Having had to jump right in to my new project here in Melbourne, I haven't yet had much time to probe the internet for sources on supply chain management in Australia. But a quick search today brought up two news resources and one of these is Logistics Magazine. It seems to be a solid site and I noticed one article covering a topic that has stood out in Australia since I arrived--climate change and Australia's initiatives to combat it.
Now, I am an admitted skeptic of the whole climate change initiative. The Earth's climate has been changing millions of years, regardless of human activity, and I am not really sure what we are supposed to be fighting. Is the goal that climate never changes? One of the reasons the phrase "climate change" is now used is because our climate, more significantly in the Northern Hemisphere, has been cooling the past decade. It is hard to force anthropogenic global warming (AGW) policies on society if it is obvious to everyone that our climate is cooling. Thus, by using the terms "climate change," governments can enact their expensive and poorly justified policies regardless of what is happening in our climate. Cooling news:
Brrrr... Antarctica Records Record High Ice Cap Growth
Brrrr... South America Has Coldest Winter in a 90 Years
Brrrr... Iraqis See First Snow in 100 Years As Sign of Peace
Brrrr... Worst Snowstorms in a Decade in China Cause Rioting
Brrrr... Jerusalem Grinds to a Halt As Rare Snowstorm Blasts City
Brrrr... Worst Snowstorms in 50 Years Continue to Cripple China
Brrrr... China Suffers Coldest Winter in 100 Years
Brrrr... Pakistan Suffers Lowest Temps in 70 Years-- 260 Dead
Brrrr... Record Cold Hits Central Asia-- 654 Dead in Afghanistan
Brrrr... Severe Weather Kills Dozens in Kashmir
Brrrr... Tajikistan Crisis!! Coldest Winter in 25 Years!
Brrrr... Record Cold Wave Blasts Mumbai, India
Brrrr... Snow and Ice in San Diego?
Brrrr... Wisconsin Snowfall Record Shattered
Brrrr... The Disappearing Arctic Ice Is Back And It's Thick
Brrrr... Turkey's snowiest winter continues.
Brrrr... Record Cold & Snow Blankets Acropolis in Greece (Video)
Brrrr... Longest Ever Cold Spell Kills Cattle & Rice in Vietnam
Brrrr... Most Snow Cover Over North America Since 1966
Brrrr... Australia Suffers Through Coldest Summer in 50 Years
Brrrr... Record Snowfall Slams Ohio River Valley
Brrrr... New Data Gives Global Warming the Cold Shoulder
Brrrr... Global Cooling Causes Armed Clashes in Canada
Brrrr... Snake Oil Salesman Admits to Ca$hing In on Global Warming Hysteria
Brrrr... New Research Claims Earth Sliding Into an Ice Age
Brrrr... Blizzard Blasts South Dakota-- 4 Feet of Snow Reported
Brrrr... An Inconvenient Debate- Czech Pres. Challenges Gore
Brrrr... Record Snow Blankets Spokane, Washington In June!
