Previous post:

Next post:

NSW government "censored" inconvenient sea level data

Thursday, 1 December 2011 20:08 pm · 31 comments

by Simon

A report on Channel 7's news at 6pm this evening alleges that sea level data, showing rates of rise far lower than those projected, were censored to avoid conflicting with government policy on climate change.

Sea levels at Fort Denison are rising at only 1mm per year or less, flatly contradicting the apocalyptic projections of the state and federal governments. Doug Lord, a global warming believer and coastal manager at the climate change department until February 2010, said "Both papers were accepted and at the last minute both were withdrawn on instructions from the department."

Angus Gordon, a coastal engineer, accused the department of a cover-up, and of suppressing the data in order to support the federal government's position on climate change.

If the allegations are true, none of this should come as any surprise, especially after the release last week of Climategate 2.0. It is the modus operandi of governments and alarmist scientists the world over, namely to censor or suppress dissent, or in this case data, which contradicts their pre-conceived agenda of dangerous global warming, and thereby giving them the freedom they need to mislead the electorate into accepting draconian and extreme climate change policies.

There is little reason to doubt that these kinds of practices are commonplace, given the federal government's desperation to convince the public of the "reality of climate change" and the need to take urgent action - hence the carbon tax.

Once again, the integrity of climate science and its associated disciplines has been tarnished by political motivations and politically correct environmental agendas.

[Note: as you will see from the YouTube clip, the report on 7 News was rather superficial - but typical for a network news bulletin - and contained significant ambiguities, in particular regarding the roles of the state/federal governments and the timeline of events, especially given the change of government in NSW earlier in the year. Hopefully further details will emerge.]

Possibly related posts:

{ 29 comments }

Maurie Hilder via Facebook December 1, 2011 at 8:18 pm

They have been doing it all along!

Scuttler Ffs via Facebook December 1, 2011 at 9:18 pm

damn i missed this item…

Climate Nonconformist December 1, 2011 at 9:44 pm

Not only in the mainstream media, but on the six o’clock news. Certainly encouraging, as is the fact that a warmist is making a stand such as this.

Steve December 1, 2011 at 9:48 pm

Are you sure that the NSW government censored the data? Maybe the Federal government? or the Gillard government?

Simon December 1, 2011 at 10:43 pm

The report is ambiguous I agree, but it points to the NSW dept of CC.

Streetcred December 2, 2011 at 11:37 am

No doubt in cohorts with CSIRO and BoM.

Lee Mazengarb via Facebook December 1, 2011 at 9:59 pm

lol, nnno kidding, even the IPCC now sort of state their sea level projections were a tad too much.

Nick December 1, 2011 at 10:12 pm

I like the way they make sure to mention that Doug is a “believer in global warming”. Wouldn’t want to give a “denier” any air-time, because you just can’t trust them, they might go expressing unpopular opinions, and using logical reasoning.

I can only hope that more stories like this emerge over time, eventually people will see the light.

Streetcred December 2, 2011 at 11:42 am

In reality we are all ‘believers’ in global warming; the Earth has been warming since the Little Ice Age … and recently it is cooling again. What we do dispute is that this is as a consequence of human induced increased levels of CO2. It is a natural multi-decadel cycle.

Nick December 2, 2011 at 10:06 pm

I was referring to the media definition of “believer” and “denier”. As I have stated before, I know the earths climate has always changed, and always will.

I Bet We Can Get 100,000 people to Say NO to the Carbon Tax via Facebook December 1, 2011 at 10:22 pm

Show how corrupt our government is.

RexAlan (Sydney) December 1, 2011 at 11:13 pm

I’ve been telling my alarmist friends for years to go down and look at the harbor, especially when they suggest I should invest in water wings because of man made global warming. I hope some of them watched channel 7 this evening.

jmrSudbury December 1, 2011 at 11:41 pm

And they call us “deniers.” — John M Reynolds

Baldrick December 2, 2011 at 12:51 am

I’d say it was probably related to this PDF file on Sydney Harbour Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Studies which was written by Doug Lord, amongst others, in September 2009.

The report says, “… recent climate change induced sea level rise projections ranging between 20 and 100cm by the year 2100 will have a significant bearing on the management, utilisation and public accessibility to these facilities (Fort Denison & Goat Island) into the future.” (page 4)

And we all know how rubbery the NSW Labor governments figures were!

Tony Burns via Facebook December 2, 2011 at 6:31 am

Lead IPCC author Trenberth claims sea levels is the key proof for AGW … scammers.

Rosco December 2, 2011 at 9:00 am

It doesn’t matter that NSW changed government recently. The alarmism mechanism has been at work for decades. As a former public servant who once considered the AGW theory possible and an Environmental Health Officer in charge of enforcing antipollution laws (not CO2 thankfully) I understand how ideologues can worm their way into positions where they can surround themselves with people with similar beliefs or, worse, people who will do anything for a slice of the cake.

Once entrenched, such “team member” herd mentality is extremely difficult to root out – even for the politicians ostensibly in control.

Reports critical of the “team” speak are easily accepted and filed rather than presented for example. In the worst case anyone who has the guts to think for themselves are classed as a “non team player” and ostracised into obscurity.

It will be a long time after the whole AGW is completely discredited before organisations such as Gov’t departments and the ABC have a change in corporate “group mentality” – it is obvious the AGW faithful have wormed their way in and have used their positions in their own interests.

To allow any opposition is not only morally repugnant to them but politically dangerous for their employment as they have certainly made enemies that must be suppressed at all costs.

