Big bangs, smoke and fun @ National Science Week 2012

Ya gotta love science!

Not only for the spectacular drama and big bangs, but for the delicate finesse of artistic creativity, researching our environments to ascertain their health, delving into cancer cells and DNA, learning from the stars, or working out how many people particular regions can sustain. I don't pretend to understand it all, but I love that there are people working in all these (and more) areas to better understand the complexities of our world and beyond.

National Science Week is a celebration of science, and the opening today in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall went off with a dramatic bang! Students, researchers and assorted scientists were scattered around the mall sharing insights and enthusiasm.

Garbage bins are usually pretty boring things, but today one was put to good use when liquid nitrogen was carefully poured in a drink bottle and put in a container inside a wheelie bin. The lid was quickly shut and the presenters scampered to a safe distance. An ear popping explosion was the result, with copious amounts of smoke, a wildly rocking bin and hugely smiling emos who'd been watching with feigned disinterest from the sidelines. Not bad at all!

I learnt that listening to the bush is not only delightful, but a valid way to ascertain the health (or otherwise) of environments. Scientists record the sounds, remove the extraneous "noise" then analyse the results. By doing this, (which is a rather complex business) it's possible to discover such things as the infiltration of cane toads to the west and south of the country (seriously not good for native animals of any size), the range and health of particular communities of animals, birds or frogs and how the populations are coping with assorted environmental factors.  

You can listen to some of the sounds of the Australian bush and learn a bit more at www.bush.fm

I love staring at the night sky, looking at the depth and range of colours, scanning for meteors, waving at the International Space Station and looking for satellites. Others become animated and enthusiastic when in the vicinity of telescopes of varying sizes. I heard oohs and aahs as people of all ages concentrated to look at sunspots and held my breath, hoping that no one would trip over the tripods that looked far too insecure to allow the bumbling public near.

Dr Jennifer  Loy seemed to be fielding quite a few questions along the lines of "Where can I get one of those?" and  "That looks like a great course" as she demonstrated a small tabletop 3D printer. I'd heard and seen some uses for 3D printers, but I'd never seen them used for jewellery and other elegant work. The lamp shade was exquisite and the jewellery would be fun to wear. As for more practical uses, glasses frames came to mind, and I expect a clever person could compete well with the outrageously priced stock in many spectacle stores.

Starting a conversation with anyone who is passionate about their particular field of interest can be a fraught business. Are they going to be interesting? Are you going to, for instance, have to resort to chewing your leg off to get away from a tediously boring, long winded, excruciatingly painful, bore? Thankfully, no dramatic, messy newsworthy stories were evident today. In fact, quite the opposite. At times I wondered if the scientists and presenters found the enthusiasm of the public a bit, well, enthusiastic to be honest. Wide eyed wonder, and lots of questions seemed par for the course.

I'm looking forward to having time to explore the Carrying Capacity Dashboard which "is an online application that estimates the resources needed to support a human population" given particular lifestyle choices. You can explore what happens when there are changes in such things as diet, energy usage, agricultural techniques and recycling practices. Adapting our lifestyles has a dramatic effect on the estimated number of people that different areas in Australia can carry sustainably. Given what I learnt today, it's clear some areas are already well beyond their ability to be sustainable.

Australia faces huge challenges with our changing climate. We already have divisive and competing land use demands - farming versus mining, agriculture versus housing development subdivisions.

Communities and states are at loggerheads about fair and equitable use of water - should it be used for farming, irrigation, mining? How much for manufacturing? Which areas get how much? Who decides? What proportion should be left in the environment for healthy rivers and groundwater? What about contaminants? How do we rationalise the use of this impermanent, precious natural resource?

It's vital that our policy makers address these issues with a deep understanding of the ramifications of their decisions and not make decisions as a knee-jerk response or for short term electoral gains or to satisfy the most strident lobbyists. Carrying Capacity Dashboard is, I suspect, going to provoke a lot of discussion, and hopefully some deep reflection on the sort of society we hope to become.

National Science Week is just beginning! To find out what's on near you, go to http://www.scienceweek.net.au/ it's not just big bangs to entertain the kid in us all, there's also challenging, entertaining, creative, welcoming sessions around the country for people from all walks of life.

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An A to Z of Climate Matters.

April 2012. An A-Z of Climate Matters. 
There is a link in the sidebar to the A-Z blogging challenge hosted by Arlee Bird and his wonderful team.

