Baby Crocs Face Climate Change Crunch

As far as I can see, Craig Franklin is an attention-seeking crook.  A study by him is reported below.  No reference is given to the underlying research report so it would appear to be unpublished.  It should  be unpublishable in the light of his previous work, which contradicts his conclusions below.

In his 2015 article "Diving in a warming world: the thermal sensitivity and plasticity of diving performance in juvenile estuarine crocodiles", we read:  "Maximal dive performances, however, were found to be thermally insensitive across the temperature range of 28–35°C".  Come again?  28–35°C is the temperature range he studied below  and the central claim of the article is that crocs can't stay underwater for long if the water is hot

And in his 2013 article we need only to note the heading:  "Hatchling crocodiles maintain a plateau of thermal independence for activity, but at what cost?"

He certainly owes the public an explanation if not a retraction.  Why did it need a psychologist to call this Warmist galoot out?

And, anyway, there must be at least 100,000 crocs in Australian  waters. No-one would miss them if there were fewer of them


Climate change could make a meal of baby crocs, with warmer water slashing the amount of time they can hide underwater to avoid being eaten.

Juvenile crocs rely on so-called fright-dives to escape their natural predators including birds of prey, large fish, freshwater turtles, and larger crocs.

But a new study shows that in warmer water - an inevitable result of climate change - their defensive dives are shortened by half.

University of Queensland researcher Craig Franklin says that could threaten survival rates as the climate continues to warm.

His study exposed baby crocs to current river temperatures of about 28 degrees, and also to temperatures of about 34 degrees, expected by the end of the century.

He worked out that as crocs get warmer, they consume oxygen faster as their metabolism increases.

That halves the length of time they can spend hiding underwater, forcing them to surface more quickly to take another breath.

Crocs conditioned to existing temperatures could stay submerged for 18.5 minutes, and over an hour if they felt particularly harassed.

But those used to the warmer water could only stay under for nine minutes, and a maximum of 28 minutes if they felt very threatened.

Crocs conditioned to the warmer water were unable to lower their metabolism, burning through oxygen faster and forcing them to the surface.

"(We) are concerned that crocodile youngsters will become more vulnerable to predators as they are likely to have to surface more frequently if the temperature continues rising," Prof Franklin and his research associate Essie Rodgers warn.

The study involved saltwater crocs, a species that already has a very high juvenile mortality rate.

Young hatchlings are often eaten, even with their longer defensive dives, and very few make it to adulthood.

Saltwater crocs were widely hunted across northern Australia until the 1960s. Since the 1970s they've been protected, and numbers have recovered but the species is still listed as vulnerable in Queensland.

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Yes activist caught jostling No protesters

A Greens activist who launched legal action against the No campaign for linking her image to ­“violent political extremism” jostled with protesters and tried to shut down a rally against the Safe Schools program.

Jill Moran, who ran for the Greens at last year’s ACT elections, shouted “shame” and “Safe Schools saves lives” as she attempted to disrupt the Jericho rally on August 12, organised by the Christian Democratic Party in Canberra.

Footage of the rally, captured by Christian protesters and the Ten Network, shows gay rights activists shouting down opponents of Safe Schools.

Ms Moran, a Canberra-based public servant, said footage showing her lunging forward with her leg as someone tried to take away her rainbow flag was not directed at any particular individual.

“I was not lunging at him directly, which is why I turned my back,” she told The Australian. “It’s unfortunate that he tried to steal my flag, and then did successfully steal my flag, which was returned to me by the police.”

Footage of the rally can be seen in the video below.

Ms Moran’s image, and those of other protesters at the event, was used in a September 16 media statement issued by the Coalition for Marriage ahead of its formal campaign launch, but she was not identified by name.

The image showed her carrying a rainbow flag and wearing a white shirt next to a statement saying: “Tonight a test for the extremists of the ‘Yes’ campaign.”

Slater & Gordon — which on Wednesday confirmed it was a “corporate supporter of the Australian Marriage Equality organisation” — has taken on Ms Moran’s case on a pro bono basis after she argued the use of her image without her consent was defamatory.

“We’ve issued a concerns notice requesting Jill’s photo be removed and an apology and correction issued. Defamation legislation sets out a 28-day response period for such requests,” lawyer Phil Johnston said.

The No campaign is still considering its response.

The Australian has been told it is the first and only defamation case brought against the Coalition for Marriage since the $122 million postal survey was announced.

Ms Moran told The Australian: “I don’t have a problem with the photograph itself. What I have a problem with is the photo’s association with the words ‘extremist’, ‘violent’ and ‘bullying’ — and characterising me that way.

“As a public servant, I’m expected to follow the APS code of conduct and ideas that I’m extremist or violent could have ramifications for my ... future employment in the public service.”

