Hearing the Legacy in the Forecast: Living with Stories of the Australian Climate

2017 ◽  
pp. 267-294
Author(s):  
Deb Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Australian Climate

Understanding the Outcomes of Climate Change Campaigns in the Australian Environmental Movement

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Robyn Gulliver ◽  
Kelly S. Fielding ◽  
Winnifred Louis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Environmental Advocacy ◽  
Personal Support ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Collective Response ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Advocacy Network ◽  
Australian Climate

Climate change is a global problem requiring a collective response. Grassroots advocacy has been an important element in propelling this collective response, often through the mechanism of campaigns. However, it is not clear whether the climate change campaigns organized by the environmental advocacy groups are successful in achieving their goals, nor the degree to which other benefits may accrue to groups who run them. To investigate this further, we report a case study of the Australian climate change advocacy sector. Three methods were used to gather data to inform this case study: content analysis of climate change organizations’ websites, analysis of website text relating to campaign outcomes, and interviews with climate change campaigners. Findings demonstrate that climate change advocacy is diverse and achieving substantial successes such as the development of climate change-related legislation and divestment commitments from a range of organizations. The data also highlights additional benefits of campaigning such as gaining access to political power and increasing groups’ financial and volunteer resources. The successful outcomes of campaigns were influenced by the ability of groups to sustain strong personal support networks, use skills and resources available across the wider environmental advocacy network, and form consensus around shared strategic values. Communicating the successes of climate change advocacy could help mobilize collective action to address climate change. As such, this case study of the Australian climate change movement is relevant for both academics focusing on social movements and collective action and advocacy-focused practitioners, philanthropists, and non-governmental organizations.

The Education of Aboriginal Children

1973 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-43
Author(s):  
P. egens
Keyword(s):  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Value System ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Balance Of Nature ◽  
Delicate Balance ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
White Settler ◽  
Australian Climate ◽  
Industrial Civilization ◽  
Aboriginal Children

I feel rather diffident in opening this topic as there are some of you who are far more experienced in this field than I am.I think that, in talking about the Aboriginal people, some basic premises should be stated first. The Aboriginal people had a highly developed tribal system and a much higher ethical structure than the white man has. By contrast, an excellent study of Australian values is contained in a book by Ronald Conway, a Melbourne Psychologist, called The Great Australian Stupor. His equation of the Australian value system is as follows:Material Wealth = Pleasure = Happiness= Reason for Living.He writes –Whereas the Aboriginal trod his enchanted earth for centuries on tip-toe, leaving the delicate balance of nature of a tired continent intact, the white settler preferred to greet the touchiness of Australian climate and soil with a murderous impatience.When the white man came to this continent he took the best land for agricultural purposes. He broke up the tribal system so that the Aboriginal people were left leaderless and landless. Now we expect, in our schools and other aspects of our society, that the Aboriginal people will bridge the gap to a super-industrial civilization (with its questionable value system) in two or three generations.

scholarly journals Regime transitions of Australian climate and climate extremes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorgen Segerlund Frederiksen ◽  
Stacey Lee Osbrough
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Climate Extremes ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Australian Climate ◽  
Average Maximum ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Maximum Temperatures ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Regime Transitions

Abstract. Systematic changes, since the beginning of the 20th century, in average and extreme Australian rainfall and temperatures indicate that Southern Australian climate has undergone regime transitions into a drier and warmer state. South-west Western Australia (SWWA) experienced the most dramatic drying trend with average streamflow into Perth dams, in the last decade, just 20 % of that before the 1960s and extreme, decile 10, rainfall reduced to near zero. In south-eastern Australia (SEA) systematic decreases in average and extreme cool season rainfall became evident in the late 1990s with a halving of the area experiencing average decile 10 rainfall in the early 21st century compared with that for the 20th century. The shift in annual surface temperatures over SWWA and SEA, and indeed for Australia as a whole, has occurred primarily over the last 20 years with the percentage area experiencing extreme maximum temperatures in decile 10 increasing to an average of more than 45 % since the start of the 21st century compared with less than 3 % for the 20th century mean. Average maximum temperatures have also increased by circa 1 °C for SWWA and SEA over the last 20 years. The climate changes are associated with atmospheric circulation shifts and are indicative of second order regime transitions, apart from extreme temperatures for which the dramatic increases are suggestive of first order transitions.

scholarly journals International significance of Australian research on beef quality - a view from the periphery

2001 ◽  
Vol 41 (7) ◽  
pp. 1089 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. E. Devine
Keyword(s):  
Research Effort ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Beef Quality ◽  
Beef Industry ◽  
Significant Component ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Australian Climate ◽  
The World ◽  
Production Practices

Australia produces agricultural products, including meat, as major items for export as well as being consumed locally. It is no accident that Australia is one of the major exporters of meat to distant markets and the success is predicated on adapting animal production practices and processing to produce a highly desirable product that is safe to eat. Research plays a large part in this strategy, but one would have to say that for some time the view that ‘a prophet hath no honour in his own country’ has predominated. The Cattle and Beef CRC is designed to improve the profitability of the Australian beef industry by bringing in partners, some of whom were prominent in previous research endeavours to coordinate a research effort in order to benefit the whole industry — it is a unique and effective approach. It has taken some time to demonstrate that a ‘nice’ looking animal is not a predictor of meat quality — rather it needs to be processed correctly in order for it to meet the most critical consumer requirements. The researchers in Australia have in fact been the world leaders in advocating procedures such as electrical stimulation that have been taken up by the industry. There are still areas where the research results from Australia differ from that in other countries. CRC-based research in Australia in controlled studies using large numbers of animals with a wide genetic base, has shown that both cattle with a significant component from tropical genotypes and non-tropical genotypes, processed correctly, produce highly acceptable meat. To get further improvements, we merely need to identify the causes of outliers and this should not be difficult. This concept is of course important in the context of the relatively dry Australian climate that results in different problems from other countries. One important outcome of the CRC has been to show that sectors of the industry need to work together to use research and, if necessary, challenge current thinking imposed from outside. In other words, Australians should believe in themselves.

scholarly journals Operating Experiences with an Advanced Fabric Energy Storage System

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.J Fuller
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Energy Storage System ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Cold Climate ◽  
Operational Mode ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Track Record ◽  
Australian Climate

Despite their proven track record in the cold climate countries of northern Europe, there are no reports in the research literature of experiences using advanced fabric energy storage (FES) systems in countries where cooling rather than heating is the main priority. This paper reports some of the experiences with the first known advanced FES system in Australia made over the first full calendar year of operation. It is located in a three-storey building on a university campus in Victoria and has been in operation since mid-2002. Temperature, energy use and operational mode data were recorded during 2003. Airflow measurements through the FES system have been made in five areas of the building. On-going operating problems still exist with the system and this has prevented a conclusive evaluation of its suitability for the southern Australian climate.

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