Imperial Fruit: Bananas, Costs and Climate Change

The curved course of the ubiquitous banana has often been the peel…

The problems with a principled stand

In the past couple of weeks, the conservative parties have retained government…

Government approves Santos Barossa pipeline and sea dumping

The Australia Institute Media Release Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Department has approved a…

If The Jackboots Actually Fit …

By Jane Salmon If The Jackboots Actually Fit … Why Does Labor Keep…

Distinctions Without Difference: The Security Council on Gaza…

The UN Security Council presents one of the great contradictions of power…

How the supermarkets lost their way in Oz

By Callen Sorensen Karklis Many Australians are heard saying that they’re feeling the…

Purgatorial Torments: Assange and the UK High Court

What is it about British justice that has a certain rankness to…

Why A Punch In The Face May Be…

Now I'm not one who believes in violence as a solution to…

«
»
Facebook

Shut Up, Greta, We Want To Hear From The Experts!

When I picked up the paper in the coffee shop, I knew what I was doing. I was going to keep it out of the hands of someone who might be easily influenced. I see it as a civic duty to prevent people from reading the Murdoch muck, but I can only do it one paper at a time.

Anyway, I was drawn to an opinion piece by education expert, Kevin Donnelly. Of course, when I say “expert”, I’m using it in the sense that he knows all about education because Kennett employed him to say that it was okay to reduce the number of teachers because he was educated just fine in large classes and if we just went back to doing everything the way it was in the fifties, then everyone would be able to speak Latin and do calculus by the age of seven. Or something like that. While I’d never suggest that there aren’t many interesting conversations to be had about what’s the best way to organise our school system, Kevin’s ideas on education are a little strange if you’ve actually been in a school in the past fifty years. Donnelly fits into the category of those who think that most of what kids are doing in schools these days is useless, except on days when students miss an afternoon to strike about climate change, when the classes they miss will hamper them forever.

Of course, one of the biggest difficulties that schools have is reconciling the demand to turn kids into the best student possible, while simultaneously preparing them to be a functioning adult capable of succeeding in the world of work. These two things aren’t mutually exclusive all the time, but when people like Donnelly talk about the role of schools, there’s no real acknowledgement that some students will succeed at exams without succeeding in life and others will do badly as students but still shine when they leave the school system. Of course, schools should also be ensuring that they have an understanding of Australian values, have a strong civic pride, confidence, an aversion to drugs and a million other things that get added every time a politician needs a distraction from the latest stuff-up.

Fortunately – or unfortunately – Donnelly wasn’t talking about education. He was writing about Greta Thunberg. Apparently, we shouldn’t be listening to her because well, she’s only sixteen; we should be listening to the experts.

I suppose that I could pause here and reflect on how the very paper in which Kevin is writing has killed several million trees giving us the wisdom of Andrew Bolt who tells us that these experts aren’t worth listening to. Of course, it could be argued that Donnelly isn’t responsible for the editorial decisions and he’d be the first to tell Mr Bolt that he really should listen to the experts.

While Kevin didn’t actually mention Bolt, he did argue that there were people far more expert than that silly girl. No, not the ones talking about climate change. He informed us that there were experts telling us that CO2 is actually a good thing for plants so there’s no problem because there can never be too much of a good thing. Yes, there’s a group of experts – 46 in all – who have formed a group called CO2 Coalition and these experts tell us that, historically, carbon dioxide levels have been much higher and plant and animal life has survived just fine, so we should be trying to put more CO2 into the air, not less.

Now, I just thought I’d leave out the line which was responsible for the coffee shop owner having to come over and clean up the mouthful of coffee that finished mainly on the table and newspaper in order to ensure that none of you spit whatever in disbelief. Ok, empty mouth? By historically, they was referring, Donnelly told us, to the past 500 million years!

Well, yes, lots of species have thrived but there aren’t too many that have survived the past 5 million, let only 500 million.

