Too easy to blame coal
THE ordination of a Catholic Bishop of Townsville today is a momentous and happy day for the community.
Like most good things that come to the region, this is long overdue.
The parish priest of Mount Isa, Father Mick Lowcock, has acted as the diocesan administrator since the death of Bishop Michael Putney in 2014.
The Diocese of Townsville covers a huge region extending from Townsville on the coast to the Whitsundays in the south, Halifax and Ingham in the north, southwest to Winton, west to the Northern Territory encompassing Mount Isa, and east to the Palm Islands.
The last ordination to occur in Townsville was 50 years ago.
It is fitting then that the last Catholic bishop ordained in Townsville, now Emeritus Archbishop of Adelaide Leonard Faulkner, will be in the city to take part in the ordination.
From his interview with the today, bishop- elect Tim Harris appears already to have a good understanding of what is keeping us awake at night.
It is a nice gesture to offer his prayers and that of his church for much- needed rain for the region – a kind of climatic salvation.
More seriously, it is great to have spiritual leadership, particularly in hard times when jobs are scarce and people are feeling fearful about the future.
The timing seems to be good because Townsville already appears to be turning a corner.
Maybe his arrival will coincide with an upswing in activity in the city.
Bishop Harris will have a task to revive the church’s place at the heart of community issues.
It is a place the church in years past held as a matter of course but which perhaps has drifted in recent times.
This is a challenge that is not unique to Townsville.
By all accounts Bishop Harris will be a very talented spiritual leader. MANY people will have seen the “Save the Great Barrier Reef” campaign promoted by the biased ABC. This campaign is largely planned to bolster the Greens and Labor’s anti- coal agenda.
Undoubtedly the GBR has suffered extensive bleaching during the last decade. Whether such extensive bleaching has occurred before during the 8600- year history of the GBR is unknown since AIMS only began bleaching surveys in the 1980s.
However, the statement of Senator Richard Di Natale, “Coal kills coral. It’s that simple” – a blind belief shared by many activist environmental groups trying to oppose Adani’s Carmichael mine and other coal projects – should be more closely examined.
Presumably Senator Di Natale’s comment is Greens’ code meaning coral is killed by the effects of increased anthropogenic atmospheric CO2 from burning of fossil fuels and industrial processes such as cement manufacture and steel smelting which are assumed to cause rising global temperature and sea- level increases.
Coral bleaching is an expected consequence of sustained high water temperatures resulting in the expulsion of temperature sensitive algal symbionts from corals. This process is reversible for a period of time if cooler temperatures return before the coral polyp dies.
Elevated water temperatures stimulating widespread bleaching far exceed any temperature rise that could occur from elevated atmospheric CO2.
The present bleaching of the GBR can be explained by recent, closely repeated, severe El Nino events, resulting in high sea temperatures off Queensland.
Missing from bleaching explanations is the fact that each prolonged increase in barometric pressure above the average causes a decrease in tide levels of 1cm ( depending on local currents and prevailing winds).
Prolonged regional elevated pressures will lead to increased sun exposures of corals at low tides – a situation the algal symbionts of coral do not like. A feature of this summer has been a succession of persistent blocking highs over the Australian continent.
Missing from the environmentalists’ arguments is the fictional spectre of “ocean acidification”.
Cyclonic structural damage and sediment flood plumes have been frequent events throughout the GBR’s history – it’s still there.
Storm and cyclonic disturban- ces also refresh areas of the Reef.
There is an average temperature difference of 8C or 9C between the northern and southern extremities of the healthy GBR, showing corals can thrive over a much larger range of temperatures than any increases predicted by global warming “science”.
“Save The Great Barrier Reef” is the trendy war- cry. But how? Not by reducing our carbon emissions. Australia emits 1.3 per cent of the annual 4 per cent of global emissions attributable to humans.
Cutting Australian anthropogenic emission would have zero effect on global warming.
Do the Greens realise there are about 1000 new coal- fired power stations globally proposed or under construction? They may or may not use Australian coal. Do the Greens think we live in a plastic bubble? As far as I know only ecowarriors in South Australia blow old power stations up!
Do Greens know that for every day in its last month of operation the Hazelwood power station generated more power than all the wind farms in eastern Australia? ROBIN EVANS,
Kelso. “hot” stagnant