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About this Blog
New Banner, Format and Policies for the Blog
Posted by jennifer, September 8th, 2008
Regular readers of this website will have noticed that since yesterday we have a new blog banner and upgraded blog format.
I am not yet familiar with all the new gadgets, widgets, asides and facilities that come with the new format and I am still to add links and develop comment policy settings. So, please be patient, there are more changes to come.
A redesign like this doesn’t just happen. I would like to thank Chris for the new banner and Dewi for the tedious transfer from moveable type to wordpress. If you want a new website or blog you might consider the team at www.internet-thinking.com.au headed by Graham Young. They also publish www.onlineopinion.com.au.
The new banner is from a photograph of an escarpment in the Blue Mountains that I took in December 2007. An uplifting about 200 million years ago was followed by erosion exposing layers of sedimentary rock. Superimposed on this is new vegetation after what was a devastating bushfire in November 2006. Also shown in the picture is a staircase and interestingly Charles Darwin visited this site in January 1836.
Along with the new banner and format I am planning other changes. I’ve tried to make this blog a gathering place for people with a common interest in environmental issues, to strive for tolerance and respect and to give different perspectives an opportunity to be heard. This necessarily involves tolerating what many would consider offensive ideas; indeed it is increasingly easy to offend when you take an evidence-based approach to many emotive environmental issues including whaling and climate change.
While I don’t have a problem with what some would consider offensive ideas, I do have a problem with offensive behaviour in particular language that is designed to be personal and derogatory while not progressing understanding.
So, with the new upgraded format, I hope we can lift the standard of commentary.
Many thanks to all those who have contributed to this blog over the last three years; particularly Paul Biggs and Neil Hewett who have made a really significant contribution over the last year. Paul will have a new blog up soon and I will have links to his blog and also Neil’s established blog soon.
Cheers,
August 28, 2008
Upcoming Changes to the Blog
Posted by jennifer, at 10:58 PM
I started this blog on April 14, 2005, pondering what it means to be a progressive environmentalist. For more than two years various people made a significant contribution to the blog including Neil Hewett and Paul Biggs. About a year ago I asked them to take a more prominent role in the running of the blog and they have been posting under their own names here.
Some readers are able to distinguish posts from Paul, Neil and others, while a percentage continue to ascribe everything that is written at this weblog to me. It can become annoying for all concerned with commentators, for example, directing questions concerning a post from Paul, to me.
We’ve also tried to make it clear that this blog is a gathering place for people with a common interest in politics and the environment and that we strive for tolerance and respect and that we don't always agree with what we publish, but we believe in giving people an opportunity to be heard.
When it comes to blogging I try to be inquiring and inclusive. My posts are often an attempt to understand an issue, not preach a concluded view. If someone sends me something which looks interesting, even if it is heretical, I’m happy to post it and see what responses we get.
In short, while the blog bears my name, I have seen it as a community, not just a soap box for me.
However, it’s sometimes wrongly assumed that I subscribe to everything that is posted at this site and I’ve even been variously associated with creationism, disputing that HIV causes Aids and the tobacco lobby. Meanwhile I’m an evolutionist, not a creationist, or an intelligent designer. I believe that AIDS is caused by HIV. I’m a reformed smoker, not a tobacco lobbyist.
Unfortunately I can see from the last few weeks that in view of my other professional work, I can’t continue to run this blog like that. Anything that appears here, whether or not I write it or it appears under my name, has been credited to me, and that can be used to try to discredit all of my work by mischief makers.
My day job for the IPA involves examining the scientific claims of others and critiquing them. My credibility as a research scientist is central to that work, and I can’t allow it to be compromised by people who want to seize onto any loose comment on this blog and attribute it to me. I also can’t allow loose comments on this blog to be used as a distraction from my considered critiques of other issues.
So, I have decided to make some changes to the way this blog is run. The changes won’t happen immediately because they involve site redesign, but what you will hopefully see is a clearer delineation of who is responsible for posts, and a clear differentiation between community “chatter” and information that you can rely on.
