Social media: how to get your message across

Environment Institute member Professor Barry Brook talks about social media and how he uses it to promote or publicise articles, papers or scientific research.

Social media provides a two-way communication system in which the user is empowered to say what they think, or defend a position against a topic that could be quite controversial such as climate change, genetic modification, or nanotechnology.

Social media can also be used to ‘get your content out there, which is then often picked up by more traditional media forms‘, allowing for greater exposure.

Barry utilises his blog Brave New Climate and Twitter to communicate with his audience.

For more of Barry’s thoughts, watch the video below.

About the Academic

Professor Barry Brook is a leading environmental scientist, holding the Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and is also Director of Climate Science at the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute.

He has published three books, 250 refereed scientific papers (list here), is an ISI highly cited researcher, and regularly writes popular articles for the media.

He runs a popular climate science and energy options blog at http://bravenewclimate.com. He has written a popular book on sustainable nuclear energy, is an International Award Committee member for the Global Energy Prize, and considers himself a ‘Promethean environmentalist’ (seeking effective techno-fixes to solve entrenched sustainability problems).

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New paper: Evaluating options for sustainable energy mixes in South Korea using scenario analysis

A new paper involving Environment Institute members Corey Bradshaw and Barry W. Brook has recently been published in the journal Energy.

The paper, titled Evaluating options for sustainable energy mixes in South Korea using scenario analysis, examines the possibilities for sustainable energy generation in South Korea.

ABSTRACT

To mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, coal-fired electricity infrastructure needs to be replaced by low-carbon electricity generation options. Here we examine a range of possible alternative scenarios for sustainable electricity generation in South Korea, considering both physical and economic limits of current technologies. The results show that South Korea cannot achieve a 100% renewable energy mix and requires at least 55 GW of backup capacity. Given that constraint, we modelled seven scenarios: (i) the present condition, (ii) the First National Electricity Plan configuration, (iii) renewable energy (including 5 GW photovoltaic) with fuel cells or (iv) natural gas backup, (v) maximum renewable energy (including 75 GW photovoltaic) with natural gas, (vi) maximum nuclear power, and (vii) nuclear power with natural gas. We then quantify levelised cost of electricity, energy security, greenhouse gas emissions, fresh water consumption, heated water discharge, land transformation, air pollutant emissions, radioactive waste disposal, solid waste disposal and safety issues for each modelled mix. Our analysis shows that the maximum nuclear power scenario yields the fewest overall negative impacts, and the maximum renewable energy scenario with fuel cells would have the highest negative impacts.

Visit ScienceDirect to find out more.

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New study suggests global uniform biodiversity tipping point not backed by science

A group of international ecological scientists, led by Environment Institute member Professor Barry Brook, have rejected a doomsday-like scenario of sudden, irreversible change to the Earth’s ecology.

In a paper recently published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, the scientists from Australia, US and UK argue that global-scale ecological tipping points are unlikely and that ecological change over large areas seem to follow a more gradual, smooth pattern.

This opposes recent efforts to define ‘planetary tipping points’ – critical levels of biodiversity loss or land-use change that would have global effect – with important implications for science and policy-makers.

Lead author, Professor Barry Brook

“This is good news because it says that we might avoid the doom-and-gloom scenario of abrupt, irreversible change,” says Professor Barry Brook, lead author of the paper and Director of Climate Science at the University of Adelaide. “A focus on planetary tipping points may both distract from the vast ecological transformations that have already occurred, and lead to unjustified fatalism about the catastrophic effects of tipping points.

“An emphasis on a point of no return is not particularly helpful for bringing about the conservation action we need. We must continue to seek to reduce our impacts on the global ecology without undue attention on trying to avoid arbitrary thresholds.”

A tipping point occurs when an ecosystem attribute such as species abundance or carbon sequestration responds rapidly and possibly irreversibly to a human pressure like land-use change or climate change.

Many local and regional-level ecosystems, such as lakes and grasslands, are known to behave this way. A planetary tipping point, the authors suggest, could theoretically occur if ecosystems across Earth respond in similar ways to the same human pressures, or if there are strong connections between continents that allow for rapid diffusion of impacts across the planet.

The scientists examined four principal drivers of terrestrial ecosystem change – climate change, land-use change, habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss – and found they were unlikely to induce global tipping points.

The paper titled ‘Does the terrestrial biosphere have planetary tipping points?’ also involves Erle C. Ellis (University of Maryland), Michael P. Perring (University of Western Australia), Anson W. Mackay (University College London) and Linus Blomqvist (Breakthrough Institute).

Read the full media release to find out more.

Download the paper.

Read Barry Brook & Corey Bradshaw’s article on The Conversation regarding this research.