A is for Advertising - a brief look at the methods media, vested interests and the advertising industry use to sway opinion regarding climate change rather than to share facts.
B is for Biodiversity - why it's important for our very survival on earth.
C is for Change - how we often resist it, fear it and avoid it, but how we also need to face it head on if we're to negotiate climate change and energy depletion with hope and confidence.
D is for Desertification - what can happen to lands which are overgrazed, and have every natural living thing removed for the planting of mono crops.
E is for Eat - what we choose to eat, how much, how often and where it's imported from has major implications for food security. Farting cows make their appearance here.
F is for Fracking - a method of extracting fossil fuels from deep under the earth.
G is for Greenhouse - the gasses which we're emitting into the atmosphere at such a rapid rate aren't healthy and are contributing to a toxic blend of chemicals which will last many hundreds of years. We don't breathe these easily, nor do animals. Trees that normally absorb carbon-dioxide aren't keeping up with our emissions.
H is for Health - Our mental and physical health is intricately tied with our climate. Increasingly frequent and severe weather events such as fire, drought and flood have impacts on everyone involved.
I is for Insects - We need them! Without creepy crawlies and bees, humankind is unlikely to survive. Toxic chemicals used on crops as pesticides kill not only "pests" but helpful critters too.
J is for Jellyfish - these can survive and thrive in ocean areas which have been overfished.
K is for Kilter - as in Our climate is out of kilter and so are some of our lifestyle choices.
L is for Leadership - innovative, farsighted, visionary, leaders are rare and need to be encouraged and celebrated.
M is for Mangroves - mangroves are the most interesting trees! They're salt tolerant meaning they can grow in sea water, and can deal with more carbon than any other tree.
N is for Notice - notice how you can make energy savings in your home AND save money!
O is for Oil - such a recent discovery and one which has infiltrated almost all our lives. In fact it's probably fair to say we're addicted to it and as with any addiction, breaking it could be a bit of a challenge. but it will run out, so perhaps it's not a bad idea to have a "Plan B".
P is for Plastics and Pollution - plastics are a wonderful invention, and a byproduct of oil. They're extremely handy for all sorts of things. Unfortunately products are often discarded thoughtlessly and add to the increasing problem of pollution.
Q is for Quadruple bottom line - a little bit of accounting - a different way of looking at what is valuable for businesses. Interesting rather than daunting :)
R is for Responsibility - hyper-consumption has an impact on using fossil fuels and therefore our climate.
S is for Soil - you don't have to get down and dirty to appreciate how necessary healthy soil is! Healthy soil = healthy plants. Healthy plants = healthy us.
T is for Trees - tall, majestic and leafy or stunted and straggly. No matter what they look like, trees are vital to maintain a breathable atmosphere, to stabilise soil and to assist with biodiversity.
U is for Urban heat island - cities absorb heat so people to use more air-conditioning. Greening our cities creates cooler, healthier lifestyles.
V is for Values - values underpin much of what we do and give our lives meaning. When people are out of touch with their values, their lives can lack direction and be unhappy and empty.
W is for Water - Water wars. Water disputes. Country against country, region against region. Farming, people, mining, all demanding more of this increasingly polluted vital resource.
X is for eXtreme weather - did it really take me this long to discuss weather?
Y is for Yesterday - sing the words from The Beatles song "Yesterday" to get a sense of this letter.
Z is for Zero - Zero population growth - improved quality of life for mums, children, families and communities. Enough food and water to go around. Equity and balance. So easy, yet so hard for many to accept the need for reliable modern contraception.

And now ... a well earned celebration :D

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Climate Matters. Y is for Yesterday

This post is for Y in the A-Z Blogging Challenge 2012. Link in the sidebar.


Yesterday, metaphorically speaking, we thought ignorance was bliss. We figured tomorrow's weather would take care of itself in much the same way as has happened relatively reliably for the last few hundred years. Then somewhere around 15 - 20 years ago, or significantly longer in scientific circles, conversations would begin about climate change and human influence on it - not only amongst scientists studying the area, but amongst everyday people as well.  These conversations didn't involve nasty 'pointing the finger' vicious comments, but an acceptance that we have a problem, and we need to address it in a rational manner.

It's been referred to using different terminology in different countries over the intervening years, but in essence our unusually stable world climate is changing, both as happens naturally, and in response to our enthusiasm for putting more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere than it can comfortably cope with.

