At least Mickey and his team have fire fighting experience!
The overwhelming opinion of Bushfire experts has been that while Climate Change has had an influence the major problem this summer is in the area of Forest management and drought, and “…as far as the climate scientists know there is no link between climate change and drought.”
Here's CSIRO's David Packham explaining the issue... Former CSIRO scientist David Packham has urged the government to do more to combat the “most important” factor contributing to the current bushfire crisis - the build up of very dry fuel"
Bushfire Expert Roger Underwood writing in Quadrant: An Inferno of Incompetence and Obfuscation "I reject the ‘blame it on climate change” position because it has two killer flaws: firstly, it ignores fuels, which are the main contributor to uncontrollable fires during a drought; secondly, it provides no practical solutions to the immediate problem. Both of these factors render the climate change argument utterly unsustainable, indeed ridiculous."
Once again ABC fails to ask any questions when it comes to climate change and its audience are left in the dark.
List of Laureates and areas of expertise below.
Name
|
Experience
|
Expertise in bushfire science
|
Steven Sherwood, Climate Change
Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
|
Physical Meteorology and Atmospheric
Climate Dynamics
|
?
|
Quentin Grafton, Crawford School of
Public Policy, ANU
|
Professor of Economics
|
?
|
Trevor J McDougall AC, School of
Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW Sydney
|
Oceanic processes (excl. climate
related), physical oceanography.
|
?
|
Matthew England, Climate Change
Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
|
Prof England’s research explores
global-scale ocean circulation and the influence it has on regional climate,
large-scale physical oceanography, ocean modelling, and climate processes
|
?
|
George Zhao, School of Chemical
Engineering, U. Queensland
|
Prof Zhao’s research focuses on
nanoporous materials for sustainable energy storage and conversion, as well
as for environmentally friendly chemical processes and products.
|
?
|
Michael Bird, College of Science and
Engineering, James Cook University
|
My research interests include the
terrestrial carbon cycle, biochar, geoarchaeology and understanding the
trajectory of past and future environmental change in the tropics.
|
?
|
Tamara Davis, School of Mathematics
and Physics, University of Queensland
|
Professor Tamara Davis is a
cosmologist interested in investigating new fundamental physics, such as the
properties of dark energy and dark matter and the mass of the neutrino
|
?
|
Mark Westoby, Dept of Biological
Sciences, Macquarie University
|
PhD (Wildlife Ecology)
|
?
|
Eelco J. Rohling, Research School of
Earth Sciences, ANU
|
High-resolution investigation of
ocean/climate changes during the Neogene, and in particular the Quaternary,
to determine the nature, timing and magnitude of natural climate
variability.
|
?
|
Lesley Head, School of Geography,
University of Melbourne
|
I am a geographer whose research
examines human-environment relations, both conceptual and material
|
?
|
Chris Turney, Chronos 14Carbon-Cycle
Facility, UNSW Sydney
|
To do something positive about
climate change, I helped set up CarbonScape, a clean-tech company using
microwave technology to make green products (carbonscape.com).
|
?
|
Trevor Lithgow, Centre to Impact
AMR, Monash University
|
Uncovering clues to new disease
control strategies
|
?
|
Paul Mulvaney, School of Chemistry,
University of Melbourne
|
current interests include the
optical properties of single quantum dots, surface plasmon spectroscopy of
single metal particles, nanocrystal based electronics, nanomechanics and
solar energy conversion
|
?
|
Zheng-Xiang Li, School of Earth and
Planetary Sciences, Curtin University
|
research interests are mainly in
regional to global tectonics and paleogeography, paleomagnetism, and
geodynamics.
|
?
|
Peter Hodgson, Institute for
Frontier Materials, Deakin University
|
research includes steel processing
and the development of new alloys
|
?
|
Philip Boyd, Institute for Marine
and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
|
Professor of Marine Biogeochemistry
|
?
|
Madeleine JH van Oppen, School of
BioSciences, University of Melbourne
|
ecological geneticist with an
interest in microbial symbioses and climate change adaptation of reef corals
|
?
|
Lisa Kewley, Research School for
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University
|
Astronomer
|
?
|
Warwick Anderson, Department of
History and Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney
|
Janet Dora Hine Professor of Politics,
Governance and Ethics
|
?
