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Newsletter December 2009 Working in extreme temperatures With Amanda in Antarctica finishing off a research project, and Tom in the UK, we are collectively experiencing extreme temperatures this month, which has inspired our theme. We wish you a happy Christmas and we hope you experience ambient temperatures wherever you are. Thanks for reading and keep the feedback and ideas flowing next year.Contents Antarctica - keeping your cool and staying alive Hot Air: Communicating the science of the climate with the people Hot Air: Communicating climate change science in a political minefield |
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By Jenni Metcalfe In November I spent a few weeks in the Kimberley in the far north-west of the country. In the build up to the wet season, it was hot, hot, hot. I was accompanying researchers from the Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge program. They were working with local Aboriginal communities to find out how they use and value the Fitzroy River. I also spent several enjoyable days videoing, photographing and talking with the Bayulu rangers, east of Fitzroy Crossing, as they monitored some of their special river sites. Some lessons I learnt for dealing with the heat in this area: 1. Try to walk only in the morning or evening when it’s cooler (and the light is much better for photography). 2. Wear light cotton long-sleeve shirts and long pants rather than t-shirts or shorts. And forget baseball caps – go for a big daggy hat. 3. Freeze water overnight to take with you the next day, but drink it quickly if you don’t have an esky. 4. Don’t drive alone down remote dirt tracks that have had recent rain, unless you enjoy being in mud up to your thighs as you try and dig the car out in the midday sun to an audience of brolgas and bulls.
5.
Join the locals as they frolic in their
favourite water holes – and don’t worry
about the crocs, they’re all fresh! |
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Antarctica - keeping your cool and staying alive By Amanda Hodgson [An update from Amanda who, after a safe landing on Wilkins runway, is busy counting minke whales in Antarctica until February. Jealous? No... why do you ask? Ed.] Day 1: Survival training. Eleven of us set out for a day of hiking around the Casey recreation area with full packs on. We learnt how to navigate with and, most importantly, without a GPS. We then set up an ice kitchen out of sawn-out ice bricks and slept out overnight in our bivvies. A bivvy is just like a big sleeping bag into which you place yourself and all your gear – very quickly if you determine that there is a blizzard coming and you are not going to make it back to base. Once you make yourself ‘comfortable’, you just wait for someone to find you. We were assured that they would be looking for us. In brief, here’s what I learnt: 1. I’m comfortable using a GPS but not quite so savvy with the compass. 2. Batteries do not last long in the cold. A compass does not need batteries. So the compass is my true friend and I should become one with my compass. 3. Survival is all about being ‘zen’. 4. Do not follow someone who has just lost their leg down a well concealed hole (yes, I did). 5. Do not, 2 seconds later, follow that same person and end up sliding down an icy decline on your butt (but who would do that, really? it’s just silly). 6. Do not do survival training in perfectly still balmy weather because it creates a totally false sense of security. 7. Be aware that, assuming you continue breathing through the night in your bivvy, you will get iced condensation on the inside of your ‘roof’ which, whenever you roll over, will fall onto your face and into your sleeping bag. 8. Too much sunscreen is never enough. Put more on for god sakes!
9.
Most importantly, never get into an emergency
situation because dried macaroni cheese, even
when soaked in hot water for a considerable
amount of time, is gross. |
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Hot Air: Communicating the science of climate with the people By Jenni Metcalfe The third of our Hot Air symposia is scheduled for 9 February at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, as part of the Australian Science Communicators national conference 2010. Theme: How to communicate climate change issues to the general public. Keynote speaker Professor Will Steffen, Executive Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, will speak about: ‘Climate change: Communicating science in a political minefield’. Each speaker will address one or more of the following questions: 1. How should urban and regional communities be involved with climate change science? 2. What do people believe about climate change and the science behind it? Who and what are influencing these beliefs? Are there any differences between urban and regional communities? 3. Who are the most difficult people to reach with climate change science? Why? Are there any ways of reaching them and convincing them of the challenges that we all face? 4. Are there common misconceptions out there? Where are these coming from? 5. How do different people engage in the climate change science dialogue? 6. How are people’s attitudes and behaviours changing, or not, in response to climate change? 7. To what extent can people’s values influence climate change debate, policy and actions, and when is such influence productive/unproductive?
8.
How can we communicate climate change science
with people so that they take action to mitigate
and adapt to climate change?
Speakers include:
Early-bird registration
discount ends January 15. |
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Hot Air: Communicating climate change science in a political minefield By Jenni Metcalfe Professor Will Steffen, Executive Director of the Australian National University’s Climate Change Institute and Science Adviser, Australian Government Department of Climate Change, is the keynote speaker at the third of our Hot Air symposia scheduled for 9 February at the Australian National University, Canberra. He will talk about: ‘Climate change: Communicating science in a political minefield’. Abstract (draft): As climate change now reaches into the heart of contemporary society – core values, world perspectives, belief systems – it has become a political minefield. Thus, communicating the science of climate change has become far more complex than communicating the science itself – how the climate system works and how human activities are influencing the system. With respect to climate change, science communication is now operating in a wholly different arena than before. How do we cope with this new situation? Will Steffen will explore the question by going back to some fundamental principles that underpin modern science:
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The Heart of the Great Alone
is a new British exhibition (and book) of remarkable
photographs taken on the Scott and Shackleton polar expeditions
by Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley respectively. |
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Quotation of the monthDon't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
Kin Hubbard (1868 -
1930) |
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We're happy for you to reproduce articles from our newsletter as long as you acknowledge Econnect Communication Pty Ltd as the source. |
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