The ‘longest war’ that Australia is not prepared for

It might more aptly be described as the "phoniest" war. The blurb below is inspired by a visit to Australia by a prominent  American Warmist and elitist schmoozer.  Her claims are at least mostly reported cautiously below.  It is all "is believed to have been" and "is thought to have created".  One is of course equally at liberty to believe and think the opposite.

It is true that poor cropping conditions in the Middle East led to food shortages but that was  not because of global warming.  Why?  Because there was no global warming during the period concerned.  The drought (roughly from 2005 to 2011) behind the crop failures occurred in the middle of the 21st century warming "hiatus". So nothing at that time CAN be attributed to warming.  Neither droughts in the Middle East nor anything else can be caused by something that does not exist.

And so it goes.  It is all false attribution below.  She predictably blames recent Barrier Reef bleaching on global warming.  And it may be true that waters in Northeastern Australia are warmer than usual at the moment, but that is NOT any part of anthropogenic global warming.

Why?  Because anthropogenic global warming is said to be caused by increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere.  But there have been NO increases in CO2 in the atmosphere recently. Cape Grim tells us that CO2 levels have been plateaued on 401ppm since last July (midwinter)  So anything -- including coral bleaching -- that happened in the recent summer is NOT due to a rise in CO2. 

It's all just BS unfounded assertions below


CLIMATE change is already acknowledged as a national security risk in the US but Australia seems unprepared for what some experts are calling “the longest war”.

Sherri Goodman, a former Pentagon and US Department of Defence official, has helped to develop groundbreaking reports on the links between climate change and national security.

While Australians may not yet recognise the risks, Ms Goodman told news.com.au that in the US, the link was widely accepted within the military and national security leadership.

Even Donald Trump’s new Secretary of Defence James Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month that climate change was a threat to the country’s troops.

“Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today,” Mattis reportedly confirmed in a statement.

Ms Goodman, who coined the term “threat multiplier” to describe the climate change risk, said Australia is not immune to its potentially devastating impacts.

So far, climate change is believed to have been a factor in conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Egypt.

Ms Goodman said climate change would create prolonged instability and cause underlying tensions to seep out through a variety of conflicts.

Extreme drought is thought to have created conditions in Syria and Iraq for the rise of Islamic State, as well as the Arab Spring in Egypt.

“The food crisis was the spark that lit the match for the Arab Spring because there were wheat shortages in Russia and Ukraine, and Russia stopped exporting wheat after a prolonged drought,” Ms Goodman said.

“That led to a food shortage in Egypt and in other Arab Spring nations.”

Ms Goodman said Australia needed to better understand these types of connections so it could prepare and take steps, not just to respond when people’s lives were at risk during a natural disaster.

“We need to understand where droughts and water scarcity and extreme weather events are becoming forcing factors in conflicts,” she said.

“The climate is continuing to change because of the carbon that we’ve put into the system and so we need to understand these changes and then we need to be able to respond to them.”

She said Australia was not well prepared for this “longest war”, particularly as many political leaders did not accept climate change posed any problem to future prosperity.

Ms Goodman said she hoped recent extreme weather events like Cyclone Debbie, heatwaves and bushfires would be a “wake up call”.

“You have the capability, you have the power within in Australia to make the country more resilient,” she said.

“You’re already sort of a resource power house, but you want to be one that’s sustainable and continues its economic vitality for the rest of this century, and the way to do that is to appreciate the full range of both risks and opportunities.”

HOW IT COULD IMPACT US

Australia has already been given a recent taste of the havoc that extreme weather can bring, with homeowners complaining of looting in the aftermath of flooding and wild weather created by Cyclone Debbie.

But while Australia is a robust economy and has a stable political regime, many of our neighbours are not so lucky.

“The Asia Pacific region is ‘disaster alley’ for extreme weather events and natural disasters,” Ms Goodman said.

“The intensity of these events have been increasing in recent years, most likely fuelled by higher Pacific Ocean temperatures,” she said.

As one example Ms Goodman highlighted the situation in the Philippines, which was one of the countries most at risk of climate change due to sea level rise and storm surges.

Importantly, it was also politically unstable, where insurgents are creating problems for an authoritarian government.

“It wouldn’t take that much to push that country over the edge and these are countries right in your region,” she said.

Climate change has also been established as the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef, which supports 70,000 jobs within the region.

“I had the great privilege 20 years ago ... to dive in the Great Barrier Reef and it’s one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen in my life,” Ms Goodman said.

“Now that I know that the bleaching has changed the corals, I don’t know that I’d come back here right now. And I’m sure I’m not alone in my thinking.”