Paul Biggs will be starting his own blog with a focus on climate research news. I shall be promoting his blog once it is up and running which will hopefully be in the next couple of weeks. Neil Hewett will be putting more time into his own blog which will also be promoted at this site when the redesign is complete.
I hope you will continue to support us, after all, in the mainstream media, particularly when it comes to environmental issues, PR continues to overwhelm journalism.
Kind regards,
Jennifer
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Earlier Information Posted Here
This blog is a gathering place for people with a common interest in politics and the environment. We strive for tolerance and respect. We don't always agree with what we publish, but we believe in giving people an opportunity to be heard.
The blog is archived in the National Library, Canberra, in Australia.
Contributions at the blog are occasionally republished by other online and mainstream media, for example a contribution from Alan Moran was rerun by Crikey (click here http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080222-Blogwatch-the-Garnaut-interim-report.html ), a contribution from Roger Underwood was recognised as a best Australian blog for 2006 ( http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5426 ), and the many contributions from Chris Hogendyk eventually influenced a Sydney Morning Herald journalist (click here http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/002222.html ).
In July 2008 the mainstream Australian media started to recognise this blog as relevant to the debate on climate change with discussion on ABC Television's Lateline program (click here for link to video clip http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003290.html) and later in an article in The Australian (click here http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24148862-11949,00.html).
We are the favourite environmental blog of Sydney Morning Herald columnist Michael Duffy: "There are some other good Antipodean blogs that regularly touch on climate change. The mainstream view is represented by the University of NSW's Tim Lambert at scienceblogs.com/deltoid, while the sceptics get a run at my favourite environmental website, jennifermarohasy.com/blog. Marohasy is a biologist and a fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs." (read the entire article here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/michael-duffy/new-climate-figures-would-make-a-great-debatethem/2008/05/02/1209235149840.html )
Contributors
The blog was started by Jennifer Marohasy on April 14, 2005 with a first post pondering what it means to be a progressive environmentalist. Jennifer can be contacted at jennifermarohasy@jennifermarohasy.com
For more than two years various people have made a significant contribution to the blog including Alan Ashbarry, Ann Novek, Arnost, Chthoniid, Chrisgo, Paul Biggs, Boxer, Ian Castles, David, David in Tokyo, Ender, Gavin, Helen Mahar, Hasbeen, Louis Hissink, Lamna nasus, Warwick Hughes, Jim, John, Roger Kalla, Ian Mott, Libby Eyre, Walter Starck, Neil Hewett, Rog, Roger Underwood, Russell, Steve and Steve, David Tribe, Schiller Thurkettle, SJT, Travis, David Ward, Luke Walker, Paul Williams, Woody, Graham Young and many others. Thank you so much and please kept sending contributions and/or providing commentary.
In July 2007 Jennifer invited a few regular contributors to take a more prominent role in the running of the blog. Neil Hewett and Paul Biggs agreed.
Neil Hewett
I worked as an outdoor educator in the timber community of Ravenshoe at a time when the forestry industry was being closed down and tourism promised as an alternative industry – a promise that remains unfulfilled. I then spent seven years in remote aboriginal homelands before returning to the Daintree rainforest in far north Queensland, Australia, to become a co-founding director of Cooper Creek Wilderness.
You can read more about Neil here and email Neil at neil@ccwild.com
Paul Biggs
I’m a Biological Sciences graduate who works in medical research at Birmingham University, UK, since 1979. I became interested in climate change after watching a BBC documentary which claimed that the Gulf Stream could be cut off within 20 years, resulting in the UK having climate like Alaska.
I now spend much of my spare time debunking the claims that there will be a man-made climate catastrophe due to carbon dioxide.
You can read more about Paul here and email Paul at pmbbiggsy@yahoo.com
Blog Rules
To understand the rules of this blog study the picture and text here.
Contributing
I am in the process of developing some guidelines for contributors, click here for more information.
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