Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria O’Sullivan, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, and Deputy Director, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University

When Australians pay their income tax, they assume the money is going to areas of the community that need it, rather than being used by the government to shore up votes for the next election.

This is why the findings of the Australian National Audit Office into the awarding of community sporting grants by cabinet minister Bridget McKenzie are serious. Not merely for the grant funding process, but also for trust in our system of government.

What did the report find?

The Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program was established in 2018 to ensure more Australians have access to quality sporting facilities, encouraging greater community participation in sport and physical activity.

The Audit Office was asked to examine this grant program to assess whether the award of funding “was informed by an appropriate assessment process and sound advice”. The focus was therefore on whether proper procedures were followed.

The report was extremely critical of the way in which the A$100 million in sporting grants were awarded by Minister McKenzie ahead of last year’s election campaign.

It found successful applications were “not those that had been assessed as the most meritorious” and that there was “distributional bias” in the way projects were approved. The problem is many of the grants were awarded to bodies within marginal seats or seats the Coalition wanted to win.

This is a serious matter because it represents a politicisation of a grant system which is supposed to be undertaken on merit.

What does this mean for the government?

The fact the Audit Office has made this finding is important. But what happens now and what will the consequences be? Will there be an investigation? If so, by whom?

Importantly, the Audit Office is an independent body. In the absence of a federal integrity commission, it has a significant role to play in ensuring government funds are spent for proper purposes. A central part of the role of the Audit Office is to uncover and report on fraud and corruption in government decisions. But it does not have coercive powers and its report does not have any direct legal effect on Senator McKenzie.

If there is to be a further investigation of this matter, it’s likely to be taken up by a parliamentary forum such as Senate Estimates. What is more significant are the consequences of the Audit report.

Legal consequences

The first point to understand is that the direct legal consequences of the Audit Office finding are minimal. The report made four recommendations for future reform of the sporting grant procedure. While the Audit Office is very well-regarded by decision makers and commands respect, it is not a court. Therefore its recommendations are not binding and can be ignored by government.

What is more significant are the legal implications of the Audit report.

Here the problem is the Audit Office found the minister did not have legal authority to approve the grants in the first place. This is because the legal power to approve the sporting grants is actually given to Sport Australia (under the Australian Sports Commission Act 1989).

That legislation says the minister can give written directions to Sport Australia in relation to the exercise of its powers. But Senator McKenzie actually made the decisions on the grants (rather than merely give written directions to Sport Australia).

This is, however, somewhat of a theoretical argument as it is unlikely anyone will be able to bring this matter to court to invalidate the grant decisions made. Given community sporting groups who were disadvantaged by the improper grant process are community groups in need of funding, it’s unlikely they will be in a position to bring an expensive legal action.

Political consequences

It’s therefore likely the consequences of this report will be political rather than legal.

Here the political convention of “ministerial responsibility” should, ideally, come into play. This gives effect to the broader principle that the Australian people give authority and power to elected politicians and those politicians must be accountable for their actions.

This means McKenzie could be asked to resign. However, the Senator has indicated she will not resign, saying “no rules were broken” and she was given discretionary powers “for a purpose” in the program’s guidelines.

And this is one of the problems with ministerial responsibility today: it largely depends on whether the relevant party feel it’s politically necessary to pressure the relevant minister to stand down.

The current strength of this principle in modern Australia has been questioned, with many saying it’s no longer effective. For instance, journalist Tony Wright wrote in 2019:

Ministerial responsibility in Canberra appears to have all but decayed to no responsibility.

So, there may be no political consequences in this matter at all.

Implications for Australian democracy

The Audit Office of Australia is a respected, independent institution and its findings this week should have consequences.

Trust in government, which should be central to a healthy democracy, is at an historical low in Australia. Governments need to make decisions which are transparent and fair. A government that bends the rules is a danger to the rule of law and to democracy.

– ref. So the government gave sports grants to marginal seats. What happens now? – http://theconversation.com/so-the-government-gave-sports-grants-to-marginal-seats-what-happens-now-130057

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University

It is the year of the Tokyo Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee was quickly out of the blocks with new guidelines regarding athlete protests.

The IOC is worried the biggest stories of the Games will be political gestures rather than sport performances, and so have introduced specific guidelines to prevent “any political messaging, including signs or armbands” and “gestures of a political nature, like a hand gesture or kneeling” during play, opening and closing ceremonies, medal ceremonies, and at the Olympic village.

The IOC has historically shown greater anxiety around the commercial arrangements of athletes, protecting its sponsors. But the rise of the activist athlete now looms as the more immediate threat to the IOC’s image and bank account.

Most Olympians are not household names. But they can become so by taking advantage of the rare moments when the world’s cameras and microphones are within easy reach. No wonder the IOC’s (mostly) elected Athletes’ Commission is keen to ensure athletes do not give in to the “desire to drive change” and “use the platform of an appearance at the Olympic Games to make [their] point”.

The problem for the IOC is that submitting to this temptation is burnt into Olympic iconography.

The Olympic movement has always claimed to be a unifying force – but bringing the athletes of the world together inevitably means they bring along their politics, too.

1906: Irish independence

One of the first documented protests at the modern Olympics was Irish athlete Peter O’Connor’s rejection of having to compete under the Union Jack in Athens. After winning the silver medal in the long jump, O’Connor was expected to stand under the British flag at the medal ceremony.

Instead, O’Connor climbed the flag pole and waved the Irish flag.

1964–1988: The ban on apartheid-era South Africa

In the face of multiple threatened boycotts by nations and athletes opposed to South Africa’s refusal to allow black athletes to compete at the Olympics, the country was banished from Olympic sport for over two decades.

It is widely believed that such sporting bans helped weaken apartheid before its official abandonment in 1991.

1968: Black power

One of most famous Olympic images is of the raised arm, black power demonstration on the podium at the Mexico Olympics by African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

They were silently supported by Australian runner Peter Norman, who was wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge.

Smith and Carlos were sent home and Norman was ostracised by International and Australian Olympic authorities. He received a posthumous apology in the federal parliament.

1980 and 1984: Cold War boycotts

Seven Olympics have been boycotted, but the most prominent were the tit-for-tat boycotts of the Moscow and Los Angeles games by Eastern and Western blocs after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Ironically, these boycotts were driven by nation-states, not protest groups.

2008: pro-Tibet demonstrations

The lead up to the Beijing Olympics was marked by protests against China’s treatment of Tibet as the Olympic torch relay proceeded across continents towards the host city. This was a public relations disaster at a time when China was trying to present a more liberal face to the world.

2014: LGBTQI colours

When Vladimir Putin’s Russia was trying to improve its image via the Sochi Winter Olympics, it only drew attention to its homophobic laws and treatment of LGBTQI people. Suddenly, rainbow colours began appearing on the bodies and clothes of Olympians.

Read more: Sport, Sochi and the rising challenge of the activist athlete

2018: North Korea

IOC President Thomas Bach, a strong critic of athlete protests at Olympic venues, was more than happy to play a very political game over North Korean involvement in the PyeonChang (South Korea) Winter Olympics, meeting Leader Kim Jong Un and lobbying the UN to lift sanctions against sports equipment in North Korea.

2020: Towards Tokyo

The Athletes’ Commission has expressed concern other athletes will be the main victims of those who protest alongside them.

Despite the threat of disciplinary action for protesting at the venue – including being stripped of a medal – some committed activist athletes may be willing to pay the price for taking the knee, painting their finger nails in politically meaningful colours or, like Australian swimmer Mack Horton last July, refusing to share the podium with a competitor who has been previously banned for doping.

According to the guidelines, expressing political views – which are differentiated from “protests and demonstrations” – can only take place at media conferences, team meetings and on traditional and social media. Freedom of political speech is still permitted, but not where it is closest to the action and attracting maximum attention.

At the Tokyo Olympics, climate change, racism, homophobia, refugees and other urgent political issues will weigh heavily on the consciences of athletes.

Their decisions to accept or invert political protocol will have a major bearing on how this latest chapter of the Olympic story will be told around the globe.

Will this be the silent athlete Olympics, or one where human rights voices are raised on the podium?

– ref. The Olympics have always been a platform for protest. Banning hand gestures and kneeling ignores their history – http://theconversation.com/the-olympics-have-always-been-a-platform-for-protest-banning-hand-gestures-and-kneeling-ignores-their-history-129694

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Barron, Professor, Macquarie University

How did homosexuality in humans evolve?

Typically, this question is posed as a paradox.

The argument is this: gay sex alone can’t produce children, and for traits to evolve, they have to be passed onto children, who get some form of competitive advantage from them.

From this perspective, some argue homosexuality should not have evolved.

In a paper published yesterday by myself and Duke University professor Brian Hare, we propose human sexuality (including homosexuality) evolved as an outcome of the evolution of increased sociability in humans.

We argue many of the evolutionary forces that shaped human sexuality were social, rather than based on reproductive ability.

This is our “sociosexual hypothesis” for the evolution of gay sex and attraction.

Sex for bonding

For humans, and many other animals, sex is not just about reproduction.

In our closest primate relative, the bonobo, straight and gay sex have vital roles in play, social transactions, barter of food, same-sex social bonding and bonding between mating pairs.

We shouldn’t limit our thinking about the evolution of sex to its reproductive functions. We must also consider its social functions.

Based on the social behaviour of primates (and other social mammals), we argue our species’ recent cognitive and behavioural evolution was driven by natural selection favouring traits that allowed better social integration. This is called prosociality.

Early humans that could quickly and easily access the benefits of group living had a strong selective advantage. We believe this led to the evolution of a whole range of traits including reduced aggression, increased communication, understanding, social play and affiliation.

