If it is scepticism that you want have a read of the comments on the Tasmanian
Times article
<http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/researchers-suspect-fox-evidence-fabrication-tasma/>
linked in Ian May's post. Both sides of the "debate" seem to be reported
there, with a plentiful supply of conspiracy theories to boot. My
favourite is one in which one of the contributors reports importing three
dead foxes to test the effectiveness of quarantine procedures.
I tried Googling Don Camby to answer Peter Shute's question about who he
is/was and got nothing helpful. I note that his email address in his
original post was yahoo.com.*uk*, suggesting that he might have been a
visitor to these shores where I think the usual yahoo addresses end with
".au".
Martin
Martin Butterfield
http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/
On 11 December 2015 at 00:04, Kim Sterelny <> wrote:
> Agreed David. I wondered about the benefit, myself. All I could think of
> was that someone, or some few, who were convinced that foxes were in
> Tasmania, worried that nothing was being done, and decided to "improve" the
> evidence to ensure that action was taken.
>
>
> Of course, maybe it is not fraud. We have only seen reports on the report,
> and no sceptical response.
>
>
> So perhaps we should not be too quick to judge
>
>
> Kim
>
>
> Kim Sterelny, School of Philosophy, Research School of the Social
> Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, 0200, ACT, Australia
> or
>
> 61-(0)2-6125-2886
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: David Clark <>
> Sent: Thursday, 10 December 2015 11:42 PM
> To: Kim Sterelny
> Cc: Ian May; Birding-aus
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Tasmanian Fox Hoax or Fraud
>
> Yes, the good news is that there are no foxes in Tassie!
>
> However, it is scandalous that $45M has been wasted and I will be very
> surprised if that doesn't have repercussions for the funding of other
> conservation projects.
>
> What puzzles me is who would benefit from the fraud or hoax?
>
> Cheers
>
> David
>
> On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 11:12 PM, Kim Sterelny <
> <>> wrote:
>
> Dear All
>
> False alarms of this kind are likely to damage the credibility of the
> environmental movement; there are plenty of well funded and highly
> motivated individuals out there looking for ways of discrediting it; just
> recall some of the very way climate change scientists have had their e-mail
> accounts hacked into and quoted out of context to suggest malpractice.So
> real malpractice, or even sloppy or alarmist practice, will be remembered,
> exaggerated, and recycled. I think there has been some tendencies in the
> past to use pretty doubtful "splitting" taxonomies to turn isolated
> populations into supposed species, which were then more or less
> automatically critically endangered. Given the kind of unfriendly vigilance
> to which conservation movements are subjected, I think its wise to be
> cautious, to not over-call dangers, and so on.
>
> That said: surely its great news if there are no foxes in Tasmania! The
> place is full of small marsupials that would be at great risk, and so I am
> delighted to know that they are safe from one major peril, at least
>
> Km
>
> Kim Sterelny, School of Philosophy, Research School of the Social
> Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, 0200, ACT, Australia
> <> or
> <>
>
> 61-(0)2-6125-2886
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Birding-Aus <<mailto:
> >> on behalf of Ian May <
> <>>
> Sent: Thursday, 10 December 2015 9:46 PM
> To: Birding-aus
> Cc: Hunt, Greg (MP); Ivan Dean
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Tasmanian Fox Hoax or Fraud
>
> <>A recent review into the Tasmanian Fox eradication program has found
> no evidence of foxes in Tasmania. There are calls for a thorough
> Police investigation into this whole sorry saga.
>
> See
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-02/no-evidence-of-foxes-in-tasmania2c-report-slams-taskforce/5425266
>
> See also
>
> http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/researchers-suspect-fox-evidence-fabrication-tasma/
>
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-25/push-for-police-probe-into-claims-of-fake-fox-evidence-in-tas/6973554
>
> This disgraceful episode has irreparably damaged the credibility of the
> environmental movement in Tasmania. There are many questions that need
> answers before this one is put to bed. We should all feel cheated that
> more than 45 million dollars has been wasted, probably at the expense of
> genuine needs such as conservation and protection of Orange-bellied
> Parrot etc.
>
> It is interesting to note that birding-aus probably got the first scoop
> on this back in October 2002. At that time, it was interesting to
> observe that Mr. Camby, the author of the report
>
> http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/birding-aus/2002-10/msg00398.html
> was howled down by some birding aus subscribers for suggesting that
> there could be fraud at the heart of the Tasmanian Fox eradication program.
>
> This saga places a cloud of shame over the entire Tasmanian
> environmental movement. It is very sad to see.
>
> Ian May
> St Helens, Tasmania
>
>
> <HR>
> <BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
> <BR> <>
> <BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
> <BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
> </HR>
> <HR>
> <BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
> <BR> <>
> <BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
> <BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
> </HR>
>
> <HR>
> <BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
> <BR>
> <BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
> <BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
> </HR>
>
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR>
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>
|