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New paper lends support that a changing climate is causing species distribution changes in the alpine Sikkim Himalaya

A new paper involving Environment Institute member Barry Brook as well as Yasmeen Telwala (University of Dehli), Kumar Manish (University of Dehli) and Maharaj K Pandit (University of Dehli & National University of Singapore) has recently been published in the journal PLoS One.

The paper titled ‘Climate-Induced Elevational Range Shifts and Increase in Plant Species Richness in a Himalayan Biodiversity Epicentre’ uses historical and recent data on temperature and local species’ elevational ranges to perform a correlative study in the two alpine valleys of Sikkim Himalaya.

Flora of major mountain ranges are highly sensitive to climate change and mountains serve as suitable observation sites for tracing climate-induced biological response. The Himalaya constitute an important global biodiversity hotspot, yet studies on species’ response to climate change from this region are lacking.

The study shows that the ongoing warming in the alpine Sikkim Himalaya has transformed the plant assemblages and lends support to the hypothesis that changing climate is causing species distribution changes.

Read the paper to find out more.

 

 

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New Paper – No need for disease: testing extinction hypotheses for the thylacine using multi-species metamodels

A new paper involving Environment Institute members Thomas Prowse, Corey Bradshaw (also SARDI), Michael Watts and Barry Brook as well as Christopher Johnson (University of Tasmania), Robert Lacy (Chicago Zoological Society) and John Pollak (Cornell University) has recently been published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

The paper titled ‘No need for disease: testing extinction hypotheses for the thylacine using multi-species metamodels’ designed a new population viability approach (PVA) that includes species interactions explicitly by networking species models within a single ‘metamodel’.

Thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus
Image: Kelly Garbato (Flikr)

Population viability analysis (PVA) is used to assess the extinction risk of threatened species and to evaluate different management strategies. However, conventional PVA neglects important biotic interactions and therefore can fail to identify important threatening processes.

This study demonstrates the utility of PVA metamodels by using them to reinterpret the extinction of the carnivorous, marsupial thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus (Tasmanian Tiger) in Tasmania. In particular, they test the claim that well-documented impacts of European settlement cannot account for this extinction and that an unknown disease must have been an additional and necessary cause.

Read the paper to find out more.

 

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New Paper: Predicting the Distribution of Commercially Important Invertebrate Stocks under Future Climate

A new paper involving Environment Institute members Bayden Russell, Sean Connell, Camille Mellin (also Australian Institute of Marine Science), Barry Brook, Owen Burnell and Damien Fordham has recently been published in the journal PLOS One.

The journal titled ‘Predicting the Distribution of Commercially Important Invertebrate Stocks under Future Climate’ projected the future distribution and numbers of two commercially harvested abalone species (blacklip abalone, Haliotis rubra and greenlip abalone, H. laevigata) inhabiting coastal South Australia, using multiple species distribution models (SDM) and for decadal time slices through to 2100.The projections are based on two contrasting global greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. The results provide a practical first approximation of the potential impact of climate-induced change on the two species of marine invertebrates in the same fishery.

Read the paper to find out more about these results.

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New paper: Ecologically realistic estimates of maximum population growth using informed Bayesian priors

A new paper involving Environment Institute members Steven Delean, Barry Brook and Corey Bradshaw (also SARDI) has recently been published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

Dr Steven Delean, The University of Adelaide

The paper titled ‘Ecologically realistic estimates of maximum population growth using informed Bayesian priors’ uses easily obtained prior information about allometric relationships and life history characteristics of a range of mammal species to inform the estimation of growth responses of populations to their previous densities. The results show that prior knowledge of species’ life history is necessary to provide ecologically realistic estimates of regulatory dynamics even in the absence of detailed demographic data.

Find out more about this research by downloading the paper.

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CEDA 2012 Climate Review: Science, Risk and Reality

On Friday 14th September CEDA (Committee for Economic Development in Australia), together with the support of Electranet and the University College London, welcomed members, guests and the public to a critical discussion on climate change at the Hilton in Adelaide, titled ’2012 Climate Review: Science, Risk and Reality.’

A panel of internationally regarded thought leaders provided an update on the current key issues around climate change and answered critical questions.

Speakers included:

• Professor Chris Rapley, International Climate Scientist
• Professor Barry Brook, The Environment Institute
• Professor Michael Barber, Flinders University

Environment Institute member Barry Brook gave a presentation titled ‘Climate risk and techno-fixes’ which addressed how we can obtain a sustainable yet energy-rich future.

