WIND FARMS NOT COMPLYING WITH PLANNING & HEALTH LAWS

• It has already been established in several courts and tribunal hearings that wind turbine operation can cause health impacts in some people, it is the degree of those impacts that is not known.  Denial of health impacts on a significant minority segment of the population is no longer credible or acceptable.
• People are abandoning homes adjacent to wind farms.
• A S.A. Supreme Court found wind farms were exceeding permitted noise levels in a case brought several months ago by long-suffering residents.
• The 2011 Senate Inquiry recommendations for medical and acoustical studies have not been implemented despite all stakeholders including the wind industry agreeing there should be studies.
• The Victorian Chief Health Officer has advised cash strapped rural councils they are responsible for wind farm monitoring and compliance after councils sought the Health department’s help following multiple complaints of adverse health impacts.  The Chief Health Officer also refused their request for the department to undertake a Health Impact Assessment to determine the degree of impact from wind turbines.
• Freedom of Information documents show the NSW Health department officials warned ministers there was no evidence of adverse health impacts despite the department not undertaking any health studies to investigate the claims. 

Read more on our campaign to see proper investigation and regulation of the wind industry.

Independent Wind Survey

Please consider completing the survey at this link.

Detailed information about the survey can be found here.

AEF LAUNCHES 'RIVERS NEED ESTUARIES' CAMPAIGN FOR THE MURRAY

December 16th 2011
AEF today launched the ‘Rivers Need Estuaries’ campaign to have the current MDBA draft plan completely revised to prioritise restoring the Murray River estuary.

“There is a real need to restore the health of the Murray’s estuary by returning the artificial man-made freshwater Lower Lakes to a natural estuarine system” said biologist and AEF member Dr Jennifer Marohasy.

“For too long we have tried to prop up this unnatural freshwater system through the system of barrages that have destroyed a once flourishing natural estuary, wasting precious water from the entire Murray Darling basin.

The peer-reviewed scientific literature [1], unlike many recent government reports, recognises that the barrages have destroyed the estuary.”  Read more on the Campaigns page.

WIND FARM SCAM A HUGE COVER-UP

Journalist James Delingpole from the U.K. Telegraph is currently on a speaking tour of Australia and in today's Australian newspaper writes of how inspired he was by an April 21 article by The Australian's environment editor Graham Lloyd, Where Eagles Dare Not Fly.

"It took great courage for Lloyd to write up his expose of the tremendous damage being caused by a wind farm to a small community in Waterloo, north of Adelaide.

"Inspired by Lloyd's article, I went to investigate and was heartbroken by what I found. Until you've seen what it can do to people, it's easy to dismiss wind turbine syndrome as a hypochondriac's charter or an urban myth.

"Even more shocking than this, though, were my discoveries about the finance arrangements and behaviour of the wind farm companies. What we have here, I believe, is the biggest and most outrageous public affairs scandal of the 21st century."

WIND SPIN: BLOWING HOLES IN INDUSTRY'S DENIAL OF HEALTH IMPACTS

Wind farm health impacts evident in many U.S. states.

A video compilation of the personal effects of wind turbines on families in California.

STEWART BRAND: 4 ENVIRONMENTAL HERESIES

The man who helped usher in the environmental movement in the 1960s and '70s has been rethinking his positions on cities, nuclear power, genetic modification and geo-engineering.

While not in complete agreement with some of his conclusions on climate, Stewart Brand is to be applauded for saying "I want to move my fellow environmentalists in the direction of not being ideologically driven, but evidence driven." Hear, hear!

Brand is not the only leading environmentalist to eschew long-held positions in favour of facts and evidence.

MARINE PARK SCALES BACK FISHING

AN unwritten agreement and self-regulation has long governed the commercial arrangements at Osprey Reef, an underwater paradise about 200 nautical miles north of Cairns in the Coral Sea writes Graham Lloyd in The Australian.

But will a marine park in the pristine Coral Sea improve environmental outcomes, or increase fishing pressure on unregulated overseas fisheries?

SALT-TOLERANT WHEAT VARIETY DISCOVERY TO TACKLE FOOD SHORTAGES

Australian scientists have crossed a modern wheat variety with a wild ancestral cousin to produce a high-yielding salt-tolerant plant that will help tackle world food shortages due to soil salinity writes Deborah Smith, science editor with the Sydney Morning Herald.

 BILLIONS BLOWN AWAY ON WIND POWER

Governments are squandering billions of dollars on "uneconomic" wind farms, according to a landmark study that undermines the case for Labor's huge renewable energy subsidies says David Crowe in The Australian.  Matt Ridley writing in The Spectator says it is just as bad in the U.K. but at least the government there is starting to wake up.

RENEWABLES ARE OK...IF THE NUMBERS ADD UP

As this article by Professor Bjorn Lomborg shows, much of the time, no matter how you slice and dice it many renewable energy schemes just don't add up.

"One of the world’s biggest green-energy public-policy experiments is coming to a bitter end in Germany, with important lessons for policymakers elsewhere."

PRIME MINISTER ATTACKS GREEN CAMPAIGNS

The Prime Minister says some environmental groups have waged an irresponsible and inaccurate campaign against the Tasmanian timber company Ta Ann.

Environment minister Tony Burke thinks some environment groups behaviour has been "appalling".

Indeed, some could say many environment groups give the environmental movement a bad name.

CLIMATE MODELS FLAWED SAYS EXPERT

In a paper released today [Feb 2nd], former Australian Greenhouse Office carbon modeller Dr David Evans says the predictions of climate models do not conform to the observed data collected by NASA satellites, radiosondes, and the Argo ocean buoy network.

“We show, in terms understandable by the lay-person, that all the major predictions of the climate models used to determine government policies, such as the carbon tax, are now wrong. The data and the models are now incompatible.” said Dr Evans.  Read the media release.

AEF CALLS ON VIC. HEALTH MINISTER TO ACT

AEF has recently written to the Health Minister David Davis with a series of questions requesting his response to the senate inquiry recommendations for studies into the adverse health impacts of wind farms. The Waubra Foundation is also alarmed at the inaction as complaints continue to arise overseas and from Victorian doctors.

It's not only health issues of concern, others say "despite billions in taxpayer subsidies pumped into the so-called “green-energy” industry, almost 15,000 windmills — maybe more — have been left to rot across America."

ENVIRONMENTAL CREDIBILITY TRASHED FROM WITHIN - AGAIN

Not a grain of truth in sneaky Greenpeace tactics says journalist Malcolm Farr.  A few weeks ago Greenpeace turned its “greenmail” forces on national franchise chain Bakers Delight, telling customers they soon would be eating bread made from genetically modified wheat. 

There was no justification for the claim, and no thorough examination of the merits or otherwise of GM crops.

Meanwhile a paper company is reviewing the future of its $20 million plant in western Sydney after "intimidation" from environmental group Greenpeace cost it major supermarket orders.

MURRAY DARLING PLAN BASED ON MEANINGLESS AVERAGES

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan can’t deliver anything tangible and meaningful for communities, industry or the environment while its water sharing plans are based on averages.

Averages are a meaningless concept in the real world given the highly variable nature of Australian rainfall writes Dr Jennifer Marohasy in an article published in The Land.

PRINCE PHILIP LAMENTS "USELESS" WIND FARMS

In a robust discussion with a director of an energy firm, Prince Philip described wind farms as "absolutely useless" and "a disgrace".  The U.K. Telegraph said the Prince's comments were supported by an increasing number of groups opposed to wind farms.  This opposition to wind farms has spread to Denmark, often held up as the poster boy of success.  The Danish government has banned any further on-shore wind farms because as the size of turbines grow, so do the complaints about noise and health effects.

The hidden costs and the farce of the 'Danish success' with wind energy are exposed in this peer-reviewed study of the false claims of economic and jobs value of wind energy.

Energy companies however, will have more to worry about in Australia than the Prince's strong opposition to the previously unquestioned acceptance of the 'fairy tale' that is wind energy.  

As we head into another summer, one energy company operating in Victoria has been ordered to pay out millions of dollars in damages and another is facing a class action from fires allegedly caused by its assets.

Not wind turbine fires...yet.  But the growing incidence of turbine fires [graphic photos in PowerPoint] in Australia, the inability to extinguish because of the turbine height and the big payouts will concern energy companies and nearby residents alike.

 
Towards a New Environmentalism (open criticism, midcourse correction, and scholarship needed)

AEF has had plenty to say about the lack of integrity and hypocrisy from large sections of the environment movement (see nearly any article below), so we find it interesting and informative to analyse the views of others.  Steve Hayward from the American Enterprise Institute muses over the dissent from within the environment movement.

THE CRUMBLING EDIFICE OF THE IPCC

On Line Opinion published an article by AEF executive director Max Rheese that highlights the systemic flaws and omissions in the IPCC process.

 "The truly frightening thing about Laframboise's book is that it clearly demonstrates the lack of integrity in the scientific report that is the primary foundation of policy decisions by the Australian government on climate change."

NOISE OF WIND FARM OVER THE LIMIT SAYS SUPREME COURT

Residents opposed to Stage 3 of the Hallett Hill wind farm in South Australia have had a win in the Supreme Court.

The case now will go back to the Environment, Resources and Development Court, in light of new evidence showing unacceptable levels of noise from Hallett Hill Stage 2.

