Thursday 15 February 2018
Gas industry finally admits that its lobbying spin contains untruths?
Tucked into the wall-to-wall spin of this media release is a tacit admission that safe aquifer recharge with treated water is little more than a convenient deception offered up to governments and citizens in the gas industry's drive to create more gasfields and extract more water from the natural environment in the mining process.
Gasfields Commission Queensland, 12 December 2017:
Research into the effects of the Coal Seam Gas industry on groundwater is continuously improving our understanding about underground water movements and implications for coal seam development.
Scientists from Queensland's independent Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment (OGIA) and the University of Queensland Centre for Coal Seam Gas have been wading through an enormous amount of data being contributed by landholders, government, industry and other research projects to build up a better understanding of groundwater movements.
Early studies suggest that the recharge of underground aquifers may not be as effective as once thought and recharge flow paths may not be what we first thought.
Research indicates that much of the rain recharging the Hutton and Precipice Sandstone aquifers in the North-East Surat Basin is discharging into the local low topography of the Dawson River.
That means the water is flowing in a north easterly direction, rather than to the south west into the regional Great Artesian Basin as was thought prior to 2009.
These findings were applied by OGIA in the development of regional groundwater flow models in 2012 and 2016 but many landholders remain unaware of the new findings.
It's also thought there could be small faults that create a localised connection between the Precipice and Hutton Aquifers in the vicinity of what is known as the Moonie-Goondiwindi fault system.
Researchers stress that this is still a work in progress and it is currently being reviewed by UQ and CSIRO researchers working independently on multiple data sets to either confirm or refute the hypothesis.
Lead researcher at the UQ Centre for Coal Seam Gas, Prof Jim Underschultz says, "Our understanding of the Great Artesian Basin is increasing as researchers analyse the growing amount of data collected from the basin.
"The use of groundwater monitoring data, water production figures, detailed geographic distributions of water levels and hydrocarbon migration 'fingerprints' are giving us a level of detail never seen before".
The UQ researchers are collaborating closely with CSIRO, OGIA and the CSG Compliance Unit to ensure that research findings are made publicly available as quickly as possible.
Jim's research publications can be found at: http://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/8868
Labels:
Coal Seam Gas Mining,
sustainability,
water
Wednesday 14 February 2018
Is Turnbull laying the groundwork to throw Joyce under a bus if it becomes neccessary?
A very careful choice of words on the part of the Prime Minister leaves the door open to walk back support of his Deputy Prime Minister if Joyce is found to be telling the Australian Parliament untruths.
House of Representatives Hansard, excerpts, 13 February 2018:
Mr TURNBULL
(Wentworth—Prime Minister) (14:25): The honourable member refers to some
statements attributed to a spokesman of mine yesterday. Those statements, I'm
advised, followed a background discussion. They were not authorised by me, but I will answer
the question. As the Deputy Prime Minister confirmed in his statement of
Saturday, 10 February, and again in his statement this morning, The Nationals
are responsible for decisions relating to staffing the office of Nationals
members. He confirmed that the Prime Minister's office has an administrative
role in informing the Department of Finance of changes. All ministers are bound
by the ministerial standards.
All ministers are bound
by the ministerial standards. The Deputy Prime Minister has today explained his
circumstances as it relates to the standards, and I refer you to that
statement. I would add that whether somebody is a partner of another for the
purposes of clause 2.23 is, of course, a question of fact. The facts of the relationship
which you're referring to are, of course, known to the Deputy Prime Minister.
It is his responsibility to address it and comply with the standards, and he
addressed that in his statement today. [my yellow highlighting]
Shock, Horror! A Liberal minister finally makes a stab at lessening gouging by payday lending and rent-as-you-buy companies and Liberal MPs have a conniption
According to the
Australian Treasury:
“On 28 November 2016 the Government released its response to the Review of the Small Amount Credit Contract laws.The Draft Bill implements the Government’s response to the Review.”
According to
the Australian Securities &
Investments Commission (ASIC) this bill has merit.
ASIC submission to government, November 2017:
2. We support the
financial inclusion objectives of the Exposure
Draft of the National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Small Amount Credit
Contract and Consumer Lease Reforms) Bill 2017 (the Bill). The consumer
harms that can be associated with payday loans and consumer leases are a
longstanding and systemic feature of these sectors and often fall on
financially vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers. We consider that the Bill
will provide an effective suite of protections commensurable to the risk of
harm to consumers from these products, balanced against the need to ensure that
the industry can remain viable.
3 In particular, we
support the level of the cap on costs for consumer leases proposed in the Bill.
We expect a cap set at this level will address the excessive costs some lessors
charge consumers, while still allowing a viable and sustainable consumer lease
sector.
4 We also support the
introduction of the Bill’s comprehensive anti-avoidance regime, which will
benefit both consumers and compliant businesses. These measures will be
essential to address the increased risk of avoidance activity following the
introduction of the reforms.