Read more: ‘Gay gene’ search reveals not one but many – and no way to predict sexuality

Species such as the bonobo, that evolved for high prosociality, evolved to use sexual behaviour in many social contexts. This results in an increase of sex in general, greater diversity in the contexts of sex, and an increase in gay sex.

We believe something similar happened in recent human evolution. Gay sex and attraction may have evolved because individuals with a degree of same-sex attraction benefited from greater social mobility, integration and stronger same-sex social bonds.

This may sound counterintuitive, given gay people are socially marginalised, ostracised and even criminalised in many societies.

However, our argument addresses the early evolution of human sexuality, not how relatively recent phenomena like religion and religion-based legal structures have responded to sexual minorities.

Supporting facts

Many studies since the pioneering research of Alfred Kinsey and colleagues have emphasised that sexual minorities occur across all cultures, and the levels of gay and bisexual people in populations have been quite stable over time.

Our hypothesis predicts that bisexuality and people who identify as “mostly straight” should be more common than people who identify as exclusively gay, and this is the case.

Recent genetic analyses confirm hundreds of genes influence sexuality in complex ways.

We quite randomly inherit half our genes from each parent. Each person’s genetic makeup is unique, so it would be highly unlikely to find two people with exactly the same set of genes influencing their sexuality.

Read more: Born this way? An evolutionary view of ‘gay genes’

Thus, variation is expected, and individuals fall along a spectrum ranging from a majority who are straight, to a minority who identify as gay.

Our hypothesis for the evolution of homosexuality would predict this kind of variation in human sexuality, and can help explain why it is generally stable across cultures.

We believe sexuality is a highly complex trait, interwoven with sociality. Attraction, sexual behaviour, social bonds and desire all contribute to its complexity.

Asking the right questions

Height is another feature influenced by hundreds of genes, many of which interact with our external environments in complex ways.

We see a continuous variation in human height – some very tall and very short people exist.

We might draw on nutritional ecology to explore the evolution of human height, but would not feel the need to introduce special evolutionary arguments to explain the existence of tall or short people.

No special explanation is necessary. They are simply exhibiting natural, genetically influenced variations in height.

Similarly, we think asking how gay sex and attraction evolved is the wrong question.

A more useful question to ask is: how did human sexuality evolve in all its forms?

In doing do, we acknowledge homosexuality does not present a paradox needing a special explanation. It is simply a result of our species’ recent sociosexual evolution.

Read more: ‘Gay gene’ testing apps aren’t just misleading – they’re dangerous

– ref. Homosexuality may have evolved for social, not sexual reasons – http://theconversation.com/homosexuality-may-have-evolved-for-social-not-sexual-reasons-128123

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Cross, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Law, Cybersecurity Cooperative Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology

There’s been an overwhelming outpouring of love and support around the world for those impacted by the bushfires, from social-media donation drives to music concerts to authors auctioning off their books.

Sadly, but unsurprisingly, we’ve also seen a number of scams directed at those who want to help, as well as victims of the fires.

In recent days, the ACCC set up a hotline dedicated to the reporting of scams associated with the bushfire crisis. The agency notes some 86 scams have been reported since the fires started in September – and counting.

While it’s difficult to believe offenders would seek to profit from other people’s generosity and heartache, this is entirely to be expected.

What types of scams are common

Research has found natural disasters are a catalyst for increased fraud schemes globally. This was the case after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 2011 Japanese tsunami and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, just to name a few.

Read more: How to donate to Australian bushfire relief: give money, watch for scams and think long term

In Australia, the current bushfire crisis has led to the creation of fake fund-raising websites, fraudulent door-knocking donation campaigns and fake calls from banks offering disaster relief funds.

In addition to the ACCC, several other consumer affairs agencies have issued warnings about these schemes.

The ongoing problem of fraud

In 2018, Australians lost over A$489.7 million to fraud. While a large part of this was through investment and romance fraud schemes ($146.5 million), Australians were also cheated out of A$210,000 in charity frauds. This increased to over A$400,000 in 2019.

The key element to fraud is lying for financial gain. Offenders will use whatever means possible to manipulate and deceive people into giving them money. This can involve obtaining money directly from a person, or by convincing victims to provide personal information to get cash through identity theft.

In charity frauds, offenders sometimes use the legitimate name of an organisation or individual to secure donations from victims, or they might use the pretext of a natural disaster or other negative event to obtain cash.

Harnessing the goodwill of strangers

Fraudsters use natural disasters in a variety of ways. They take advantage of our sense of sympathy and desire to help victims struggling through terrible events unfolding before our eyes. They also convey a sense of urgency aimed at convincing people to immediately part with their cash.

Importantly, offenders also exploit the fact people are highly motivated during times of disaster to donate money they ordinarily would not consider giving.

Read more: It’s not about money: we asked catfish why they trick people online

Social media enables offenders to readily advertise their fraudulent schemes. With online fraud, it is often difficult for victims to authenticate email accounts, websites, individuals or organisations soliciting money. Offenders often create fake documentation to support their schemes, as well.

Social media can also be used by fraudsters in disinformation campaigns. As these posts are shared across platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, offenders can generate traction for their “charity” pitch before it is identified as fraud. By this stage, it can be too late.

Victims vulnerable in disaster recovery, too

It’s important to note the risk of fraud is not limited to the time of the actual disaster, or the immediate aftermath.

Many of those who have experienced loss or damage in the bushfires, for instance, face a long road to recovery and could be susceptible to scams at any time.

Research indicates negative life events can make a person more vulnerable to fraud. Those affected by the bushfires may find themselves the victims of fraudulent investment opportunities, romantic relationships and other schemes claiming to help them get their lives back on track.

For example, offenders may offer to assist with the negotiation of mortgage repayments with banks, obviously for a fee (large or small).

Protecting ourselves against fraud

There are steps people can take to protect themselves from scams as the bushfire crisis is unfolding – and into the future.

In the short term, it’s important to think about how we donate financially to those in need. There are many appeals that have been set up by registered charities and organisations (such as the Red Cross, the CFA, and the RFS). These are the safest ways to send money. Remember requests through social media channels and other platforms may not be genuine.

Importantly, the internet is not the only way offenders operate. Fraudsters still use the telephone and even face-to-face communication to collect money.

Read more: From catfish to romance fraud, how to avoid getting caught in any online scam

Only call organisations you have researched to donate money and always ask for identification from those door-knocking for donations. If in doubt, don’t feel pressured to say yes and simply hang up or walk away.

In the longer term, we also need to be aware fraudsters take advantage of people when they are isolated, so it’s important to rally around family members, friends and others who are facing significant losses and feeling alone.

We need to better understand how fraud works and acknowledge anyone can be targeted. We also need to be able to talk about our vulnerabilities more openly in our homes and communities.

Fraud is an ongoing challenge globally. The current Australian bushfire crisis is simply the latest way for fraudsters to target our generosity and cause additional grief.

– ref. Beware of bushfire scams: how fraudsters take advantage of those in need – http://theconversation.com/beware-of-bushfire-scams-how-fraudsters-take-advantage-of-those-in-need-129549

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Smith, Associate Professor in Disaster and Emergency Response, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University

Many firefighters will by now be exhausted, having been on the front line of Australia’s bushfire crisis for weeks or months.

This bushfire season has been unrelenting, and the hottest months of summer may still lie ahead.

In part, the toll is physical. The flames are high, they are intense, and they move fast. It’s hard to breathe because the air is so hot.

At the same time, first responders have witnessed widespread devastation. To land and livelihoods, to people and animals. Meanwhile, grief for the death of fellow firefighters feels raw, and the risk to their own lives very real.

We’re right to be concerned about firefighters’ mental health.

Read more: ‘I can still picture the faces’: Black Saturday firefighters want you to listen to them, not call them ‘heroes’

Emergency responders already have poorer mental health

Every 4.3 weeks, a firefighter, paramedic or police officer dies by suicide – and that’s when it’s “business as usual”.

Research shows our first responders are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health condition than the overall Australian population. They are more than twice as likely to think about suicide, and three times as likely to have a suicide plan.

This paints a grim picture of the well-being of a population who dedicate their professional lives to helping others.

Read more: As bushfires intensify, we need to acknowledge the strain on our volunteers

It’s likely responding to a disaster on the scale of the current bushfires could increase the risk of mental illness for some.

If firefighters are not coping, they may develop psychological disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.

PTSD

PTSD develops when a person isn’t able to recover after experiencing a traumatic event.

Some firefighters may develop symptoms while they’re still fighting the fires. They may feel on edge, but push down their fears to get on with the job. However, it’s more likely symptoms will only appear weeks, months, even years down the track.

PTSD is associated with significant impairment in day-to-day functioning socially and at work. For firefighters and others with PTSD, typical symptoms or behaviours will include:

• reliving the traumatic event. People with PTSD describe vivid images and terrifying nightmares of their experience

• avoiding reminders of what happened. They may become emotionally numb and isolate themselves to avoid any triggers

• being constantly tense and jumpy, always looking out for signs of danger.

Volunteers in regional communities are particularly susceptible to trauma. They have often joined fire brigades to help protect their own communities, and then face trying to save their own homes or those of neighbours and friends.

We also need to be mindful of retired firefighters for whom these current bushfires will have triggered painful and disturbing memories. They may not currently be on the front lines, but they only need to turn on the television, open the newspaper, or look at social media to be taken straight back to Black Saturday or whatever particular event is distressing for them.

Read more: Paramedics need more support to deal with daily trauma

The problem with reaching out

The increased prevalence of mental health issues among emergency responders suggests many existing emergency service well-being programs are failing those who need them the most.

In Australia, these programs are largely based on a what’s called a “resilience model” that focuses on people “reaching out” and seeking help when they need it.