WIND FARM SILENCE DEAFENING

The Senate inquiry into wind farms impact on peoples health made multiple recommendations for health studies and research.  Meanwhile rural residents continue to abandon their homes adjacent to wind farms writes Max Rheese.

UPDATE:  People may be supportive of wind farms, but surveys show that 93% wouldn't want to live near one.

GUNN'S PULP MILL APPROVAL 'INEVITABLE' SAYS MAYNE

Business media commentator, Stephen Mayne writing at Crikey says the long planned and debated Bell Bay mill is needed for Tasmania.  Recently, author of Saving Australia's Forests And Its Implications, Mark Poynter lamented the Green's vision pushed onto unwilling locals while other commentators say Tasmania needs to do much more to attract investment, because at the moment, the state relies on Federal Government handouts for almost two thirds of its income.

SHOULD THE TAXPAYER FUND THE GOVT'S "SAY YES" MEN?

It was revealed in senate estimates hearings that $3 million of taxpayer funds were distributed to green groups who "have backed Labor's package to fight off the Opposition's campaign against the policy."

It is certainly a very dubious method of selling poor public policy.

GREAT BARRIER REEF 'RESEARCH' - A LITANY OF FALSE CLAIMS

For ten years the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has been campaigning to ‘Save the Great Barrier Reef’.
The WWF campaign is an example of prejudice against industry and pesticides and also how alarmism is increasingly favoured over evidence resulting in junk science says Dr Jennifer Marohasy.

IT'S TIME TO TELL YOUR MP's - NO CARBON TAX!

BARGAIN BROKEN BY DIFFERING AGENDAS?

Wayne Bergman, former head of the Kimberley Land Council laments changing agendas that threaten indigenous progress in rising from poverty.

SEA WILL SAVE THE MURRAY MOUTH

Later this year the government will release a plan that is supposed to place the Murray-Darling on a sustainable environmental footing, and already $10 billion has been set aside for the plan's implementation. But if the guide released last year gives any indication of what to expect, then it will do nothing to restore that part of the system most affected by agriculture and most in need of saving: the Lower Lakes and Murray mouth, once the Murray River's estuary writes Dr Jennifer Marohasy in The Australian (August 27, 2011).

AN INCONVENIENT FALLACY

Professor Bob Carter writing in The Sydney Morning Herald (26 June 2011) nominates the key issues the government will have to communicate in selling its climate change action plan.  This is all the more important with the latest annual Lowy Institute poll showing only 41% of Australians now support action on climate.

SENATE REPORT ON WIND FARMS CALLS FOR URGENT HEALTH STUDY

The long awaited Senate report on the impacts of rural wind farms was tabled on June 23^rd with clear recommendations for government to undertake medical studies into adverse health effects of wind farms. This followed the release earlier in the week of a Danish study confirming that large modern wind turbines are increasing the amount of low frequency noise at adjoining properties. Both reports vindicated the campaign by AEF and others to address the serious concerns of many people in rural communities over wind farm establishment. See media release and 7.30 Report.

 FREE FLOWING ESTUARY VITAL TO HEALTHY RIVER

I am a Murray-Darling Basin food and fibre producer, and I'm very aware of how much water our operations use. My company, Twynam Agricultural Group, also invests in research and development constantly to improve water-use efficiency so we can produce more food and fibre with less water.

Read full article at The Australian

WIND POLICY FAILURES

The attitude within government and the bureaucracy to wind farm complaints has been characterised succinctly, with adversely affected persons within rural communities explicitly referred to as political “road kill”.

This article by AEF executive director Max Rheese explores some of the issues before the current Senate inquiry into wind farms. 

AEF DEBATES ACF ON MURRAY DARLING WATER

Dr Jennifer Marohasy from AEF debated Dr Arlene Harris-Buchan from the Australian Conservation Foundation in Brisbane recently. 

“The problem for the Murray, for its estuary is not agriculture. It is politics and the barrages. During the prolonged recent drought the South Australian government sacrificed the lakes to make a political point.

Let’s be honest, the Australian Conservation Foundation have clearly chosen to ignore the plight of the Congolli, the Mulloway, and other estuarine species and to campaign against Australian agriculture when they should, especially during the recent drought, have been campaigning for the removal, or at least opening of the barrages.”

BLOWING AWAY MONEY

Wind and alternative energy activists confronted with evidence that clean and green power is little more than a vastly expensive way to not save carbon, may start talking about the jobs to be generated by our adoption of green power in all its forms says journalist Mark Lawson in this article at Quadrant Online.

Also see The reality of wind turbines in California.

MAROHASY SLAMS GREENPEACE ON ANTI-GM CAMPAIGN

Jennifer Marohasy, a respected biologist and Adjunct Research Fellow in the Centre for Plant and Water Science at CQ University, says Greenpeace campaigning on genetically modified crops has successfully and significantly reduced the competitiveness of Australian canola growers and achieved little else.

In this article in The Land newspaper she says the Greenpeace is waging a fear campaign against GM technology and technological innovation.

INQUIRY ON WIND FARMS

A massive flood of submissions have arrived at the Senate committee secretariat in the last few weeks over the divisive issue of wind farms and their impacts on rural communities. The AEF submission can be viewed here. The committee will begin public hearings on March 25^th.

The Australian published this article on the impact of wind farms on Rosemary Quinn of South Australia on March 5^th 2010.

TOPHER’S UNPOPULAR VIEW OF MD BASIN WATER DEBACLE

Topher’s critical and incisive view of water issues is worth a look for a good overview.

GOVERNMENT MUST ACT

It is the ultimate in hypocrisy for the Commonwealth government to be insisting farmers give back water under a new planning scheme to save the environment, while continuing to pocket millions from water wasted by Snowy Hydro for derivative trading on the electricity market says Jennifer Marohasy in this article at Quadrant Online. 

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T MENTION THE DAMS!

Recent floods in Queensland and widespread rainfall in eastern Australia has prompted commentary on the need for debate over whether more dams should be built or existing dams extended, if possible.

Some commentators not only did not see value in more dams, but could not see any value in contesting the ‘conventional wisdom’ that dams are not good for the environment.  In short, despite the public furore over management of the Murray Darling basin, the recent long drought and extraordinary drought breaking rains, many do not want to have an informed debate on this most basic form of water management.

Self described leftist, Barry York published this article  in The Australian decrying the Greens, capitalism and the lack of debate on dams.  Let’s at least give thought to the merit of his call for a debate on dams.

FURTHER INVESTIGATION OF RIVERINA FLOODS REVEALS MORE

The Whole Truth: Water Deliberately Dumped Into Flooded Area

SNOWY Hydro chief executive, Terry Charlton, recently confirmed that water was dumped into the already flooded Murray-Darling Basin, but said the authority had little choice (The Australian, December 15, 2010, page 7).  A real time operational diagram, however, tells a very different story.   Full article at Quadrant Online

 WATER ACT WASTES WATER

Both sides of federal politics are championing the Water Act as a response to problems in the Murray-Darling Basin but what is happening at the present moment illustrates just how wrong this response is. Every valley in the Basin is in flood, some for the third and fourth time in twelve months, and most dams are overflowing. But what is happening with water management? asks Ron Pike at   Quadrant Online 

Bureaucratic Flood Damage?

Snowy Hydro tops up floods with environmental flow says Dr Jennifer Marohasy

While residents of Wagga Wagga scrambled to save their belongings from rising flood waters there was a rumour circulating that the crisis was exacerbated by bureaucratic incompetence, in particular that Snowy Hydro was releasing environmental flow water into the already flooded Murrumbidgee River.

Full article at Quadrant Online

Also see AEF media release of 14 December 2010:

Snowy Hydro Wants Changes to Licence Provisions to Avoid Exacerbating Flooding

TRUTH IN OBSERVATION

Quadrant Online published an article by AEF chairman, Alex Stuart

On 1 November, the widely-respected Earth System Science Centre at the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) published its satellite-derived average temperature of the lower atmosphere for October. The smoothed running average for October was level with the 1998 figure – showing that for the past 12 years, there’s been no global warming. Yet in those same years carbon dioxide in the air rose by 6%. So what’s going on? Either the warming influence of man-made CO₂ has been offset by unspecified cooling – or the man-made global warming theory must be questioned.

View article here        

THE FOLLY OF TILTING AT WINDMILLS

And as the wind farm footprint grows, so do questions about cost, reliability, health effects and the methods being used by wind-tower spruikers to propagate what has become a modern-day wind rush.

ABC chairman Maurice Newman, who owns a property at Crookwell in NSW that will soon be impacted by wind farms favours the analogy that wind turbines will turn out to be for power generation what the zeppelin was for air transportation: it looked promising but was not the answer.

Newman holds a view common in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and almost everywhere in the world that wind turbines are being installed: that this is an expensive, unsightly and sub-optimal means of generating power

The Great Wind Rush     Waterfront warrior sails against the wind

The folly of tilting at windmills     

THE CASE OF IRISH OAK TREE RINGS

Dr John Abbot and Dr Jennifer Marohasy have published the following paper which looks at the reliability of tree ring data as temperature proxies.

"Accessing environmental information relating to climate change: the case of Irish oaks tree rings". Environmental Law and Management 2010 Volume 22, Issue 4, 172-181.

