Hysteria among scientists

A tone of hysteria pervades a report from Dairy Australia in which prominent soil carbon advocate Christine Jones is described as “a businesswoman with training in pasture agronomy” – she is Dr Christine Jones; her PhD is in Botany and Agronomy and she has more than 30 years experience in research. She is the founder of the Australian Soil Carbon Accreditation Scheme. This remarkable report - Soil Carbon Sequestration under Pasture in Southern Australia, Prepared for Dairy Australia Project MCK13538 - goes on to claim ‘she is not an expert in soil science’ and she has no peer reviewed publications. Both statements are incorrect. Dr Jones is declared unfit to advise governments by the report, which goes on to list the prominent scientists in the field who presumably are, one of which does not have a PhD. By listing them, the author of the document involved them in the libel. The managing director of Dairy Australia, Ian Halliday, claims in a letter to the Australian Farm Journal that the Report “has been endorsed by numerous leading soil scientists.” Which parts of the Report? The libel on Christine Jones? (For a complete report on the soundness or otherwise of soil carbon science, go to Good Science Or Snake Oil?)