan while only 34 per cent supported it.

However on the very same day all of the above articles were published, Essential Research released results of an online survey from 13-17 April 2011 based on 1,002 respondents showing another way of gauging support:

With compensation for low and middle income earners and small businesses, support for the Government’s carbon pricing scheme increased to 51% and opposition dropped to 33%. This is a slight fall in support since this question was last asked in mid-March.

With compensation, support among Labor voters increases 15% to 78% and for Liberal/National voters increases 13% to 34%.

Support among men increased from 39% to 47% and for women increases from 38% to 55%.

It will be interesting to see how the media responds to this particular Essential Research survey, given that it runs somewhat counter to the main narrative when compensation for any price rise is factored into the equation. At the time of writing only Crikey had bothered to mention this second survey.

So what does one believe with regard to the Australian electorate’s sentiment concerning placing a price on carbon pollution?

I suspect that, faced with conflicting information, we all believe that the majority agrees with whatever is our own personal position.