First responders may be unlikely to take this initiative in the middle of a mental health crisis, when it’s often a struggle even to pick up the phone to a loved one, friend or colleague.

Instead, we need an approach to well-being that removes the onus on the individual. We need to shift our thinking from a model that requires the individual to “reach out”, to a model that also values others “reaching in” to identify those who may be struggling.

Ambulance Victoria’s Peer Support Dog Program, which allows staff to bring in accredited dogs to create social interactions and conversations, is a good example of how “reaching in” helps with first responder well-being. This kind of approach empowers people through social connections and the appreciation they are also supporting others.

While employers need to do more in to facilitate “reach in” programs, anyone can create informal support networks. Whether friendship groups, community groups, sporting groups, or something else, the underlying thread should be a committment to each other’s well-being.

Read more: The rise of ‘eco-anxiety’: climate change affects our mental health, too

As we continue to contend with this crisis, ensuring firefighters feel supported can make a difference to their well-being. If you see a responder in the street, say thank you. If you see one in a cafe, shout them a cuppa. If you have kids, get them to write a letter or draw a picture and drop it off to the local emergency services station.

We can’t eliminate the risk firefighters will suffer with mental health problems after what they’ve been through, but these little acts of kindness can make a difference.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

– ref. To improve firefighters’ mental health, we can’t wait for them to reach out – we need to ‘reach in’ – http://theconversation.com/to-improve-firefighters-mental-health-we-cant-wait-for-them-to-reach-out-we-need-to-reach-in-129900

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucy Commander, Adjunct Lecturer, University of Western Australia

In a fire-blackened landscape, signs of life are everywhere. A riot of red and green leaves erupt from an otherwise dead-looking tree trunk, and the beginnings of wildflowers and grasses peek from the crunchy charcoal below.

Much Australian flora has evolved to cope with fire, recovering by re-sprouting or setting seed. However, some plants are sensitive to fire, especially when fires are frequent or intense, and these species need our help to recover.

Read more: Some say we’ve seen bushfires worse than this before. But they’re ignoring a few key facts

After announcing a A$50 million wildlife and habitat recovery package, the Morrison government recently met with Australia’s leading wildlife experts to steer recovery efforts.

Encouraging native flora to bounce back from these unprecedented fires requires targeted funding and actions to conserve and restore plants and ecological communities, including seed banking.

How do plants naturally recover from fire?

Many plants from fire-prone ecosystems have evolved strategies to survive, and even thrive, with fire. Some resprout after fire, with green shoots bursting from blackened stems. For others, fire stimulates flowering.

Fire can also trigger seed germination of hundreds of species, as seeds respond to fire “cues” like heat and smoke.

Seeds may wait in woody fruits stored on the plant. The fruits’ hard capsules shield the seeds from the fire, but the heat opens the capsules, releasing seeds into the soil below.

We can capitalise on this natural recovery by not disturbing the soil where the seeds are scattered, not clearing “dead” plants which may resprout and provide shelter for remaining wildlife, including perches for birds who may bring in seeds.

We should also stop vegetation clearing, especially unburnt vegetation home to threatened species and communities.

When do we need to intervene?

While Australian plants and ecosystems have evolved to embrace bushfires, there’s only so much drought and fire they can take.

Many plants and ecosystems, including alpine and rainforest species, are not resilient to fire, especially if drought persists or they have been burnt too frequently. Too frequent fires deplete the seed bank and put recovery at risk.

Fires which are intense and severe will outright kill other plants, or the plants will be very slow to recover – taking years or decades to reach maturity again. We need comprehensive monitoring to detect which species are not returning, with systematic field surveys starting immediately, and continuing after the first rains to identify which species emerge from the soil.

Invasive plants such as blackberry or veldt grass can also impede recovery after a fire by out-competing the natives. Feral herbivores – such as rabbits, goats and horses – can overgraze the native regrowth. So controlling the weeds and feral grazers with, for instance, temporary fencing and tree guards, is a priority post-fire.

And when ecosystems aren’t able to repair themselves, it’s up to us to intervene. For instance, land managers, supported by volunteer community groups, could sow seeds or plant seedlings in fire-affected areas. This act of restoring ecosystems can be an important healing process for those affected by the fires.

Do we have enough seeds?

But for that to happen, we need enough seeds to supply restoration efforts. With millions of hectares already burnt, few areas may be left for seed collection.

This means unburnt areas are at risk of over-collection from commercial and volunteer seed collectors. Stopping this from happening is possible, however. The agencies giving out permits for seed collection must record where seeds are being sourced and how much is collected. This ensures areas aren’t stripped of seeds, rendering them less resilient.

Read more: The sweet relief of rain after bushfires threatens disaster for our rivers

Another, more controversial issue, is whether seeds should be collected locally (perhaps within 20km or within the catchment), or from somewhere much further away and more suited to a potential future climate.

And what should we do if we lose a population of a threatened plant species? Establishing a new population or replacing a lost one using translocation is one option. Similar to capture-and-release or zoo breeding programs for reintroduction of threatened animals, translocation refers to deliberately moving plants or seeds to a new location.

How can we better prepare for next time?

With potentially more unprecedented bushfire seasons in our future, it’s important land managers are prepared.

They need data on the distribution of species and the fire frequency, severity and season they can tolerate. A nationwide database could identify which species and ecosystems are most at risk, and could be incorporated into fire and restoration planning – including seed collecting – to ensure plant material is available if species fail to recover.

Read more: ‘Plant blindness’ is obscuring the extinction crisis for non-animal species

Botanic gardens have a special role to play as many already have conservation seed banks of threatened species, and their living collections provide additional genetic material. Across Australia there is already a network of seed banks collaborating through the Australian Seed Bank Partnership that collect, store and undertake research to better support plant conservation.

However, restoration seed banks operate on a much larger scale than botanic gardens, and it’s important both approaches are conducted collaboratively. We need more ongoing investment in seed banks, particularly for threatened species and ecosystems least likely to recover from repeat fires like rainforests. Investment in skilled staff to run them is also critical, as well as national guidelines for seed use and training programs for staff and volunteers.

The recent bushfires will push many plant species to their limits. If we want to keep these species around – and the animals depend on them for food and habitat – we need to monitor their recovery and intervene where necessary.

– ref. Yes, native plants can flourish after bushfire. But there’s only so much hardship they can take – http://theconversation.com/yes-native-plants-can-flourish-after-bushfire-but-theres-only-so-much-hardship-they-can-take-129748

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susanne Gannon, Associate Professor, Western Sydney University

We are being asked to do work experience this year, in a field we might like to work in. We are being asked to think about choosing electives that are directing us towards our career choices.

I have no idea what I want to do! I haven’t yet found anything I am particularly good at. I feel like I am being left behind. That others are making choices about their lives that I am not prepared for yet. Is this normal?

Lachlan, year 10

Key points

• Many young people feel this way – it is normal!
• locking yourself into one career path too early can be risky
• it’s important to be flexible and learn transferable skills
• ask lots of questions from people around you.

Hi Lachlan, many young people feel undecided about their career pathway. One study found around one in five teenagers were uncertain about a clear career goal.

The questions you ask are about more than just which subjects to choose in the last years of school. They point towards the bigger decision about what sort of person you want to become. And that is a big decision to make all at once.

Careers advisors, teachers and parents often talk about career choice as a matter of logical decision-making and planning, but it also involves feelings, imagination and knowledge about yourself and the world.

These are constantly evolving so it isn’t surprising you feel confused.

It’s important to be flexible

You say some of your friends already have clear ideas about their futures. But being too rigid can be just as risky as not having a decision. If you set your career sights too narrow, or too early, on just one type of career you might not have a back-up plan.

What happens if it doesn’t work out? Does that mean you will feel like a failure before you even start? You might miss out on possibilities that don’t fit that narrow vision but that might suit you perfectly.

Some research suggests today’s graduates will average five separate careers and around 17 different employers in their working life. This means an important skill these days is the ability to adapt.

The careers you have in the future might be quite different from each other, drawing on new skills and interests developed over time. Changes might happen because a workplace closes, or a new career becomes possible, or you want to move or develop a new interest.

Read more: Choosing a career? These jobs won’t go out of style

So while having a good idea about you want to do will give you a goal to work towards, it is important to be flexible too. Think of plans as provisional. Be ready to adjust your thinking and recalibrate them as you get more experience.

• Develop short-term, medium and long-term goals. You’ll find great resources to help with this at Headspace.

Learning your interests takes time

You say you don’t know what you’re good at yet. That’s OK too. Learning to recognise your skills, interests and values takes time. Talking to other people can help including friends, family, people you know through sport or other communities you are part of.

School subjects don’t test some of the important skills for a successful working life, such as the ability to get along with different people or flexible thinking, so you may not know you have them yet.

It is helpful to think about clusters of jobs that draw on similar sets of skills. Particular skills (such as attention to detail) or interests (such as working outdoors or caring for others) can translate from one area into another.

Read more: Lack of workers with ‘soft skills’ demands a shift in teaching

Work experience in customer service or retail sales will develop your skills in communicating with other people, being organised and understanding record-keeping. These are building blocks for success in many other careers.

Learning skills in one context that you can carry to a different one means you are adaptable – one of most important qualities for success. The more you can learn on the job, no matter which job it is, the better off you will be.

There are many pathways

Many young people may choose to pursue a career they already know. Perhaps a friend or family member already does this sort of work. That’s a great start but it can also be limiting.

Many careers have changed in recent years. Some are disappearing while new careers are always on the horizon, so going with something a parent does may not be suitable anymore. Some of the fastest growing career areas include the personal care (such as aged care), health and technology sectors.