|
Chennupati Jagadish, AC, Research
School of Physics, Australian National University
|
Distinguished Professor and Head of
Semiconductor Optoelectronics and Nanotechnology Group
|
?
|
Sue O’Connor, College of Asia and
the Pacific, Australian National University
|
Areas of expertise
Aboriginal And Torres Strait
Islander Archaeology
Archaeology Of Asia, Africa And The
Americas
Archaeological Science
Archaeology Of New Guinea And
Pacific Islands (Excl. New Zealand)
Archaeology
|
?
|
Ronald Rapee, Centre for Emotional
Health, Macquarie University
|
Professor of Psychology
|
?
|
Jolanda Jetten, School of Psychology,
University of Queensland
|
Doctor in
Psychology, University of Amsterdam
|
?
|
Richard G. Roberts, School of Earth,
Atmospheric & Life Sciences, University of Wollongong
|
Centre for Archaeological Science,
|
?
|
Katherine Demuth, Centre for
Language Sciences, Macquarie University
|
Professor in Linguistics
|
?
|
Gottfried Otting, Research School of
Chemistry, Australian National University
|
PhD (biomolecular NMR)
|
?
|
John Dryzek, Centre for Deliberative
Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra
|
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Democratic Theory, Democratization,
Environmental Politics, Climate Change and Global Governance
|
?
|
Belinda Medlyn, Hawkesbury Institute
for the Environment, Western Sydney University
|
My research focuses on how plants,
especially forests, respond to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and
climate change.
|
?
|
Adrienne Stone, Melbourne Law
School, University of Melbourne
|
Primary Interest
Free Speech Law
|
?
|
Ben Andrews, Mathematical Sciences
Institute, Australian National University
|
Research interests
Differential geometry: I am
interested in many areas of differential geometry, including
geometry of curves, surfaces and
hypersurfaces;
Riemannian geometry; effects of
local curvature conditions on global geometry and topology;
geodesics, minimal surfaces, and
related problems;
isoperimetric inequalities;
differential geometry associated
with conformal transformations, projective transformations, affine
transformations and other groups;
general relativity and
semi-Riemannian geometry;
geometry of convex bodies;
Finsler geometry.
|
?
|
Stuart Wyithe, School of Physics,
University of Melbourne
|
Primary Interest
Astrophysics
|
?
|
Leann Tilley, Department of
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Melbourne
|
Professor Tilley’s group undertakes
research in the areas of cell biology and drug development related to the
malaria parasite,
|
?
|
Geoffrey McFadden, School of
BioSciences, University of Melbourne
|
Primary Interest
Origin Of Plastids
|
?
|
Matthew Bailes, ARC Centre of
Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, Swinburne University of
Technology
|
His research mainly concerns
developing instrumentation for time domain astrophysics and using it for
pulsar and Fast Radio Burst discovery
|
?
|
John Quiggin, School of Economics,
University of Queensland
|
research economist and as a commentator
on Australian economic policy
|
?
|
Bernard Degnan, Centre for Marine
Science, University of Queensland
|
Research Interests
Genomes, Development & Evolution
1. Origin of animal complexity
2. Marine biology and biotechnology
3. Genomics and evolution of
biomineralization
|
?
|
Jon Barnett, School of Geography,
University of Melbourne
|
political geographer whose research
investigates the impacts of and responses to environmental change on social
systems in the Asia-Pacific region.
|
?
|
Martin Asplund, Research School of
Astronomy & Astrophysics, Australian National University
|
Research interests
Stellar astrophysics, origin of the
elements, formation and evolution of the Milky Way, the first stars, Big Bang
nucleosynthesis and the cosmological lithium problems
|
?
|
Ivan Marusic, Melbourne School of
Engineering, University of Melbourne
|
He is known for his work on
turbulence at high Reynolds number, using both theoretical and experimental
approaches.
|
?
|
Edward Holmes, School of Life &
Environmental Sciences and School of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney
|
known for his work on the evolution
and emergence of infectious diseases,
|
?
|
Kate Smith-Miles, School of
Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne
|
I'm interested in most branches of
applied mathematics, but especially optimisation, pattern recognition, and
modelling of complex systems.
