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Australia Cuts 110 Climate Scientist Jobs
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Leroy N. Soetoro
Feb 9, 2016, 7:14:31 PM2/9/16
to
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/australia-cuts-110-climate-
scientist-jobs/
"Because the science is settled there is no need for more basic research,
the government says."
Australia, the dryest nation on earth, will focus on climate adaptation
instead of science.
Tim J Keegan/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0
With an ax rather than a scalpel, Australia’s federal science agency last
week chopped off its climate research arm in a decision that has stunned
scientists and left employees dispirited.
As many as 110 out of 140 positions at the atmosphere and oceans division
at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) will be cut, Larry Marshall, the agency’s chief executive, told
staff Friday. Another 120 positions will be cut from the land and water
program. Across the agency, 350 climate staff will be moved into new roles
unrelated to their specialty.
Scientists say the cuts would affect Australia’s ability to cope with
climate change. The nation is already the driest on Earth and experiencing
significant shifts in rainfall. It would leave the global research
community disabled, since CSIRO ran the Southern Hemisphere’s most
comprehensive Earth monitoring and modeling programs. And it would leave
young climate scientists at CSIRO without direction.
“I’m saddened for climate science itself, for services to Australia, and
particularly for the younger scientists who are just starting to make
their mark in this important area,” said John Church, an oceanographer at
CSIRO and a world-renowned expert on sea-level rise.
Another CSIRO scientist termed the situation “depressing.” Most CSIRO
scientists requested anonymity, since employees cannot discuss government
policies under the terms of their contracts.
“The situation is very bad here,” the scientist said. “Eighty percent of
our climate capability will be gone; it is clear that climate modeling
will be cut completely.”
CSRIO is a federally funded research agency akin to NASA in the United
States. Its climate change program is the largest in the nation and the
most advanced in the Southern Hemisphere, a part of the world that is 80
percent ocean and is home to 12 percent of the world’s population. The
bottom half of the planet has historically been understudied, a problem
because gaps in monitoring the Southern Hemisphere mean gaps in
understanding the global climate. CSIRO began filling in some gaps in the
1970s.
“This is not about just Australia,” another CSIRO scientist said.
“Australia plays a very important role in measurements in the Southern
Hemisphere.”
Fate of CO2 records unknown
In southwest Tasmania, at Cape Grim, CSIRO scientists have collected
continuous readings of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere since the
1970s. The CO2 record, together with readings from Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and
Barrow, Alaska, are a confirmation of humanity’s dominion over the
climate. It is unclear if these measurements will continue, Church of
CSIRO said.
The only other detailed long-term CO2 record in the Southern Hemisphere is
from the South Pole, said Ralph Keeling, an atmospheric scientist at the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San
Diego, who oversees the Mauna Loa CO2 monitoring station.
“It is mind-boggling,” Keeling said. “The Cape Grim observatory is a
premier site, which is sustaining some of the most important long-term
records of climate that exist on the planet.”
Also in danger, Church said, are long-term observations of ocean,
atmosphere and weather processes in the Southern Hemisphere. These are
used to refine global climate models, which are algorithmic
representations of the planet’s climate.
CSIRO’s scientists began building theirs in 1981 and have honed it to
represent the Southern Hemisphere and Australia’s climate at particularly
high resolution. There are two dozen other climate models, developed in
the United States and Europe, but they have a Northern Hemisphere focus.
When scientists want to know if an extreme weather event, such as heat
waves, would become more frequent in Australia with climate change, they
query models. These project which parts of Australia would likely be
affected in a warmer world. CSIRO’s climate modeling program will be cut.
“Australia is ground zero for climate change,” a CSIRO scientist said. “In
order to adapt, you need climate models that are going to tell us what you
need to adapt to, where you need to adapt, and by when you need to adapt.”
Settled science?
CSIRO’s climate programs have been in trouble since at least May 2014,
when the then-conservative government cut the agency’s budget by $111
million. Almost 1,000 positions were eliminated, including in the climate
departments.