Take every opportunity your school offers to explore the world of work. There might be industry tasters, VET immersion days, career expos or fairs, presentations, mentoring programs, workplace and university visits, or school-university partnership programs.

When it comes to subject selection, you might decide to combine vocational training with mainstream academic subjects that will help you work towards a university course.

Read more: Don’t stress, your ATAR isn’t the final call. There are many ways to get into university

There are also pathway courses and alternative entry programs into univesities if you don’t quite get into what you want. There is no decision now that will lock you in to only one possibility for your future. Do stay at school though as that will set you up well for whatever comes in the future. Keep your options open.

• My Future has fantastic resources including quizzes that will help learn more about what might suit you. You can also match up school subjects with career pathways.

Work experience is a good way to develop skills

The work experience you do at school need not match exactly what you will end up doing in the future, but it gives a great taste of full-time work.

Most young people find it is the most useful career related activity they do at school because it is hands on and puts them in direct contact with employers.

Read more: Unpaid work experience is widespread but some are missing out: new study

Try for something that draws on some of your current interests and skills, but remember this is an opportunity to try things out. A good report from an employer about your willingness to learn might be really helpful in lots of ways, including helping you get part-time work so you can continue to increase your experiences and responsibilities.

I Need to Know is our series for teens in search of reliable, confidential advice about life’s tricky questions. Here are some questions we’ve already answered.

– ref. ‘What subjects do I choose for my last years of school?’ – http://theconversation.com/what-subjects-do-i-choose-for-my-last-years-of-school-126194

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW

There has already been a fair number of jobs lost to automation over recent decades – from factory workers to bank tellers.

In the coming decade we might see radically larger numbers of jobs lost to automation, thanks to advances in machine learning and other technologies.

Two areas are transport and retail.

In transport, tech company TuSimple has for months been testing autonomous trucks for UPS (the world’s largest delivery company). The trucks, hauling freight between Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, still have a human behind the wheel for safety, but it’s only a matter of time before they become redundant.

In supermarkets, meanwhile, the shift from checkout operators to self-service will be soon be followed by eliminating the checkout system – and attendants – entirely.

This week a senior executive with Australian supermarket giant Coles said the clocking was ticking on checkouts:

I have no doubt in the next 10 years, customers will be able to take the product off the shelf, put it in their basket, walk out and have it all paid for.

Given the concentration of the Australian grocery industry – with Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA having about 80% market share – this could happen in a lot of outlets in a short space of time.

Read more: When AI meets your shopping experience it knows what you buy – and what you ought to buy

The technology for this already exists. Amazon has been trialling its “no-checkout” Amazon Go technology at more than 20 Amazon-owned convenience stores in major US cities. Customers can walk into an Amazon Go store, “swipe in” with the app on their phone, pick up what they want and then simply walk out.

How it works exactly only Amazon knows, but it seems to involve sensors that identify what you’ve picked and artificial intelligence calculating what you’re likely to pick up based on previous purchases. Those who have used it say it works remarkably well.

In time the spread of such technology could wipe out more than 150,000 cashier jobs remaining in Australia.

And that’s just one sector of the economy.

Read more: The economics of self-service checkouts

Is this time different?

The argument against worrying about automation is that it’s always easier to identify the jobs likely to be lost than the new ones that will emerge.

There’s some truth to this. Who knew in 1995, for example, that “social media manager” would be a job 20 years later?

It’s also true the invention of the printing press and the mechanical plough destroyed jobs. But they also created more, as have many other innovations over the past 200 years.

But there are two reasons to be concerned – reasons I explore in a forthcoming book with co-author Rosalind Dixon.

The first is that this time really looks to be different in terms of scale. It has been estimated up to 14% of jobs in OECD countries are highly subject to automation, and a further 32% could face significant changes to how they are carried out.

The second is the jobs created by automation might not be suited to the people who lose their jobs. The cashier replaced by an automated checkout is unlikely to be qualified to work on the artificial intelligence technology that created it.

This has been true in the past to a degree, but a factory labourer who lost their job could at least move into the services sector. They were not be paid as well – a very real issue – but at least they could find another job without signficant reskilling.

Read more: The benefits of job automation are not likely to be shared equally

This time around there is reason to believe the skills of those who prosper from automation are going to be very different to those who lose.

The distributional implications of this are large and important.

The proper response

When a new technology increases the size of the overall economic pie, it is better to embrace it and try to take care of those who lose out.

That involves, if they have trouble finding a new job, doing more than ensuring they have an income.

As former US vice-president Joe Biden has recalled his father telling him:

You know, Joey, a job is about a lot more than a pay cheque. It’s about dignity, it’s about respect. It’s about your place in the community.

That means the proper response to automation has to be serious retraining to give people the skills to get a new job.

If that is not enough, it may mean the government providing jobs.

This kind of jobs guarantee is being talked about by mainstream economists and centrist politicians for the first time since the 1930s, when it formed a key part of the US government’s New Deal response to the Great Depression through the Works Progress Administration.

If the automation of the 2020s turns out to be a “robocalypse” of self-driving cars, automated baristas and AI-driven professional services, it might indeed be needed.

Be prepared

As US baseball great Yogi Bera said: “It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.” But we’ve seen enough evidence of an automation revolution driven by machine learning and big data to know we need to be prepared.

That means thinking now about a range of policies to provide people with work but not give up on the power of markets.

– ref. Vital Signs: the end of the checkout signals a dire future for those without the right skills – http://theconversation.com/vital-signs-the-end-of-the-checkout-signals-a-dire-future-for-those-without-the-right-skills-129894

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janine Dixon, Economist at Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University

Estimates of the economic damage caused by the bushfires are rolling in, some of them big and some unprecedented, as is the scale of the fires themselves.

These types of estimates will be refined and used to make – or break – the case for programs to limit the impact of similar disasters in the future. Some will be used to make a case for – or against – action on climate change.

But it’s important they not be done using the conventional measure of gross domestic product (GDP).

GDP measures everything produced in any given period.

It is a good enough measure of material welfare when used to measure the impact of a tourist event or a new mine or factory or something like the national broadband network, but it can be misleading – sometimes grossly misleading – when used to measure the economic impact of a catastrophe or natural disaster.

Read more: Beyond GDP: are there better ways to measure well-being?

That’s because it measures the positives brought about the recovery from disasters but leaves out some of the negatives caused by the destruction.

For example:

• building a new house has a positive impact on GDP, even if the old house was burnt down

• a military evacuation has a positive impact on GDP, even though the circumstances that make it necessary are life-threatening and traumatic

• bushfires stimulate GDP by creating more demand for health services, even as the victims suffer from smoke inhalation, burns or post-traumatic stress disorder.

It is possible to get at the full story

Economic modelling pioneered in Australia, and used to estimate the impact of terrorism and epidemics makes it possible to prepare measures of welfare that take account of the costs of disasters.

Among the immediate costs in the first months after a bushfire disaster would be:

• the direct cost of fire-fighting

• the cost of temporarily relocating residents

• health costs, such as treatment of burns and respiratory illnesses

• loss of work days associated with firefighting, injuries, illnesses, displacement and loss of life

• a downgrading of consumer confidence

• destruction of assets including homes, farms, businesses and natural resources and the associated disruption of economic activity including tourism, agriculture and housing

• the cost of replacing or rebuilding these assets

Longer term impacts would derive from:

• health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder leading to negative impacts on quality of life and labour supply

• long term damage to ecosystems, including contamination of water, and extinction or severe loss of animal species including those necessary to agricultural production, such as bees

• reputational damage leading to possible permanent downgrading of tourism activity in affected regions and in Australia more broadly

• potential ongoing reluctance to invest in Australia

• potential increases in cost of living in bushfire prone regions due to increases in insurance costs.

It involves going beyond GDP

The longer term impacts of disasters on a nation’s GDP are clearly negative, deriving from a decline in productive capacity (labour, capital and natural resources) which unambiguously detracts from economic welfare.

In the immediate aftermath, expenditure on reconstruction of homes and other assets can add to GDP, but the funding of these activities (whether direct or through insurance) adds to debt and can drag on household consumption, either immediately or in the future. A related measure, Gross National Income (GNI) takes this into account and is generally a better measure of economic welfare.

Bushfire-induced health expenditure stimulates both GDP and GNI but detracts from welfare.

Read more: How happiness is challenging GDP as the measure of a country’s health

Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, for example, can hardly be considered an improvement in standard of living.

To offset this inappropriate “good news”, it is possible to construct an index of leisure-adjusted GNI which takes into account the downgraded quality of leisure time.

As a starting point for such estimates, the prime minister’s department sets the statistical value of a year of life free of injury, disease and disability at A$182,000 (2014 dollars).

And it depends on where you are

Aggregated measures like GDP, GNI and leisure-adjusted GNI do not show the distribution of economic impact.

An event that strips a small amount from the incomes of everybody is different from one that decimates just a few regions, yet looks the same in a nationwide measure, so it is important that any economic analysis also looks at regional impacts.

The work is yet to be done, but it is safe to say that the conventional link between GDP and economic welfare (“more is better”) breaks down when assessing tragedies, particularly ones with profound regional impacts.

When campaigning to be US president Bobby Kennedy (John F Kennedy’s brother) said that GDP measures “everything… except that which makes life worthwhile”.

It’d be wise to bear that in mind when considering the policy response to the bushfires.

Read more: Might the bushfire crisis be the turning point on climate politics Australian needs?

– ref. Take care when examining the economic impact of fires. GDP doesn’t tell the full story – http://theconversation.com/take-care-when-examining-the-economic-impact-of-fires-gdp-doesnt-tell-the-full-story-129535

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kerrie Davies, Lecturer, School of the Arts & Media, UNSW

In this series, we look at under-acknowledged women through the ages.