Current projects include developing
new methodologies for objective assessment of algorithm performance;
generating new test instances for various classes of optimisation problems;
improved scheduling algorithms; and expensive black-box optimisation.
|
?
|
Justin Marshall, Queensland Brain Institute,
University of Queensland
|
Marshall's principle aim is to
understand how other animals perceive their environment
|
?
|
Peter Goodyear, Sydney School of
Education & Social Work, The University of Sydney
|
Learning sciences; psychology of
education
Learning technologies and new media
Learning, cognition and motivation
Research on teaching and learning
Learning and teaching in higher
education
|
?
|
David
Lindenmayer, Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian
National University
|
Landscape
Ecology050104
Environmental
Management050205
Forestry
Management And Environment070504
Terrestrial
Ecology060208
Wildlife
And Habitat Management050211
Environmental
Monitoring050206
Forestry
Fire Management070503
Conservation
And Biodiversity050202
Natural
Resource Management050209
Ecological
Applications0501
Zoology0608
Forestry
Sciences0705
|
Forest fire management
|
Alexandra Aikhenvald, Language and
Culture Research Centre, James Cook University
|
prolific body of research that
included Berber languages of North Africa and Hebrew but focused on tropical
languages, predominantly those of Amazonia, the Papuan languages of New
Guinea and Aboriginal Australia.
|
?
|
David Bellwood, College of Science
and Engineering, James Cook University
|
research interests encompass the
evolution and ecology of reef fishes
|
?
|
Glenda Sluga, Laureate Research
Program in International HIstory, THe University of Sydney
|
published widely on the cultural
history of international relations, internationalism, the history of European
nationalisms, sovereignty, identity, immigration and gender history.
|
?
|
Enrico Valdinoci, Department of
Mathematics and Statistics, University of Western Australia
|
Enrico's research interests mainly
focus on partial differential equations, nonlocal equations, calculus of
variations, and dynamical systems.
|
?
|
Michelle Coote, Research School of
Chemistry, Australian National University
|
published extensively in the fields
of polymer chemistry, radical chemistry and computational quantum chemistry
|
?
|
Jennifer L Martin AC, University of
Wollongong
|
renowned protein crystallographer
and structural biologist.
|
?
|
Ian Reid FTSE, University of
Adelaide
|
His research interests include
robotic and active vision, visual tracking, SLAM, human motion capture and
intelligent visual surveillance
|
?
|
Hilary Charlesworth, College of Asia
and the Pacific, Australian National University and Melbourne Law School
|
Theory and practice of international
law; law and society; feminist legal theory; human rights law at
international, national and local levels; peacebuilding; and justice and
democracy after conflict
|
?
|
Bostjan Kobe, School of Chemistry
and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland
|
Structural biology of infection and
immunity
|
?
|
Peter Visscher, The University of
Queensland
|
research focuses on understanding
individual differences betweeen people in traits that are important for
health outcomes and ageing
|
?
|
Terry Hughes, ARC Centre of
Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
|
coral reef ecosystems
|
?
|
William
F. Laurance FAA, Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability
Science, James Cook University
|
His
research focuses on the impacts of intensive land-uses, such as habitat
fragmentation, logging, hunting and wildfires, on tropical forests and their
biodiversity.
|
Wildfires
|
Kaarin Anstey, School of Psychology,
University of New South Wales
|
research interests include dementia
risk assessment and risk reduction, late-life development and ageing, mental
health in older adults, and older drivers
|
?
|
Hugh Possingham, School of
Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland
|
His research projects are in the
field of decision theory in conservation biology
|
?
|
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, ARC Centre for
Excellence for Coral Reef Studies & School of Biological Sciences, The
University of Queensland
|
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, is a biologist specialising
in coral reefs
|
?
|
Jamie Rossjohn FAA, Biomedicine
Discovery Institute, Monash University
|
Professor Jamie Rossjohn's research
is centered on an understanding immunity.
|
?
|
David Studdert, Stanford Law School,
Stanford University
|
David M. Studdert is a leading
expert in the fields of health law and empirical legal research.
|
?
|
Maria Forsyth FAA, Institute for
Frontier Materials, Deakin University
|
Associate Director
DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
SYNTHETIC ENERGY SYSTEMS
ELECTROMATERIALS
|
?
