Climate Science and Environment should be in the Queensland education system

(Source: Australian Geographic)

According to the change.org website, the LNP has passed a motion in the Queensland Parliament to remove 'environmental education' and 'climate science' from the Queensland education system. Oh my goodness, is all that I can say!

This is ridiculous and as one science education commentator said this week this means that climate change denial is rife in the LNP and they are treating this scientific information as a 'belief system'.

Please feel free to join science educators and supporters, in their action to ignore this governmental policy and bring scientific understanding and investigation back to the classroom, by signing the petition at change.org. 
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Another cool book club

I have just bumped into the very technological savvy Royal Institution of Australia. This seems to be a powerful source of useful scientific information available to the general public and includes many fantastic resources, with many of them being online.

One of their fantastic initiatives is their book club. Unfortunately, I don't think this is online, but for those in Adelaide you can regularly go along to the Science Exchange to participate in these book club sessions. For those of us not in Adelaide, the RIAus website (past events) lists the books to be discussed each session and this provides us all an opportunity to seek out some great science reads.

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Website to have a look at....climate change science

I am reading a book called Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand at the moment and thought I would share one of the resources that the book highlights.

John Cook is one of the authors of this book and runs a website called Skeptical Science. It is a great resource that explains much of the science behind climate change and also brings awareness to the lack of science that surrounds climate change "skepticism".

Certainly a fabulous resource and one that you might be able to use to find out more about the science and evidence for human-induced climate change. It also reveals some of the strategies and ploys of climate change deniers and provides explanations as to why the "popular" climate change denier arguments are not accurate. Pin It

CERES Autumn Festival 2012

If you're in Melbourne here is a outing for you on the 31 March 2012. The CERES Autumn Festival. Oh how I wish I was in the area!

CERES stands for Community Education and Research in Environmental Strategies and amongst the many things that this group of enthusiastic community members do, is run a community garden and environment park and provide a hub where communities of like-minded people can gather and learn. It has a great program of environmental education!

The Autumn Festival has so many wonderful activities and show-cases, including the chance to get up close and personal with farm animals, enter a cake baking competition (theme: CERES 30th birthday...so make a birthday cake) and a chance to hear from Matthew Evans (of Gourmet Farmer fame). If you're keen enough you can also volunteer on the day to help out around the place and make the event particularly special.

The CERES environment and education centre is located by Merri Creek, East Brunswick in Melbourne. Their website is full of fabulous ideas, education seminars and so much more. Drop into their website or their centre and be exposed to some brilliant ideas and inspirations. Pin It

David Attenborough coming to Australia

Oh my goodness...David Attenborough is coming to Australia! This is so exciting and he is apparently doing some public shows in August 2012.

I don't know how true this rumour is as I can't currently locate a place selling tickets to any of these shows, but according to some news websites and an event management company there are claims that he will be doing four public shows in August, two in Sydney and two in Melbourne!

If it is true, I would love to go along and hear him talk in person. I will have to wait and see if more details are revealed in the near future.


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How much energy does your household use?

Would you like to know exactly how much energy you use in your home?

CSIRO is conducting a study examining 500 homes across Australia (Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne) to look at how much energy households are using for cooling and heating. The researchers are presently looking for households that would like to one of the 500 households.

One of the conditions of entry is that your house has to be less than ten years old, which removes my household from participating, as well as many of the people I know, but if you meet the criteria you can sign up and reap some of the benefits.

Have a look at their website: http://www.csiro.au/house to see if you are eligible to take part.

Benefits that CSIRO states households will receive from participating include:

• learning how to reduce your energy bills;
• a report on your home's heating and cooling energy performance;
• a set of infrared photographs that show if you are losing heating and cooling and where it is going 
• $100 cash for looking after and returning a pair of thermometers; and
• some homes may be eligible for installation of an energy monitor, valued at $1500, to provide online access showing where your electricity is being used.

I think this would be so cool, particularly the photos of your house showing the heat/cool leaks!

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Queensland Herbarium seminars 2012

The Queensland Herbarium holds monthly seminars at their Mt Coot-tha facility and they are open to the public. Their website currently outlines the seminars for 2012 through to June. These are held on the second week of each month between 12 and 1pm.

Seminars that have been announced so far include:

February 
"The flora of the Desert Uplands Bioregion."

March
"Historical vegetation changes to the grassy islands in the Whitsunday."

April
"The Springbrook wireless sensor network."

May
"Priority threat management to protect Kimberley wildlife."

June
"The fauna of forest red gum ecosystems following the raising of Awoonga Dam near Gladstone."

Maybe you might find some of these topics of interest, so make some time to learn from some of Queensland's researchers. Pin It

BrisScience now online

What a Christmas present! You can now watch past presentations organised by BrisScience online. These are available at: http://vimeo.com/channels/brisscience. Five presentations from 2011 are now available on this website, with more to come.

