MEET WES ALLEN
Author of The Weather Makers
Re-examined
This introduction to
Wes Allen is written by Bob Brinsmead
of
Irenic Publications (
www.irenicpublications.com.au
)
David Weston (Wes) Allen was born at Gympie in Queensland in
1946, and grew up on a dairy farm. He excelled in mathematics at High School,
even detecting errors and ambiguities in a text book and a maths exam, earning
him a bonus point and 101%.
After graduating in Medicine at the University of Queensland
in 1969, he obtained his FRACGP in 1975, a high distinction in exercise
physiology in 1976 and a post-graduate Diploma in Physical Medicine in 1998.
From 1976 to 1982, Wes pioneered predictive and preventive
medicine in Australia. He developed a computerised Health Age assessment,
using multivariate linear regression equations based on the Framingham Study,
and introduced to Queensland the Bruce protocol still used today in stress
testing. He ran programs across Australia for the Family Medicine Program
and had papers published in three Australian medical journals.
In 1988, Wes performed the first reported trial on the use
of transdermal nicotine in assisting smokers to quit, his paper being presented
at Athens and published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
More recently, Wes participated in the National Primary Care
Collaborative to improve chronic disease management in Australia; and his
clinic was shown to be so successful in managing diabetes that he was asked to
run local and national workshops for the NPCC. He was until recently a
director and vice-chair of the Tweed Valley GP Network.
In 1982, Lindy Chamberlain was wrongfully convicted and
jailed for life for the murder of her infant daughter Azaria, who was taken by
a dingo at a campground near Ayer’s Rock in 1980. Wes immediately
initiated a movement to have the case reviewed on the grounds of the
questionable forensic evidence presented at the trial. He helped to form
a 10-member Chamberlain Innocence Committee responsible for gathering
and collating new evidence. This was eventually submitted to a Commission
of Inquiry headed by Justice Trevor Morling, who handed down his finding in
1987 that the forensic evidence presented by the Prosecution was seriously
flawed. The murder conviction was quashed and the Chamberlains received a
compensation payment from the government. Very recently, a fourth Inquest
into the death of baby Azaria found that a dingo (a relative of the Asian wolf)
had indeed taken the infant from the Chamberlain’s tent – just as Lindy had
claimed from the beginning. So ended the most famous mystery killing in the
history of Australia.
In 1965, Sandy McLeod-Lindsay was wrongfully convicted for
the attempted murder of his wife in their Sydney suburban home. After serving
nine years in prison, Sandy wrote the book An Ordinary Man in which he
presented his case for innocence. After reading this book in 1988, Wes thought
the matter deserved further investigation. He recreated the crime scene and,
using his own blood, carried out a series of novel blood splatter
experiments. These proved to his satisfaction that the forensic evidence
had been flawed and that Lindsay could not have committed the crime. His
work resulted in the case being reopened in 1990, the Inquiry being held by
Justice Loveday with Justice Trevor Morling assisting. When Wes explained to
Justice Morling that he was not a forensic scientist, the judge reassured him
that he had presented more real science to the Loveday Inquiry than all the
expert witnesses for the Crown. In 1991, Lindsay was exonerated and
awarded $2 million in compensation.
In 2007, Australia’s medical magazines, Australian Doctor
and Medical Observer, began to publish alarming articles on global
warming. When Wes countered these with evidence-based letters and short
articles, his scepticism was attacked by members of Doctors for the
Environment Australia (DEA) and by David Karoly, a well-known climate
scientist and alarmist who engaged Wes in an ongoing debate in Medical
Observer during 2009.
In January 2010, Wes published a 10-page document, Climate
Change: the Science, Spin and Politics, which Senator Abetz widely
circulated to his political colleagues shortly before their leader was
dumped over his support for Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme. Prime
Minister Rudd then abandoned his ETS and was soon thereafter replaced by Julia
Gillard.
Wes then wrote a damning critique of Tim Flannery’s best
seller, The Weather Makers, and his 400-page review (The
Weather Makers Re-examined) was
published by Irenic Publications in 2011. Flannery's book on climate change alarmism resulted in
the author receiving lots of acclaim and being made Australian of the Year
in 2007. Dr. Allen's book was the first published critique of Flannery's
book. His review thoroughly dismantled not only Flannery's global
warming alarmism, but every significant argument that others had
raised in support of global warming alarmism. He did this without making
any unkind remarks about either Flannery or any of his fellow climate
alarmists. The publishers considered that The Weather
Makers Re-examined deserved to be printed because it was
convincingly reasoned, carefully researched and
thoroughly documented with more than 300 peer-reviewed references - and
furthermore, the author had distinguished himself as a scholar and a gentleman
even in the context of furious debate.
Behind Dr. Wes Allen’s softly-spoken and unassuming persona
is a patient and tenacious scholar who quietly pursues the trail of the
evidence regardless of public opinion or even that of his own medical
fraternity. He is a man who will stand up for those who are wrongly
condemned even against the current of popular sentiment. As an old verse puts
it-
“They are slaves who will not speakfor the fallen and the weak.They are slaves who will not bein the right with two or three,Rather than in silence shrinkfrom the truth they needs must think.” (Lowell)
In the 48 years that I have known Wes, it has always been
his conviction that the truth of a matter is not determined by its orthodoxy or
popularity. At the same time there have been occasions in his life when
he has ungrudgingly changed his own opinions when facts emerge that he should do
so.
As a quiet family man, he is more inclined to be a tad
reclusive than socially extroverted. As a doctor, he has always been
greatly appreciated, not just because he is a competent practitioner of
prodigious learning and broad experience, but because he has a genuine empathy
for people.
Wes is also a dedicated family man. He introduced his
children to many sports, and his son, Stephen, went on to win 10 world titles
in windsurfing. Now in his sixties, Wes remains fit and active,
participating in triathlon events and playing with his grand-kids.
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See also a post by Dr Allen's sister Elizebeth Flower - HERE and original review of the great book The Weather Makers - Re-examined here.
"Life, learning and growing in understanding, often through conflict, is always a challenge and mostly a lot of fun." Wes Allen.
"Life, learning and growing in understanding, often through conflict, is always a challenge and mostly a lot of fun." Wes Allen.
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