Ms Moran confirmed to The Australian she had deleted a tweet posted on the day of the rally in which she joked about “smashing” heterosexual primacy.

“Beauty tips for when the plebiscite makes you break out in stress pimples: 1. Notice 2. Shrug 3. Go back to smashing the heteropatriachy,” the tweet said.

Ms Moran said she deleted the tweet because she was receiving unwanted push-back from “internet trolls”. “I would say that only an act of violence would justify calling me violent,” she said.

The Coalition for Marriage issued a statement on Wednesday denying that “anyone has been defamed”. “An image of Yes activists deliberately and brazenly disrupting a peaceful anti-Safe Schools event in Canberra was shared with our media release,” the statement said. “There are many photos and videos publicly available that confirm what happened that day.”

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W.A.: Marion Council moves against making changes to its Australia Day celebrations

A PUSH to lobby the Federal Government to change the date of Australia Day has been scuttled by Marion councillors.

Cr Bruce Hull’s move, which if supported also would have also seen Marion abandon citizenship ceremonies on January 26, was not supported by any of the other 10 councillors in the chamber at a meeting on Wednesday night.

Cr Hull told the meeting January 26 was the wrong day to celebrate Australia Day, because it marked the British invasion of Aboriginal land. “Others say we should leave this to the Federal Government but they don’t celebrate Australia Day functions – we do,” he said.

He has previously said he was taking a stand on the issue because Australia Day was a “day of sorrow” for many in the community.

Cr Hull’s move followed a June National General Assembly of Local Government, at which councils voted to consider efforts to lobby the Government to change the date of Australia Day.

But Mayor Kris Hanna told the meeting “the fact that the Australian Local Government Association has taken it up ... just discredits them in the eyes of the community”.

He said the debate over Australia Day was a federal political issue. “Local councils should be focused on improving the lives of their local communities rather than on national politics,” Mr Hanna said.

He said Marion Council’s citizenship ceremony and citizen of the year awards will go ahead as planned on January 26.

The council had received 114 emails and letters from locals wanting to have their say on Cr Hull’s idea, with 105 of those were against the move.

Exeter man Robert Miller, an Aboriginal elder, told the meeting the tradition of celebrating Australia Day as a nation was quite recent.

“The Day of Mourning is only three years younger than Australia Day as we know it,” he said. He suggested the anniversary of the abolition of the White Australia Policy would be a better day to mark Australia Day.

Assistant Immigration Minister Alex Hawke recently wrote to Marion, saying citizenship ceremonies should not be used “as a forum to protest the practice of celebrating Australia Day on January 26”.

He threatened to strip the council of its authority to conduct ceremonies, if it did choose to stage a protest.

All states and territories have marked January 26 as Australia Day since 1935, but it has only been consistently celebrated as a public holiday since 1994.

Marion was the first in Adelaide to vote on the issue, after Yarra and Darebin councils in Victoria in August voted to scrap their Australia Day ceremonies.

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Victorian Leftists Fund Gay Gaming App

Australia’s most regressive leader Daniel Andrews’ never ceases to amaze with the social engineering programs and projects he funds, meanwhile leaving the actual business of running the state far behind. But this time he may have outdone himself yesterday announcing that his government would be funding an absurd LGBT project.

Andrews eagerly announcing that his government would be commissioning the creation of gaming app which will have the player in the role of an LGBT person facing perceived homophobia. Think of it as a mobile version of his government’s Safe Schools program, it already has young students role playing being in same sex relationships, now Andrews wants young people to role play being gay on their smartphones.

The gaming app will be developed in partnership with Victoria University and the Victorian AIDS Council, which despite its name that gives the impression it is about sexual health is just another LGBT lobby group. Their homepage immediately asks people to support marriage equality and the focus of its activities is clearly geared towards the LGBT agenda.

The way this gaming app is funded is that the Andrews Government has a Combatting Homophobia initiative. It is a joint program through the state governments arts funding program Creative Victoria and the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s Equality Branch. This elaborate funding approach gives you an idea of the layers of bureaucracy in place to fund such an obscene project.

This app should be viewed as insult to the intelligence of Victorians that their government views them apparently as so hateful and bigoted to gay people that they need a government funded gaming app to counter their ingrained homophobia. Most ordinary people when learning about the existence of such app will most likely laugh at its absurdity, that is until they find out they paid for it.

This gaming app will apparently be released in late 2018 which interestingly enough is just in time for the Victorian State Election. Hopefully its release will be a reminder to voters that for the past 4 years they have had a Premier who is more interested in virtue signalling on social justice issues, at the taxpayers’ expense of course, rather than delivering infrastructure for Victoria or controlling Melbourne’s crime wave.

Let’s also hope that Victoria soon has a government which will end this gravy train of funding for vanity projects, indulgences in identity politics and social justice madness. This will have the double effect of saving Victorians some money and getting government’s focus back where it should be.

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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