|
Peter Taylor, ARC Centre of
Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers, University of
Melbourne
|
PhD in Applied Mathematics
|
?
|
Michael Tobar, ARC Centre of
Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, Department of
Physics, University of Western Australia
|
Professor Michael Tobar is a leading
researcher in precision and quantum limited measurement and testing
fundamental physics
|
?
|
Jason Mattingley, Queensland Brain
Institute & School of Psychology, The University of Queensland
|
PhD in Psychology
|
?
|
Rose Amal, School of Chemical
Engineering, UNSW Sydney
|
Professor Rose Amal is recognised as
a pioneer and leading authority in the fields of fine particle technology,
photocatalysis and functional nanomaterials
|
?
|
Marilyn Fleer, Conceptual PlayLab
for STEM education, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne
|
The Conceptual PlayWorld is a model
of intentional teaching that Monash Professor Marilyn Fleer developed based
on extensive research and experience working with young children and how they
form concepts in science, technology and engineering.
|
?
|
Matthew Spriggs, College of Arts and
Social Sciences, The ANU
|
“research interests are areally the
archaeiology of Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, and also
Cornish Studies.”
|
?
|
Joy Damousi, SHAPS, University of Melbourne
|
Her current research includes war,
trauma and post-war Greek migration to Australia; sound and the two world
wars; and child refugees and war.
|
?
|
Dan Li, Department of Chemical
Engineering, The University of Melbourne
|
Research interests
Colloidal processing of advanced
materials
Electrochemical energy materials and
devices (e.g. supercapacitors, batteries and fuel cells)
Flexible electronics
Graphene-based materials and related
atomically thin materials
Materials systems engineering
Nanoionics and nanofluidics
New ion separation technologies such
as capacitive deionization
|
?
|
Julian Gale, School of Molecular and
Life Sciences, Curtin University
|
Research interests include the
nucleation and crystal growth of minerals, nanoporous frameworks, materials
for energy storage and conversion, and molecular crystals of relevance to
pharmaceutical application.
|
?
|
Mark Finnane, Griffith Criminology
Institute and School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, Griffith
University
|
His research in Australia and
Ireland has focussed on the history of mental hospitals, prisons, punishment,
policing and the criminal law
|
?
|
Lorraine Mazerolle, School of Social
Science, University of Queensland
|
research interests are in
experimental criminology, policing, drug law enforcement, regulatory crime
control, and crime prevention
|
?
|
Alex Haslam, School of Psychology,
University of Queensland
|
His research focuses on the study of
group and identity processes in organizational, social, and clinical
contexts.
|
?
|
Barry Pogson, ARC Centre of
Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, Australian National University
|
Director of the ARC Centre of
Excellence in Plant Energy Biology
|
?
|
Michael Fuhrer, ARC Centre of
Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies, Monash University
|
Michael's research explores novel
two-dimensional materials such as graphene
|
?
|
Zhiguo Yuan AM FTSE, Advanced Water
Management Centre, The University of Queensland
|
PhD degree in aeronautical
engineering
|
?
|
Lianzhou Wang, School of Chemical
Engineering and Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology,
the University of Queensland
|
Director of Nanomaterials
Centre
|
?
|
Barry Brook, ARC Centre of
Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Tasmania
|
ecologist interested in conservation
biology and global change
|
?
|
Paul S.C. Tacon, Griffith Centre for
Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Queensland
|
Rock Art Research and Professor of
Anthropology and Archaeology
|
?
|
Update complaint issued:
ABC report on a letter signed by 80 academics that links the recent bushfire crisis with climate change. The list only includes two academics with expertise in bushfires and includes many non-scientists. There is no coverage for alternate views by recognised Bushfire experts such as David Packham or Roger Underwood.
Report breaches ABC editorial guidelines:
2. Accuracy - the link between climate change and droughts is contested.
4. Diversity of perspectives. The subject of the letter merited obtaining the opinion of actual experts (like Packham and Underwood).
The report also lacks journalistic integrity in not being sceptical of the claims made or who they are made by. What relevance, for instance, does inclusion of the opinion of non-bushfire experts have? I'm waiting on the reporter's breathtaking report on the opinions of the Nail painting industry on the relationship between bushfires and climate, they have as much relevant expertise as many on the list.
