The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Threatened Species’

Posted on | January 14, 2020 | 1 Comment

 

In May last year — late fall in the inverted seasons Down Under — an official of Australia’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in New South Wales (NSW) wanted the public to know that it was a crime for them to collect firewood for the winter:

NPWS Central West Area Manager Fiona Buchanan said the warning to residents around Condobolin, Bathurst, Dubbo, Forbes and Grenfell is timely as it follows a man being fined $30,000 for illegally collecting firewood in the Murrumbidgee Valley National Park.
“We are getting the message out there that removing firewood, including deadwood and fallen trees, is not permitted in national parks,” Ms Buchanan said.
“We want people to know the rules around firewood collection, particularly during the school holidays when more people are visiting national parks. . . .
“Many ground dwelling animals and threatened species use tree hollows for nesting so when fallen trees and deadwood is taken illegally, it destroys their habitat.
“This fallen timber is part of these animals’ natural ecosystem,” Ms Buchanan said.

Such concern for “ground dwelling animals” — $30,000 fines! — may be implicated in Australia’s current wildfires, says Tim Blair:

Those natural ecosystems are now, across thousands of hectares of national parks in New South Wales, nothing but cinders and ash. Enjoy your protected habitat, little ground-dwellers.

(Hat-tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

Remember, despite the arrest of some 200 arsonists implicated in the Australian fires, the media insist that it is a “conspiracy theory” to doubt that “climate change” has caused this disaster. Those who call attention to facts that don’t fit the climate-change narrative are “exaggerating the role of arson in the ongoing bushfires . . . feeding a right-wing conspiracy theory,” we are told by activist Ketan Joshi. Arson is “a moot point, anyway,” he tells us, because “climate change makes fire spread quicker and through a larger area, rather than igniting blazes.” But his argument begins by embedding an assumption (“climate change” is to blame) as its first premise, so that if drafted as a syllogism, this is what Joshi is saying:

A. Climate change makes wildfires worse;
B. There are wildfires in Australia;

ergo

C: The wildfires in Australia were made worse by climate change.

This is a tautology, rather than an actual argument. And if you are familiar with the myth-making machinery of “climate change,” you will not be surprised to learn that when MSNBC needed an “expert” to explain the Australian wildfires, their guest was Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann, who will sue you if you suggest he’s engaged in massive fraud.

 



 

Category: Australia, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Media Bias, Science

Comments

One Response to “‘Threatened Species’”

  1. This week in reaction. - Dark Brightness
    January 16th, 2020 @ 7:03 am

    […] Remember, despite the arrest of some 200 arsonists implicated in the Australian fires, the media insist that it is a “conspiracy theory” to doubt that “climate change” has caused this disaster. Those who call attention to facts that don’t fit the climate-change narrative are “exaggerating the role of arson in the ongoing bushfires . . . feeding a right-wing conspiracy theory,” we are told by activist Ketan Joshi. Arson is “a moot point, anyway,” he tells us, because “climate change makes fire spread quicker and through a larger area, rather than igniting blazes.” But his argument begins by embedding an assumption (“climate change” is to blame) as its first premise, so that if drafted as a syllogism, this is what Joshi is saying: A. Climate change makes wildfires worse; B. There are wildfires in Australia; ergo C: The wildfires in Australia were made worse by climate change. This is a tautology, rather than an actual argument. And if you are familiar with the myth-making machinery of “climate change,” you will not be surprised to learn that when MSNBC needed an “expert” to explain the Australian wildfires, their guest was Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann, who will sue you if you suggest he’s engaged in massive fraud. […]