Geoff Edwards
Check the websites of these earlier announcements for currency.
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Prof Kerrie Wilson, Queensland Chief Scientist, delivered the Romeo Lahey Memorial Lecture 2024 on the theme:
- The role of protected areas
- The impact of climate change on national parks
- Adapting to change – strategies for resilience
- Action and advocacy
- Our collective role and responsibility.
Click here for the slides and transcript.
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The Australian Reptile Online Database is a searchable database containing information on all currently recognised Australian reptile species. At the moment, information for most species is limited to taxonomic details. Some species accounts are more complete than others. Some species accounts have photos. AROD is maintained by Stewart Macdonald who has pooled data from multiple sources and provided references to those data sources. He welcomes contributions in the form of images, pointers to new species descriptions and interesting journal articles on Australian reptiles. Photos for species that are currently lacking them are especially appreciated.
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On 24 May 2024 the Queensland Farmers’ Federation issued a press release applauding the Government’s decision to refuse an application for carbon capture and storage in the Great Artesian Basin. Read it here.
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New scientific paper exposes coal seam gas damage as government ignores risks and abandons farmers
A new Royal Society of Queensland paper exposes how successive governments have turned a blind eye to the devastating impacts of unconventional gas on some of the state’s most important agricultural land.
The paper, “Coal Seam Gas Mining: potential to induce seismic and aseismic events and aquifer discontinuity” highlights how inland Queensland coal seam gas projects threaten aquifers that sustain farming operations across the Darling Downs and elsewhere.
It also highlights the potential for unconventional gas extraction to cause earthquakes, and notes the “Queensland Government, which stopped measuring seismic events in 1986, does not have the capacity to monitor seismic outcomes from the gas industry.”
Lock the Gate Alliance national coordinator Ellen Roberts said, “This expert scientific paper shows how coal seam gas threatens water and agricultural productivity across some of Queensland’s most productive farmland.
“The research shows how coal seam gas poses a major contamination risk to groundwater, while at the same time draining aquifers and causing farmland to sink.
“Despite these known issues, coal seam gas companies are pushing ahead with massive expansion plans. Origin wants to drill another 7700 coal seam gas wells across inland Queensland, including on the border of the world renowned Carnarvon National Park.
“In light of these new findings, Lock the Gate Alliance renews its call for an immediate moratorium on coal seam gas drilling in Queensland. The Queensland Government urgently needs to overhaul laws governing the industry, especially when it comes to the sinking of land as a result of coal seam gas induced subsidence.
“We need all political parties in the lead up to this year’s election to promise to introduce robust new laws to protect Queensland’s best quality farmland from the scourge of coal seam gas.”
Cecil Plains farmer Liza Balmain, whose property is threatened by coal seam gas development, said, “We have seen the impacts further north and west and know that the coal seam gas industry is totally incompatible with food and fibre production on prime agricultural land. The Condamine Alluvium, which sustains this food bowl and our regional towns, is a priceless water resource that is too precious to risk.
“The Queensland Government knows that coal seam gas is causing subsidence, yet is unbelievably allowing it to occur despite the long-term damage to Queensland’s most productive farmland on the Darling Downs. No amount of money will ever be able to compensate for the hundreds of years of lost agricultural productivity and permanent damage to water sources coal seam gas is causing.
“CSG regulation in Queensland allows companies like Arrow Energy, a known violator of land access laws, to self assess the risk of their development on farmers’ land – a classic case of leaving the fox in charge of the hen house.
“The Queensland Government needs to urgently address this major flaw in CSG regulation before any more damage is done to critical food and water security. The government has a duty of care to our future generations.”
ENDS
Media contact, 0447355565
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Agricultural scientist Dr Peter Dart, seismologist Mr Col Lynam and former Royal Society of Queensland President Dr Geoff Edwards have written a peer-reviewed article, published as an Occasional Paper “Coal Seam Gas Mining: Potential to Induce Seismic and Aseismic Events and Aquifer Discontinuity“, released in May 2024 as a “preprint” in order to expose the issues to public debate, prior to final copyediting. The paper draws on the seismology database published elsewhere on this QSN website. The paper uses the Surat Cumulative Management Area as its case study. The paper was formally accepted by the Society’s Council on 30 July 2024 and may now be formally cited, although typesetting remains outstanding.
The paper is extensively researched (>180 papers referenced from all over world) and topical with the new gas policy and the Channel Country CO2 injections into the GAB proposed by Glencore and Santos. The authors also discuss how subsidence occurs and cannot be rectified and the drastic effect that it is likely to have on cropping and agriculture on the Darling Downs. The paper describes how fracking is a seismic event and how this has ramifications for the environment beyond making gas and water available for extraction.
