Jennifer Marohasy - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jennifer Marohasy is an Australian biologist, columnist and blogger best known for her work on the Murray River. She was a senior fellow at the free-market think tank

Think tank

A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

the Institute of Public Affairs

Institute of Public Affairs

The Institute of Public Affairs is a public policy think tank based in Melbourne, Australia. It advocates free market economic policies such as privatisation and deregulation of state-owned enterprises, trade liberalisation and deregulated workplaces, climate change skepticism , and the...

between 2004 and 2009 and director of the Australian Environment Foundation

Australian Environment Foundation

The Australian Environment Foundation is a not-for-profit advocacy organisation. It differs from many other such groups because it accepts most traditional human activities in the environment, such as farming and forestry, seeking to combine these with an enhanced concern for nature...

which she says was born out of frustration with the current direction of environment groups. She holds a PhD in biology from the University of Queensland

University of Queensland

The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...

. She is sceptical of anthropogenic global warming.

Career

Marohasy worked as a field biologist in Africa and Madagascar during the 1980s and 1990s, and has a number of published papers in science journals.

In 1997 she switched from researcher to environment manager with the Queensland sugar industry. In 2001, she started to develop an interest in environmental campaigns and, in particular, anomalies between fact and perception regarding the health of coastal river systems and the Great Barrier Reef.

In July 2003, she became director of the environment unit at the Institute of Public Affairs

Institute of Public Affairs

Her work at the Institute of Public Affairs

While head of the Environment Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs, Dr Marohasy compiled a backgrounder titled Myth and the Murray - measuring the real state of the river environment which was published by the Institute in December 2003. The Institute received a $40,000 donation from Murray Irrigation Limited at that time. This paper is quoted in the Interim Report of the Inquiry into future water supplies for Australia’s rural industries and communities of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, March 2004. At a science round table of the committee, when asked for her views on how much water should be returned to the River Murray, Dr Marohasy argued that there was no need for additional flows at that time and that we should test the results of current environmental measures before committing to more.
Revelations in the monograph forced the resignation of science managers at both the CSIRO and Murray Darling Basin Authority and soon after its publication The Australian newspaper discontinued its 'Saving the Murray' campaign.

Dr Marohasy was instrumental in establishing a joint programme with the Institute of Public Affairs and the University of Queensland, funded by Western Australian philanthropist, Dr Bryant Macfie (A top 20 Shareholder in Strike Resources Limited http://www.amazon.com/review/R148F67H949L9J http://www.strikeresources.com.au/fileadmin/FastScout/archive/AnnualReports/20071029_SRK_2007_Annual_Report.pdf).
Dr Marohasy is nolonger involved in the programme following objections to her involvement from the Australian Federation of Scientists and Technologists (FASTS).

Public position on global warming

In an Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

interview she stated that... [i]t's not clear that climate change
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

is being driven by carbon dioxide levels...whether or not we can reduce carbon dioxide levels, there will be climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

.

On the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

Radio National

ABC Radio National is an Australia-wide non-commercial radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Radio National broadcasts national programming in areas that include news and current affairs, the arts, social issues, science, drama and comedy...

program, Ockham's Razor, Dr Marohasy said... I agree with Professor Flannery
Tim Flannery
Timothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....

that we need to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

In an interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

Radio National program, Counterpoint

Counterpoint (Radio National)

Counterpoint is an Australian weekly radio program, presented by Michael Duffy and Paul Comrie-Thomson and broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National.-Programming:...

, she claimed recent cooling by starting with the temperature peak of the 1998 El Niño

El Niño-Southern Oscillation

El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, is a quasiperiodic climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean roughly every five years...

event. She said that... there has been cooling if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last ten years. ...very unexpected not something that is being discussed. It should though be being discussed because it is very significant.

External links

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