Geoff Edwards
The Australian Greenhouse Calculator helps explore how a person’s lifestyle contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. We all enjoy the benefits of modern technology such as heating and lighting, but we can take actions to reduce production of greenhouse gases and help combat climate change.
Use the AGC to explore how to live more sustainably. By changing behaviour and selecting energy-efficient options, people can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in ways that do not compromise comfort and quality of life.
The calculator website includes “Teacher ideas” linked to the Australian curriculum.
We thank Alan Pears AM, primary developer of the calculator’s algorithm, for drawing this to QSN’s attention.
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National renewable energy expert Alan Pears AM has compiled a list of websites and other web-accessible materials on the subject of renewable energy and the benefits of improving the energy efficiency of our public and private infrastructure.
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The National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training is offering fellowships to work in the field of groundwater. The Queensland openings are at the University of Queensland:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and hydrogeologists collaborating to better understand and manage groundwater resources
- Integration of Indigenous knowledge into post-mine land use planning.
See the website for details.
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From 2007 South West NRM, the regional catchment body for the Mulga Lands of South-west Queensland, launched a “Mulga Lands Information Hub“, a repository of reports, journal articles, books and other materials about the Mulga Lands specifically although much of the material is referable to the pastoral zone generally. A significant proportion of the material was digitised for the purpose and does not appear online anywhere else.
In 2019 South West NRM amalgamated with the two natural resource management bodies to the east (Queensland Murray Darling Basin Committee and Condamine Alliance), forming Southern Queensland Landscapes. The Information Hub was archived but was saved by the international Wayback Machine and is therefore available for a modern audience. It is a rich source of knowledge about pastoral Queensland and Australia.
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Sustainable Queensland Forum partnered with The Royal Society of Queensland and the Central Queensland University to run an interesting seminar in 2016. The proceedings have been rescued from the digital dungeon and are now available on the Events 2016 page of the Society’s website. Topics covered included:
A stewardship model for managing Queensland’s pastoral lands
The Australian experience in using biodiversity tenders for conservation
The renewable energy revolution
Economic Incentives for Key Environmental Values
A strategy for expanding and managing Queensland’s protected area estate
Climate change projection for Queensland
Threats posed by the spread of invasive grasses
Grazing, a conservation tool in fire sensitive ecosystems impacted by buffel grass
The role of citizen science in sustainable tourism
Public vs private management of conservation estate (fences).
Rural producers, natural resource managers and conservation managers face a constantly changing set of climatic and human influences. Traditional land production systems and environmental management are under pressure. New approaches to production and natural resource management are required in the face of government financial resource and capacity constraints, as well as the intensifying environmental challenges. Download full summary here.
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The Royal Geographical Society of Queensland has advised that the recording of the 3rd August lecture “Reimagining James Cook and Australian History” in its monthly lecture series has been published on Society’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvxXH5deK0Y
Feel free to share the lecture.
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Read QFBC’s August 2021 Newsletter here.
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A recent observation of a migrant Tawny Coster butterfly has stimulated the interest of entomologists and citizen scientists. Dawn Franzmann tells the story in:
The article first appeared in Metamorphosis Australia, the magazine of QSN member body Butterfly and Other Invertebrates Club. All materials in Metamorphosis Australia are copyright to the authors, artists, photographers and the Butterfly & Other Invertebrates Club Inc., (except when indicated). We thank BOIC for permission to re-publish this item.
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The Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC) supports the accurate reporting of science in the media and has occupied this critical space at the front-line since 2005. The not-for-profit Centre works with around 1,600 journalists and 5,000 scientists and claims to have no agenda other than to support the accurate reporting of science in the media for the benefit of the Australian public.
As an independent service for journalists, it helps media outlets cover some of the biggest stories in the news – from climate, energy and natural disasters to diet, health, technology and space.
As part of its portfolio, it runs a Find an Expert facility.
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Information about management and stewardship of the pastoral lands of Australia can be found in several places on the websites managed by The Royal Society Queensland and the Royal Societies of Australia:
- An extensive repository of knowledge about the stewardship of rural lands can be found on the rural policy webpages of The Royal Society of Queensland.
- The QSN webpage Stewardship Incentives and Rangelands Policy includes a brief account of the sequence of policy activities, commencing with the foundation document, to…
- …the proceedings of a series of three Stewardship of Country webinars held in February and March 2021 by the Royal Societies of Australia and…
- …the establishment of the Rangelands Queensland website.
- The Pastoral Lands Information Hub contains a large archive of relevant material.
- In July 2005 a “Training Manual for Workshop Participants”: Ongoing Stewardship & Management by Judy Lambert & Jane Elix of “Community Solutions” was delivered at LaTrobe University Bundoora Campus, Melbourne. Subjects covered include defining ‘stewardship’, voluntary support mechanisms, Land for Wildlife, conservation covenants, funding and long-term maintenance.
Carbon farming update
For anyone contemplating taking out a carbon credits project, Alan Lauder’s Carbon Stocks and Flows page on the Society’s website is a must-read.
For a short communication on whether high or low grazing pressure increases carbon sequestration, see a letter to Science of 24 Nov. 2023 by David Eldridge: “Australia’s carbon plan disregards evidence”.
Land ethic
Prof. Brian Roberts has been a pioneer of Australia’s Landcare movement and has published numerous works outlining a new approach to Australians’ relationship to the land. A special page has been dedicated to his writings: https://scienceqld.org/2023/12/11/land-ethics-roberts/.
In 1998 the Department of Natural Resources and Mines published a guide for its departmental staff entitled Land Ethics, being an interpretation of the objects of the 1994 Crown lands legislation.