In 1886, a year before American journalist Nellie Bly feigned insanity to enter an asylum in New York and became a household name, Catherine Hay Thomson arrived at the entrance of Kew Asylum in Melbourne on “a hot grey morning with a lowering sky”.

Hay Thomson’s two-part article, The Female Side of Kew Asylum for The Argus newspaper revealed the conditions women endured in Melbourne’s public institutions.

Her articles were controversial, engaging, empathetic, and most likely the first known by an Australian female undercover journalist.

A ‘female vagabond’

Hay Thomson was accused of being a spy by Kew Asylum’s supervising doctor. The Bulletin called her “the female vagabond”, a reference to Melbourne’s famed undercover reporter of a decade earlier, Julian Thomas. But she was not after notoriety.

Unlike Bly and her ambitious contemporaries who turned to “stunt journalism” to escape the boredom of the women’s pages – one of the few avenues open to women newspaper writers – Hay Thomson was initially a teacher and ran schools with her mother in Melbourne and Ballarat.

In 1876, she became one of the first female students to sit for the matriculation exam at Melbourne University, though women weren’t allowed to study at the university until 1880.

Going undercover

Hay Thomson’s series for The Argus began in March 1886 with a piece entitled The Inner Life of the Melbourne Hospital. She secured work as an assistant nurse at Melbourne Hospital (now The Royal Melbourne Hospital) which was under scrutiny for high running costs and an abnormally high patient death rate.

Her articles increased the pressure. She observed that the assistant nurses were untrained, worked largely as cleaners for poor pay in unsanitary conditions, slept in overcrowded dormitories and survived on the same food as the patients, which she described in stomach-turning detail.

The hospital linen was dirty, she reported, dinner tins and jugs were washed in the patients’ bathroom where poultices were also made, doctors did not wash their hands between patients.

Writing about a young woman caring for her dying friend, a 21-year-old impoverished single mother, Hay Thomson observed them “clinging together through all fortunes” and added that “no man can say that friendship between women is an impossibility”.

The Argus editorial called for the setting up of a “ladies’ committee” to oversee the cooking and cleaning. Formal nursing training was introduced in Victoria three years later.

Kew Asylum

Hay Thomson’s next series, about women’s treatment in the Kew Asylum, was published in March and April 1886.

Her articles predate Ten Days in a Madhouse written by Nellie Bly (born Elizabeth Cochran) for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World.

While working in the asylum for a fortnight, Hay Thomson witnessed overcrowding, understaffing, a lack of training, and a need for woman physicians. Most of all, the reporter saw that many in the asylum suffered from institutionalisation rather than illness.

She described “the girl with the lovely hair” who endured chronic ear pain and was believed to be delusional. The writer countered “her pain is most probably real”.

Observing another patient, Hay Thomson wrote:

She requires to be guarded – saved from herself; but at the same time, she requires treatment … I have no hesitation in saying that the kind of treatment she needs is unattainable in Kew Asylum.

The day before the first asylum article was published, Hay Thomson gave evidence to the final sitting of Victoria’s Royal Commission on Asylums for the Insane and Inebriate, pre-empting what was to come in The Argus. Among the Commission’s final recommendations was that a new governing board should supervise appointments and training and appoint “lady physicians” for the female wards.

Suffer the little children

In May 1886, An Infant Asylum written “by a Visitor” was published. The institution was a place where mothers – unwed and impoverished – could reside until their babies were weaned and later adopted out.

Hay Thomson reserved her harshest criticism for the absent fathers:

These women … have to bear the burden unaided, all the weight of shame, remorse, and toil, [while] the other partner in the sin goes scot free.

For another article, Among the Blind: Victorian Asylum and School, she worked as an assistant needlewoman and called for talented music students at the school to be allowed to sit exams.

In A Penitent’s Life in the Magdalen Asylum, Hay Thomson supported nuns’ efforts to help women at the Abbotsford Convent, most of whom were not residents because they were “fallen”, she explained, but for reasons including alcoholism, old age and destitution.

Suffrage and leadership

Hay Thomson helped found the Austral Salon of Women, Literature and the Arts in January 1890 and the National Council of Women of Victoria. Both organisations are still celebrating and campaigning for women.

Throughout, she continued writing, becoming Table Talk magazine’s music and social critic.

In 1899 she became editor of The Sun: An Australian Journal for the Home and Society, which she bought with Evelyn Gough. Hay Thomson also gave a series of lectures titled Women in Politics.

A Melbourne hotel maintains that Hay Thomson’s private residence was secretly on the fourth floor of Collins Street’s Rialto building around this time.

Home and back

After selling The Sun, Hay Thomson returned to her birth city, Glasgow, Scotland, and to a precarious freelance career for English magazines such as Cassell’s.

Despite her own declining fortunes, she brought attention to writer and friend Grace Jennings Carmichael’s three young sons, who had been stranded in a Northampton poorhouse for six years following their mother’s death from pneumonia. After Hay Thomson’s article in The Argus, the Victorian government granted them free passage home.

Hay Thomson eschewed the conformity of marriage but tied the knot back in Melbourne in 1918, aged 72. The wedding at the Women Writer’s Club to Thomas Floyd Legge, culminated “a romance of forty years ago”. Mrs Legge, as she became, died in Cheltenham in 1928, only nine years later.

– ref. Hidden women of history: Catherine Hay Thomson, the Australian undercover journalist who went inside asylums and hospitals – http://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-catherine-hay-thomson-the-australian-undercover-journalist-who-went-inside-asylums-and-hospitals-129352

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Blakers, Professor of Engineering, Australian National University

In the 1980s, a global race was underway: to find a more efficient way of converting energy from the sun into electricity.

Some 30 years ago, our research team at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) came up with a breakthrough, called the PERC silicon solar cell. The cells have become the most widely deployed electricity generation technology in terms of capacity added globally each year – comfortably exceeding wind, coal, gas, hydro and others.

Read more: Curious Kids: how do solar panels work?

PERC stands for Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell. By the end of this year, PERC technology will be mitigating about 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions by displacing coal burning. Assuming that its rapid growth continues, it should be reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 5% by the mid-2020s and possibly much more in later years.

The terrible bushfires in Australia this summer, enhanced by the hottest and driest year on record in 2019, underline the need for urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. By far the most effective way is driving coal out of electricity systems through very rapid deployment of solar and wind.

Soon, our Aussie invention will be generating half the world’s solar power. It is a pertinent reminder of Australia’s capacity for finding transformative technical solutions to address climate change. But we need the right government support.

An Aussie invention

Solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity without moving parts. More efficient solar cells generally produce cheaper electricity because fewer solar cells, glass covers, transport, land and support structures are needed for a given solar power output.

By the early 1980s, the best laboratory cells around the world had reached 17% efficiency. This means that 17% of the sunlight was converted to electricity, and the rest (83%) of the solar energy was lost (as heat).

During the 1980s, our research team at UNSW led by Martin Green and myself created a series of world-record-efficient silicon solar cells. We reported 18% efficiency in 1984, 19% efficiency also in 1984, and the important milestone of 20% efficiency in 1986.

Read more: Some good news for a change: Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are set to fall

In 1989 our group reported a new solar cell design called “PERC”, with a record efficiency of 22-23%.

This new, more efficient cell was better than the old ones because we eliminated some defects in the silicon crystal surface, which led to lower electronic losses. The PERC design also enabled us to capture the sunlight more effectively.

In the 1990s, further improvements to laboratory PERC cells were made at UNSW, leading to cells in the 24-25% efficiency range. The global silicon solar cell efficiency record remained at UNSW until recently.

There was a 25-year gap between development of the PERC cell and its rapid commercial adoption, which began in 2013. During this time, many people worked to adapt the PERC design to commercial production.

PERC cells are more efficient than previous commercial cells. Strong incentives for more efficient cells have recently arisen due to the continually falling share of cell costs as a proportion of total solar power system costs (including transport, land and mounting systems).

The big benefits of solar

Currently, solar power constitutes more than 40% of net new electricity generation capacity additions, with fossil, nuclear, wind, hydro and other renewables making up the balance.

Solar is growing faster than the other electricity generation technologies. Over time, as fossil-fuelled power stations are retired, solar (and wind) will dominate electricity production, with consequent large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

This year, enough PERC solar modules will be sold to generate 60-70 gigawatts of power. According to projections, PERC will reach three quarters of annual solar module sales in the mid-2020s, enough to match the generation capacity additions from all other technologies combined.

About A$50 billion worth of PERC modules have been sold to date. This is expected to reach several hundred billion Australian dollars later this decade.

Just imagine

Australian emissions (excluding those from bushfires) are falling because we are installing solar and wind four times faster per capita than the EU, US, Japan and China.

Our position as a global leader in renewables installation is uncertain because the Renewable Energy Target, which was achieved in 2019, has not been extended.

Read more: Weather bureau says hottest, driest year on record led to extreme bushfire season

With supportive policy, such as facilitating more transmission to bring solar and wind power to the cities, Australia could greatly increase the speed at which wind and solar are deployed, yielding rapid and deep cuts at about zero-net cost.

Such policy would entail stronger and sustained government support for renewables deployment, and research and development of new technologies.

Looking ahead

Solar energy is vast, ubiquitous and indefinitely sustainable. Simple calculations show that less than 1% of the world’s land area would be required to provide all of the world’s energy from solar power – much of it on building roofs, in deserts and floating on water bodies.

Solar systems use only very common materials (we could never run out), have minimal need for mining (about 1% of that needed for equivalent fossil or nuclear fuels), have minimal security and military risks (we will never go to war over solar access), cannot have significant accidents (unlike nuclear), and have minimal environmental impact over unlimited time scales.