Marshall, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, became CSIRO’s CEO in Jan. 2015
and immediately announced that CSIRO would focus on innovation over basic
science. Marshall and CSIRO representatives did not respond to
ClimateWire’s request for comment by deadline.
When Malcolm Turnbull became Australia’s prime minister in September last
year, replacing a pro-energy predecessor, environmentalists rejoiced. But
Turnbull’s government has also emphasized science that can be easily
commercialized, according to media reports.
In December, CSIRO’s management audited the atmosphere and oceans program
for its commercial potential.
“We were having a hard time in demonstrating the capacity to be
commercially valuable,” one CSIRO scientist said. “Not that climate
science can’t demonstrate incredible economic value to society by helping
to adapt and reduce damages and risks, but that’s not the kind of
economics that the new CEO and the government is going after.”
The internal assessment was that perhaps dozens of jobs might be at risk,
the scientist said.
On Feb. 3, Marshall wrote in a memo that CSIRO would henceforth focus on
commercially viable projects. The next day, during a staff meeting, he
said all climate change programs would be cut. Staff would be transferred
into other programs, so there would not be job losses, he said.
Marshall wrote in the memo that climate change is now settled science, and
basic research is no longer needed.
“The question has been answered, and the new question is what do we do
about it, and how can we find solutions for the climate we will be living
with,” he wrote.
CSIRO would now focus on a path where “climate and industry can be
partners, now we must walk that path to prove our science.”
‘Business first’
Climate scientists rebuked Marshall’s understanding of climate change
science and its importance.
Church said that the work at CSIRO is critical to understanding the
climate change agreement that nations signed in Paris last year. While it
is now certain that humans are altering the planet, scientists are still
coloring in the shapes of the changes to come, he said.
“What do the targets from the Paris agreement mean? What do they mean
regionally? Are we on track for these targets, or in fact, are we going to
end up at some higher level? Are countries actually reporting emissions
correctly?”
The reorganization was an internal CSIRO decision, and Turnbull and his
staff were unaware of the decision, according to The Sydney Morning
Herald. But since CSIRO is a government-funded agency, the events may
affect how Australia is perceived globally, said Erwin Jackson, deputy CEO
of the Climate Institute.
“It doesn’t help the perception that the government isn’t serious about
climate change,” he said. “If we want a good policy outcome that protects
people, communities and our economy, then we need to be revaluating and
ensuring that we have the capacity to understand and manage climate change
risks.”
Marshall has said that no one would be fired and the staff would be
redistributed. Parallels could be drawn to the shutdown of CSIRO’s
sustainable ecosystems division in 2009. About 50 social scientists were
moved into an unrelated division headed by an insect expert. The
economist, Clive Spash, is now at the Vienna University of Economics and
Business.
“Climate science becomes secondary to business; business comes first,”
Spash said. “The interests of the corporate sector, of the mining and
resource extraction industry, are primary in Australia.”
--
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $19 trillion in the six
years he has been in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America. The only American president to deliberately import a
lethal infectious disease from Africa, Ebola.
Loretta Fuddy, killed after she "verified" Obama's phony birth
certificate.
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.
Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptitude.
Obama continues his muslim goal of disarming America while ObamaCare
increases insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ne...@netfront.net ---
scientist-jobs/
"Because the science is settled there is no need for more basic research,
the government says."
Australia, the dryest nation on earth, will focus on climate adaptation
instead of science.
Tim J Keegan/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0
With an ax rather than a scalpel, Australia’s federal science agency last
week chopped off its climate research arm in a decision that has stunned
scientists and left employees dispirited.
As many as 110 out of 140 positions at the atmosphere and oceans division
at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) will be cut, Larry Marshall, the agency’s chief executive, told
staff Friday. Another 120 positions will be cut from the land and water
program. Across the agency, 350 climate staff will be moved into new roles
unrelated to their specialty.
