The ridiculous predictions of the reef dementors

Peter Ridd

Harry Potter fans know what a Dementor is. To quote Remus Lupin it is a creature that:

glories in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them… get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you.

I am reminded of Dementors when I hear the usual scaremongers claim the reef is still doomed despite the wonderful news last week that the Great Barrier Reef recorded the highest amount of coral since records began in 1986. The reef has never had more coral despite supposedly having suffered four devastating, unprecedented bleaching events since 2016 – all due to climate change.

Corals take five to ten years to recover so it is clear that reef-science institutions have been misleading the world about the bleaching events. How could there have been up to 93 per cent coral loss in 2016 alone, and much more in 2017, 2020 and 2022 if we now have record high coral cover?

We should look at the predictions of the reef-Dementors in 2012 when it had relatively low coral cover after a couple of huge cyclones passed across the reef. The waves from the cyclones killed corals in an area bigger than Belgium and Holland – not huge by Australian standards, but still a fair bit of coral. Eminent Dementors stated:

"coral cover in the central and southern regions of the GBR is likely to decline to 5–10% by 2022. The future of the GBR therefore depends on decisive action."

This has been proven to be a ridiculous prediction. It’s not just a bit wrong – it’s as wrong as it possibly could be. The reef’s coral cover in 2022 is roughly four times higher than predicted, and now at record levels. The only decisive action taken was by the coral – it grew back, like it always does.

But the reef Dementors can still find ways to scare children even with this great news. Apparently, the species composition of the reef is changing. It is becoming dominated by plate and staghorn corals that are the most susceptible to bleaching and cyclones. So, all this growth has made the reef very susceptible to future damage from climate change. It is doubtless at a ‘tipping point’ – only one major event away from oblivion. I already feel hope draining from my soul. Here was I thinking more coral was a good thing.

Let us ignore the fact that these delicate staghorn and plate/tabular corals are the most spectacular of the reef and provide safe harbour for the iridescent fish that give the reef its colour – and we have more of them than ever. Ignore even that this type of coral is the first to be damaged by cyclones – the biggest cause of temporary coral loss – and the first to recover, by definition changing the species mix on a reef.

Better to remember the Patronus Charm – the spell to counter a Dementor – which is to recall what the Dementors said after the ‘devastating’ 2016 climate bleaching event:

"Fast-growing staghorn and tabular corals suffered a catastrophic die-off, transforming the three dimensionality and ecological functioning… (of the reef and)… changing (the reef) forever, as the intensity of global warming continues to escalate."

So, in 2016 the loss of staghorn coral was a disaster but in 2022 its regrowth is a disaster. And the change that was supposed to last ‘forever’ lasted until 2022. There is only one word for this. Ridiculous.

To deal with Dementors, Harry Potter practiced his magic on another creature called a Boggart. Boggarts have no definite physical form but appear as the thing you most fear – for Harry, this was a Dementor. To destroy a Boggart, you must make it appear laughable. The magic spell, with correct spelling, is Riddikulus. Thanks J.K.!

Reef scaremongers are not fearsome Dementors, they are common-or-garden Boggarts and it is time to laugh at them. They are nothing to fear as their credibility has been destroyed by the wonderful condition of the reef.

They have been crying wolf since the 1960s when they said the reef was doomed from crown-of-thorns starfish plagues. Their desperate attempts to find bad news in the latest fabulous statistics make them look even more pathetic. Boggart sycophants in mainstream media who practise the dark arts of deceiving the public, withholding vital information, and scaring children must also be ridiculed.

Be in no doubt that Boggarts fear derision. In 2018, I was fired from James Cook University after breaking the rules of the Ministry of Magic by casting a Riddikulus spell which demonstrated major quality assurance problems in reef-science.

It showed that a reef that was supposed to have no coral was flourishing, and a warming climate is almost certainly good for reefs because corals grow faster in warmer water. One of the many things the university Boggarts formally charged me with was ‘satire’ for making fun of them.