Australia is making major contributions to mitigating climate change both through rapid deployment of wind and solar and technology development such as our PERC cells. But with better government support, much more can be done – quickly and at low cost.

– ref. How an Aussie invention could soon cut 5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions – http://theconversation.com/how-an-aussie-invention-could-soon-cut-5-of-the-worlds-greenhouse-gas-emissions-121571

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amanda Harris, Research fellow, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney

Review: Black Drop Effect, directed by Felix Cross for Sydney Festival

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names of deceased people.

Nardi Simpson’s debut play Black Drop Effect is the “immersive” experience the Sydney Festival program promises. Sitting in the stalls, as the sky darkened behind the outdoor stage, I was immersed in the present moment, in January 2020, and in the past too.

Simpson’s funny, tender and provocative dialogue infuses her narrative with layers of history – of place and ancestral knowledge, of encounter at Kamay (Botany Bay) 250 years ago, and of colonial commemorations and performances.

Her characters turn a fraught Aboriginal dance performance on 26 January into a chance to listen and share knowledge. And ultimately, the dance group has a few lessons to teach about who can control culture, how history can be memorialised, and by whom.

In the accompanying program, Simpson (also a composer, singer-songwriter and performer) suggests this work is “one verse in an ongoing song”. Black Drop Effect, and the rich array of Indigenous productions in this Sydney Festival, build on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performances at commemorative events throughout Australia’s history.

Reenactment and protest

The production was prompted by festival director Wesley Enoch’s call to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to be ready for 2020. Some smart programming from Enoch launches a conversation that will heat up as the 29 April anniversary of Cook’s landing approaches.

Read more: Australia’s major summer arts festivals: reckoning with the past or retreating into it?

The last time a Cook anniversary was commemorated on a large scale was 1970. At those events, Aboriginal actors led by Noongar performer Ken Colbung (Nundjan Djiridjarkan) performed the kind of reenactment Black Drop Effect dramatises in front of 20,000 Sydneysiders.

Queen Elizabeth II arrived by sea, just as Cook had done, approaching the shore on the royal barge. As she neared, distant clap stick beats were heard, accompanying the official commentary and reminding viewers Aboriginal people were still there, as they had been when that other boat approached 200 years earlier.

Across the Bay at (Guriwal) La Perouse, Aboriginal protesters threw wreaths into the water to commemorate the invasion. They were joined in protests across the nation.

At Sydney Airport the Queen was greeted with Aboriginal people in funeral dress. Elsewhere there was a torchlight procession to Canberra’s Parliament House, a costumed silent vigil in Brisbane, a March through Melbourne, a mourning demonstration in South Australia and a funerary procession in Perth.

Taking poetic licence with history, new British immigrants bearing the surname Cook or Cooks were recruited in the 1970 commemorations. On 30 April, 1970 the Tamworth Leader reported that “Too many Cooks” arrived in Sydney on a flight landing at Mascot airport, close to Cook’s landing spot.

In 2019, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a replica of Cook’s ship Endeavour would circumnavigate Australia (even though the original Endeavour never made such a journey).

Anniversaries of the First Fleet’s landing in 1788 have also been repeatedly commemorated. In 1938 (150 years) Ngiyampaa and Paakantji residents of Menindee Aboriginal Reserve were brought down to Sydney under duress to perform a reenactment. Many of their own family members joined the group staging a Day of Mourning protest through Sydney streets nearby.

In 1963 (175 years) a Pageant of Nationhood was performed for the Queen featuring non-Indigenous dancers in black face in Burragorang Dreamtime, the brainchild of choreographer Beth Dean and composer John Antill.

Talking back to Cook

Black Drop Effect holds in tension these complex histories of Aboriginal responses to commemoration, making space for protest, reclamation of culture and cross-cultural negotiations. It is a productive response to our times that brings together a cohesive creative team.

Lucy Simpson’s evocative visual designs, with video by Mic Gruchy and lighting by Karen Norris, bring to life themes in the narrative. Swirling stingray and cockatoo projections and watery backgrounds move across a screen, waft through the trees and onto the sand under the actors’ feet. Matt Doyle’s vital choreography is underpinned by James Henry’s sound design, combining song fragments with electro beats and clap stick rhythms in extended time signatures.

Director Felix Cross creatively navigates the challenges of Bankstown Arts Centre’s courtyard and its proximity to the train line. The impressive cast never forget where their performances are happening, intermittently turning their gaze trainwards. The passing trains play a role in the drama, pausing the action or comically highlighting Anthony Hunt’s Cook portrayal and blustering refusal to let place disrupt his monologue.

Experienced performers and newcomers alike shine bright in this strong cast. William McPherson (Binno), Marlene Cummins (Beenie), Jane Phegan (Pip), Googoorewon Knox (Max), Isaiah Kennedy (Brayden), and Ken Weldon (Charley Boy) deliver comedy and poignancy in quick succession, with Knox’s expert singing arriving as a late surprise.

The language of the Gweagal warriors who confronted Cook’s party with “Warra warra wai” also makes a powerful appearance — translated in Simpson’s script as “Go away!”

Black Drop Effect challenges, but it also brings people in, inviting us to listen, feel and rethink what it means for Indigenous Australians to remember Cook’s visit after 250 years. Enoch’s Sydney Festival gives us plenty to think about as 26 January and 29 April 2020 approach.

Black Drop Effect runs until January 18

– ref. Black Drop Effect review: infusing the present moment with layers of the past – http://theconversation.com/black-drop-effect-review-infusing-the-present-moment-with-layers-of-the-past-129785

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Richards, Lecturer Sport Business Management, Western Sydney University

In the past week, the Australian football players union has been pressuring the A-League to make a major change in the sport – shifting to a winter competition, instead of its current spot in the brutal summer.

Both the A-League and W-League seasons currently run from October-April. One of the main reasons for the summer schedule was to avoid head-to-head competition with the much bigger Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL), which both play in the winter.

But there’s a growing feeling in the sport that a move to the winter months would be beneficial for football, particularly as our summers grow hotter and bushfires worsen.

Last weekend, A-League officials considered cancelling the match between Sydney FC and Newcastle United due to the air quality in NSW before shifting course at the last minute. However, the W-League match scheduled before it was postponed.

Schedule not aligned with other leagues

The A-League is believed to be the only professional football league in the world in which the top-level competition plays at a different time of year from its lower-tier league. The semi-pro National Premier League currently plays in the winter, from March to October.

Read more: Why soccer is falling behind footy and rugby in Australia

According to former Socceroo John Aloisi, the way the schedule is currently set up widens the gap between amateur and professional football. This separation limits the development pathways for players, coaches and administrators.

It also situates the Australian national competition outside the Asian football schedule, which is also in the Southern Hemisphere winter.

If we want to move forward as a code we need to go, ‘Alright, Asia is played this time of the year, we have to play with them.’

Moving to the winter could have a huge impact on the women’s game, too. It would give the W-League a major opportunity to grow its fan base since no other Australian women’s sport is played at that time of year, other than netball.

As former Matilda Shelley Youman says,

Crowds are not coming now anyway, so why not try something new. We need to find our place in the busy Australian sporting landscape.

Hotter temperatures lead to patchier play

Other players have also thrown their support behind the idea, arguing the Australian summer heat and constant need for water breaks impacts the quality of football. The FFA heat policy mandates a 90-second drink break in each half when the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) is between 26 and 27.9 degrees Celsius, or the ambient temperature is over 31 degrees.

A match can be delayed or postponed when the WBGT reaches 28 degrees.

Former Socceroos star Jason Culina said he loses up to four kilograms after games played in the heat and it can take days to recover. He says the fields in the summer months are also “rock hard”, leading to increased injuries.

My career was almost ended by a serious knee injury in 2011 that was caused by wear and tear. … the hard conditions in Australia might have accelerated the deterioration.

The heat may also be a contributing factor to fans staying away from A-League matches. Statistics show that since 2015, crowd attendance at A-League matches has continually declined.

Where will they play in winter?

So, how feasible would a switch actually be? Could this be the “shake-up” many have called for in the A-League?

One of the biggest problems is where A-League games would be played if the main stadiums are busy hosting AFL, NRL and Super Rugby matches.

Read more: Australia wants to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Equal pay for the Matildas will help our chances

Part of the A-League season currently overlaps with those leagues in March and April. This already poses problems for footballers, due to the damage caused to fields by scrums and studs.

Sydney FC, for example, has scheduled games at several suburban grounds while the Sydney Football Stadium is being rebuilt. However, last February the team had to move a match from Brookvale Oval after the playing surface was considered not up to “A-League standard”.

Add to that Melbourne Victory player Terry Antonis’ knee injury that was largely attributed to the poor condition of the Sydney Cricket Ground after a Super Rugby match.

In NSW, the Berejiklian government has controversially committed A$2 billion to stadium redevelopment, but most of the money is going toward its main stadiums in Olympic Park and Moore Park.

This has resulted in ongoing criticism from those who believe the money could have been dispersed more evenly to upgrade smaller stadiums. The benefits of investing in smaller stadiums include enhancing the match atmosphere and creating a more family-friendly environment. They are overwhelmingly favoured by fans and football clubs alike

Read more: Australians love their sport, but investing in new venues is another matter

Growing the fan base amid so much competition

The A-league’s current position in the sporting calendar is already not drawing huge television audiences. The season opener between the Wanderers and Mariners in October attracted just 47,000 viewers on the ABC in the five major capital cities – down from 93,000 a year earlier.

