Skeptic Overboard

The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), an Australian corporate-funded think tank, has decided to dump its Senior Fellow, Jennifer Marohasy. Marohasy, a self-proclaimed global warming skeptic, has written that, after six years with the think tank, her contract "is not being renewed." During her time with the IPA, Marohasy was noted for contesting the severity of the problem with reduced water flows in the Murray-Darling river system. What she hadn't disclosed was that her work was being funded by Murray Irrigation Limited, a major irrigator. Marohasy was also a founder of an IPA front group, the Australian Environment Foundation, which initially listed the IPA office (pdf) as its address. In her farewell note, she thanked former IPA director Mike Nahan but made no mention of the current Executive Director, John Roskam.