President of The Royal Society of Queensland Dr Nelson Quinn issued a press release summarising the risks.
Since the Occasional Paper was accepted two relevant papers were published about induced seismicity:
- Cochran, E.S., Rubinstein, J.L., Barbour, A.J. and Kaven J.0. (2024). Induced seismicity strategic vision. U.S. Geological survey Circular 1509. 39p. https://doi.org/10.3133/cir1509.
- Surma, K. (2024). Fracking-induced earthquakes are menacing Argentina as regulators stand by. Inside Climate News. Fracking-Induced Earthquakes Are Menacing Argentina as Regulators Stand By
The Lock-the-Gate Alliance has issued a press release on the subject, as has the Queensland Farmers’ Federation.
In August 2024, Vice-President-QSN of The Royal Society of Queensland delivered a paper to a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland during their tour of Norfolk Island: Some sneaking suspicions that New Zealand is pushing its (tectonic) weight around, AGAIN!. The presentation touches on the risk of earthquakes, especially in central Queensland, a finding with significant implications for the gas industry.
In February, 2024, Geoscience Australia in a post announcing a public event indirectly confirmed the validity of the argument in the Dart et al. paper mentioned above that seismological tracking is inadequate: “Australia’s vast terrains means some small seismic events can be missed by sparse station coverage & noise interference. …[A]rray techniques can improve detectability of earthquake.”
By way of background: “The GEM (Global Earthquake Model) Foundation, based in Pavia, Italy, is a non-governmental organisation and public-private partnership devoted to the assessment of earthquake risk worldwide. Geoscience Australia has been a government sponsor of and collaborator with GEM since 2010. GA utilises GEM’s hazard and risk analysis software OpenQuake in Australia and in collaborations in the Australasia region, and GA contributes hazard and risk information to the global community through GEM.” Ssecond generation global earthquake hazard and risk maps were released in October 2023. (Posted to LinkedIn).
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The Australian Academy of Science hosted a significant event in Brisbane on Friday 22 March 2024. Although the event has passed, this post is kept alive for its networking potential.
The Academy is “an independent organisation of distinguished Australian scientists, championing science for the benefit of all. …Queensland-based scientists are well represented in convenors and panellists, including:
- Professor Kerrie Wilson, Queensland Chief Scientist
• Professor Matthew Morell, Director, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
• Professor Neena Mitter, Centre Director, Centre for Horticultural Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
• Dr Rohan Nelson, Director, Food System Horizons, University of Queensland, CSIRO.
Keynote addresses included those from Professor David Raubenheimer, leading expert in nutritional ecology; Dr John Kirkegaard FAA, Chief Research Scientist – Farming Systems, CSIRO Agriculture and Food; and Professor Yasmina Sultanbawa, Centre Director, Centre for Nutrition and Food Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation.
The event examined Food Futures. Australia is one of the most food-secure countries in the world and our food exports are a significant part of our economy. But our population is growing, the climate is altering what we can grow and where, and supply chains are being disrupted by global conflicts and pandemics.”
For a complete program, please visit the Academy’s website: https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/events/australian-academy-of-science-national-symposium-2024/symposium-2024-program
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Leaflet No. 63 of the Commonwealth’s Forestry and Timber Bureau, Illustrations of the Buds and Fruits of Eucalyptus Species with an Alphabetical Index is a classic work, widely consulted by botanists and bushlovers in its day. It covers 486 species and varieties. It was issued over the name of M.R. Jacobs, Director-General, as was the custom in those days. This version is the Fourth Edition, published in June 1962, of 18.6 MB.
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Citizen science FAQs
The European Citizen Science Association has published 10 Principles of Citizen Science which have been translated into some 38 languages. Its website also includes answers to frequently asked questions about citizen science.
QSN has downloaded the answers and the 10 Principles into this PDF document.
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Emeritus Professor Brian Roberts has been advocating for an ethic of stewardship, a new relationship of Australians with their land, for more than four decades. Prof Roberts has been an intellectual leader of the Landcare movement from its beginning.
Soil Conservation: People, Religion and Land (31.4MB) has been retrieved from Trove’s website capture, having originally been uploaded to South West NRM’s Mulga Lands Information Hub.
On 5 Dec. 2023 Prof Roberts gave permission to QSN to publish two one-page extracts from his 1993 book Ground Rules. He said these two pages are a fair summary of his best writings.