Read more: Why soccer is falling behind footy and rugby in Australia

While research shows Australians have multiple loyalties when it comes to sport, the A-League has long struggled to build a strong emotional connection with its fans – hence the poor television viewership and match attendance figures.

A recent study by True North Research highlighted how important the emotional connection is between fans and clubs.

Read more: The beautiful social media game: A-League winners and losers on Twitter

The Matildas have long been considered among the “most loved Australian sport teams” but A-League clubs have been ranked the worst of any summer sports teams for emotional connection with fans.

In light of this, a move to winter could pose a serious risk to football’s future. Multiple online fan surveys have shown that if it was a choice between the NRL, AFL or A-League, A-League would not be the winner.

Perhaps instead of a shift to a different season, the A-League should focus on better developing and marketing its summer matches. As it stands now, the league decided not to do any marketing for the 2019-20 season until after the NRL and AFL Finals were over.

If the A-League’s administrators won’t promote the league before the season even starting, what hope does football have against a field of giants?

– ref. Moving the A-League to the winter would improve the play, but will it attract the fans? – http://theconversation.com/moving-the-a-league-to-the-winter-would-improve-the-play-but-will-it-attract-the-fans-129760

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wayne Wilson, Associate Professor in Audiology, The University of Queensland

Why does reading in the back seat make you feel sick? – Jane, aged 10, from Coburg North, Australia.

Hi Jane, your question about why reading in the back seat makes you feel sick is a very good one. The answer has to do with our eyes, our ears and our brain.

Reading in the back seat can make you feel sick because your eyes and ears are having an argument that your brain is trying to settle!

Read more: Curious Kids: Why do our ears pop?

When you’re reading in the back seat, your eyes see that your book is still. Your eyes then tell your brain you are still.

But your ears feel the car is moving. Your ears then tell your brain you’re moving.

How can your ears tell you’re moving?

Your ears don’t just hear, they help with your balance too.

Your ear has three main parts:

• the outer ear is the bit you can see on the side of someone’s head
• the middle ear is your eardrum and some tiny bones and muscles
• the inner ear is the part of your ear that can help with your balance.

Your inner ear contains cells that have hairs sticking out the top. Scientists call these “hair cells”.

Some of these hair cells help us to hear. When sound hits those hair cells, the hairs move and the cells send signals to the brain. Our brains use those signals to hear.

Other hair cells help us to keep our balance. When the car we’re sitting in moves, that movement makes the hairs on those hair cells move too, and they send different signals to the brain. Our brain uses those different signals to tell we’re moving.

Why doesn’t the brain like this?

Some people’s brains don’t like it when their eyes say they’re still but their ears say they’re moving.

When eyes and ears argue like this, the brain can think that something dangerous might be about to happen.

If this happens, the brain can get the body ready to fight or run away (scientists call this the “fight or flight” response).

One of the things the brain can do is take blood away from the stomach to give to the muscles.

Giving blood to the muscles can help us to fight or run away. But taking blood away from the stomach can make us feel sick.

What can you do about it?

If reading in the back seat makes you feel sick, you might need to settle the argument between your eyes and your ears.

One way to do this is to stop reading and to look out the car window. This could help your eyes to tell your brain that you’re moving as you see the world whizz by, and your ears to tell your brain that you are moving as you feel the car moving.

Read more: Curious Kids: Do astronauts get space sick when they travel from Earth to the International Space Station?

But this suggestion won’t work for everyone. Some people will still feel sick when they ride in a car, even if they aren’t reading.

This is because while our eyes and our ears help us to balance, so do our skin and our muscles. This creates many opportunities for arguments that our brain has to settle!

Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au

– ref. Curious Kids: why does reading in the back seat make you feel sick? – http://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-does-reading-in-the-back-seat-make-you-feel-sick-128693

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling

For John Sarkissian, operations scientist at the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope, astronomy has been his life’s passion – starting from the age of six.

“When I was six years old, I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon,” he says of the radio telescope made famous in the film The Dish.

“In fact, on the cover of my year nine mathematics textbook was a painting of the Parkes radio telescope. I remember sitting in the class staring at the painting and daydreaming working there one day. And so here I am now, 40 some years later.”

Today, on Trust Me I’m An Expert, editorial intern Antonio Tarquinio speaks to Sarkissian about the research underway at one of Australia’s most famous astronomical research facilities including:

• the role Parkes is playing right now in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence

• how the telescope detects extremely weak signals coming from the most distant parts of the Universe

• why even a light breeze can imperil the dish unless it’s in the right position

• how the explosion of phones, wi-fi and radio frequency interference is affecting research in the once-deserted Parkes location.

And Sarkissian’s own take on whether Parkes will help find alien life?

“Well, as of today, the only place we know of the entire Universe that there is definitely life is right here on Earth,” he says.

“And what does that say? It says that we should appreciate our place in the Universe a little more.”

Read more: ‘The size, the grandeur, the peacefulness of being in the dark’: what it’s like to study space at Siding Spring Observatory

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Read more: Trust Me, I’m An Expert: what science says about how to lose weight and whether you really need to

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Read more: Darkness is disappearing and that’s bad news for astronomy

– ref. The Dish in Parkes is scanning the southern Milky Way, searching for alien signals – http://theconversation.com/the-dish-in-parkes-is-scanning-the-southern-milky-way-searching-for-alien-signals-129919

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Jin Kang, Lecturer, Edith Cowan University

When will I die?

This question has endured across cultures and civilisations. It has given rise to a plethora of religions and spiritual paths over thousands of years, and more recently, some highly amusing apps.

But this question now prompts a different response, as technology slowly brings us closer to accurately predicting the answer.

Predicting the lifespan of people, or their “Personal Life Expectancy” (PLE) would greatly alter our lives.

On one hand, it may have benefits for policy making, and help optimise an individual’s health, or the services they receive.

Read more: We’re not just living for longer – we’re staying healthier for longer, too

But the potential misuse of this information by the government or private sector poses major risks to our rights and privacy.

Although generating an accurate life expectancy is currently difficult, due to the complexity of factors underpinning lifespan, emerging technologies could make this a reality in the future.

How do you calculate life expectancy?

Predicting life expectancy is not a new concept. Experts do this at a population level by classifying people into groups, often based on region or ethnicity.

Also, tools such as deep learning and artificial intelligence can be used to consider complex variables, such as biomedical data, to predict someone’s biological age.

Biological age refers to how “old” their body is, rather than when they were born. A 30-year-old who smokes heavily may have a biological age closer to 40.

Calculating a life expectancy reliably would require a sophisticated system that considers a breadth of environmental, geographic, genetic and lifestyle factors – all of which have influence.

With machine learning and artificial intelligence, it’s becoming feasible to analyse larger quantities of data. The use of deep learning and cognitive computing, such as with IBM Watson, helps doctors make more accurate diagnoses than using human judgement alone.

This, coupled with predictive analytics and increasing computational power, means we may soon have systems, or even apps, that can calculate life expectancy.

There’s an app for that

Much like existing tools that predict cancer survival rates, in the coming years we may see apps attempting to analyse data to predict life expectancy.

However, they will not be able to provide a “death date”, or even a year of death.

Human behaviour and activities are so unpredictable, it’s almost impossible to measure, classify and predict lifespan. A personal life expectancy, even a carefully calculated one, would only provide a “natural life expectancy” based on generic data optimised with personal data.

The key to accuracy would be the quality and quantity of data available. Much of this would be taken directly from the user, including gender, age, weight, height and ethnicity.

Access to real-time sensor data through fitness trackers and smart watches could also monitor activity levels, heart rate and blood pressure. This could then be coupled with lifestyle information such as occupation, socioeconomic status, exercise, diet and family medical history.

Read more: Your local train station can predict health and death

All of the above could be used to classify an individual into a generic group to calculate life expectancy. This result would then be refined over time through the analysis of personal data, updating a user’s life expectancy and letting them monitor it.

Two sides of a coin

Life expectancy predictions have the potential to be beneficial to individuals, health service providers and governments.

For instance, they would make people more aware of their general health, and its improvement or deterioration over time. This may motivate them to make healthier lifestyle choices.

Read more: Faster, more accurate diagnoses: Healthcare applications of AI research

They could also be used by insurance companies to provide individualised services, such as how some car insurance companies use black-box technology to reduce premiums for more cautious drivers.

Governments may be able to use predictions to more efficiently allocate limited resources, such as social welfare assistance and health care funding, to individuals and areas of greater need.

That said, there’s a likely downside.

People may become distressed if their life expectancy is unexpectedly low, or at the thought of having one at all. This raises concerns about how such predictions could impact those who experience or are at risk of mental health problems.

Having people’s detailed health data could also let insurance companies more accurately profile applicants, leading to discrimination against groups or individuals.

Also, pharmaceutical companies could coordinate targeted medical campaigns based on people’s life expectancy. And governments could choose to tax individuals differently, or restrict services for certain people.

When will it happen?

Scientists have been working on ways to predict human life expectancy for many years.

The solution would require input from specialists including demographers, health scientists, data scientists, IT specialists, programmers, medical professionals and statisticians.

While the collection of enough data will be challenging, we can likely expect to see advances in this area in the coming years.

If so, issues related to data compliance, as well and collaboration with government and state agencies will need to be carefully managed. Any system predicting life expectancy would handle highly sensitive data, raising ethical and privacy concerns.

It would also attract cybercriminals, and various other security threats.

Moving forward, the words of Jurassic Park’s Dr Ian Malcolm spring to mind:

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.

– ref. Don’t die wondering: apps may soon be able to predict your life expectancy, but do you want to know? – http://theconversation.com/dont-die-wondering-apps-may-soon-be-able-to-predict-your-life-expectancy-but-do-you-want-to-know-129068

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Tolhurst, Hon. Assoc. Prof., Fire Ecology and Management, University of Melbourne

As our country battles the most extensive fires of our lifetime, there are increasing calls for a royal commission into the states and territories’ preparedness and the federal government’s response to the disaster.