Yet this is the response from Liberal Party backbenchers.........
IRATE backbenchers have
revolted over Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer’s tough payday lending draft
laws and have successfully enlisted Treasurer Scott Morrison to reverse
Cabinet’s support of the Bill.
As the Turnbull
Government desperately searches for a circuit breaker from Barnaby Joyce’s sex
scandal, frustrations have spilt over against Ms O’Dwyer’s original handling of
new laws targeting payday lenders and rent-to-buy businesses, with backbenchers
complaining to the Prime Minister.
A bloc of about 20
backbenchers, including several in Queensland, are warning Ms O’Dwyer’s reforms
will send some businesses broke and are an affront to Liberal values.
In a move that will be
pilloried by consumer groups angry over rent-to-buy lenders charging up to 800
per cent interest, a group of MPs, labelled by some in the Government as the
“Parliamentary Friends of Payday Lenders” – a title that is angering the bloc –
has convinced Mr Morrison to retreat on parts of the draft laws.
It would be an
embarrassing move for Cabinet, which ticked off on the reforms last year.
Labels:
debt,
Finance,
legislation,
lending,
Liberal Party of Australia
Climate change sceptics started the ball rolling again in 2018
It would appear that climate change denial remains alive and well, but with the same hearing and comprehension problems it acquired at birth.........
The Daily Examiner and Townsville Bulletin, 10 January 2018:
In today’s crazy world,
western politicians are wasting billions of taxpayer dollars force-feeding
costly unreliable green energy in the bizarre belief this will somehow change
Earth’s climate.
Even more incredible,
they fear global warmth and seem hellbent on creating global cooling. They
should study climate history. It is snow and ice, cold dry air and carbon
dioxide starvation we need to fear, not a warm, moist, fertile, bountiful
atmosphere.
Climate change is
natural and unstoppable. Just 20,000 years ago, Earth was in one of its
recurring glacial phases.
A thick massive ice
sheet smothered Canada, Alaska, Iceland, Greenland, North Asia and Europe as
far south as present-day London.
Much of the animal and
plant life of the previous warm era was extinguished. Even in warmer lands not
covered by the ice sheet, plants suffered as the cold oceans removed moisture
and carbon dioxide plant food from the atmosphere.
Then, because of
changing cycles in Earth’s orbit and tilt, reinforced by changing solar cycles,
the sun warmed the frozen lands.
The great ice sheets
melted, sea levels rose and the warming oceans expelled moisture and CO2 plant
food into the atmosphere. Plant life recovered.
Tundra, forests,
grasslands and herbivores advanced towards the pole and fish became abundant in
the shallow seas that flooded coastal plains. Hunters, herders, farmers and
fishermen followed the food.
Human population
increased greatly. They gave thanks for the warmth, and worshipped the sun. But
the peak of the modern warm era is past, and the natural cycles controlling
global temperatures are pointing downwards.
Only an idiot with a
death wish for life on Earth would attempt to accelerate our inevitable descent
into the next ice age.
Luckily, their costly
war on warmth is totally futile, but their war on carbon energy will prove
tragically misguided in the cold times ahead.
VIV FORBES, Washpool,
Qld
NOTE: According
to DeSmog, “Viv Forbes is the
Chairman of the Carbon
Sense Coalition, which was created to “defend the role of carbon on earth
and in the atmosphere,” and which describes Forbes as a “pasture manager, soil
scientist and geologist from Rosevale in Queensland.” [2]
Forbes
has also had a long association with the coal industry. According to his biography at Stanmore Coal where he acts as
director, Forbes has over 40 years of coal industry experience and has worked
with Burton Coal, Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal, South Blackwater Coal Mine,
Tahmoor Coal Mine, Newlands/Collinsville Coal Mines, MIM, Utah
Goonyella/Saraji and Gold Fields.
He is
also associated with other skeptical organizations including the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) and
the Australian Climate Science Coalition (ACSC).
According
to Forbes, the “Green Elite” has a “long-term agenda … to destroy human industry
and reduce human population. Thus they are opposed to farming, mining, fishing,
forestry, exploration and cheap power.” [3]”
The Daily Examiner, 17 January 2018, p10:
Sceptic miscue
Savvy DEX readers
certainly realise that sceptic science/climate denial mumbo jumbo has its
origins in the ultra conservative religious right of the US political
landscape.
Coincidentally but sadly
for the rest of the world, many in the Trump administration are of this ilk.
Dedicated sceptic and
Rosevale, Qld resident Viv Forbes has once again (DEX Jan 10)
produced a pitch- perfect melody from the sceptic songbook.
As Viv points out,
naturally occurring climate change takes place over thousands of years.
On the other hand,
global warming is measurable over decades, is a direct result of human activity
over the last century in particular and so is everything but natural.
Moreover, Viv is warning
us of an impending frozen armageddan (in sceptic speak that should read
OhMyGodden!)
