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Blurring the lines between science and political activism

By Mark Poynter - posted Thursday, 30 October 2008


Further to this, it “believes that all of Australia’s pulpwood, commercial firewood, and timber commodities should come from extant plantations of softwood and hardwood”.

In the latest edition of the Wilderness Society’s magazine, Wilderness News, an article describing the organisation’s Wild Country Vision for Victoria states that “securing our future starts with protecting our forests, one of the world’s biggest carbon stores;”… and “removing threats like woodchipping”.

Indisputably, the findings of the Mackey et al Green Carbon paper, and the more recent Ajani paper, fit neatly with the Wilderness Society’s vision for the future of Australia’s native forests - a future without a native hardwood timber industry.

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Presumably, this is why scientific findings from the Green Carbon paper were launched at a Wilderness Society function in Bali during last December’s UN Climate Conference - some nine months before the paper was formally published on ANU E-press. Lead author, Professor Mackey was reported as presenting “new scientific research highlighting the critical role of forest protection in addressing climate change”.

A blog of Mackey’s Bali presentation by the Zero Emission Network gushed that his new research showed that “if the forestry sector was included in a carbon pricing mechanism …. the native forest industry would collapse overnight”. It also noted that “the report is only in limited release, but people interested in it should contact the Wilderness Society”.

The Green Carbon paper was at that time undergoing peer review, but the authors seemed to have no qualms in publicly releasing its findings. This smacks of a departure from normal academic process specifically to serve the requirements of political activism. The additional implication that the Wilderness Society was distributing the draft paper casts further doubt on the authors’ commitment to academic integrity.

In recent weeks, the timber industry has publicly questioned the scientific objectivity of the Green Carbon paper. This has included speculation about why ANU E-press published the paper without the accompanying technical data that underpins its findings. The paper itself explained that this was because “a technical paper that details the source data, the methods used and the full results is being prepared for a scientific journal”.

Whether or not this eventuates remains to be seen, but the absence of supporting technical data has certainly created difficulties for those wishing to critically analyse the paper’s scientific findings. It has also raised questions about ANU E-press acting as a conduit for incomplete or poorly conducted “psuedo-science”.

The university has vigorously defended ANU E-press as being an online publishing facility that is on the Federal Government’s register of Acceptable Commercial Publishers and one that requires independent review of all published works. ANU E-press has since confirmed that the Green Carbon paper was peer reviewed by three academics including one from outside the university.

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Last month, the paper’s authors revealed that its two ANU referees were Dr Michael Roderick, who specialises in environmental survey and monitoring; and Emeritus Professor Henry Nix, who has been described as a pioneer in computer-based land resource inventory and evaluation. As mentioned earlier, Professor Nix is Co-Chair of the Wilderness Society’s Wild Country Science Council on which the paper’s lead author, Professor Mackey also sits.

The involvement of Professor Nix casts some doubt on the independence of the review process. On the question of whether the paper’s supporting technical data was deliberately excluded from publication, one would have thought that if it was part of the peer review process it would have been suitable for publication. On the other hand, if it was not part of the peer review process, there should be serious concern over the value of that process.

Further doubts about the veracity of the ANU E-Press review process are raised by Dr Ajani’s paper. She acknowledges and thanks seven reviewers, plus two anonymous referees for their input. Among the reviewers are three of the four authors of the Green Carbon paper, including Professor Mackey, as well as Margaret Blakers and Naomi Edwards.

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This article was written on behalf of the Institute of Foresters of Australia.



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About the Author

Mark Poynter is a professional forester with 40 years experience. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Foresters of Australia and his book Going Green: Forests, fire, and a flawed conservation culture, was published by Connor Court in July 2018.

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