A recap of the presentation (by Prof. Barry Brook):

We have significant risk to mitigate and real problems to address and it is accelerating. The main cause of this is fossil fuel. Energy use is the fundamental cause of recent climate change. Zero-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels like nuclear and renewables are growing, but historically cheap fossil fuels have dominated and continue to be the predominant new energy sources, especially in developing countries.

Standard projections for energy use in the future is a 350% increase in electricity use for stationary uses and to replace liquid fuels like oil. To meet this demand without ongoing use of fossil fuels, we will need technological solutions that are fast to deploy and can be done so at a sufficiently large scale and at low enough cost. Technological fixes have unforeseen and undesirable impacts, but so do rapid social changes, especially revolutions.

How can we intervene to mitigate climate change?

• Population size reductions: more people clearly means more impact but this is not going to change anytime soon due to demographic momentum.
• We can’t solve the population problem on a time scale that is meaningful for climate change mitigation, so is there an alternative that can still provide a sustainable energy rich future?
• Basic requirement is to limit carbon energy growth. Nuclear and wind, current options (need energy cheaper than coal for this to be taken up)
• Advanced nuclear reactors and other forms of low-cost and zero-carbon energy sources. This will include R&D into more efficient and cheaper energy storage technologies if solar and wind are to be viable at scale.

Geothermal, a ‘baseload’ renewable, is good for some places with natural volcanic activity near to the surface, but we need to develop new technology to obtain fractured deep dry hot rocks. It is difficult to be competitive with this source and it may never be commercially competitive. Hydro is running out of suitable locations and has environmental impacts.

Australia can’t risk failing climate change so we have to start implementation of nuclear and renewable and nuclear change now. Learn by doing, and may the best and most cost-effective technologies win!

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Biosecurity: Climate change and environmental uncertainty

Climate change, extreme weather events and increasing habitat modification are acting together to have a detrimental effect on the range and spread of animal pests, weeds and pathogens in Australia. Coupled with this, increasing human population size, shifting demographics and changing land-use is straining the environment. This pressure complicates pest management and dramatically increases the risk of multi-species diseases occurring.

Experts currently believe that the majority of emerging diseases are of a multi-species, or zoonotic, nature, meaning they are transferred from animals to humans. Powerful examples of zoonotic diseases include; rabies, plague and a variety of intestinal parasites.

This type of biosecurity threat has been featured in the news recently after a large proportion of Asian tiger mosquitoes were discovered in northern Queensland. This breed of mosquito can carry diseases such as dengue fever and yellow fever and poses a threat to the Australian public.

By investigating the timing and magnitude of the tropical mosquito population decision-makers can determine the optimal level of mosquito control to reduce the risk of disease outbreaks in human populations. For example in 2009, Environment Institute members Professor Barry Brook and Professor Corey Bradshaw conducted a study which investigated the mosquito population in northern Australia. They suggested that targeted control, such as spraying in early September, of mosquito breeding areas may allow for more effective control of mosquitoes close to human settlement, and therefore reduce the likelihood of disease outbreaks amongst humans.

Environment Institute member Associate Professor Phillip Cassey, an expert in biosecurity, believes that Australia needs to take notice of the research at the forefront of developing climate-change forecasting methods. This type of research can downscale data from global climate material to a scale that is ecologically beneficial for Australia.

Using climate and ecological data, Professor Cassey believes it is vitally important that Australia looks to:

• Develop user-friendly simulations to predict responses, and changes in distribution, of existing invasive species, emergence of new invasive ‘sleeper’ species, and the spread and transmission of diseases in Australia under likely scenarios of climate change and habitat modification.
• Contribute specialist expertise in information technologies such as, the use of remote sensing in combination with current data and models to identify and monitor for emerging diseases and habitat pests.
• Investigate the adoption of current techniques for tracking changes in mating systems, increasing genetic diversity, or shifts in gene patterns that could indicate the imminent risk of shifting from a ‘sleeper’ pest or weed to a problematic invasive species.

Find out more about the work of Assoc. Prof. Phillip Cassey and his team at the Cassey Invasion Ecology Group

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New Paper: Climate change and the cockatoo

Berton Harris

A new paper titled ‘Managing the long-term persistence of a rare cockatoo under climate change‘ investigates using combined population and bioclimatic models to estimate the future effects of climate change on the viability of a cockatoo population. Their research revealed that unmitigated climate change is likely to be a substantial threat to the cockatoo.

The paper involves Environment Institute members Berton Harris, Damien Fordham, David Paton, Michael Stead, Michael Watts and Barry Brook as well as Patricia Mooney (Department of Environment and Heritage), Lynn Pedler (Department of Environment and Heritage), Miguel Araújo (National Museum of Natural Sciences) and Reşit Akçakaya (Stony Brook University). The paper was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology

Download the paper to read about their findings

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