Science in your lounge room. How can it get any better? Pin It

Keelbacks and cane toads

I have had a number of keelback snakes in my garden over the last few weeks as spring has warmed up. They are certainly on the move around my place!

(Source: snakecatcher.com)

Since identifying these snakes at my place as keelbacks (Tropidonopgis mairii), I have been interested to learn that this Australian, native snake species is in fact capable of eating cane toads, despite the toad's known toxicity to many Australian species. I believe this species' capacity to ingest cane toads is probably the reason they are calling my garden home! I certainly have a prevalence of cane toads.

According to a paper published by researchers from James Cook University, the keelbacks ability to tolerate moderate levels of the cane toad's toxin is a result of genetic history rather than a behavioural or physiological adaptation to cane toads since their arrival in Australia (Source). And it is likely still that keelbacks can be affected or overcome (die) as a result of ingesting too much toxin, potentially as a result of a particularly large, tasty cane toad. A case of eyes too big for their stomach, but with more fatal consequences.

If you're interested to know more about the keelback, DERM's website, as well as the Queensland Musuem's, provide some more overview information and interesting facts about this northern Australian snake species.


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Radiative forcing

I am reading a paper on links between native forest and climate in Australia and the first sentence states "There is very high confidence that the global average net impact of anthropogenic activities since the 1750s has contributed to an average radiative forcing of +0.6 to +2.4 Wm-2." I obviously understood the beginning of the sentence, but really had no idea about the end, particularly the concept of radiative forcing.

After a quick review of wikipedia I now understand radiative forcing as the net difference between incoming and outgoing radiation energy across sections of our atmosphere (particularly the troposphere and stratosphere) and measured in watts per square metre. The wiki page then goes on to explain that if the radiative forcing is positive, it means that the climate will warm.

Today has not been wasted. Pin It

Things in the garden

I came across this "bug" when we first moved into our new home. I had no idea what it was, but it was quite large, approximately 3-4cms in length and distinctively white and furry with an orange "body".

A fabulous website for identification of creepy crawlers in south-east Queensland, is the Brisbane Insects website. From this website I managed to identify my critter as a Large Mealybug and likely to be a lady (due to her size and lack of wings). It also describes them as sap suckers, similar to aphids.

Fascinating! Next time you're in the garden see what insects you have in your garden and maybe you can identify some of them and what role they play. Pin It

Want to know the truth?

As Doctor Karl Kruszelnicki says the Internet is "...as reliable as a drunk guy in a pub...". So where can you go on the Internet to get reliable information. The answer is Google Scholar.

Google Scholar allows you to search peer-reviewed literature, journals, legal information and patent. This will allow you to find a significant amount of information only available in the scientific journals, which are reputable and only contain information that follows scientific protocols. This ensures you only review information that you can have some certainty in.

Because much of the information that is on Google Scholar is only available through commercially available journals, it is quite often necessary to contact the authors of the paper directly to obtain a full copy. Their email addresses usually form part of the abstract. Just email them requesting a copy of their paper. I have never not received one from the author.

Another benefit of Google Scholar is there is no marketing or sales pitches attached to the information, as no one is selling anything and it is based on factual information. Give it a go and see what good comes from it.   Pin It

How to get involved in science

The lack of science education in the broader community is often considered to be one of the main reasons why people don't believe or trust in matters such as climate change, the level of impact humans are having on habitat and many of the other environmental issues we are currently facing.

I personally think that many people feel unconnected with the scientific process and the research that is being undertaken. But this can change. You can become involved in or participate in research that will directly feed into the scientific literature. This information is then used to drive government policy on matters such as climate change, water quality, vegetation clearing and many environmental issues.

Over the last twenty years or so there has been a proliferation of science education programs in schools aimed at getting kids to participate in environmental management type science, such as the rehabilitation of creeks, water quality monitoring, noise monitoring to name a few. But science participation doesn't have to be restricted to the schools or your children.  There are many places and opportunities for you (as a young adult or adult) to participate in such things.

If you are truly interested and have some time to volunteer you could contact your local University. Seek out the department where your interests lie, and find out whether there are any Honours, Masters or PhD students looking for volunteers. For example, one of my passion lies with animals, so I would seek out their Department of Zoology or Environment (or something along those lines) and then just make contact with the general number on their website. Alternatively you could go even further and look into their academic and research staff and see what projects they currently have on and make contact to see whether there is any assistance you can provide.

Other ways to participate could be through community groups and government run research programs. There are always groups researching all manner of things and there is likely to be one or two looking into things that are of interest to you. Just do a web search for your interests and add to your search parameters something along the lines of 'research', 'community group', 'volunteer', 'data collection', etc, etc.  Alternatively, if you're lucky enough to have lots of money and looking for a holiday, which could make a difference, there are groups such as Earthwatch that collaborate with researchers and invite community members to be involved in the research (on a payment basis).