The biggest hurdle stopping people accepting the latest statistics showing the reef is fine, is the corollary of the proposition. If the reef is fine, the scientific institutions have deceived us for decades. To most people this is worse than the thought that the reef is doomed. We have been told since childhood that scientists must always be believed. The idea that some are untrustworthy is too horrible to contemplate. For most people, their Boggart is that the institutions they trusted are corrupt. I understand that but we must help them laugh.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/08/riddikulus-reef-dementors

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Gender clinics in danger of legal suits

Lawyers say Australian gender clinics may face legal action following news that Britain’s Tavistock clinic is facing a major medical negligence law suit from youngsters who claim they were “started on a treatment pathway that was not right for them”.

The legal action may have significant implications for several Australian gender clinics based at children’s hospitals across the country, where Tavistock’s contentious practices have played a strong influence in treatment.

Leading compensation law firm Gerard Malouf & Partners is exploring the prospects and feasibility of a similar class-action lawsuit in Australia.

In Britain, The Times reports that 1000 families are expected to join the medical negligence lawsuit, which is understood to allege that the gender-identity clinic “rushed” some young patients into treatment.

The Tavistock clinic is accused of recklessly prescribing puberty blockers with harmful side effects and is also alleged to have adopted an “unquestioning, affirmative approach” to children identifying as transgender.

The clinic is to be shut down after an independent review, led by Hilary Cass, found it was leaving young people “at considerable risk” of poor mental health and distress, and was “not a safe or ­viable long-term option”.

University of Queensland law professor Patrick Parkinson, who was involved in a landmark British High Court ruling that prohibited children under the age of 16 from consenting to puberty-blocking treatment, said the prospects of similar action in Australia were “very likely”.

“I’m expecting to see it here, I’m expecting to see it against hospitals and against individual doctors. Sooner or later, this is going to end up in the courts as a negligence issue,” he said.

“I think Australian gender clinics apart from Sydney are probably less conservative and less cautious than the Tavistock was. The decision of the British government raises serious questions about the continuation of the model in Australia and really justifies a major inquiry being set up.”

Professor Parkinson said the British government and the National Health Service lost confidence in the model of treatment that Tavistock promoted.

“The results of the closure of Tavistock is going to be that a mental health approach will be the first line, and I suspect that ­puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones will only be prescribed as a last resort in the most serious cases where psychotherapy does not prove to be effective,” he said.

Queensland paediatrician Dylan Wilson said he believed several young adults around the country who had been injured as result of being prescribed puberty blockers or hormone treatments as minors might have recourse to the courts.

“One hundred per cent there are children who have been harmed,” Dr Wilson said. “Even if they think it was worth it at the time, there are children who have suffered infertility and sexual dysfunction as a result of treatments and they may only be realising that now.

“If you’re puberty-blocked at an early stage, there are inevitable consequences. You can’t not be infertile if you’re puberty-blocked in the very first stages of puberty.”

Dr Wilson questioned the standard of care in gender clinics that take a gender-affirming approach. “The standards of care have never been held in high regard outside of gender clinics themselves,” he said.

“They publish their own ­papers and they say the paper we publish is evidence that what we’re doing is right. “They write the guidelines and they say ‘We’re following the guidelines’. “These are not internationally accepted guidelines.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/gender-clinics-in-danger-of-legal-suits/news-story/27350225bd4ec17c019a84f2948cc91b

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Surat basin gas: Senex confirms $1b expansions of Queensland gas fields

A major $1bn expansion of a Queensland gas field by a company part-owned by mining magnate Gina Reinhart will pump enough of the resource into the domestic market to cover 40 per cent of the state’s needs.

The major announcement by gas producer Senex came the same day Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King was set to gently urge Queensland to open up more gas fields to help keep the nation’s lights on.

And Ms King, in a speech in Brisbane on Thursday, revealed she wasn’t confident people in the southern states — New South Wales and Victoria — would become more receptive to gas projects over time meaning Queensland would be left doing the heavy lifting.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian MacFarlane said the state would have to bear the burden until such time Victoria and NSW developed its own onshore gas projects.

“But the political reality of that is there is not the courage in the governments in those states to do that,” he said.

The same afternoon, gas giant Santos confirmed it had bought a gas pipeline route that would pass close to the long-delayed NSW Narrabri gas project.