A summary of the paper can be viewed here        

Community Meeting Unanimous in Opposition to Wind Farm Proposal

110 local residents gathered at the Tooborac Hall, near Seymour in central Victoria on Sunday October 31st to hear proposals to establish a large wind farm in the local area.

The meeting was organised by local group the Granite Boulders Landscape Guardians with speakers from that group, the Australian Landscape Guardians and the Australian Environment Foundation.

The audience having heard the proposed wind farm would impact on scores of existing residences and farms via loss of amenity, decreasing land values and adverse impacts on health through low frequency sound were amazed to hear the costly power produced by this wind farm would be subsidised by them and all other Victorians through their electricity bills for insignificant to zero reductions in CO2 reductions.

A resolution at the conclusion of the meeting directed to the company responsible, Transfield and the Victorian government reiterating community opposition to the proposal was passed unanimously.

See AEF media release

Conference Report

Senator Cory Bernardi opens AEF Conference

The AEF 5th Annual Conference was held on the weekend of October 16th and 17th in Brisbane in front of an enthusiastic audience of members and non-members who travelled from around the country to hear some excellent presentations.  Conference papers can be found here.

Water plan will decimate Murrumbidgee frogs

Dr Jennifer Marohasy and Ron Pike highlight overlooked benefits to the environment from farming habitats in this article at On Line Opinion.

Rice growers along the Murrumbidgee River are likely to be among the hardest hit if the federal government proceeds with its new water sharing plan. If the region loses 45 per cent of its current allocation as proposed by the Murray Darling Basin Authority, an unintended consequence will be a dramatic decline in the populations of over a dozen species of frog. These frogs have benefited from water being pooled in upper catchment areas for rice production; if the plan goes ahead more water will end up going down to South Australia and over the barrages into the Southern Ocean, to the detriment of flood plain wildlife. On Line Opinion article

Will Real Evidence or Realpolitik Drive Change in the Murray Darling Basin?

The MDBA Basin Guide released on October 8th 2010 is set against the imperative of obtaining more water for the environment.  The report calls for a minimum of 3000 gigalitres [GL] to be recovered for environmental flows, while we have been told repeatedly since at least 2003 that the expert scientific conclusions were 1500 GL were required to restore environmental well-being to the Basin.

Several curiosities appear in the Basin Guide relating to environmental matters with little substantiation via evidence or reference to data.

The decline of emblematic river red gum forests is referred to, citing varying degrees of decline in different areas, with the inference this is wholly attributable to a decline in available water.  Recent investigations in both NSW and Victoria prior to national park declarations showed the forests in best condition were those actively managed by local communities and the forest in the worst condition was contained in the national park estate, both subject to the same water regime. 

Similarly, claims were made about the large decline of waterbirds in the basin since 1983 with graphs supplied by Dr Richard Kingsford from the UNSW used to illustrate the point.  This graph using Dr Kingsford’s own data from 2003 paints a different picture of waterbird abundance in one of Australia’s prime breeding sites.  While there are reasonable grounds to study Dr Kingsford’s point that unseasonal flooding of wetlands could be detrimental to the food chain and birdlife, there is little to suggest that mandating 3000 GL to the environment to see an extra 2000GL flow out through the mouth of the Murray is a good outcome.
   
This idea of maintaining an artificial environment in the Lower Lakes through the use of barrages is all the more questionable when one reads the statements attributed to the MBDA CEO, Rob Freeman on the release of the Basin Guide, when he said “''If the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray mouth were chosen as a priority in this particular example, then insufficient water will be available in the median-to-wet years to meet targets at floodplain sites like Barmah-Millewa forest.''   Poor management decisions taking precedence over good environmental outcomes is realpolitiks in motion.

(See also AEF media release of 14 October 2010.)

The Murray: a fresh perspective

Jennifer Marohasy, September 19, 2010

The release of a new Murray Darling Basin plan on October 8, 2010, is likely to reignite debate over how best to solve the problems of the Murray River. It will further pit some environmentalists and some South Australians against upstream irrigators as a debate over how to fix the two very large freshwater lakes at the very bottom of the Murray River rages.  Article at Quadrant Online.        

Anglican report backs Pearson on Wild Rivers legislation

Noel Pearson has long railed against the Queensland government Wild Rivers legislation and has been criticised for doing so by its proponents, Anna Bligh’s government and the Wilderness Society.  However last week the Anglican church released its detailed study into the legislation and backs Pearson.  “The Anglican report represents the most comprehensive, objective and rigorous analysis of the Wild Rivers legislation and its effect on Aboriginal communities and landowners.”   Article in The Australian (October 02, 2010)

Gunns to cease harvesting native forests

Forester Mark Poynter writes of the never ending campaign against native forest harvesting in Tasmania that has seen timber giant Gunns announce its ending of public forest harvesting. 

The lack of integrity in the campaign to cease completely the sustainable harvesting of native forests provides no balance between protecting the environment and wise resource use to provide products demanded by society.  The madness of driving out world’s best practice forestry operations to import increasing amounts of illegally harvested timber from overseas beggars belief.

Article at Online Opinion

Environmental activism kills millions: The cost of banning DDT

“3 Billion and Counting is a new documentary film on the awful human cost of banning DDT. The film’s producer, medical doctor Rutledge Taylor, circled the tropical world, finding that malaria has claimed some three billion human lives throughout history—and the toll of needless deaths is continuing to mount by perhaps 1.5 million per year. Moreover, it permanently debilitates millions more.” says Dennis Avery in this article at the Science & Public Policy Institute website.

Denmark’s Green Energy Revolution runs out of puff

Andrew Gilligan from the U.K. Telegraph writes of the growing community backlash against wind farms and their limitations in this article. “To green campaigners, it is windfarm heaven, generating a claimed fifth of its power from wind and praised by British ministers as the model to follow. But amid a growing public backlash, Denmark, the world's most windfarm-intensive country, is turning against the turbines.

Last month, unnoticed in the UK, Denmark's giant state-owned power company, Dong Energy, announced that it would abandon future onshore wind farms in the country. "Every time we were building onshore, the public reacts in a negative way and we had a lot of criticism from neighbours," said a spokesman for the company.”

WIND FARMS BLOW ILL WIND FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES

The North American experience of the establishment of wind farms has been challenging for local communities, energy consumers and those waiting for reductions in CO2 emissions. Power bills have risen, quality of life for local communities has fallen – all without any real reduction in emissions. This video from Canada tells a compelling story.

THE GREAT RENEWABLE ENERGY RORT

Kathy Russell from the Australian Landscape Guardians writes a compelling article on the need for a rigorous analysis of the alleged benefits of more wind farms.

Government has accepted, without due diligence, proposals put forward by vested interests that disadvantage the people with higher energy costs and little or no benefit for the environment.

The moral high ground taken by those in government and those initially in favour of turbines is that they are doing their bit for the environment – the data shows otherwise.

Why is anyone of sound mind supporting Renewable Energy Targets?

Article at Quadrant Online

RENEWABLE ENERGY – WHAT IT WILL REALLY COST

With the deferment of the Australian emissions trading scheme until at least 2013 renewable energy companies and advocates for a greater mandating of renewable energy use in Australia are ramping up their efforts to commit Australia to a changed energy mix.

This appears at face value to be a plausible policy path, if one were committed to the concept of reducing reliance on fossil fuels, until the economics and practicalities are subjected to scrutiny.

The proposal to mandate an increasing amount of Australian energy use to renewables is poor policy on the same scale as the failed emissions trading scheme and deserves the same scrutiny.

The following link is a paper prepared last month that examines the question in the American context; it is very comparable to the Australian discussion and experience.  This link is to the U.S Energy Information Administration data referred to in the paper.

Only because it happens so infrequently, this link to a journalist’s mea culpa on wind farms is included.  The original story relates to a big wind farm proposal for Massachusetts for which the stated cost of implementation tripled during the investigation process and wind energy costs blew out to four times the cost of conventional electricity. 

AEF SUPPORTS VEGETATION LAW OVERHAUL

6 May 2010

The Australian Environment Foundation today backed the Senate Inquiry into Native Vegetation Laws recommendation to establish a “balance between maximising agricultural production and best practice conservation.” See media release

SCIENCE ON SOLID GROUND WITH GM FOOD

The Chief Scientist of Food Standards of Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ), Dr Paul Brent responds to criticisms of the regulatory approval process for GM food on ABC Bush Telegraph April 28th.

“It’s getting to the point where those people who object to GM foods have failed miserably to show any credible data that GM foods are unsafe”.  Listen to the interview

Greenies use 'wilder nullius' to get their way in Cape York

Richie Ahmat, chairman of the Cape York Land Council 
The Australian April 19, 2010

THE confrontation between the Aboriginal traditional owners of Cape York Peninsula and The Wilderness Society in relation to Queensland's Wild River laws is fundamental. If it is not resolved fairly and soon, it will be the beginning of a long war that our people will never abandon until justice is restored. (more)

Abbott's bill would reverse the injustice of Wild Rivers laws

Noel Pearson, 3 April 2010

THE Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee this week started its inquiry into Tony Abbott's private member's bill, which seeks to override the Queensland government's Wild Rivers Act 2005. (More in The Australian.

