Month: June 2022

Which nations are passing laws caring about the future we are leaving to the children?

Two ‘gas giants’ –  Jupiter in our solar system

And this ‘gas’ giant – Scarborough Project

Off the NW coast of Western Australia.

Who cares about the oceans?

No current worthwhile legislation here.

The Science Show

with Robyn Williams

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7m 43s

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Frances Flanagan presents the Hancock Lecture at the State Library of NSW 31st May 2022. (Joseph Mayers)

Download Environmental laws for today, not tomorrow (10.60 MB)

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In her Hancock Lecture for the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Frances Flanagan argues our environmental laws, in particular those comprising The Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) are written with a view too narrow. This was illustrated in 2021 when a class action by children and others seeking a duty of care owed to them by the Minister for the Environment when making approvals under the EPBC Act was lost.

Woodside’s Jupiter – now Scarborough – project off the west Australian coast was originally called Jupiter for a reason. Like the planet, it is a gas giant. A methane gas giant. Gas will be extracted until 2059, releasing carbon dioxide as it is burnt, adding to the quiet catastrophe. Frances Flanagan says current laws don’t consider the dwellings of millions of people which will be inundated as sea levels rise on a warming Earth. She presents a compelling case for present laws to be widened to protect future generations.

We have just seen the impact of flooding in Bangla Desh and southern India and felt its effect on the people of the Northern Rivers of Southern Queensland and New South Wales.

Australian Academy of the Humanities – Hancock Lectures

Speaker
Frances Flanagan
Lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies
The University of Sydney

Presenter
Robyn Williams

Producer
David Fisher

Duration: 7min 43sec

Broadcast: Sat 18 Jun 2022, 12:04pm

And on our public ABC Channel 2, on Tuesday June 21st 2022 we saw  Southern Ocean Alive! The world beneath the waves. Such a vital world with so much life.

And dying – the sea kelp forests off the east coast of Tasmania

but

hope

Possibly a red kelp that can survive the warming of the East Coast current of Australia is being tested in laboratories. Maybe the life-giving properties of kelp can be brought back but there will need to be environmental protection to help the process.

Miners of oil and LNG on our lands and in our oceans care nothing about the nation’s or the planet’s bio-diversity.

These exploiters of fossil fuels do not want to see legislation in place for tomorrow.

Time to go ‘Down Under’ – We learn more about kelp forests in the northern hemisphere. Can we protect this vital contribution to our bio-diversity?

Who’s heard of the Great Southern Reef?

‘Although we tend to associate the word ‘reef’ with tropical coral reefs, those found in temperate areas—regions with intermediate climate conditions that are not tropical or polar—are also significant and important.

The Great Southern Reef is a massive series of reefs that extend around Australia’s southern coastline, covering around 71,000 square kilometres from New South Wales around the southern coastline of Australia to Kalbarri in Western Australia. The reef’s main feature is its extensive kelp seaweed forests—perhaps not as colourful as tropical corals, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder: these kelp forests are some of the most productive ecosystems on the planet. They support sponges, crustaceans, fish, bryozoans (small colonial animals that form exoskeletons of chitin or calcium carbonate), echinoderms (such as starfish and sea urchins) and many types of mollusc (snails and shellfish). Many species living on the Great Southern Reef—like the weedy seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus)—are not found anywhere else in the world.

Unusually hard to spot for mid-sized fish (~ 30 cm), these actually stand much less out without a strobe underwater. Like my pictures? There are more in "Sex, Drugs and Scuba Diving" and on my blog.

Image adapted from: Klaus Stiefel CC BY-NC 2.0

It’s estimated that the Great Southern Reef contributes more than $10 billion a year to the Australian economy. The major fisheries in the reef are the rock lobster (worth around $375 million/year) and abalone (worth around $134 million/year). Tourism is also important—it’s estimated that the reef directly supports activities worth nearly $10 billion/year, while the total tourism from the reef and adjacent coastal areas amounts to around $40 billion/year.

So this reef is clearly important. But parts of it look like they’re in trouble.

A recent study found widespread loss of kelp forests following a marine heatwave in 2011. Surveys of 65 reefs along the Western Austral coast found that the area covered by kelp forests declined by 43 per cent by 2013, with the range of the forests’ cover decreasing by around 100 kilometres, and their area shrinking by around 370 square kilometres. Even by late 2015, nearly five years after the heatwave, there were no indications that the kelp forests were recovering.

The Great Southern Reef extends along the southern coastline of Australia.

The researchers documented a shift from kelp to turf-forming seaweeds and sub-tropical and tropical fish species that thrive in warmer waters. Shifts in the abundance and diversity of species of sea urchins and gastropods were also noted.

Even by late 2015, nearly five years after the heatwave, there were no indications that the kelp forests were recovering.

The Indian Ocean along the coast of Western Australia is a global warming hotspot—it’s high up on the list of places around the world experiencing high rates of ocean warming. This region has seen a temperature increase of 0.65° C over the past 50 years.

Warmer temperatures are shifting southwards at a rate of 20 to 50 kilometres per decade. If this trend continues, we could soon see a complete transformation of this region of the Great Southern Reef—away from temperate kelp forests to more tropical species.

And while everyone loves tropical fish, the widespread loss of the kelp forests of the Great Southern Reef would be devastating to the rich and diverse ecosystems.’ 

This article has been reviewed by the following experts: Mrs Charlie Phelps School of Science, Edith Cowan University, 2018 Max Day Environmental Fellowship Award winner; Dr Thomas Wernberg UWA Oceans Institute & School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia.

Go to USA and the kelp forests off the West Coast from Alaska to California. Visit  Norway. And Tunisia.

What is global warming doing to these sources of the biodiversity we need?

Go to Robyn Williams today – June 4th 2022 – with our ABC RN’s  The Science Show

Seaweeds – thousands of species many with untapped potential

Download Seaweeds – thousands of species many with untapped potential (11.51 MB)

And we certainly do not need drilling for oil or LNG in these areas currently protecting bio-diversity in our oceans.