Photos of Sydney Uni taken in Dec '08

In December, Rebecca and I went to Sydney for the Ecological Society of Australia conference that I was presenting at. I presented a poster entitled "How dynamic are forest and suburban bird communities?" which represents a very small part of my work here at Griffith University. Feel free to download a PDF copy of the poster by clicking here. The conference was held at Sydney University, a place of amazing history and architecture. I recently downloaded the photos from the camera and decided I would finally take the time to post some of the photos I took of the Quadrangle Building. You can link to them here on on the right in the Picture Albums section.

Climate change analogy

Yesterday, I was listening to an ABC Science Show podcast initially aired on Saturday 31st January 2009 and heard one of the best analogies regarding the need to halt the ever-present and accelerating climate change issue. It was a quote by John Holdren, Professor of Environment Policy at Harvard, who was selected as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Here is what he said...

"The current situation of the world in relation to the climate problem is that we're in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog, and the fog is the scientific uncertainty about the details that prevent us from knowing exactly where the cliff is. The climate change sceptics are telling us that the fog is a consolation and that we shouldn't worry because we're uncertain about the details, but of course any sane person driving a car toward a cliff in the fog and knowing that the brakes are bad, that it takes the car a long time to stop, will start putting on the brakes, trying to slow the car, without knowing exactly where the cliff is but just in the hope that by putting on the brakes we'll be in time to keep from going over the cliff. You don't have to be sure that you can still avoid going over the cliff to put on the brakes, you want to do it in any case. And that's what the world should be doing with respect to the emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing this climate problem. There's a chance we'll go over the cliff anyway but prudence requires that we try to stop the car."

GREAT analogy, in that it addresses the nay-sayers, as well as reinforces the need for action. It is great to finally see someone associated with the White House that has an obvious passion, but more importantly, the brains to deal with the impending issue that is climate change. Having said that however, from an academic point of view, I worry about the degree of influence that climate change appears to have in the scientific literature. For that, I will need to write another post, because there are a number of elements I wish to discuss, so will need to think about it first...

Rainfall and temperature of late...

The weather that we are experiencing at the moment throughout Australia is phenomenal. We have disaster relief programs brought on from flooding in the north of Queensland and the tragedy of fire in Victoria. I have pulled some data from the Bureau of Meteorology website that exemplifies the bizarre nature of the weather experienced this year already.

Rainfall
The rainfall data shows some very interesting trends throughout the country. Firstly, you can tell from the first figure the vast amount of rain that has fallen in northern Queensland. A quick check of some centres indicates some amazing facts. One of the wettest weather stations this year has been Hawkins Creek, just NW of Ingham, where since the start of the year, 2,694.2mm has been recorded, including 1376.8mm in the last 12 days! That yearly total to date represents over three times the annual average rainfall for Perth and over twice that of Sydney! Needless to say, with that much rain falling in the region, flooding is a major issue. Flooding has also gripped large parts of the western edge of Queensland from Burketown all the way down to Birdsville. The Diamantina, Gregory, Nicholson, Albert, Leichhardt, Flinders, Cloncurry, Norman and Gilbert Rivers, just to name a few, are all presently on flood watch; many of them have been on flood watch for almost a month. Note also the interesting rainfall pattern in Western Australia. There has been more rain falling in the arid interior of WA then there has been on the coast. No doubt, the pattern of rainfall from Port Hedland down to the Nullarbor was due to the passage of various rain-bearing depressions and Cyclone Dominic, although this pattern of elevated rainfall through the interior of WA is evident over the last 10 years or so, often independent of cyclone activity… interesting!! Note also on the map that much of the area devastated by the recent bushfires in Victoria have received little to no rainfall. Apparently, much of Victoria experienced a relatively wet December which helped to boost understorey vegetation. Following this, a very dry January and heatwave at the same time (see below) resulted in all this ‘fuel’ drying out.

The second figure I show is the percentage of yearly rainfall received to date. What is amazing on this figure is that as of the 11th February, much of northern Queensland has already received their average rainfall for the year, with some places in the Gulf country already having received over twice their average yearly rainfall already… and it is only the 11th February! If they don’t receive a single millimetre for the rest of the year, they would already have received twice their yearly rainfall. Unfortunately, there appears to be no end to the rainfall in the immediate future.

Temperature
As we have seen, the Victorian bushfires are unprecedented in the sense of ferocity, intensity and loss of life. What hasn’t helped has been the incredible temperatures experienced throughout the southern states in the last 2 months. On Saturday 7th February, the day the fires claimed so many lives, Melbourne experienced their hottest day in 151 years of records; 46.4 degrees, or 20.6 degrees above the January average! Add to this, temperatures of 36.4, 43.4, 44.3 and 45.1 between January 27th and 30th, and you have some strange weather! Likewise, at the same time, Adelaide sweltered through temperatures as high as 45.7 degrees, and for 13 days between Monday 26th January and 7th February, the temperature only dropped below 36 degrees on one day, and included 8 days over 40 degrees! The cause of much of this heat was the presence of a heat trough (shown as a dashed line) perched just to the west of Adelaide and Melbourne around the time of the heatwave, which was being held there by a high pressure system in the Tasman Sea, and brought hot dry winds from the NW over the parched, dry and hot inland. Any time you see a trough line to the west of where you are, expect hot weather, especially if it plants itself there for days! This is regularly seen in Perth, and you watch; those days they expect hot temperature, you can almost guarantee a trough just off the coast, and as soon as it passes, it dramatically cools down. On 8th January, the maximum temperature reached just 24.8 degrees compared to 41.5 degrees the day before. Likewise, on the 8th January in Melbourne, the temperature reached just 22.5 degrees compared to 46.4 degrees the day before; a 23.9 degree turnaround. That same trough line that brought this hot weather then cooked Sydney for an extra day as it moved east, bringing 42.5 degrees to Penrith, before dropping to 23.6 degrees on Monday.



The image I show here is the maximum temperature anomaly (that is, the differnce between that observed, and the long-term average) for both the month of January, as well as the last 7 days, which shows the uncharacteristically high maximum temperatures in the southeast of the country and the extraordinarily cooler maximum temperatures in the gulf country of northern Queensland, associated in part with all the rain they have received.

These patterns of temperature and rainfall have given rise to the current state of northern Queensland and their floods and the devastaing bushfires in Victoria. We can only hope that the coming months ease the burden on the people affected by these unsual weather events. Check out on the Bureau of Meteorology website, as well as the Weatherzone website, which you can register with to get really good weather information, outlooks as well as interesting weather news and facts! ENJOY!

Our veggie garden - Day 14

Well, the veggie garden has been growing for 14 days now (seedlings planted on the 18th Jan), and there have been mixed results. The basil has grown crazy, and we have used it in a variety of dishes from bolognese sauce to topping on pizza. The tomatoes and capsicum have not grown so much, and I suspect that they may be over-watered. Today, I bought some more seedlings as well as some wooden stakes to lay the growing containers over to keep them off the ground. This should help drainage. The other seedlings I bought were zucchini and spring onions. From a single punnet, I managed to tease apart well over 50 onions!!

I have to say, today's gardening was one of the most relaxing and therapeutic afternoons I have had in a very long time: the weather was coolish, overcast with a light wind. Now, there may be some out there that would suggest I should 'harden the fu*k up' and get with the 'pig-rooting' and 'chick-shooting' mentality or whatever it is :), but try it out!! You'd be surprised! There is something very satisfying about not only watching things grow, but harvesting your own food!!

I will post the photos of the other seedlings and the new setup soon....... and the house photos..... hopefully even sooner.....