Reef tourism operators have found less than five per cent of coral has died off — compared to the 50 to 60 per cent estimated by scientists — under “extreme” mass coral bleaching on the northern Great Barrier Reef. Latest findings exclusively obtained by The Courier-Mail show coral mortality in the outer shelf reefs north of Lizard Island was between one and five per cent with “spectacular” fish life and coral coverage. Spirit of Freedom owner Chris Eade said reports of 93 per cent bleaching on the 2300km long Great Barrier Reef had made global headlines and damaged the reputation of the $5 billion reef tourism industry. “Scientists had written off that entire northern section as a complete white-out,” Mr Eade said. “We expected the worst. But it is tremendous condition, most of it is pristine, the rest is in full recovery. It shows the resilience of the reef.” –Peter Michael, The Courier-Mail. 23 August 2016
Mike Ball Dive Expeditions operations manager Craig Stephen, who conducted a similar survey on the remote reefs 20 years ago, said there had been almost no change in two decades despite the latest coral bleaching event. “It wasn’t until we got underwater that we could get a true picture of what percentage of reef was bleached,” Mr Stephen said. “The discrepancy is phenomenal. It is so wrong. Everywhere we have been we have found healthy reefs.” –Peter Michael, The Courier-Mail. 23 August 2016
Sir Antony Jay, co-creator of political comedies Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, has died at the age of 86. Jay began his career in the BBC’s current affairs department and was a founding member of the Tonight team, later becoming editor of the programme in 1962. It was with Yes Minster and Yes, Prime Minister, which he wrote with Jonathan Lynn, that Jay will be best remembered. Starring Paul Eddington, Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds, the former ran from 1980-1984; the even more rapturously received Yes, Prime Minister lasted from 1986 to 1987. —The Daily Telegraph, 23 August 2016
Computer models are no different from fashion models: seductive, unreliable, easily corrupted, and they lead sensible people to make fools of themselves. —Yes, Prime Minister
The co-creator of Yes Minister has launched a blistering attack on the BBC ‚Äì saying it is biased on issues such as climate change. Sir Antony Jay, who worked as a BBC producer before writing the hit comedy, called for a dramatic downsizing of the corporation, saying it had simply become too powerful. In an attack on his former paymasters, he said he would scrap all its radio stations except Radio 4, and all TV stations other than BBC One. Sir Antony was speaking at the launch of a report by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which claims the BBC is biased over climate change. He said: ‘What I have noticed is that it comes down to values, and the hardest thing to change in an organisation is its values. And these values are behind the BBC’s view on global warming, which is everything the BBC didn’t like ‚Äì it was about industry, profit, big corporations and that sort of thing.’ —Daily Mail, 10 December 2011
The issue of man-made global warming could have been designed for the BBC. On the one side are the industrialists, the businessmen, the giant corporations and the bankers (or at least those who are not receiving generous grants, subsidies and contracts from their government for climate-related projects such as wind farms or electric cars), on the other the environmentalists, the opponents of commercial expansion and industrial growth. Guessing which side the BBC will be on is a no-brainer, but no one has documented it in such meticulous detail as Christopher Booker. His case is unanswerable. The costs to Britain of trying to combat global warming are horrifying, and the BBC’s role in promoting the alarmist cause is, quite simply, shameful. –Sir Antony Jay, Global Warming Policy Foundation, December 2011