Scientists say the cuts would affect Australia’s ability to cope with
climate change. The nation is already the driest on Earth and experiencing
significant shifts in rainfall. It would leave the global research
community disabled, since CSIRO ran the Southern Hemisphere’s most
comprehensive Earth monitoring and modeling programs. And it would leave
young climate scientists at CSIRO without direction.
“I’m saddened for climate science itself, for services to Australia, and
particularly for the younger scientists who are just starting to make
their mark in this important area,” said John Church, an oceanographer at
CSIRO and a world-renowned expert on sea-level rise.
Another CSIRO scientist termed the situation “depressing.” Most CSIRO
scientists requested anonymity, since employees cannot discuss government
policies under the terms of their contracts.
“The situation is very bad here,” the scientist said. “Eighty percent of
our climate capability will be gone; it is clear that climate modeling
will be cut completely.”
CSRIO is a federally funded research agency akin to NASA in the United
States. Its climate change program is the largest in the nation and the
most advanced in the Southern Hemisphere, a part of the world that is 80
percent ocean and is home to 12 percent of the world’s population. The
bottom half of the planet has historically been understudied, a problem
because gaps in monitoring the Southern Hemisphere mean gaps in
understanding the global climate. CSIRO began filling in some gaps in the
1970s.
“This is not about just Australia,” another CSIRO scientist said.
“Australia plays a very important role in measurements in the Southern
Hemisphere.”
Fate of CO2 records unknown
In southwest Tasmania, at Cape Grim, CSIRO scientists have collected
continuous readings of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere since the
1970s. The CO2 record, together with readings from Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and
Barrow, Alaska, are a confirmation of humanity’s dominion over the
climate. It is unclear if these measurements will continue, Church of
CSIRO said.
The only other detailed long-term CO2 record in the Southern Hemisphere is
from the South Pole, said Ralph Keeling, an atmospheric scientist at the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San
Diego, who oversees the Mauna Loa CO2 monitoring station.
“It is mind-boggling,” Keeling said. “The Cape Grim observatory is a
premier site, which is sustaining some of the most important long-term
records of climate that exist on the planet.”
Also in danger, Church said, are long-term observations of ocean,
atmosphere and weather processes in the Southern Hemisphere. These are
used to refine global climate models, which are algorithmic
representations of the planet’s climate.
CSIRO’s scientists began building theirs in 1981 and have honed it to
represent the Southern Hemisphere and Australia’s climate at particularly
high resolution. There are two dozen other climate models, developed in
the United States and Europe, but they have a Northern Hemisphere focus.
When scientists want to know if an extreme weather event, such as heat
waves, would become more frequent in Australia with climate change, they
query models. These project which parts of Australia would likely be
affected in a warmer world. CSIRO’s climate modeling program will be cut.
“Australia is ground zero for climate change,” a CSIRO scientist said. “In
order to adapt, you need climate models that are going to tell us what you
need to adapt to, where you need to adapt, and by when you need to adapt.”
Settled science?
CSIRO’s climate programs have been in trouble since at least May 2014,
when the then-conservative government cut the agency’s budget by $111
million. Almost 1,000 positions were eliminated, including in the climate
departments.
Marshall, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, became CSIRO’s CEO in Jan. 2015
and immediately announced that CSIRO would focus on innovation over basic
science. Marshall and CSIRO representatives did not respond to
ClimateWire’s request for comment by deadline.
When Malcolm Turnbull became Australia’s prime minister in September last
year, replacing a pro-energy predecessor, environmentalists rejoiced. But
Turnbull’s government has also emphasized science that can be easily
commercialized, according to media reports.
In December, CSIRO’s management audited the atmosphere and oceans program
for its commercial potential.
“We were having a hard time in demonstrating the capacity to be
commercially valuable,” one CSIRO scientist said. “Not that climate
science can’t demonstrate incredible economic value to society by helping
to adapt and reduce damages and risks, but that’s not the kind of
economics that the new CEO and the government is going after.”
The internal assessment was that perhaps dozens of jobs might be at risk,
the scientist said.