Whatever, the CO2 Coalition have a nifty website and several of them have degrees in Physics, so that makes them an expert in climate science. Similarly, my degree makes me and expert in brain surgery, so if you need a tumour removed…

Like what we do at The AIMN?

You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.

Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!

Donate Button

19 comments

Login here Register here
  1. andy56

    yep, i get it all the time. some bozo who doesnt give a shit saying stupid things. I just refer them to a plumber if they have a heart attack.

  2. LOVO

    Pfft, Greta is just small fry whence compared to the number of people, worldwide, listening to Bolt, Jones, Hadley, Murray, Kenny et al, etc…..nothing to see here…….move along, please.. …oh, wait, look over there is that a smear… 🙄
    You’d think Scomo ‘n Co would think more highly of ‘our’ Greta….you’d think they would give her a “go”…..after all she’s havi g a go….☺

  3. Glenn Barry

    Nothing quite as satisfying as watching the “leadership”; worldwide getting done over by a teenage girl – she dared to speak the taboo, put it into words, make it eloquent and they’re furious

    Good job well done I say

  4. New England Cocky

    Uhm ….. who is Kevin Donnelly?

    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/national-curriculum-review-who-is-kevin-donnelly

    What little is known is that he is a former English teacher and so likely knows very little about things scientific. His political dalliance and subsequent writings have lacked substance and expressed ill-conceived personal opinions of a conservative nature. Former science educators may find his offerings unfortunately spruiked in the MSM as an attempt at yellow journalism to denigrate the excellence of state schools, thus protecting the income stream to the private sector of third rate child minding facilities masquerading as private schools.

  5. Phil Pryor

    We have some appalling frauds in Austyralian media, usually employed by that cadaverous Capone of media muck, Murdoch, the yankee wankee cranky hanky full of snot. Some of the extreme ratbags, turds of the lizard’s length low level as Bolt, have heads full of skidmarks lining the skull. Local journalism is as poor as any I’ve ever encoutered anywhere. With a few deent exceptions, they are bumboys or pussy peets for the bosses’s orders. So work for Murdoch, you write, think, behave, act shit. Science is science, with consequences, despite the lying pricks who evade truth, sluts for money, pose, notice.

  6. Matters Not

    NEC – there’s a few things missing from Kevin Donnelly’s CV. Did you know, for example, that he once aspired to be an MP (was once a Branch President). Realising that the Libs preferred those with a small business background rather than an education type CV, Kevin choose to forgo the rigors of the classroom and became the proprietor of a Fish and Chip shop. (Shades of Pauline Hanson?) Apparently it wasn’t a commercial success (rather quickly I’m told) so he returned to what he thought he knew best.

    I know this because with the election of a Liberal National Government in Queensland, when Donnelly was commissioned to do a Review of the Education Department, the local Branch of the Teachers’ Union contacted their Victorian counterparts who were only too happy to provide the gory details which were then shared.

    These days, Kevin never mentions he failed in his foray into the private sector but continues to provide ongoing, education advice to those who will listen – forever, neglecting to remind the reader it’s a rehash of the same message he’s been sprouting for years, and years. Rather sad really.

  7. David Bruce

    It is a bit sad when the PTB have to resort to emotional, tear jerking to sell their climate change agenda. Rational debate has been shut down because the “Science is settled”! That is utter BS, because science is never “settled” as new research findings are published daily by reputable and ethical scientists.

    For example how many of you know how the B2 bomber from the USA is powered? Does it really matter? Only if you want to know about an energy source which can replace fossil fuels. As Ben Rich, former Director of Lockheed Skunkworks said “We know how to travel to the stars. We found an error in the equations and it won’t take a lifetime to do it.”

    With that in mind, I thought you might like to meet Greta’s parents and form your own opinions…

    https://www.abeldanger.org/we-love-co2/

  8. Florence Howarth

    Funny saying we should listen to the experts. That is what Greta is saying,

  9. Zathras

    It’s one thing to say the science isn’t “settled” but another to continue the “debate” ad-infinitum, as if the matter is somehow in a perpetual state of deadlock.

