University of Sydney Prof honoured for services to higher education, agriculture

University of Sydney Professor Ivan Kennedy, who was named in the Queen’s birthday honours list, has revealed his main environmental frustrations.

Prof Ivan Kennedy, who received an AM in the Queen’s birthday honours list, has called for “more balance” in the climate-change debate, especially for schoolchildren who have been “indoctrinated” by the Left.

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North Ryde environmental expert Ivan Kennedy has been honoured for five decades of service to higher education and agricultural research.

The University of Sydney Emeritus Professor was appointed as a member (AM) of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s birthday honours list after a 50-year career as a lecturer, mentor and conducting independent risk assessments of pesticides and climate impacts.

On Friday, Prof Kennedy controversially hit out at the “hysteria” and “misinformation” that popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer, saying the scientific evidence shows it’s “our safest herbicide”.

He claimed the recent landmark court verdicts in the United States against Bayer, the owner of Roundup manufacturer Monsanto, were based on emotion rather than hard scientific data.

Glyphosate, sold under the Roundup brand, is the world’s most widely used herbicide.

“This is very disappointing because, from my point of view, glyphosate is the safest herbicide that we have — and it’s inherently not toxic,” Prof Kennedy said.

“If you look at its structure, you see it’s made up of carbon dioxide, linked to ammonia and phosphate. And these sorts of bondings occur in most of the molecules in our body. So how they can be a carcinogenic is beyond me.

“The court decisions, I believe, were based on emotion and there’s all this hysteria and misinformation out there now.”

As councils across Sydney, including Hunters Hill, now consider banning the use of Roundup, he was concerned about the green movement’s influence.

Environmental scientist Ivan Kennedy, who has been appointed a member (AM) of the Order of Australia.

“If you look at this politics of this within the councils, you’ll find it is being led by the green side,” Prof Kennedy, a member of the Sydney Institute of Agriculture, said.

“They have been indoctrinated with anti-glyphosate, anti-GM (genetically modified) attitudes for the past 20 years. So now is their big opportunity to push.

“I have done a lot of risk assessment on this and working out best practice, and I always take a quantitative approach so we can measure something … and not base an argument on emotion.”

He also lamented “the lack of balance” in the climate-change debate and implored those in charge of the education system to recognise this.

“The debate that has been going on about climate change is somewhat poisonous,” Prof Kennedy said.

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“My work is trying to bridge the gap between those extremes. And I think our school kids have been indoctrinated too far in one direction.

“Children, who are our future, need more balance in how they are educated on climate change so they don’t think it’s catastrophic.”

His comments came a week after Ryde became the latest NSW council to declare a climate emergency.

“There is some degree of change in climate,” Prof Kennedy said, “but it’s just a case of how we manage this, as farmers have done for many years.”