While Australia’s economy may be able to survive the loss of tourism if the Great Barrier Reef was to die, Ms Goodman said other countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, may not.

“Australia is a robust economy and a resilient society but you are here as part of the coral triangle,” she said.

“Can their economies withstand long-term and perhaps, permanent bleaching? I don’t know. But I think we should be all very concerned about that.”

Australia is also surrounded by low lying Pacific Islands where whole populations are at risk of being flooded and losing their sovereignty within our lifetimes.

“People get desperate when they lose their homes, their food, their shelter, their water,” Ms Goodman said.

“Climate change acts as an accelerant of instability,” she said.

While it may not be the only cause acting to create this, climate change can aggravate existing threats like terrorism, the development of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, corruption and political instability.

“So climate becomes a threat multiplier on all of these existing threats,” she said.

SOURCE






Ayaan Hirsi Ali slams protesters who prevented her visit to Australia

A "horrible alliance" at work

Controversial activist and former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali has launched a scathing critique of the protesters who prevented her visit to Australia, arguing freedom of debate has been shut down by a “horrible alliance” between the far left and radical Islamist voices.

Ms Hirsi Ali was due to arrive in Australia for a speaking tour this week, which would have included an appearance on ABC’s Q&A program, but cancelled at the last minute citing concerns about security and the organisation of her trip.

While she refused to elaborate on the reasons for the cancellation, Ms Hirsi Ali has told Channel Seven on Tuesday evening she wishes to “defy” her opponents and “come and expose them for what they are.”

“These are people who are far more interested in defending sharia Law, that’s Islamic law, and the doctrine of radical Islam, over human rights,” she said of her opponents, which included a Victorian group called Against Islamophobia who reportedly called venues at which she was booked to speak and threatened mass protests.

Ms Hirsi Ali also hit back at the group of Australian Muslim women who accused her of being a “star” of Islamophobia and stirring up hatred.

“Today you have this horrible alliance between the far left and the Islamists and they’re using the modern media tool to shut people like me out by smearing us,” Ms Hirsi Ali said.

In their video the six woman said Ms Hirsi Ali — who was raised a Muslim but renounced her religion as an adult and became a fierce critic of radical Islamists and sharia law — was a “star of the global Islamophobia industry” and did not speak for them.

They criticised her for past descriptions of Muslim women as docile and irrational, accused her of using the language of white supremacists and profiting from “an industry that exists to dehumanise Muslim women”.

But Ms Hirsi Ali says the women are “carrying water” for radical Islamic organisations like the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State and Boko Haram because they have done little to defend women with few rights under Islamic law.

“I have seen the video that was put together, it looks really like a slick propaganda thing, by these women who are saying ‘you don’t speak for us’,” Ms Hirsi Ali told Channel Seven.

Ms Hirsi Ali also likened the burka to wearing a large swastika while responding to Pauline Hanson’s calls to ban Muslim immigration.

“It’s the assumption that all immigrants are bad and all Muslims are bad, I don’t hold that view,” Ms Hirsi Ali said. “But the burka that covers the face, and that is really very much in your face, that kind of thing is just like the ISIS flag, it’s like wearing a very big swastika.”

Ms Hirsi Ali expressed her disappointment over her tour cancellation and apologised to all the people who had bought tickets.

“I am very, very sorry. I really think it’s terrible that they have become victims of this.”

Ms Hirsi Ali earlier hit back at a group of Australian Muslim women who accused her of being a “star” of Islamophobia and stirring up hatred.

The women took to Facebook on Monday when Ms Hirsi Ali was due to arrive in Australia for a speaking tour but cancelled at the last minute citing concerns about security and the organisation of her trip.

In their video the six woman said Ms Hirsi Ali - who was raised a Muslim but renounced her religion as an adult and became a fierce critic of radical Islamists and sharia law - was a “star of the global Islamophobia industry” and did not speak for them.

They criticised her for past descriptions of Muslim women as docile and irrational, accused her of using the language of white supremacists and profiting from “an industry that exists to dehumanise Muslim women”.

But Ms Hirsi Ali says the women are “carrying water” for radical Islamic organisations like the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State and Boko Haram because they have done little to defend women with few rights under Islamic law.

“I just want to point my finger at all the places in the world today where Islamic law is applied and how women are treated and I want to say to these women, ‘shame on you’,” Ms Hirsi Ali told AAP today.

“Shame on you for carrying water for the Islamists, shame on you for trying to shut people up who are trying to raise awareness about sharia law.”