    A 98% scientific consensus is as convincing as it can be. It can never be 100% but even 99% will not satisfy some.

    There are people who claim smoking isn’t injurious to health or that the earth is flat or the moon landing was faked but there is no need to give both sides equal time in the media and thus suggest both sides are balanced.

    The time for continual discussion and stalling has passed and it’s time for meaningful action. That’s the message.

    It’s disappointing to see a young girl speaking as an adult causing so many adults to behave like petulant children and attack the messenger to avoid addressing the message itself.

    As for Bolt, there was a time when he singled out a prominent footballer for abusing a young girl at a match but is now an abuser himself.

  10. paul walter

    Marvellous watching the pigeons all fly up in panic at the small little cat that caught them off guard.

  11. johno

    Go Greta !

  12. whatever

    What EVIDENCE has the Government provided to prove the climate condition known as “Drought”, that they always talking about and spending money on.
    Have you seen any rainfall graphs?
    We keep seeing sob-stories every 5 minutes on ABC News about provincial halfwits who aren’t very good at farm management…..but they never show any fcking rainfall graphs to prove their point.
    Classic swindle from the third-rate door-to-door salesmen of the Coalition.

  13. Kaye Lee

    This site is helpful about rainfall and drought.

    http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/rainfall/#tabs-rain=Impact-on-drought

    Considering how our young people are mobilising at climate rallies, dismissing Greta is just going to make the kids even more determined.

    We need to get the music industry on board with world wide concerts like Live Aid.

  14. RomeoCharlie29

    Nicely said, Rossleigh, Donnellyhas always been an educational fraud but unfortunately keeps being given, or takes, platforms for the private education sector which should never get another dollar of public funds. David Bruce, speaking purely personally, I really think this is the wrong string for you to read. Your contributions don’t help the conversation at all. Especially posting yet another takedown of Greta Thunberg. I am in the age category she blames for the approaching climate catastrophe and I accept her criticism. I think her most salient point is the role of the unbridled pursuit of economic expansion with its control by global corporations with no respect for the climate or sovereign governments. Likewise the arms manufacturers and purchasers where Australia wants to be a player. How blind do you have to be not to see the role that weapons play in the destabilisation and misery in the world today. I hope I still have 20 years in me but that means so do many of those who support this particular madness. Go Greta.

  15. Sam

    We are well past the question of is climate change real. I think today’s question is can we get the governments of the world to act with or without a revolution.

  16. Paul Davis

    Thank you RomeoCharlie29. I agree heartedly with your comments to that regular contributor…. a person who imho too often chooses to use his significant scientific and technical knowledge and intellect for misdirection and mischief. Most of his web links are interesting reading but today, oh my goodness, this one is full of vile comments and links to further nastiness.

  17. Paul Davis

    OK it’s official….

    Channel 7 news reports that Jeremy Clarkson says teen climate activist Greta Thunberg a ‘spoilt brat’ who makes him ‘sick’ (Sun newspaper)

    If such important knowledgable personages like Sam Newman and Jeremy Clarkson both say Greta is a spoilt brat, then….. or wait, i had better check with Kerri-Anne Kennerly and Kyle Sandlands.

  18. Kaye Lee

    Would that be the same Jeremy Clarkson who punched his producer in the mouth, splitting his lip, because the hotel kitchen was closed and he couldn’t get a steak at 10pm? Well I guess he has a handle on the spoilt brat thing….

  19. Josephus

    Whether Greta is a two headed monster or a simple girl with plaits is irrelevant . By their actions might ye know them. Hurricanes here, fires there- what does it take to stop Adani or the hundreds of fracking licences up north? The ugly millionaire mansions will sink beneath the waves – a good thing – but sadly millions will die of starvation as well, as their fresh water is contaminated, whether by coal mining, fracking, sea water rise or anything else is not important. Right now Brazil’s sea water is poisoned by oil spills, Japan is flooded, the Kurds are left to die while ISL fighters escape, and so it goes. ‘When will we ever learn’ sang Bob Dylan. Answer: never.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page