We need a new paradigm for national parks

Max Rheese, 25 March 2010

The ever increasing expansion of the national parks estate across the country continues to provide fertile ground for conflict between users of public land, rural communities, environment groups and governments. (more)

ABC Beat Up

March 15, 2010

The ABC’s Australian Story episode entitled “Something in the Water”, which attacks Tasmania's plantation forestry and aquaculture industries, is biased and misleading according to forester Mark Poynter. See his article at On Line Opinion.

Dump Emissions Trading Scheme Now

09, February 2010

“The declining credibility of the UN’s science on climate should send a signal to the Rudd government that it’s time to fundamentally reconsider its approach to climate policy” said Alex Stuart, chairman of the Australian Environment Foundation. See AEF media release.

Environmentalists have crossed the Rubicon

Max Rheese
21 December 2009

Environmental advocacy in Australia is increasingly producing perverse environmental outcomes that are changing the way we live, largely as a result of political decisions for electoral gain. (more)

When are we going to wake up?

by Walter Starck

November 23, 2009

Six degrees and rising: I’ll call your 2 degrees and raise it to 6

The past few months has been a frustrating time for the climate change industry. Earlier in the year they were on a roll and it looked like a global treaty agreement at Copenhagen in December was a done deal. The heady scent of unprecedented power and money was palpable. Everyone on the bandwagon, activists, bureaucrats, researchers and entrepreneurs, were in high anticipation. But, as Copenhagen approached, unwelcome reality began to intrude on the dream. (more at Quadrant.)

CAMPAIGN FOR MORE MARINE PROTECTED AREAS HAS NO MERIT

The proposals for additional vast Marine Protected Areas in Australian waters to protect marine biodiversity are a solution in search of a problem.

The federal environment minister Tony Burke is currently reviewing proposals seeking to declare additional Marine Protected Areas in four regions around Australia.  The largest is the Coral Sea MPA encompassing one million square kilometres.

No merit, No reason, No benefit, No good. 

Read more at the Campaigns Page.

THE UNSUPPORTABLE CASE FOR CORAL SEA MARINE PARK 'NO-TAKE' ZONES

Sea Change: Tim Wintons view from the deep.

Accomplished author and Western Australian resident Tim Winton has written a personal and evocative essay, ‘Sea Change’, in Good Weekend magazine on April 14th ‘for all Australians who want a better future for our common underwater heritage’ according to WWF who have posted the article on their website. Winton is a patron of the Australian Marine Conservation Society and undoubtedly loves the sea.

The article, while rich in personal experiences with the sea, is devoid of evidence that would support a case for massive new Marine Protected Areas, which the federal Environment Minister Tony Burke is currently considering and being urged along by Winton.

Advocating for change to environmental policy must be supported by facts and evidence says AEF executive director Max Rheese in this article published at OnLine Opinion.

SUPPORT THE RATIONAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS

Become an AEF member and make an investment in good environment policy today!

Download a membership form or donate via the PayPal buttons on the left.

SCIENTISTS STEP IN TO SAVE MOUNTAIN PYGMY POSSUMS

Mt Buller’s Mountain Pygmy-possums have had some rare good news following the success of an emergency action to save the isolated population from extinction caused by declining genetic diversity.

BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA

The expected announcement by federal environment minister Tony Burke to create a 1 million square kilometre Marine Protected Area in the Coral Sea as a 'no-take' zone thereby banning all fishing would be environmentally irresponsible says AEF.

A cursory examination of publicly available data clearly shows Australian fishery harvest is the most environmentally friendly in the world with harvests of less than 1% of recognised sustainable yields from the world's largest per capita fishery.

There is no demonstrated environmental need to close the Coral Sea. Australia needs to increase its sustainable harvest of seafood to remove the burden Australian consumers are placing on heavily exploited overseas fisheries.  70% of seafood consumed in Australia is imported from fisheries that do not have the same standard of environmental management as Australia.

ABC Landline reported on the effects of these proposals, which will have perverse environmental outcomes.  See media release.

WWF CRUSADING ON SUSTAINABLE BEEF

A LEAKED document authored by a senior operative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) shows the anti-farmer organisation is on a green crusade to establish new "sustainable beef standards" on producers Australia-wide.

FARMERS CONSERVATION EFFORTS ACKNOWLEDGED

FARMERS have been vital workers to help protect one of the Colac district’s most threatened animals.

The rare Corangamite water skink, lives in an area north-west of Colac between Lake Colac and Lake Bolac.  Farmers and environment officers have worked together to protect the skinks and their habitat.

AUSTRALIA'S CONSERVATION FARMING REVOLUTION

The misconception of Australian agriculture being inefficient and unsustainable is deeply concerning for me. Images of dusty ploughed fields and dying sheep and trees are misleading. On the contrary, if there was an Olympics for conservation agriculture Australian farmers would win gold! says the CSIRO's principal research scientist, John Kirkegaard.

And does this agricultural progress compliment or conflict with the Australian Roundtable on Sustainable Beef?

A DANGEROUS METHOD

Former chairman of the ABC, Maurice Newman writing in The Spectator says the people are smarter than their leaders with regard to climate change policy and no amount of bullying by politicians or others will convince them the science is settled.

This perhaps explains the latest Nielsen Poll showing only 36% of Australians support a tax on the essential trace element gas, carbon dioxide.

POLAR BEAR NUMBERS CONFOUND DOOMSAYERS

The debate about climate change and its impact on polar bears has intensified with the release of a survey that shows the bear population in a key part of northern Canada is far larger than many scientists thought, and might be growing.  The new data does not conform to previous predictions of decline in numbers.

VESTED INTERESTS DRIVE CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE

Professors Bob Carter, Stewart Franks, Dr David Evans and former head of the National Climate Centre, William Kininmonth provide a critique of recent climate change discussion in the public arena.

"It is clear that current Australian public policies regarding dangerous climate change, sea-level rise and other climate hazards are based upon inadequate scientific advice, are shackled to the vagaries of inadequate computer model projections and are not remotely cost-effective. There is therefore an urgent need for climate hazard to be assessed and reconsidered by experienced scientists who are independent of the present climate agency cabal."

Further analysis here

CLEAN ENERGY FUND A $10B BOONDOGGLE

Oliver Marc Hartwich from the Centre for Independent Studies said on the 7.30 Report April 2nd "The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is a complete waste of money because it will not cut emissions by a single gram of carbon dioxide."

Richard Denniss from the Australia Institute said "While the taxpayer's putting up the $13 billion on the table, it's not actually gonna result in an increase in the amount of renewable energy."

AEF says the Clean Energy Fund is an extraordinarily expensive taxpayer funded slush fund that will not deliver any significant environmental benefit.

This comes a few days after outgoing Future Fund chairman David Murray said the carbon tax is the "worst piece of economic reform I have seen in my life."

Hartwich examines the Clean Energy Fund in detail in this report.

Good outcomes cannot be delivered by bad policy.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS REVEALS WIND FARMS ARE 'WORSE THAN A MISTAKE'

One of the UK's leading energy and environment economists warns that wind power is an extraordinarily expensive and inefficient way of reducing CO2 emissions. In fact, there is a significant risk that annual CO2 emissions could be greater as a result of Britain's flawed wind policies when compared with the option of investing in efficient and flexible gas combined cycle plants.

Dr Gordon Hughes is a Professor of Economics at the University of Edinburgh. He was a senior adviser on energy and environmental policy at the World Bank until 2001.  His analysis is published here.

According to Connie Hedegaard, the European Union’s commissioner for climate action, “People should believe that [wind power] is very, very cheap.”

In fact, this is a highly problematic claim says Professor Bjorn Lomborg. While wind energy is cheaper than other, more ineffective renewables, such as solar, tidal, and ethanol, it is nowhere near competitive. If it were, we wouldn’t have to keep spending significant sums to subsidize it.  Indeed.

MEDIA WATCH'S "CONSENSUS SCIENCE" - DON'T MENTION THE FACTS

We are in withchhunt territory here writes Andrew Bolt at his blog.  It seems Media Watch take exception to AEF's name.

ABC MEDIA WATCH TELLS AUSTRALIA ABOUT THE JUNK SCIENCE THAT UNDERPINS WATER POLICY

And for this we thank Media Watch. 

AEF however are most grateful to the many people who donated online via our website after the show had finished.  We appreciate your support for a balanced view on environmental public policy.

For those who missed the program, Media Watch on March 19th featured a segment on the report recently released by AEF on the false narrative that the Murray River’s terminal Lower Lakes have a freshwater history.

Presenter Jonathon Holmes correctly points out the report and AEF state that current policy for maintaining the Lower Lakes as an artificial man-made freshwater system is based on junk science.

He also points out that the information he is using is all on the public record, which is also correct as AEF listed our sponsors on our website, directly provided full and timely responses to all questions posed by Media Watch and clearly stated our objectives in advocating for changes in public policy on our website.  Read more about the program and who supports the science in the report.

AEF’s view of the ‘exposé’ by ABC Media Watch.

Find out more about the Rivers Need Estuaries campaign here

Support a rational voice for the environment - Donate today!

Pick a PayPal donation tab on the left to support the Rivers Need Estuaries campaign or AEF's other work on environment policy.