Comment was being sought from a representative for the women, who posted their video message on a Facebook page titled Persons of Interest. Ms Hirsi Ali rejected their claim that she was trying to be a spokeswoman for all Muslim women, saying she was simply “speaking up” against how sharia law degraded women by allowing beatings, stoning, slavery and female genital mutilation.

She declined to go into the reasons behind her decision to cancel her trip to Australia, where she was due address crowds in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne this week before heading to New Zealand.

The US-based, Somali-born activist who was subject to female genital mutilation as a child and became an MP in the Netherlands after seeking political asylum, has for years lived with tight security as a result of her stance on radical Islamists.

She had hoped during her visit to Australia to highlight the need for Western countries to educate themselves about dawa, or how radical Islamists spread their ideology.

Ms Hirsi Ali says while the West should continue its military battles against terrorists, it needed to focus on the spread of Islamic ideology through schools, mosques and non-government organisations that on the surface appear non-violent but ultimately act as a “conveyor belt” for violence. She argues such organisations can flourish in Western countries by exploiting laws safeguarding freedom of religion, expression and association. “I don’t believe individuals are born wanting to join the jihad. It’s a process, a long process,” Ms Hirsi Ali said.

Security concerns forced Hirsi Ali to pull out of her planned speaking tour. Ms Hirsi Ali, who lives with around-the-clock security protection due to her criticisms of radical Islamists, was due to speak at events in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland this week.

She was also due to appear on ABC TV’s Q&A panel last night. About 2000 tickets had been sold to Ms Hirsi Ali’s speaking events in Australia.

Ms Hirsi Ali’s trip to Australia had sparked protests from a group of Muslim women who accused her of hate mongering and bigotry.

Nearly 400 people signed an online petition against Ms Hirsi Ali’s speaking tour.

“Against a backdrop of increasing global Islamophobia, Hirsi-Ali’s divisive rhetoric simply serves to increase hostility and hatred towards Muslims,” the petition, posted on Change.org, said.

Ms Hirsi Ali has repeatedly criticised radical Islamists and sharia law and wants moderate Muslims to reform their religion.

She was raised a Muslim by her family in Somalia, but later renounced her religion after seeking political asylum in the Netherlands in the early 1990s in an attempt to escape an arranged marriage.

Ms Hirsi Ali joined VVD, the People’s Party for Freedom, which is a Liberal party in the Netherlands.

She moved to the US after receiving death threats for helping to make a short film that showed images of violence against women alongside verses from the Koran.

In a paper written for the Hoover Institute at Stanford University last month, Ms Hirsi Ali argues the public needs to be better educated about the political ideology of Islamists and the ways they recruit and finance their operations so they can reach their ultimate goal of imposing sharia law.

SOURCE





Upskilled survey: Aussie workers happy

Registered training organisation, Upskilled, has today released the Annual Australian Career Survey of 3,418 Australians, revealing most Australians (82 per cent) “enjoy” their jobs, a third (29 per cent) “love” their job, and only a very small percentage “hardly ever” liked their job (3 per cent) or “actively hated” it (4 per cent).

The Survey also revealed that happiness at work or earning enough to stop working was the most important career goal of all for many (28 per cent each), with few motivated to start their own company (13 per cent), run the company they’re currently at (3 per cent), or leave a legacy (3 per cent).

“Running the Survey each year is a way for Upskilled to better understand the sentiment driving Australian workers, and assess whether we’re on track to compete in a global workforce and marketplace,” said Jon Lang, CEO of Upskilled.

“The results are great in that the first step towards creating a productive and engaged workforce is obviously to have workers enjoying what they do on a day-to-day basis.

“However, it’s less encouraging to note the low level of entrepreneurial drive – particularly in this age of disruption and innovation, and with the increasing importance of startups.”

The national online study of 1,860 women and 1,558 men covered a wide range of industries, age groups, and employment types, including students, senior management, the unemployed, and retired workers.

Overall, the biggest indicators of workplace happiness were liking the workplace (66 per cent), feeling valued at work (62 per cent), and having an enjoyable job (59 per cent).

Northern Territorians were the happiest state (92 per cent), self-employed were the happiest employment type (92 per cent), women were the happiest gender (82 per cent), and those in Arts & Recreation Services were the happiest industry (93 per cent).

The lowest levels of happiness were found in NSW, Victoria, ACT and Canberra (80 per cent each), casual employment (79 per cent), and manufacturing (74 per cent).

