Queensland Science Network

https://lnkd.in/gHiKp6NF

Bee Bricks 🐝 make cities buzz again. A brilliant example of nature inclusive building... now obligatory in Brighton for buildings higher than 5 metres. #natureinclusive #bees #biodiversity #bees #building Source: BrightVibe 🎥: Green and Blue

Why bother? If community fails to appreciate the predictions/ codes / regulations of trained experts , why beleive the #unproven #utterings of a product with no "skin in the game". ?

Digital Surface Models (DSMs) and Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) offer two distinct ways to understand landscapes. A DSM (left) includes all surface features such as vegetation, buildings, and infrastructure. In contrast, a DTM (right) depicts the bare ground surface, removing surface features to reveal the underlying topography. These tools are essential for applications ranging from environmental studies to urban planning, offering unique insights into the structure and use of our landscapes. Lake Tahoe, California lidar distributed by OpenTopography

AND NOW WHAT'S NEXT AFTER THE PALISADES FIRE? The chart shows the annualized maximum 10-day rolling average FireWeather Index (FWI) for the Palisades forest region. This measures the worst-case climatological conditions for fire risk at any given 10-day period in a year. The dotted line is the FWI recorded on January 9, 2025, at the Santa Monica Airport Weather Station. Extreme fire danger occurs when FWI is> 60. Historically, the Palisades have been, on average, more likely to have a fire than not. We can also see that their fire risk increases in the current climate (2025) and the near-future environment (2045). So, we must institute adaptation measures to mitigate the risk of this re-occurring or at least limit the damage. MITIGATION Fuel load management, removal of dead trees and build up of forest floor detritus; shift practices and attitudes towards land management from agrarian to urban; add fire breaks; Prescribed or controlled burns to remove build-up; Buffer zones around forested areas, setbacks for homes; ADAPTATION Building codes for homes in fire-prone areas: brick and concrete frames, tiled roofs, fortified landscaping, removal of trees and shrubs within 20m of dwelling, in-ground sprinkler system; Alternate access and evacuation routes; Increase water reserves, implement water caches in high-risk areas Subterranean power lines; Sources CAL FIRE accessed January 10, 2025 https://lnkd.in/guQPu9Bv https://lnkd.in/gcrZdTtX https://lnkd.in/gmCiZfTW Burton, C., Lampe, S., Kelley, D.I., Thiery, W., Hantson, S., Christidis, N., Gudmundsson, L., Forrest, M., Burke, E., Chang, J. and Huang, H., 2024. Global burned areas are increasingly explained by climate change. Nature Climate Change, pp.1-7. Cunningham, C.X., Williamson, G.J. and Bowman, D.M., 2024. Increasing frequency and intensity of the most extreme wildfires on Earth. Nature ecology & evolution, 8(8), pp.1420-1425. Jain, P., Barber, Q.E., Taylor, S.W., Whitman, E., Castellanos Acuna, D., Boulanger, Y., Chavardès, R.D., Chen, J., Englefield, P., Flannigan, M. and Girardin, M.P., 2024. Drivers and impacts of the record-breaking 2023 wildfire season in Canada. Nature Communications, 15(1), p.6764. Maxwell C. Cook, & Philip Higuera. (2022). maxwellCcook/ics209-plus-fired: ics209-plus-fired (v1.0). Zenodo. https://lnkd.in/g7_5itya Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre Inc.(2022). CIFFC Wildland Fire Prevention and Mitigation Action Plan. https://lnkd.in/gTj4KKRd 02/PM_Action_Plan_Public_2022_02_01.pdf European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment, Nuijten, D., Onida, M. and Lelouvier, R., Land-based wildfire prevention –

#earthquake #forcast

Really stoked to putting on a couple of screenings of the beautiful film ‘I Am the River, the River is Me’ up around home in early Feb, in partnership with fellow river lover Ilka Blue Nelson. The documentary centres on a 5-day canoe expedition down the Whanganui River in Aotearoa led by Māori guardian Ned Tapa. The Whanganui is the first river in the world to be given status as a legal person, and this decision has the potential to be the catalyst for better custodianship of rivers in the future. From where I sit, on the banks of the slowly suffocating Richmond River, a movement of this nature couldn’t come too soon for a river heading towards ecosystem collapse. We’ll be screening the film in the catchments of the Brunswick River in Mullumbimby & the Wilsons/Richmond in Lismore. Hope to see you there! #revivethenorthernrivers #river #legal #aotearoa #newzealand #whanganui #māori

The (half-formed) parable of the hot-shot consultants and the lychees...   About 20 years ago, an international mining company started developing a mine by a community co-managed protected area that I was helping to establish, in the Spiny Forest of Southern Madagascar. It was to be an open-cast mine for the mineral sands ilmenite and zircon, and it would destroy lots of forest that local communities relied on for fuel, construction wood, hunting, collecting medicinal plants, and dozens of other things. To minimise the impacts as they were required to do, the company brought in a team of consultants to prepare a social and environmental impact assessment. They read all the research, drove about in their big 4x4s, met with staff from conservation NGOs and development agencies, and made a tour of the regional ministries. Finally they delivered their report, which included recommendations for ‘alternative livelihood activities’ for the communities – livelihoods so productive that they'd more than offset the loss of their ancestral lands. Their recommendation? The company should kickstart lychee cultivation. I can see where they were coming from – everyone loves lychees, and they were by far the most valuable fruit on the local market. Surely, they thought, there was an opportunity here for these villagers to produce something much higher earning than the corn and manioc they already grew. But there’s a reason lychees were so expensive – they don’t grow in southern Madagascar. They grow in the east, near the rainforest, and the south is very dry. It would have taken two minutes for the consultants to find this out by chatting to a farmer, or even their 4x4 drivers, but they didn’t. Weeks of work and tens of thousands of dollars were wasted producing a worthless report, because they didn’t value the knowledge of local 'beneficiaries'. At a time when ideas of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in hiring and staffing are under attack, I want to restate the case for DEI in decision-making. As scientists, environmental experts, sustainability professionals and organisational leaders, we have very clear ideas about the direction of travel and the future we want to see. But implementing the changes we need is infinitely complex, and lots of different stakeholders are involved. If we impose our ideas from above, they will be more likely to fail. If, on the other hand, we explore truly participatory decision-making, I am convinced we can chart much more viable paths forward. For one thing, as the lychee example shows, we simply make much better decisions when the perspectives of everyone impacted by those decisions is taken into account from the beginning. And for another, those decisions are more likely to be accepted and acceptable to everyone, because they were part of deciding them. We need expertise, but the most valuable experts are those who can listen as much as talk.

This is brilliant!!!

The gas industry spin is in full effect. I posted a thread on some of the latest nonsense over on Bluesky. I'll be digging in deeper some time soon. "This is a classic pump and dump. They pissed off their biggest customers to make short term profits to cash out with an IPO. Any idiots who invest in this deserve to lose everything. Sadly it might be your pension fund manager."