Sadly, in the intervening years, governmental and public concern about climate change got hijacked. We all face these challenges, they're not going to affect only those of a particular political, religious or ideological persuasion. The challenges are to do with water, health, fuel, biodiversity, deforestation, food and security and all are related to our changing climate. There is no debate. There is solid data from reputable scientists worldwide who have spent their professional lives researching this issue from many different angles. Science doesn't play favourites, it isn't in the business of gathering tv or radio ratings by using deliberately divisive language and attention seeking infotainment tactics which attract high paying advertisements. (Links to reputable information here and an interesting insight with short video here)

Yesterday we respected our most highly trained, intelligent, dedicated scientists. We respected them for their calm, considered language, their rigour, their honesty, their integrity, their diligence. Yesterday we forgave them their awkwardness and accepted the demanding, clinical, reasoned, language of their profession with its lack of 100% absolutes. Today it seems that if the words climate, change and science are connected,  many people will choose to trust an advertising agency or highly paid shock jock instead. That's tragic.

Someone said to me last week "Watching infotainment makes me feel like I'm watching the news. It's fun. I feel like I'm being informed, but I'm not. I'm being entertained." At least this person had the insight to be aware that the consumption of this type of media isn't remotely similar to understanding complex issues.

If watching infotainment, or listening to shock jocks is your only source of information there will be no balance, just a constant force feeding of a particular bite sized dogmatic view laced with drama, simplification and hyperbole.

Climate, Change, Diet
The human impact on climate change is a little bit like overeating excessive amounts of processed foods laced with sugars, fats and salts. As a result of over indulgence you feel too queasy to sleep deeply or exercise adequately. You begin to put on weight, your ankles might swell, possibly diabetes will be diagnosed, arteries clog, your heart becomes stressed and you begin to experience other more complex health related problems. Your doctor will prescribe assorted medication to address the most pressing issues to prolong life and ease the most uncomfortable symptoms. It's not simply one single food that caused the problem, but a complex inter-relationship of different foods and additives which fill various needs - from eating to allay hunger, but also including binge eating to cope with stress or depression.

In a similar way, it's not one single thing we're doing to exacerbate the problem of climate change, but a complex network of seemingly unrelated human activities. Each looked at alone may seem almost as insignificant as eating a donut - after all what harm can felling a few acres of trees in Australia do to the world's climate? To the particular community, the mangroves being uprooted to make way for a marina makes sense. Likewise people in Indonesia, and elsewhere around the globe, fell rain-forests, uproot mangroves, eat meat, fish and grains, drive cars and allow toxic runoff to seep into waterways oceans. Yet, as with an unhealthy diet, these individual decisions result in a complex inter-relationship of many different climate related issues with a worldwide, rather than individual, impact.

Cows fart, cars emit carbon-dioxide, fishing grounds are depleted. More cars are built, requiring more fuel and more cows are bred to satisfy the changing dietary desires of more and more people. We're demanding more and more from our Earth; more food from less land, more water for crops to feed more people. We're depleting fossil fuels at an extraordinary rate, shipping them around the globe, then using them to transport goods from one country to another to be manufactured into different things and shipped back again. When you actually take a moment and stop to think about it, it's crazy. And so often unnecessary ... do we really need plastic toys from fast food chains that break within minutes? Is this a wise use of precious resources?

Yesterday we didn't think about these things, but today we do. Hiding your head in the sand hoping it will all go away or feeling guilty, angry or denying it's happening isn't the answer. My suspicion is that thinking deeply about your values is the basis for acting. When you've worked out what you value, it's easier to make life affirming decisions based on those values and be proud of your decisions as a basis for action. (see V Values here )

As individuals, we can't change the world, but we can have an effect in our own small sphere. An eating habit gone wrong leads to severe ill health, but the habits and choices that led to the situation can be positively addressed with sustained, careful, dedicated management. In a similar way our lifestyle choices related to climate change can be adapted to be healthier not only for us as individuals but benefit others as well. Some choices are easy - to read labels and choose items without palm oil for instance. Others could be more challenging, such as with choosing to resign from a highly paying job that promotes unethical and inhumane treatment of people and their lands for the acquisition of fossil fuels. (see K, out of Kilter here)

It's a challenge indeed, one which it will take courage to face, I wonder if we're up for it.



Last year I wrote about what You can do if you're being bullied at work for Y in my theme of workplace bullying here and Yolanda's Yellow Yacht here.


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