Basic self serving human ambition at its worst on display.

Faux Science Slayer December 2, 2011 at 10:32 am

Brace yourself….we live in a Faux Reality created by an elitist controlled Faux Democracy with the aid of captive Faux Media and Faux Education. Carbon forcing was merely a plausible scientfic ‘figleaf’ for the government forced Faux Commodity market. The original fraud involves the ‘fractional reserve’ money system, a Ponzi scheme requiring ever expanding group of suckers. Each generation has been ‘outcome based’ educated to accept the elitist empowerment system and to belief in and actively work in our own destruction. They have intentionally altered every data base and rewritten the accepted Laws of Physics. It is time for the Faux Science to end and the Foes of Freedom to be tried for their multigeneragional crimes against humanity. Veritas Vos Liberabit !

John of Cloverdale Perth WA December 2, 2011 at 11:30 am

This article is from the Australian in 2009 and is worth a read.
“Science is in on climate change sea-level rise: 1.7mm”

I am an old timer too. And the sea levels seem the same to me now as when I was surfing and fishing around Sydney in the 50′s and 60′s. Just visit “vulnerable” places like Neilson Park, Balmoral, Tamarama, Bilgola etc. and the many ocean sea baths and I bet they are the same level above the mean sea level as always during white settlement.

John of Cloverdale Perth WA December 2, 2011 at 11:33 am
Seffron Holroyd via Facebook December 2, 2011 at 2:01 pm

typical. thats what you can expect from labor and greens.

sillyfilly December 2, 2011 at 2:04 pm

This study was all the rage a few months ago, as some coldaholics tried to substantiate (unsuccessfully) that sea levels were falling, rather than showing a slight deceleration as intimated in the study.

Is There Evidence Yet of Acceleration in Mean Sea Level
Rise around Mainland Australia?
P.J. Watson
Principal Coastal Specialist
NSW Department of Environment
Climate Change and Water
PO Box 2185, Dangar, NSW, Australia 2309
phil.watson@environment.nsw.gov.au
ABSTRACT
WATSON, P.J., 2011. Is there evidence yet of acceleration in mean sea level rise around mainland Australia?
Journal of Coastal Research, 27(2), 368–377.
West Palm Beach (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Mr Lord even got acknowledged:

You, J-Z.; Lord, D.B., and Watson, P.J., 2009. Estimation of relative
mean sea level rise from Fort Denison tide gauge data. In:
Proceedings of the 19th Australasian Coastal and Ocean Engineering
Conference (Wellington, New Zealand)

So where’s the censorship. A bit of a follow-up may be needed to substantiate the accusations. (courtesy sillyfilly, the sceptic)

joltinjoe December 2, 2011 at 2:14 pm

Scientific instruments can measure very small amounts. But measuring sea levels is problematic no matter what the instrument or the method used. Sea “levels” are continuously in motion and accurate measurements are distorted by tides, wind, and sub oceanic activity. Oceans shift as the world turns. Can a 1 millimeter “rise” really be true? Nobody knows for sure.

Streetcred December 2, 2011 at 3:32 pm

sillyfilly December 2, 2011 at 2:04 pm
==========================

Same ‘sillyfilly’ from Bolt’s blog with multipersonality disorders? Anthony Watts is on to it.

Hiding the decline down under – inconvenient papers censored:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/01/hiding-the-decline-down-under-inconvenient-papers-censored/

Streetcred December 2, 2011 at 3:35 pm

Here sillyfilly, some more for you from Jo Nova’s blog:
http://joannenova.com.au/tag/sea-levels/

George December 2, 2011 at 6:34 pm

Yes, Streetcred, but Jo hasn’t allowed for the impact of artificial reservoir water impoundment on global sea levels which we’ve all known about since Chao’s 2008 paper. http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rrusso/gly6932/Chao_etal_Science08.pdf
As for Anthony Watts, why hasn’t Anthony encouraged Doug Lord to have his paper published in a peer-reviewed science journal? Could it be that Doug’s work is worthless and that’s why it’s been rejected?
This story, like all the stories/blogs of coldaholics, is just another in a long line of “whatabout, whatabout, whatabout, …..” announcements that get shot out of the water by the facts but live on in the blogosphere forever.

maman December 2, 2011 at 7:50 pm

Doug et al’s work WAS approved by the NSW Department of Environment Climate Change and Water for publication.

This paper (and 3 others?) were then peer reviewed and accepted by the Ports and Coasts Conference in Perth 2011 to be presented and published in the conference proceedings.

The NSW department, without informing the papers’ authors, withdrew the papers from publication.

Bruce December 2, 2011 at 9:43 pm

George,

@George.

How about this…..

http://www.uu.nl/EN/Current/Pages/Wereldwijdonttrekkenvangrondwaterleidttotzeespiegelstijging.aspx

This says groundwater extraction results in a net annual increase of global sea levels of 0.8 mm and not a decrease of 0.55 mm as stated in your reference.

Charles Higley December 3, 2011 at 12:58 am

Suppressing important relevant data that can hurt, harm, or kill if not publicized?

Chopping block. Heads. They seem to go together here.

At least, Oz needs to start a new penal colony. I hear they are abandoning Tuvalu; it’ll probably be for sale soon.

Australians Against Chemtrails via Facebook December 3, 2011 at 2:51 pm

Shared from your page.. Great work exposing these b*stards.

Comments on this entry are closed.

{ 2 trackbacks }