Happiness levels interestingly didn’t indicate satisfaction with remuneration, with happy workers being more likely to want a pay rise than unhappy workers (68 and 63 per cent respectively). Surveyed women also earned a lot less than men (18% of females earn over $70k compared to 34% of males) but were still slightly happier (82 per cent compared to 80 per cent of men).

It was also not a simple ‘flip’ for the indicators of unhappiness: inadequate workplace training (67 per cent) was a bigger issue than not enjoying the job (64 per cent) and not feeling valued (55 per cent).

In fact, education was a topic of great interest to workers, with 70 per cent wanting to undertake further study, with the primary reason cited (58 per cent) being to advance their career options.

However, despite 74 per cent being aware there were funding options available to support this further study, and 52 per cent stating that access to financial support would encourage them to study, only nine per cent had actually had their course subsidised.

Findings also supported a desire for education options that allowed for full-time work to continue unaffected, with 44 per cent of respondents wanting to study completely online, 26 per cent wanting a blend of on-campus and online delivery, and only 6 per cent wanting study full-time study on campus.

“Though it appears we are interested in bettering ourselves through education, there seems to be a large gap between awareness of the subsidies that could make this happen, and actually taking advantage of these subsidies to become better qualified and more highly skilled.

“This might be rectified if employers were more fully engaged in educating their employees on the funding options that are available to help them increase their skill levels and do their jobs better.

“This could be improved if employers were made aware of the many ways their workers could complete these additional studies in a strictly online format, which would provide minimal disruption to their jobs,” concluded Jon Lang.

Founded in 2009, Upskilled is a leading  Australian  Registered Training Organisations, delivering more than 100 Nationally Recognised Qualifications  across a wide range of industries to working professionals, job seekers and school leavers around the country.

Media release from www.upskilled.edu.au






Judge attacks feckless heirs

Grown-up children hanging around waiting for elderly parents to die so they can inherit the estate should consider themselves warned: nobody has an automatic right to the fortune amassed by hardworking parents - and at least one NSW judge appears determi-ned to uphold the right of those parents to disinherit feckless children

In a series of scathing judgments over the past 18 months, the most recent made on March 7, NSW Supreme Court judge Michael Pembroke has backed those parents who speak from the grave, in denying greedy, dysfunctional or spoiled children a windfall from their estate.Justice Pembroke has repeatedly lashed what he described as "a cohort of independent, self-sufficient 50- and 60-year-olds wanting to get more of the pie from their parents, notwithstanding that the parent had made a conscious decision that they had already had enough

One of the freedoms that shape our society, and an important human right, is that a person should be free to dispose of his or her property as he or she thinks fit", he said. This means that parents may dispose of their estates as they see fit and that siblings have no automatic right to equality between them. That may be the system in European countries, but it is not the law in Australia.

The most recent case to come before Justice Pembroke, Kraljevic v Kraljevic, involved a family with three children. The parents came to Australia from the Balkans in the 1950s, and established a mushroom farm.One son, Mario, stayed on the property after his father died in 1991, helping his mother to keep the business alive. When the mother died, the land upon which the farm was built was sold for about $14 million.The mother decided to leave three-fifths of her estate to Mario.

His siblings, Vili and Vesna, promptly went to court, where they ran into Justice Pembroke. Each plaintiff in this case has received more than $3.2m from the estate of their late mother, he said in his judgment. They are not satisfied with that amount and want more.He refused to give them more, saying the siblings were motivated by little more than an underlying desire to obtain more money and their mother was well within her rights to leave a greater slice of the pie to Mario.

In a previous case from last year, known as Revell v Revell, Justice Pembroke rejected a claim by a 60-year-old son against the estate of his father, whose story he described as one of survival, hardship and determination.The son's life, on the other hand, seems like a modern urban fiasco, for which no one else is to blame and certainly not his father, Justice Pembroke said.

The father, known as Tibby, was a Hungarian Jew who survived the Holocaust before making his way to Sweden, where he met his future wife. They came to Australia in 1953, where Tibby eventually built a $10m fortune. He left $1.5m to his son, who tried to get more, but Justice Pembroke found Tibby had deliberately capped the amount he wanted his son to get, having complained to friends that his son was always in financial trouble; that he is a parasite; that he doesnt do anything with his life; that he is useless; that he doesnt like hard work; and that he only wants money.

In a third case, Justice Pembroke dealt with a Sydney man, Robert Wilcox, 46, and his younger brother, Benjamin, who sued their elderly mother, Patricia, after their grandfather left his rural estate to her, and not to them.

Justice Pembroke said that no one is responsible for the (impoverished) position in which Robert Wilcox now finds himself, except himself and he doubted that he was sufficiently motivated to find work.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here