MURRAY DARLING BASIN PLAN BASED ON JUNK SCIENCE SAYS NEW REPORT

A report released today by the Australian Environment Foundation undermines the claim by the South Australian government that the Murray River’s terminal Lower Lakes have a freshwater history, a key plank of their demand for an additional 4,000 gigalitres of water under the Murray Darling Basin water reform plan. Read more on our Campaigns page.

THE RAMBUNCTIOUS GARDEN OFFERS A DIFFERENT VIEW

Emma Marris argues convincingly in her new book Rambunctious Garden that we are fore-going much in our quest for pristine environments.

"A paradigm shift is roiling the environmental world. For decades people have unquestioningly accepted the idea that our goal is to preserve nature in its pristine, pre-human state. But many scientists have come to see this as an outdated dream that thwarts bold new plans to save the environment and prevents us from having a fuller relationship with nature. Humans have changed the landscapes they inhabit since prehistory."

RESEARCH HEALTH EFFECTS OF WIND TURBINE NOISE SAY MEDICAL EXPERTS

An article in the British Medical Journal has called for robust, independent research into the health effects of existing wind farms saying such research is long overdue.

The expertise of the authors in sleep disorders is widely acknowledged and they are unequivocal about the need for research into adverse health effects of wind turbines.

Which puts them completely at odds with Professor Simon Chapman of the University of Sydney, who is often proclaimed as a public health expert, but who has no training in sleep disorders or expertise in acoustics.  Professor Chapman has been rubbishing claims of health effects from wind turbines and is dismissive of the need for health studies to address this growing problem.

This calls into question why a professor of public health, with no expertise in the subject matter would be so opposed to medical research and health studies to protect the health of the public.

It also casts serious doubt on the efficacy of the soon-to-be implemented NSW draft guidelines for wind farms in protecting residents of rural communities from adverse health impacts of inappropriately sited wind turbines.

See media release     See AEF's submission to the NSW guidelines for wind farms.

GOVT FUNDS GREEN GROUPS THE TREASURER IS RAILING AGAINST!

Three green groups named in last week's leaked proposal to undermine the multi-billion-dollar coal industry have received a total of close to $750,000 in funding from the Department of Climate Change, an industry analysis obtained by The Australian shows.

THE COUNTRY RUNS ON COAL, BUT ACTIVISTS 'ARE LIVING IN FANTASYLAND'

Proposals by activist groups Greenpeace and CoalSwarm to disrupt and delay coal projects were attacked by the federal government.

Trade Minister Craig Emerson has warned an immediate switch to renewable energy would result in a global depression and has branded a group of anti-coal activists as "delusional".  The secret plan by environmental groups to raise $6M to fund the plan was leaked to the media.

CLEAN ENERGY FUND WRITTEN OFF AS $10B 'TOTAL WASTE'

THE $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation is "likely to be a complete waste of money" and have no impact on Australia's carbon emissions, according to a new research paper from the Centre for Independent Studies reported on in The Australian.

The author, Oliver Hartwich, writes that "the CEFC will have zero effect on emissions" once Labor's carbon tax becomes an emissions trading scheme in 2015.

NO-GO SCAREMONGERS 'FISHING FOR FUNDS'

Photo: Colin Murty The Australian

Relentless anti-fishing campaigns have misled consumers about the good health of Australian fish stocks, a leading US marine scientist said yesterday.

Ray Hilborn is a hired gun for a fishing industry feeling the heat from demands for no-go marine parks and consumer advice scorecards that show which fish not to eat. He is also an acknowledged world expert on global fish stocks. And when it comes to catching fish and what's good for the plate, Dr Hilborn and environmental groups such as Australian Marine Conservatory are oceans apart.

Dr Hilborn, professor of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences at the Univiersity of Washington published a report which questions the basis for expanding Marine Protected Areas in Australian waters.

"The perception of the majority of Australians of the sustainability of Australian seafood is not aligned with reality. Public perception has been distorted, primarily by numerous NGOs and others who benefit from projecting apprehension in seafood consumers. These NGOs are out of touch with recent global developments and in denial of fisheries management outcomes in Australia. Their distortion of reality has been based on misrepresentation of overseas examples of inadequate fisheries management to falsely claim gloom and doom for Australia’s fisheries and their impacts. The resulting anti-fishing rhetoric has falsely demonized fishing and led to ill-directed calls for more restrictions, particularly in areas that are closed to fishing and then called ‘protected’."

POOR WANT CLIMATE POLICIES THAT WORK

Max Rheese reviews and comments on an insightful article in The Quarterly Essay written by Dr Andrew Charlton, economic adviser to former Prime Minister Rudd on the failure of climate policies globally. 

"The enviropolitical green agenda of rich countries to reduce energy consumption by raising the price of fossil fuels and forcing a false choice between progress or the planet is fatally flawed, while the consequences of efforts so far on global climate policy risk condemning the poor to continuing poverty."   Read more at Online Opinion.

WIND TURBINES INCREASE CO2 EMISSIONS

As more real world data becomes available globally on the actual operations of wind turbines it has become clear the wind industry claims of signifcant emissions reductions; claims derived from 'models', are false.

Emissions reductions were the raison d'etre for wind farms.  Why else would you support generating electricity that is two to three times more expensive than other means?  Electricity engineers have been pointing out this fact of insignificant reductions for years, now we have the data that proves it.

PUBLIC MEETING LEADS TO SUCCESSFUL SENATE MOTION ON WIND FARM HEALTH IMPACTS

A meeting near Ballarat on February 2nd hosted by Senator John Madigan and attended by 200 people heard from approximately 22 local residents opposed to the inappropriate siting of large wind turbines.  The opposition to wind turbines was primarily due to the residents experiencing adverse health impacts.

Following the meeting Senator Madigan tabled a motion in the senate on February 8th calling on the federal government to implement the recommendations of the recent senate inquiry into the impacts of wind farms in rural areas.  The motion was passed with the support of independents, Greens and Coalition senators.

AEF calls on the government to respect the wishes of the senate and the people by immediately implementing the inquiry recommendations.

A frequent rejoiner from supporters of wind farms goes along the lines of 'there are thousands of wind turbines overseas and there are no problems with them'.  This argument has been debunked many times with some of the opposition overseas illustrated here in this article in the U.K. Telegraph.

PRESENTATION AT THE SYDNEY INSTITUTE ON THE MURRAY ESTUARY

Dr Jennifer Marohasy gave a lecture at the Sydney Institute in mid-February that encompassed the history and management of the Lower Lakes followed by numerous questions from the audience.  The management of the Lower Lakes using the barrages [sea dykes] is of course hotly contested with the MDBA, AEF and CSIRO, amongst others, putting forward different scientific reports to inform the debate.  Considered analysis of scientific reports on such a complex subject is considered good form. 

It was therefore extraordinary to hear an MDBA official at senates estimates committee hearings on February 14th reply to the question "If a peer-reviewed scientific report was available that demonstrated the predominant history of the Lower Lakes was estuarine, would this change the MDBA views on the management of the Lower Lakes as fresh water system."  His reply "probably not." 

NEWS BRIEFS

The Murray Mouth Controversy       ABC Radio National 26 March 2012

Media Watch shocked by scientist    Herald Sun 19 March 2012

MDBP has science wrong: AEF        Stock Journal 29 February 2012

Water must mix in the Lower Lakes.  Adelaide Advertiser 25 February 2012

Basin Meeting in Swan Hill.             Weekly Times 23 February 2012

Coral Sea reserve a sell-out to foreign green groups  The Australian 30 Jan 2012

When spin meets research.  Ballarat Courier 21 January 2012

CSIRO wind farm report unbalanced  Weekly Times  19 January 2012

Enviro groups welcome wind farm planning change 1 September 2011

Sea will save the Murray mouth.   The Australian 27 August 2011

ABC Counterpoint interview with Max Rheese on wind farm concerns

Marohasy Slams Greenpeace on Anti-GM Campaign. Farm Weekly 22 March 2011

Gas is the way to go, if only we could    Belinda Robinson National Times November 5, 2010

ABC Counterpoint Interview with Jennifer Marohasy on the Murray's lower lakes (mp3)

AGANIST THE WIND

Maurice Newman, former chair of the Australian Securities Exchange and until recently the ABC, writing in The Spectator magazine and The Australian says "The pursuit of clean energy has relegated ordinary people to the status of collateral damage." 

"Even before they threatened my property, I was opposed to wind farms. They fail on all counts. They are grossly inefficient, extremely expensive, socially inequitable, a danger to human health, environmentally harmful, divisive for communities, a blot on the landscape, and don’t even achieve the purpose for which they were designed, namely the reliable generation of electricity and the reduction of CO2 emissions."

That's what AEF has been saying all along!

The Australian environment reporter Graham Lloyd wrote about the impacts of wind farms in this feature article.

CSIRO REPORT ON WIND FARMS 'NOT CREDIBLE'

The Australian Environment Foundation today slammed the CSIRO report released this week ‘Exploring community acceptance of rural wind farms in Australia’ as not befitting the premier national scientific research organisation.  Read the media release

AEF critique of the report.    Recently retired ABC board chairman, Maurice Newman criticises wind farms in The Australian, saying "these things are not properly researched."  And the Ballarat Courier, which has given wide coverage to the wind farm issue as it affects central Victoria, has picked up on many of the same points as raised in AEF's critique of the CSIRO report in this editorial, When spin meets research. 