I hope Viv appreciates
that in the very same week as he made this dire forecast, the BOM has confirmed
that 2017 was the warmest year on record for NSW and SE Queensland – timing is
everything Viv.
The world may well cool
in 25000 years or so, but world leaders rightly are more concerned with the
immediate effects of global warming over the next few decades.
Nevertheless, we should
probably remain grateful that Viv actually gets his name correct because
everything else in his letter is nothing more than irrelevant nonsense.
Ted Strong, Seelands
The Daily Examiner, 27 January 2018, p15:
Tampered temperatures
TED Strong (17/1)
commented: “As Viv Forbes points out, naturally occurring climate change takes
place over thousands of years. On the other hand, global warming is measurable
over decades, is a direct result of human activity over the last century in
particular and so is everything but natural.”
Actually Viv said:
“Climate change is natural and unstoppable.” He did not mention time, although
the changes often occur rapidly.
During the Pleistocene
Epoch, there have been many ice ages. The latest, which covered large portions
of the northern hemisphere with mile-high ice, peaked 21,000 years ago and was
gone by 11,700 years ago.
Since then there was the
little Ice Age between 1400AD and 1850AD and a number of warm periods, which
included two Holocene Optimums, the Roman Optimum from 250BC to 400AD, and the
Medieval Warm Period from 800 to 1400. These four were as warm as, or warmer
than, the Modern Warm Period, commencing around 1850.
So Ted could you explain
what caused the previous warming periods, because they definitely weren’t
“unnatural”?
But we keep being told
that our current temperatures are the “hottest ever recorded”. So how do NOAA,
NASA and the BOMs define “ever recorded”?
Our BOM stated: “…2017
was the third-warmest year on record, at 0.95 degrees above the 1961 to 1990
average” and that “Seven of the 10 hottest years, have occurred after 2005”.
Years ago the BOM
decided temperatures taken before 1911 were “incorrect” and would no longer be
taken into account. Obviously the 1890s temperatures were too high to explain.
But that left the 1939
era, which is still regarded as being the hottest since 1900. To overcome that
pesky problem they established a baseline temperature using a 30-year average
between 1961 and 1990.
This was a great choice
because it included the chilly 1970s, when the world panicked that an ice-age
was coming.
So our BOM, with a
straight face, tells us that the “warmest on record” years have actually been
selected from the last 28 years, and the 0.95 degree increase is based on the
chilly 1961-1990 average.
So although the BOM
openly says what period its figures are based on, it knows that the gullibles,
and (unfortunately) the media, will submissively accept their fallacious
statements as being from time immemorial.
JOHN IBBOTSON,
Gulmarrad
The Daily Examiner, 31 January 2018, p11:
Climate warriors rattle
cages
The war of words between
the two climate change adversaries, one upriver and his opponent from down
river, has reached a point where one party has delved into his “unseemly” bag
to crudely criticise and try to belittle his opponent.
John Ibbotson can make
his case with facts and figures garnered from research by Scientists that are
not locked into the one eyed ideology that has evolved from the suspect science
of climate change computer modelling.
Of course the Bureau of
Meteorology can make mistakes, and has freely admitted to errors in the past,
while Tim Flannery is an example of just how far off the planet these fear
mongering so called gurus can get.
The scandal involving
climate change scientists in the British Met in East Anglia will not go away
nor will the fact that in the early 1990s temperature readings used to falsify
average ground temperature data came from thousands of sites situated close by
or near to, major heat sources such as American airports and bustling highways.
John Ibbotson makes his
case in a calm and methodical way, Ted Strong just doesn’t like his precious
cage being rattled.
FRED PERRING, Halfway
Creek.
The Daily Examiner, 3 February 2018, p13:
Climate desperation
Blimey, things must be
getting desperate in the John Ibbotson climate sceptic camp. He now
has to rely on Fred Perring (DEX 31/1) for his great science knowledge.
PAUL STEPHEN, Yamba
The Daily Examiner, 7 February 2018, p11:
Wrong horse, wrong track
When compulsive scribe
Fred Perring submits his favourites – ie maligning left-wing pollies or bashing
the ABC – he does OK because the only requirements are bias, bluster and
righteous indignation which Fred does in spades, while fact and logic seem to
be of little consequence.
But when Fred comes out
swinging, (DEX 31/1) in support of downriver sceptic, John Ibbotson, fact and
logic become vital and so Fred flounders. Not only is he backing the wrong
horse he is not even at, or on the right track.
The tiresome “facts” he
trots out are Fred repeats, straight from the sceptic science hymn book and
still unsupportable.
Even Fred’s well-known
visually impaired namesake would by now have recognised that, particularly in
the past decade, global warming is no less than the bleeding obvious.
Advice for Fred is the
same as for John – stay away from sceptic websites and stick to the things you
do best. Also thanks for the “heads-up” re my cage – I’ve checked it out and it
appears quite solid if not completely foolproof.
TED STRONG, Seelands.
Labels:
climate change,
climate change denialists,
science
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