On Feb. 3, Marshall wrote in a memo that CSIRO would henceforth focus on
commercially viable projects. The next day, during a staff meeting, he
said all climate change programs would be cut. Staff would be transferred
into other programs, so there would not be job losses, he said.
Marshall wrote in the memo that climate change is now settled science, and
basic research is no longer needed.
“The question has been answered, and the new question is what do we do
about it, and how can we find solutions for the climate we will be living
with,” he wrote.
CSIRO would now focus on a path where “climate and industry can be
partners, now we must walk that path to prove our science.”
‘Business first’
Climate scientists rebuked Marshall’s understanding of climate change
science and its importance.
Church said that the work at CSIRO is critical to understanding the
climate change agreement that nations signed in Paris last year. While it
is now certain that humans are altering the planet, scientists are still
coloring in the shapes of the changes to come, he said.
“What do the targets from the Paris agreement mean? What do they mean
regionally? Are we on track for these targets, or in fact, are we going to
end up at some higher level? Are countries actually reporting emissions
correctly?”
The reorganization was an internal CSIRO decision, and Turnbull and his
staff were unaware of the decision, according to The Sydney Morning
Herald. But since CSIRO is a government-funded agency, the events may
affect how Australia is perceived globally, said Erwin Jackson, deputy CEO
of the Climate Institute.
“It doesn’t help the perception that the government isn’t serious about
climate change,” he said. “If we want a good policy outcome that protects
people, communities and our economy, then we need to be revaluating and
ensuring that we have the capacity to understand and manage climate change
risks.”
Marshall has said that no one would be fired and the staff would be
redistributed. Parallels could be drawn to the shutdown of CSIRO’s
sustainable ecosystems division in 2009. About 50 social scientists were
moved into an unrelated division headed by an insect expert. The
economist, Clive Spash, is now at the Vienna University of Economics and
Business.
“Climate science becomes secondary to business; business comes first,”
Spash said. “The interests of the corporate sector, of the mining and
resource extraction industry, are primary in Australia.”
--
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $19 trillion in the six
years he has been in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America. The only American president to deliberately import a
lethal infectious disease from Africa, Ebola.
Loretta Fuddy, killed after she "verified" Obama's phony birth
certificate.
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.
Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptitude.
Obama continues his muslim goal of disarming America while ObamaCare
increases insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ne...@netfront.net ---
Pest Control
Feb 9, 2016, 7:23:26 PM2/9/16
to
Leroy N. Soetoro wrote:
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/australia-cuts-110-climate-
> scientist-jobs/
Just because you happened to post something relevant to Australia, it
does not diminish your annoying spammer-troll-kook status in Usenet.
Your bullshit conspiracy crap sig attests to that fact.
So on the summary you can fuck off from aus.politics permanently.
Find a tall bridge and jump!
Header sanitised and fup set!
--
}:> Eliminate all feral newsgroup pests free of charge.
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/australia-cuts-110-climate-
> scientist-jobs/
Just because you happened to post something relevant to Australia, it
does not diminish your annoying spammer-troll-kook status in Usenet.
Your bullshit conspiracy crap sig attests to that fact.
So on the summary you can fuck off from aus.politics permanently.
Find a tall bridge and jump!
Header sanitised and fup set!
--
}:> Eliminate all feral newsgroup pests free of charge.
AlleyCat
Feb 9, 2016, 8:49:13 PM2/9/16
to
On Wed, 10 Feb 2016 00:20:32 -0000 (UTC), Pest Control says...
>
> Leroy N. Soetoro wrote:
>
> > http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/australia-cuts-110-climate-
> > scientist-jobs/
>
> Just because you happened to post something relevant to Australia, it
> does not diminish your annoying spammer-troll-kook status in Usenet.
>
> Your bullshit conspiracy crap sig attests to that fact.
>
> So on the summary you can fuck off from aus.politics permanently.
> Find a tall bridge and jump!
>
>
> Header sanitised and fup set!
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