WIND POWER IS EXPENSIVE AND INEFFICIENT IN REDUCING CO2 EMISSIONS

A study in the Netherlands found that turning back-up gas power stations on and off to cover spells when there is little wind actually produces more carbon than a steady supply of energy from an efficient modern gas station.

The research is cited in a new report by the Civitas think tank which warns that Britain is in danger of producing more carbon dioxide (CO2) than necessary if the grid relies too much on wind. The same effect applies in Australia.

The Wind Farm Scam is an informative book on "the extraordinary series of illusions on which this new political infatuation with wind energy was based".  Written by former Reader in Ecology at the University of Wales and co-editor of the international Journal of Ecology, Dr John Etherington.

WWF RECOGNISES FARMERS CONTRIBUTION

Dermot O'Gorman, CEO of WWF Australia rightly recognises the role of the farming community in an article at the ABC The Drum website.  Perhaps now is also a good time for WWF to recognise that the 'environmental' regulations for native vegetation, in NSW and Queensland in particular, are having perverse environmental outcomes through bans on properly managing regrowth of native 'woody weeds'.

YOU CAN CALL THESE PEOPLE LIARS, ANTI-WIND CRAZIES, NIMBYS OR HYPOCHONDRIACS – BUT YOU’D BE WRONG.

Lilli Green and Preston Ribnick from Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the United States interviewed people in New Zealand and Australia about their experiences and their research relating to wind farm operations.  They undertook this project because of proposals to locate wind farms in their community in Massachusetts and to gain a better understanding of the issues.

If you have not experienced first-hand the harrowing stories of people affected by wind farms watch the video and draw your own conclusions.     
University scientists, acousticians, energy consultants and ordinary people tell of their experiences.

In a Canadian newspaper article Dr Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace blasts the wind industry saying it "destroys more jobs than it creates, and causes energy prices to climb for all users."

THE AGE REPORTS ON THE SEA LEVEL WOES OF THE MALDIVES

The Age newspaper published a feature article on Saturday January 7th, followed by an editorial on Monday 9th, on the threats allegedly posed to the Maldives from rising sea levels, which were attiributed to climate change. 

Nowhere in the article or the editorial was there any acknowledgment of the substantial body of scientific evidence showing the Maldives to be subsiding on its own coral foundations.

No attributions to scientific studies were made nor any interview conducted with Dr Nils-Axel Morner, doyen of sea level experts who led an international research project to the Maldives to investigate the very issue the article reported on.  Dr Morner found no evidence to substantiate the claims.

Never let the facts get in the way of a good emotive story - or pass up the chance to blame an issue on climate change.

REGENT HONEYEATER PROJECT ON TRACK FOR SUCCESS

Amateur botanist Ray Thomas has overseen an on-going project [17 years so far] to restore habitat for the nationally endangered Regent Honeyeater on previously cleared farmland north of Benalla in north east Victoria.

Thousands of volunteers encouraged by Ray over the years have restored 463 sites using nearly 489,000 native tree seedlings with the aim of providing box ironbark forest with suitable understorey for the Regent Honeyeater and other uncommon local species.

The project's success is testament to Ray's vision and the co-operation of nearly all local landholders supported by many volunteers. 

THE BIGGEST ESTATE ON EARTH

Historian Bill Gammage has written a well-researched and referenced book on the careful management of the Australian landscape prior to 1788.  The book explodes the myth that pre-settlement Australia was an untamed wilderness revealing the complex, country-wide systems of land management used by Aboriginal people.  Author Roger Franklin has more to say on the book in this article at The Spectator.  Listen to the interview of author Bill Gammage on Counterpoint

DISCONNECT WITH ENVIRONMENTAL REALITY IN THE MD BASIN

Professor Richard Kingsford of the University of NSW speaking on the ABC AM program seems amazed that waterbird numbers have made such an astounding recovery since the end of the drought.  Professor Kingsford has previously decried the “chronic over-extraction of water” in the MD Basin which he says led to a long-term decline in water bird numbers.  The professor is not alone in pointing to ‘environmental catastrophes’ occurring because of a lack of water, with many others pointing to the decline of red gum forests and wetlands – these are the myths that persist despite the facts showing otherwise.

What seems to have escaped mention in the populist narrative that “human water use is destroying the Basin” is that we live in a country of drought and flooding rains.  When we have drought the environment will suffer along with farmers and communities.  Farmers are allocated little if any water in droughts and yet the dams built for irrigation continue to supply water for the environment throughout the worst droughts.  The Murray River no longer runs dry during drought as it used to.

Those calling for radical change in water use should be upfront and acknowledge the wetlands, birdlife and red gum forests are now recovering very nicely through the hand of nature – as they have always done. 

The simplistic notion of returning more than the 1400 gigalitres of water already returned to the environment over the last decade obscures the real problem of mismanagement of the artificial freshwater Lower Lakes and Murray estuary.

WARMING DENIALISM IS IN THE POLITICAL EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

Professor Bob Carter, author of Climate: The Counter Consensus takes on Professor Robert Manne at the Crikey website. 

Says Manne "For several decades I have engaged in ideological disputes".  "And therein lies the problem,"according to Carter, "for ideology is the business of politics whereas global warming is the business of science."

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON W.A FIRES AND FIRE MANAGEMENT

"Western Australia is actually 20 years ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to fire management," says the former deputy director of the Australian Counter Disaster College at the Department of Defence, David Packham. "The West Australians have been heavily researching bushfires for more than half a century and, while they have had many fires over the years, the lack of fatalities on any grand scale tells the story."

NO RESOLUTION TO MD WATER WOES WITHOUT AMENDING THE WATER ACT

The Water Act of Federal Parliament passed in 2007 was in response to a poorly researched media campaign waged by environmentalists that the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) was being badly managed, over regulated and as a result aquatic habitat and “the environment” were suffering. Sensationalist claims of “dying rivers, dead and dying species, water shortage and plundering inefficient irrigators,” abounded and were accepted as truth says water consultant Ron Pike at Quadrant Online.

Water expert and professor at Harvard University, John Briscoe says in his submission to the senate inquiry into the Water Act "My conclusion is stark. I believe that the Water Act of 2007 was founded on a political deception and that that original sin is responsible for most of the detour on which Australian water management now finds itself.

I also believe that Australia cannot find its way in water management if this Act is the guide."

PEER-REVIEWED STUDIES ON SEA LEVEL OBVIOUSLY NOT ALARMING ENOUGH

A former senior researcher in the NSW department of Climate Change, Doug Lord, said in The Australian two papers he co-authored with colleagues and was due to present at conferences were suppressed because they suggested sea-levels on the east coast are rising at only one 10th of the rate estimated by the federal government, based on data from the IPCC.  His conclusions are supported by the work of renowned sea level expert, Dr Nils-Axel Morner.

WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE: A GUIDE TO THE MD BASIN

Author Kate Jennings spoke to all sides of the argument for this article in The Monthly.  "The demonising of farmers has been insidious in the last decade but reached a crescendo this last year when the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s Guide to the Proposed Basin Plan was released. It was a plan which proposed cutting water in amounts that would’ve, if not outright killed irrigation areas and their towns, at the very least caused them to atrophy. A plan assembled without consultation with farmers and scientists from the areas in question."

MD BASIN PLAN FAILS TO ADDRESS KEY ISSUES

The long-awaited revised draft plan for the Murray Darling Basin was released on November 28th 2011 and was met with disappointment from all stakeholders.  The draft plan failed to address three key issues, two of which have the potential to deliver the water savings the MDBA is seeking.

• End the preoccupation with maintaining the artificial man-made freshwater system in the Lower Lakes by returning the lakes to a natural estuarine system by removing the barrages.  This alone would save 800 gigalitres of freshwater evaporation every year.

• Use the funds already set aside for infrastructure upgrades.  Infrastructure upgrades increase the size of ‘the cake’, delivering extra water for the environment and productive use.  Money spent on water buy-backs does not add to the efficiency of the basin.

• Amend the Water Act of 2007 to reflect the balanced outcomes the community expects and deserves.  Failure to do so will see aggrieved stakeholders challenge the objectives of the final basin plan in court.

Shepparton mayor Geoff Dobson articulates the concerns of many communities across the basin.  Given that farmers manage the majority of land within the basin, having unviable landholders is not a long-term option for gaining the best environmental outcomes. 

CLOUDS OF UNCERTAINTY IN MURRAY WATER BUYBACK PLAN

How much more healthy can a river or forest be?" asks Louise Burge, AEF member, local farmer and mother-of-three turned irrigation campaigner. "Just look how naturally this red gum forest and its wetlands have come back after the drought and you can't help but ask what these additional environmental flows are trying to achieve."  Riverina community leaders are already talking about "preparing for war" over the hefty water buyback plan in this article in The Australian.

CARBON TAX BITES BEFORE INTRODUCTION

AEF's long held view that a tax on carbon dioxide would cost jobs for no environmental gain appears vindicated with the news that a company has shelved a $1 billion expansion because of the tax.  The government however, says the company does not understand the tax.