So if you're keen and have some time and want to know more about the science behind your interests why not give it a go and become actively involved. Pin It

Sea-eagle cam!

How cool! I love live footage of nature in action. The latest one I have linked into is a remote camera that is trained onto a wild white-bellied sea-eagles' nest at the Birds Australia Discovery Centre in Sydney, Australia. The parents are currently incubating two eggs, with the expected hatching date sometime in mid-August 2011.

If you'd also like to watch, have a look at: http://www.ustream.tv/seaeagles.

If you'd like to donate to keep the research and opportunities going for Birds Australia, the group running this remote camera you can do this at: https://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/online.html. Apparently the group is looking to raise $30,000 by October 2011 to enable them to upgrade the cable that sends through the video feed from the centre to the world for the 2012 nesting season. Pin It

Climate change science

One of my biggest concerns is the way in which people are obtaining their information about human-induced climate change. Presently my understanding is that most Australians are generating their opinions on this matter entirely from information available from mainstream media outlets. Currently these sources are generally not providing enough factual and scientific information for people to truly understand what is happening to our planet and its climate as a result of human activities.

I personally have read more broadly on human-induced climate change than just the mainstream media. However, I am still guilty of not sourcing the original science or reports that rely heavily on the scientific material available (in a form that I could easily refer back to the original science). As such I have decided to start my personal journey to obtain some more of the facts and research by reviewing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment. The most recent reports are the 2007 reports, with a newer report with updated information and conclusions due in the not too distant future. The 2007 reports, including a summary report, are available on the IPCC's publication page of their website.

Why review these reports? Basically, the IPCC's reports are the best summary of climate change science available to me without reading every scientific paper published on the issue. Someone else (a group of well-trained, conservative scientists) has reviewed the scientific literature and has then written a fully referenced report explaining in plain English what is happening to the planet's climate and specifically how it is changing.

I also consider these reports to be the easiest way to access the peer-reviewed scientific information on this issue. Much of the scientific literature, unless your part of a tertiary institution or a relevant government or research body, is hard to obtain, with most journals requiring subscriptions. These subscriptions can be significantly costly for a member of the general public, a Council library or an individual. An alternate model to obtain the science would be for me to take the time finding all of the relevant research on the internet and then contact each of the authors directly to obtain a copy of their papers. This would be an extremely timely, cumbersome and inaccurate process. So off I go to wade through the IPCC reports.  

I will post relevant and useful information as I plough through them. I would love to hear anyone else's experience of these reports. Pin It

Sea level rise

Given that we are a country where the vast majority of the population lives within the coastal zone of the continent, I am fascinating with the areas within this coastal zone that will be significantly affected by sea level rise in the future. Where should you live if you're concerned about the possibility of sea level rise?

I just found a website, which can provide you with a mapped indication of the likely extent of flooding with an increase of incremental measurements (one metre increments) of sea level rise. This allows you to calculate, based on your information, where the water will extend to within the coastal zone of any continent throughout the world. The website is: http://flood.firetree.net/. Think that it must be based on a google maps and then provides an overlay of the flooding extent. This allows easy searching and enables you to pin-point exact properties. Cool!

I can hear people saying "I don't believe that the sea is going to rise" or "it isn't going to rise up to my property", etc. But I think the thing that people will feel first in regards to sea level rise and climate change within the coastal zone of Australia will be an increase in their insurance premiums or the inability to get insurance for their houses. Remember, insurance is based on risk and if the insurance companies perceive a higher risk then premiums will reflect this. Maybe this will make people consider where they choose to live within the coastal zone or elsewhere on our gorgeous planet and also make governments invest in infrastructure in appropriate locations!

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David Suzuki lecture

Yippeee. A friend of mine has just organised for us to go to the David Suzuki lecture during the Brisbane Writer's festival. It is my understanding that he has a new book and hence the association with the writer's festival, but it certainly will be an interesting seminar to listen to since I have grown up being surrounded by David's books and my mother thinking that I should work for him when I suggested in my late high school years that I was going to do environmental science at uni.

Hope it is a great night out.

More information on this seminar can be found on the Brisbane Writer's festival home page (http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/) and the Powerhouse's home page (http://www.brisbanepowerhouse.org/). Pin It

Biodiversity debate - Australian Museum

I came across an advertisement on the Australian Museum's website for a Biodiversity Dinner debate. I am so intrigued by the topic they are going to be debating and wish I could go along. The topic is "If we humans disappeared overnight, the world would probably be better off." - David Attenborough.

It is being held in Sydney on the 14 May 2010. Unfortunately I live in a different state and I'm not sure I would fork out the entrance fee ($160), but I would love to go to hear the arguments and just be involved. I am hoping they are going to record it either via video or a podcast type arrangement so I can experience it without being there.

If anyone does end up going to this I would be excited to hear about it. Pin It