From the institution that (a) 100% failed multiple checks by 7 international scientists on its work, (b) failed to supply data backing its claim that half the coral on the Reef has been lost since the 1960s, (c) claimed erroneously that the reef on Stone Island has lost its coral due to sediment from farms (and implied the same to the rest of the inshore GBR), (d) erroneously claimed mass coral bleaching is a new phenomenon that started in the 1970’s, and (e) generally exaggerated every threat to the reef, comes the piece de resistance - we need gender equality to protect us, and I presume the Reef, from climate change.
The media release above is full of incomprehensible statements and jargon that attempt to give it a veneer of “science”. The abstract states
“Gender has a powerful influence on people’s experience of, and resilience to, climate change. Global climate change policy is committed to tackling gender inequalities in mitigation and adaptation. However, progress is hindered by numerous challenges, including an enduring set of gender assumptions: women are caring and connected to the environment, women are a homogenous and vulnerable group, gender equality is a women’s issue and gender equality is a numbers game. We provide an overview of how these assumptions essentialize women’s and men’s characteristics, narrowly diagnose the causes of gender inequality, and thereby propel strategies that have unintended and even counterproductive consequences…..”
We are seeing more and more how these environmental issues are being used as a motivation for implementing social or economic policy that has limited relevance to the supposed environmental problem. It again discredits science, the motivation of which is ONLY to try to get as near as possible to the truth. Other motivations such as gender equity, laudable as it is, must never play a part in the scientific process.
For another example on this topic read