NEW BOOK SHOWS THE IPPC IS IN BED WITH THE GREEN LOBBY

Canadian investigative reporter, Donna Laframboise spent two years researching the 2007 IPCC report.  She found that graduate students were lead authors, hundreds of references were to non peer-reviewed material and that dozens of authors had direct links with climate activist lobby groups.  Read more on the IPPC's activist 'experts'.

See media release and author interview video

AEF's PROFESSORS CARTER & RIDD ON THE BOLT REPORT

AEF members Professors Peter Ridd and Bob Carter along with Emeritus Professor Garth Paltridge appeared in a panel session on The Bolt Report to answer the big four questions on climate change.

AEF SUBMISSION TO THE INQUIRY ON OUR CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE

Having a clean energy future is highly desirable, but taxing carbon dioxide is not the way to efficiently achieve this goal.  Read the AEF submission to the inquiry here.

RENEWABLES HAVE A PLACE, BUT COAL IS KING

Ockham’s Razor on ABC Radio National gives airplay to a dissenting view on coal by Melbourne industrial engineer, Graham Palmer.   Listen here

MYTH AND THE MURRAY

http://www.mythandthemurray.org/blog/ 
A website dedicated to discussion on Murray Darling environment issues

TASMANIA’S FORESTS: PUSHING A GREENS DEAL ONTO UNWILLING LOCALS

Institute of Foresters Australia member, Mark Poynter writing at OnLine Opinion outlines a viewpoint of the much-vaunted forestry agreement that is rarely reported in the mainland media – many Tasmanians do not support it.

NEGLECTED TRUTHS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Marine biologist Dr Walter Starck has written a brilliant, clear summary of many of the basic issues in the climate debate that are overlooked or ignored by many.  If more in the media had taken a leaf out of Dr Starck’s book, applied some critical thinking to the anomalies in the debate and more analysis, rather than advocacy, the debate on ‘how we stop global warming’ would have finished years ago.  Article at Quadrant Online. 

GREATEST MORAL CHALLENGE, NOW JUST ECONOMIC REFORM

Legislation to introduce a tax on carbon dioxide emissions will be introduced into the federal parliament in mid September to fulfil a pledge by the government to tackle our greatest moral challenge – the alleged catastrophic threat to the global environment.  However, nowadays ministers rarely mention the benefits to the environment from the implementation of a tax on carbon dioxide, but talk of the tax as an economic reform.

The sales pitch for this deeply unpopular tax may have changed, but AEF’s rationale for our opposition to the original ETS and now the carbon tax has not.  Back in early 2009 we said an ETS:

1. Will not change global temperatures;
2. Will force Australian jobs overseas; and
3. Will make Australians poorer; while it is richer, not poorer nations that are better able to protect their natural environment.

Nothing has changed except the desperate sales pitch of those who want to impose ‘economic reform’.

THIS IS OFF THE RECORD – THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT SHREDS LAST TRACE OF INTEGRITY TO STAY INSIDE THE TENT

“Gillard’s plan shows beyond doubt that the only carbon price Australia will adopt is one that largely defeats the purpose of a carbon price” says Research Fellow and author, Guy Pearse in this article in The Monthly.

TOP 5 MYTHS ABOUT GENETIC MODIFICATION

Chief Research Scientist for Plant Science at CSIRO, Richard Richards outlines just some of the many benefits to the environment from GM crops in this article.

TURBINES BLOWN AWAY BY WINDS OF CHANGE

At least three proposed wind farms have been dumped or thrown into limbo over the past three months, as the Victorian government's tough new guidelines cause projects that have been years in the making to topple over says Pia Akerman in The Australian (August 30, 2011). 

The Waubra Foundation, who investigate adverse health effects of wind turbines distributed this information relating to recent events.

HEALTH PROBLEMS NEAR NEW HEPBURN WIND FARM

A local doctor has spoken out publicly for the first time after treating patients for symptoms associated with living near wind turbines.

Dr Andja Mitric-Andjic, who practises in Daylesford Victoria, said she had treated at least two local patients for sleep deprivation, and spoken with others living near the Hepburn wind farm.

Another doctor, practising in Ballarat, also spoke about the health issues associated with industrial wind turbines.

The NSW premier is also not keen on wind farms. 

AMERICAN NGO TAKES ON THE STATE OF COLORADO

The American Tradition Institute whose motto is ‘Restoring science, accountability and liberty to the environmental policy debate’ is taking legal action against the State of Colorado over the proliferation of wind farms and renewable energy targets.  Sort of what AEF has been saying all along.

HOW TAX DOLLARS ARE HELPING TO FUND GREEN AGENDAS

Picture: Andrew Brownhill Source: The Australian

When accosted by a giant, benign-looking koala on a city street, rattling a tin and seeking a donation for the Wilderness Society, you may slap a few of your hard-earned dollars into the fake marsupial paw to help the environment. Or you may walk on by, keeping your money, because you believe the Wilderness Society has become an extreme-left, anti-development organisation.

Chris Kenny from The Australian queries whether government funding of environment groups receives adequate scrutiny in this article while Noel Pearson, director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership knows all about backroom deals. 

THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GREEN INTENTIONS

If you thought pink batts were a poorly implemented, badly designed, money-wasting, deadly green disaster, you ain’t seen nothing yet.  Try wind turbines says Miranda Devine in this article in the Daily Telegraph.

INDUSTRIAL WIND FARM PROPOSALS UNSETTLE COMMUNITIES NEAR YASS

New proposals for large wind farms for the Rugby-Boorowa district near Yass in southern NSW have initiated a community meeting, which was held at Boorowa on March 14th to inform local residents and proceed with the establishment of the Boorowa Landscape Guardian group.  Two new wind farm proposals totalling 190 turbines up to 150 metres tall spread over 65 properties encompassing approximately 35 kilometres of the Yass valley have been proposed.  

The proposed wind farms would add to the existing wind farms at Crookwell north-east of Yass and a proposal for another large facility at Collector, east of Yass.

A lack of information on the proposed wind farms saw local residents organise a public meeting which was addressed by AEF executive director Max Rheese, Waubra Foundation medical director, Dr Sarah Laurie, district resident Dr Dave Burraston, Friends of Collector organiser, Tony Hodgson, local MP, Katrina Hodgkinson and solicitor Aaron Cornish.  Scott Evans from Wind Prospects, one of the proponents, addressed the meeting and took questions from concerned residents.  Suzlon, the other company involved in proposing a facility in the local area attended the meeting, but declined to speak or take questions.

Much valuable information was conveyed to the 140 residents at the meeting covering issues such as the need for large taxpayer subsidies for wind farms, decommissioning and contractual liabilities for hosting landowners, adverse health effects, job prospects, possible economic opportunities and division within local communities over wind farm establishment.

More meetings are planned after incorporation of the local Landscape Guardians group. 

Rugby-Boorowa wind farm concerns  Wind farms divide community

RUMBLING FROM TURBINES PUT WIND UP SLEEP DEPRIVED LOCALS

While the Senate holds an inquiry into the social and health effects of wind farms The Australian highlights the ongoing real life disruption to thousands of Australians who live near large industrial wind farms and suffer the consequences. 

TURBINES DECLARED A NASTY NEIGHBOUR AS SECRET BUYOUT IS REVEALED

Victorians who have endured health problems from a nearby wind farm have been gagged from talking in return for the sale of their land.

Spanish multinational energy company Acciona has been quietly buying farms adjacent to its site at Waubra, near Ballarat, as an increasing number of residents in the tight-knit community complain of the ill effects of living near turbines.

SCIENCE FOR SALE

Oceans are trashed with non-biodegradable plastics often fatal to sea life; tropical forests are burned or cleared; critical species habitat is destroyed; and life-forms potentially crucial to medical science are extinguished. But the politically correct of the West, lowering the priority of immediate matters, maintain blind loyalty to a longer-term hypothesis: anthropogenic global warming says Australian Environment Foundation chairman, Alex Stuart in this article at Quadrant Online.

AEF Chair Alex Stuart says carbon not worth a plug nickel

Politicians and theoreticians say carbon must be priced so the market can efficiently sort out the problem of CO2-induced climate change. But markets have already spoken and they don’t like what they see: collectively, they don’t think atmospheric CO2 costs society much, if anything at all. (See the rest of the article at On Line Opinion)

LIMITS OF CLIMATE MODELS

Scientific adviser and AEF board member, Professor Peter Ridd’s address to the AEF annual conference was published at Online Opinion on December 17^th pointing out the flaws in relying on computer climate models to predict future climate accurately. Article at Online Opinion

THE FORESTS AGREEMENT TO END ALL FORESTY DISAGREEMENT?

Dr Simon Grove, a qualified forester, queries whether the proposed forestry agreement in Tasmania will be good for the environment in a well argued article.

Article at Online Opinion

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is "a recipe for a train wreck" says visiting professor

The 2007 Water Act needs urgent reform.
“The essence of the Act is the environment will get what it needs. Science will tell what is required for the environment and people will make do with what's left.  It is, in my view, a recipe for a train wreck. That is in fact what I see happening now.”