Brrrr... Peru Declares Emergency-- Cold Kills 61 Children & 5,000 Alpacas
Brrrr... Arctic Sea Ice Levels Are Up By 1,000,000 Square Kilometers
Brrrr... Denver Breaks 118 Year-Old Cold Record-- Arctic Ice Refuses to Melt
Brrrr... NASA Reports Bogus Global Warming Numbers- Again
Brrr... Goracle: Mayan Civilization Collapsed Because of Climate Change, Too
Brrr... Global Warming Predictions Overestimated-- Its a Hoax
Brrrr... It's Snowing in the Desert But Gore Warns the North Pole Is Melting
Brrrr... CNN Meteorologist Says GW Theory 'Arrogant' (Video)
Brrrr... Ice Comes Early to Lake Superior For First Time in 17 Years
Brrrr... Sea Ice Ends Year At Same Level As 1979
Brrrr... Goofy Hillary Says "Global Warming May Incite New Wars"
Brrrr... "Shivering" Al Gore Gets Put on Ice
Brrrr... Snow Falls in UAE For 2nd Time In Recorded History
Even more worrying, politicians like those in Australia and many scientists are now so deeply invested emotionally and financially in AGW theory that they have thrown out any adherence to the basic tenets of the scientific method:
- Define the question
- Gather information and resources (observe)
- Form hypothesis
- Perform experiment and collect data
- Analyze data
- Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis
- Publish results
- Retest (frequently done by other scientists)
These politicians and scientists, and even individual supporters in the public domain, have essentially stopped thinking beyond #7 above, and still to this day, attack anyone who dares to repeatedly cycle through the process and raise questions in step #8. This is a common behavior in people who have let significant emotional and/or financial investment decouple themselves from rational and introspective questioning. Attack and dismiss the non-believers, the "deniers." It is almost scary to hear these people talk on TV, often in insinuating tones such as "Why is it taking so long for the leaders of automotive companies to subscribe to climate change initiatives?" or "How do we get people to understand how critical these initiatives are to Australia?"
This is theory as policy, cultist in nature even--but forcefully imposed via legislation and regulation. We should be celebrating a vigorous debate steeped in the tradition of the scientific method (which I learned in junior high or earlier) as with any scientific question in any other field. Even in business, no responsible manager would ignore new data and/or research that solidly put into question the assumptions of an existing strategy; unless, of course, that manager is so emotionally and financially tied to that existing strategy. We saw this mentality even in the management of Phase IV (post-invasion stability) of the Iraq invasion by the Bush Administration.
Fortunately, a significant number of prominent scientists have increasingly come out against those who have sought to stifle debate on the fictional "consensus" on AGW theory:
"Over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 231-page U.S. Senate Minority Report -- updated from 2007’s groundbreaking report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” -- features the skeptical voices of over 650 prominent international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. This updated report includes an additional 250 (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the initial release in December 2007. The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers."
Personally, I believe there are too many factors involved--i.e., the sun, the oceans, etc.--for us to do whatever it is a climate change initiative is supposed to achieve. For several articles on various theories on how climate changes on Earth, see Watts Up With That. On the other hand, I do believe we should be developing new initatives and technologies that are not only environmentally friendly, but also climate adaptive, and these should not require being part of a climate change initiative that accepts, and never questions, AGW theory (more on achieving this in another post). We should at least demand vigorous, unrelenting, scientific debate.
The article in Logistics Magazine discusses the impact of Australia's initiatives on the transportation industry, with which I am doing my first project here. Unfortunately for many Australian companies, they will soon have to follow laws based on battling climate change despite the very shaky foundation of AGW theory. In the beginning, the regulations appear to be small on surface:
"The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will enable Australia to meet its greenhouse gas targets at the least cost to businesses and the community, says the Chairman of the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), Trevor Martyn.
"He says the trucking industry will have to play its part in the scheme, but there will be no complex regulations or green tape for individual trucking operators.
""Under the scheme, fuel companies will be responsible for buying carbon pollution permits and will add the cost of those permits into the price of the diesel used by the trucking industry,” Martyn says.
""There will be no extra regulations imposed on small trucking companies; owner-drivers won’t have to worry about buying and selling carbon permits to drive their trucks. The only effect of the scheme on most trucking companies will be to increase the effective price of diesel after July 2011."
Although this seems to indicate transportation companies will be managing only additional variable costs, overhead management costs are bound to increase as well in order to integrate the new initiatives into an operating strategy and deploy across entire business networks:
""Trucking companies will need to make sure they have systems to review their fuel costs regularly and pass them on to their customers."
Again, green technology initiatives that focus on such activities as reducing resource waste, reducing air pollution, and optimizing business processes that respectfully consider our surrounding living environment are worthy efforts and visibly measurable.
In my next post, I will focus on how these initiatives should be decoupled from climate change hysteria and discuss ways in which they can be built into an overall supply chain architecture strategy.