Senex, a joint venture between South Korean steel giant Posco and Reinhart’s Hancock Energy, confirmed on Thursday it would spend $1bn to expand its projects in the Surat Basin and produce 60 petajoules of gas by 2025.

It is enough gas to cover 40 per cent of Queensland’s domestic needs or 10 per cent of the east coast, with chief executive Ian Davies confirming a “majority” of the gas was exclusively for domestic use.

Senex also has a deal with Gladstone LNG for a “minority” of the gas, which will be exported.

Of the gas coming out of Australia’s east coast, 75 per cent is from Queensland. Since 2015 the state government has released 20,000 sqkm of land — 3.5 times the size of Bali — for explorers to find gas for domestic use.

Ms King, asked when the southern states would pull their weight on the gas, said states had made their own choices and while she would not push them, it would be helpful if consumers understood the energy mix in their areas.

But she also said she wasn’t “confident” that would change in the southern states.

“In defence, they do have pretty ambitious targets around net zero which their community expects and their voters expect and you know, that’s a constituency that I respect,” she said.

Mr Davies said the project had approvals for two of the three areas which required it and was working on securing the green light for the final acreage.

According to Senex the expansion of the Atlas and Roma North fields would create 200 construction jobs and 50 ongoing jobs.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/surat-basin-gas-senex-confirms-1b-expansions-of-queensland-gas-fields/news-story/c095f84e7818296e80a662f01d64193e

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MARK LATHAM fears for Australia's future as entitled young sooks claim they've been BULLIED when told how to do their job:

Something strange is happening in Australian workplaces - even here in the NSW Parliament on Macquarie Street.

It is now classified as 'bullying' to tell an employee their work is not up to scratch and they need to improve. It is now regarded as 'harassment' for a boss to lose their temper and blow up in reaction to staff incompetence.

It is now so touchy-feely that no staff meetings can be held before 10am, when everyone has completed their 'carer responsibilities' for the morning.

The younger generation has responded to these entitlements with a 'you can't talk to me like that' view of their employer.

Consultants are everywhere conducting workplace reviews that encourage and enable staff to be snowflakes, perpetually offended, upset and complaining.

In the NSW Parliament, the recent Workplace Review has cost a small fortune in taxpayers' money, even though, in establishing the process, no specific problems were identified in our building.

Emails were sent to staff in our One Nation office but none saw the need to participate in the consultant's review.

Ironically, one received so many emails he felt bullied to participate.

I thought the review was a waste of money with an entirely predictable pre-scripted outcome, so I never agreed to be interviewed. I'm interested in solving real problems in NSW, not ones invented by Snowflake Lefties.

Every MP should be responsible for their own office and staff – that is why we elected them. Instead, the new trend is to establish special Complaints Officers (as they now have in Macquarie Street) to add to the culture of complaint and dobbing.

The Parliamentary Workplace Review is being released on Friday, and undoubtedly it will make findings of a 'toxic culture' and recommend that everyone go on training courses (run by other consultants at further taxpayer expense).

I don't see it myself.

Before getting into parliament, I worked as a staffer for two fairly volatile politicians: Bob Carr and Gough Whitlam.

Gough would explode like a volcano, his body shaking, his teeth grinding with anger. But a few minutes later he would come around to my desk and say, 'What are you working on now, comrade?' and give me a friendly hug.

I took this to be his way of letting off steam. Busy people in public life who work hard, come under pressure and expect perfection in their work standards, are likely to go off when things go wrong.

I never thought for a moment Whitlam was disrespecting or harassing me. A mature, sensible worker would immediately know that.

Ultimately, taking offence is a choice, and I chose never to be offended. I recommend this for the younger Snowflake Generation: to take a teaspoon of cement and harden up.

Most of all, I worry that the woke 'respect at work' agenda is diminishing our standards and performance as a nation.

If incompetent staff are allowed to survive without anyone being allowed to point out their failings, then many more businesses are going to go broke, many more governments are going to mess up public policy and many more public agencies are going to be out-of-touch and incapable of meeting community needs.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11101423/MARK-LATHAM-Snowflake-generation-needs-harden-bring-Australia-down.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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