Professor John Briscoe said the Guide to the Plan was "dead on arrival" because people would never accept the idea the environment had to come first in what had become a "completely managed system".     Article in the Adelaide Advertiser

TV commercials highlighting wind farms adverse impacts

A series of television advertisements highlighting the adverse impacts of wind farms on rural residents will be screening in the lead-up to the Victorian state election on November 27^th as rural communities become alarmed over the large number of wind turbines approved in recent weeks.

Four wind farm TV ads 
and February ABC Stateline report   Wind farm illness:  Waubra disease

Council says wind farm concerns ignored

Moorabool Shire Mayor Pat Toohey says the Victorian Government has ignored the concerns of residents near two wind farms it approved earlier this week.

Green votes before rural communities   
Local mayor not happy   
Ararat wind farm approved      
More wind farm approvals ahead election caretaker mode  

Wind farm revolts blamed for dramatic fall in planning approvals

More than 230 campaign groups across the country are putting plans to generate more than a quarter of Britain’s electricity in jeopardy; it was claimed in the U.K. Telegraph        

The U.K. community revolt against wind farms sounds eerily similar to the discontent in Victorian and South Australian rural communities where people are questioning the high cost of wind generated power, the insignificant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and the fact that turbines make some people sick.

Leading Environmental Campaigners Now Support AEF Stance on GM and Nuclear

Leading environmental campaigners in the U.K. have overturned decades long ideological opposition to nuclear energy and genetically modified crops in favour of support to help curb global warming.

AEF does not support their reasons for changing their views, but give them credit for doing so.  AEF was the ONLY environment group in Australia to support the introduction of GM crops and support the need for an informed debate on whether Australia should or should not adopt nuclear energy.

For this we have been vilified and denigrated by other environment groups blinkered by their ideological view in the face of damning scientific evidence, despite GM crops being adopted in most of Australia.

Well now we have also been vindicated.

"Environmentalists did harm by being ignorant and ideological and unwilling to change their mind based on actual evidence. As a result we have done harm and I regret it."

See article in the U.K Telegraph

Also see Environmental groups should admit mistakes

Climate Minister Briefed with Unsubstantiated Assumptions

Incoming Climate Minister, Greg Combet was recently provided with a briefing by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency as is normal practice for a new minister.  The briefing was obtained under Freedom of Information law by The Australian newspaper and featured in an article on October 31st.

AEF chairman, Alex Stuart in a media release following the article said that “As guidance intended for an incoming minister, this ‘red book’ briefing fails completely.  It’s apparently based on unsubstantiated assumptions, borrowed from discredited IPCC reports, not observational evidence based on research outcomes.   The briefing is absurdly alarmist, when it should be careful and considered.”

Lower Lakes Barrages A Bar To Basin Sustainability

Dr Jennifer Marohasy draws attention to the issue the Murray Darling Basin Authority has already dismissed out of hand in this article published on October 31st in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“At the bottom of the Murray-Darling river system are five large steel and concrete barriers blocking 90 per cent of the natural ebb and flow between Lake Alexandrina and the Southern Ocean.

The Lower Lakes were not always fresh. Before the barrages were built they filled with seawater in periods of drought but now enjoy continual flows of fresh water from the Hume and Dartmouth dams. The Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray mouth will be the main recipients of all the proposed environmental flows in the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's controversial new Guide to the Proposed Basin Plan.”   Read complete article here.

Wind Farm Review Needed 

As protests against wind farms continue to mount in rural communities over health issues, questions arise about any of the alleged benefits of wind power.

“The premise underpinning the pursuit of renewable energy through wind power, at any cost, needs urgent review before we move from the current 266 turbines in Victoria to the planned total of 1228, as well as massive planned expansion in South Australia and NSW” says AEF executive director, Max Rheese in this article at Quadrant Online

See also:

Landscape degradation for little benefit

AEF media release on wind farm protest 

Medical Director pens letter to Premier Brumby on wind farms

Premier John Brumby received a detailed letter from the Medical Director of the Waubra Foundation in the same week the government approved yet another wind farm in western Victoria, near Ararat.

A moratorium on further wind farm approvals should be put in place until community concerns relating to health issues and landscape amenity are addressed.

Ararat wind farm gets planning nod

Future farming with technology

An article by former Commonwealth Chief Scientist, Dr Jim Peacock argues for the need to continue with innovation in farming to secure food security.

“Our Green Revolution is near spent. The enormous and lasting gains made in crop yield through conventional plant breeding, mechanisation, crop protection and clever agronomy are slowing.

But the next era for mainstream broadacre farming is already here, it might well be called the Gene Revolution.” GM crops and farming reality      

Concern over coal seam gas and farming future

AEF member Ian Hayllor presented at the 2010 AEF conference on getting the balance right between farming and extracting coal seam gas.

Farming communities on the Liverpool plains also have concerns about the effects of gas extraction on their properties.

LISTEN TO US CAMPAIGN SUCCESS

AEF’s first campaign on our campaign website, to oppose the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme, has achieved a significant milestone in the deferral of the legislation until 2013.

The recognition that this legislation did not have the support of the people no doubt was the reality that led to this historic backdown.  This is all the more significant given that AEF was almost alone in its opposition to this poor policy in early 2009 when big business, trade unions, many politicians, media and trade associations supported the legislation in some format.

In the end poor policy – for all the rhetoric – is still poor policy and should be condemned.

Thank You to all who supported the campaign to this point. 

Reefgate on the Barrier Reef

29 March 2010

Marine scientist Walter Starck disputes the case made by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority for reducing no fishing areas on the Reef. See Quadrant Online.

Do-gooders hop on kangaroo-cull bandwagon

Barry Cohen (former Labor Federal minister and former AEF Chairman), March 20, 2010

The British 440,000 Joeys campaign is a long-distance exercise in hypocrisy and ignorance. See article in The Australian.

Don Burke receives Australia Day Honor

Former AEF Chairman, Don Burke was awarded an OAM in the Australia Day Honors List.  The award was given for services to conservation, the environment and the media.

The board and members of AEF warmly congratulate our fellow member and hard working chairman on this recognition of his services to the community.

Aboriginal people in Cape York threatened by "Wild Rivers"

See Noel Pearson's article in the The Australian 16 January 2010

In The Australian January 30, NT Aboriginal leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu gives his support to the traditional owners of Cape York and tells how the people of northeast Arnhem Land are successfully harnessing their forestry resources despite the opposition of the green movement.

What does the Temperature Record Show?

There has been a 10 degree variation over the last six millions years and it was two to three degrees warmer three and a half to six million years ago.

Professor Bob Carter discusses the past and present temperature record in this YouTube extract from the talk he has been giving Australia-wide.

Part of the same presentation also appeared on a Four Corners program screened on November 9th.

Scientists 'crying wolf' over coral

A senior marine researcher, Professor Peter Ridd,  has accused Australian scientists of "crying wolf" over the threat of climate change to the Great Barrier Reef, exposing deep division about its vulnerability. See  Scientists 'crying wolf' over coral  and  How blue is your reef?  in The Australian 19 December 2009.

SENATE HAS VOTED IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST

December 2, 2009

The Australian Environment Foundation applauds the senate vote against the legislation to introduce a flawed emissions trading scheme that will have no measurable benefit to the environment.

“This costly scheme is nothing more than a tax on energy that will make Australians poorer” said Alex Stuart, chairman of the AEF.

See AEF Media Release

AEF speaks out on global warming in The Australian

An advertisement was placed in The Australian on Tuesday June 9th to draw attention to the campaign opposed to  the introduction of an Emissions Tradinng Scheme. 

The background theme for the advertisement were all the ridiculous claims attributed to global warming listed at John Brignell's Numberwatch website.

THE Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is in excellent shape

Farming and other human activity are not killing the reef, according to James Cook University's reef scientist, and AEF board member, Professor Peter Ridd. Read the interview in the North Queensland Register.

An Inconvenient Truth for forest protestors - No Old Growth Logs used here

Calton Frame from Gunns defends their proposed pulp mill in an ABC Online Opinion piece  (May 21st 2009)

Fossil Fuels Fail To Explain Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels

(AEF media release 14 April 2009)

The Australian Environment Foundation today welcomed new research by Australian physicist, Dr Tom Quirk, suggesting natural environmental forces, more than just fossil fuel emissions, could be contributing to the elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide [CO2].

“Most CO2 from fossil fuels is emitted in the northern hemisphere and it takes at least six months to spread to the southern hemisphere, which means that concentrations in the northern hemisphere should go up before they do in the southern hemisphere. In fact, they go up simultaneously, which suggests that manmade CO2 emissions are not the only contributor to the rise in global CO2 and there must be some other source. More

Australian Bushfire Management: a case study in wisdom versus folly

In his recent speech, Chairman of The Bushfire Front and AEF member, Roger Underwood makes clear what is wrong with our approach to bush fires  -  environmentalists and emergency services have the ear of government and this has lead to a serious neglect of preventive measures such as fuel reduction.

Professor Bob Carter on YouTube:  Science & social context of climate change

(From our 2008 Conference)

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4

• Sea Change: Tim Winton's view from the deep
• Restoring the Murray River's Estuary
• Murray Facts and Fictions
• Poor want climate policies that work
• The windmills in our minds
• The Crumbling Edifice of the IPCC
• Wind farm silence deafening
• Sea will save Murray River's mouth
• Green politics bad for climate
• Health and economics will unravel wind power