A royal commission has coercive powers beyond a government inquiry, and the need for one implies there are facts and evidence that would otherwise be “hidden” to an inquiry or review.

Research I’ve recently conducted with other fire experts has concluded there have been 57 formal public inquiries, reviews and royal commissions related to bushfires and fire management since 1939, most of which are listed here. I have given expert evidence to at least seven of them, including the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.

That is more than one inquiry every two years in the past 80 years. Do we need yet another?

Previous reviews that went nowhere

Some of the recommendations of the Stretton Royal Commission following the Black Friday fires of 1939 have still not been fully implemented.

Many of the recommendations of the subsequent 56 inquiries have not been fully implemented either, so it raises serious questions about whether another royal commission will offer anything new or compelling.

Read more: Bushfires won’t change climate policy overnight. But Morrison can shift the Coalition without losing face

Royal commissions are also expensive and time-consuming. The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission had a budget of A$40 million and ran for about 18 months.

This cost did not include the very considerable time and resources committed by various government agencies, companies and individuals who prepared and presented evidence to the commission. When these costs are taken into account, I estimate the total cost of the commission to Victoria would have been much more.

This begs the question as to how money spent on a federal royal commission could be better used to deal with bushfire management across the country.

A comprehensive fire management plan already exists

In response to the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and various other inquiries, fire managers from government agencies in all states and territories prepared a National Bushfire Management Policy Statement for Forests and Rangelands.

This policy statement was signed off by all COAG (Council of Australian Governments) members by early 2012 and published in 2014. As yet, there has been little action on implementing this policy.

The policy had a stated vision that

fire regimes are effectively managed to maintain and enhance the protection of human life and property, and the health, biodiversity, tourism, recreation and production benefits derived from Australia’s forests and rangelands.

Central to this vision is

the role fire plays in maintaining and enhancing biodiversity. Sustainable long-term solutions are needed to address the causes of increased bushfire risk.

To achieve the intent of this policy, 14 national goals were identified.

The first was to maintain appropriate fire regimes with the right combination of size, intensity, frequency and seasonality to properly sustain the ecosystems in Australia’s forests and rangelands.

Another goal was to promote Indigenous Australians’ knowledge of fire management. This recognised the benefits of widespread, low-intensity, patchy fires across the landscape that are sustainable and create landscapes resilient to climate extremes.

Read more: There’s only one way to make bushfires less powerful: take out the stuff that burns

And a third goal was to create employment, workforce education and training in bushfire management. This recognised the importance of fire management as an integrated part of our lives.

These goals – along with the 11 others in the statement – still need to be developed into measurable outputs and outcomes, but they set a comprehensive and sustainable fire management strategy for the country.

This policy statement goes much further than just considering how to respond to a bushfire emergency, which seems to be the focus of the call for a new royal commission by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

A better way forward

Over the past 20 years or so, the tertiary education for land managers, such as professional foresters and rangers, has been reduced to the level of generic “environmental science”. This has largely been due to the politicisation of public land management.

Bushfire science is complex and fire management even more complex, so we need to have highly trained and qualified people managing our parks and forests. Instead, we typically have groups of individual specialists trying to collaborate without the strong leadership and direction such a task requires.

Read more: Watching our politicians fumble through the bushfire crisis, I’m overwhelmed by déjà vu

We do not expect a physicist or chemist to build a bridge, even though they could provide great detail about the forces acting on it and the metallurgy of the structure. Instead, we employ engineers. Likewise, we should not expect botanists, zoologists, ecologists or environmental scientists to manage the natural landscape. That, however, is what is happening now.

The responsibility for land and fire management rests with each state and territory government. However, with support from the federal government and coordination through COAG, we should be able to develop an efficient and effective fire and land management program across Australia.

In his 1939 royal commission report, Judge Stretton observed of the Victorian Forests Commission chairman of the time, A.V. Galbraith,

if his Commission were placed beyond the reach of the sort of political authority to which he and his Department has for some time past been subjected, he would be of greater value to the State.

His meaning is clear: good fire and land management needs to be done with long-term perspective, not a short-term political focus.

Stretton also observed the need to have public support, because

without their approval and goodwill, there can be no real plan.

Our changing climate has put more pressure on our natural ecosystems and the weaknesses in our land and fire management are being ruthlessly exposed.

Rather than using time and resources on inquiry No. 58, we should instead commit to fully implement the recommendations of all the previous inquiries, reviews and royal commissions we have already held. Another royal commission will only reiterate what we have known for decades.

– ref. We have already had countless bushfire inquiries. What good will it do to have another? – http://theconversation.com/we-have-already-had-countless-bushfire-inquiries-what-good-will-it-do-to-have-another-129896

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Grové, Educational and Developmental Psychologist and Lecturer, Monash University

Most children in Australia are going back to school in just over a week. Children experience a mix of emotions when it comes to going to school.

Easing back after the holidays can range from feeling really excited and eager to concern, fear or anxiety. Getting butterflies or general worry about going back to school is common.

Among the biggest worries of preschool children are feeling left out, being teased or saying goodbye to their caregiver at drop off. Concerns of school-aged children are about exams (27%), not wanting to return to school (13%), and problems with teachers (14%). Some feel lonely and isolated.

The main concerns for teens are coping with stress (44.7%), school or study problems (34.3%) and mental health (33.2%).

Read more: More children are starting school depressed and anxious – without help, it will only get worse

Not thinking about school until it is time to go back is one way to enjoy the last week of holidays. But for some, this can make going back to school more difficult.

Supporting parents, children and young people with back-to-school challenges can help reduce negative school experiences using the below steps.

1. Set up a back-to-school routine

Create structure about going back with a school routine. Be guided by your knowledge and history of what best supports your child during times of change and transition.

Set up a practical chart of getting ready. You could include:

• what needs to be done each day for school like getting up, eating breakfast, dressing

• what help does your child need from you to get ready?

• what they can do on their own? (Establish these together).

The first week back can cause disruption from being in holiday mode so don’t forget healthy habits around sleep (around 9-11 hours for children aged 5-13 and 8-10 hours for those aged 14-17), exercise (around one hour per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity three times a week) and diet.

Read more: Wired and tired: why parents should take technology out of their kid’s bedroom

Having consistent bed and wake-up times helps too. The National Sleep Foundation suggest starting two weeks before the first day of school to set sleep routine habits. But a week beforehand will help get your kid on their way.

In some way, parents go back to school with their children. Consider adjusting your own schedule to make the transition smoother. If you can’t in the mornings, arrange the evenings so you can give as much time as your child needs, especially during the first week.

2. Talk about going back to school

Most children deal with some level of stress or anxiety about school. They have insight into their school experiences, so find out what worries them by asking directly.

You can offer support by normalising experiences of worry and nerves. Reassure your child the feelings they have are common and they will likely overcome them once they have settled in. Worries and courage can exist together.

Depending on your child’s age, you can also try the following to help:

• early years/pre-school – write a social story about going to daycare or school and the routine ahead

• primary years – set up a peer-buddy system where a peer or older child meets yours at the school gate or, if neighbours, kids can go into school together

• secondary years – establish healthy routines as a family. Support each other around technology use, sleep and schoolwork.

3. Help create a sense of school belonging

A sense of belonging at school can affect academic success and student well-being. Parents can facilitate positive attitudes about school by setting an encouraging tone when talking about it.

Read more: Many Australian school students feel they ‘don’t belong’ in school: new research

Also show an interest in school life and work, and be available to support your child both academically and socially.

More than half of the parents in one survey said homework and schoolwork were the greatest drivers of stress in their children. When parents are more engaged in their child’s schoolwork, they are better able to support them through it.

4. Look out for signs of stress

Research suggests parents can miss stress or anxiety in their children. Parents can spot stress if their child (depending on age):

• is more clingy than usual or tries escape from the classroom

• appears restless and flighty or cries

• shows an increased desire to avoid activities through negotiations and deal-making

• tries to get out of going to school

• retreats to thumb sucking, baby language or increased attachment to favourite soft toys (for younger students).

If these behaviours persist for about half a term, talk to your classroom teacher or school well-being coordinator about what is happening. Together work on a strategy of support. There may be something more going on than usual school nerves, like bullying.

Read more: Is my child being too clingy and how can I help?

5. Encourage questions

Encourage questions children and teens may have about the next term. What will be the same? What will be different?

Often schools provide transition information. If the school hasn’t, it might be worth contacting them to see if they can share any resources.

Most importantly, let your child know nothing is off limits to talk about. Set up times to chat throughout the school term – it can help with back-to-school nerves.

– ref. 5 tips to help ease your child back into school mode after the holidays – http://theconversation.com/5-tips-to-help-ease-your-child-back-into-school-mode-after-the-holidays-129780

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Heather Shearer, Research Fellow, Cities Research Institute, Griffith University

The reasons for choosing to go tiny range from reducing debt, inability to afford a conventional home, the search for sustainability, a life crisis, or even preparing for an uncertain future in the face of climate change by going off-grid. Or perhaps a combination of these.

An important first step is to decide what type of tiny house you want. To many, the phrase “tiny house” brings to mind an archetypal tiny house on wheels, a miniature cottage on a trailer, often made of wood, with a pitched roof and dormer windows.

Indeed, most tiny housers prefer some degree of mobility, whether a ready-made or DIY tiny house, converted caravan or bus/van. A survey by the Australian Tiny House Association found most (78% of 109 respondents) lived in tiny houses on wheels, but a small but growing proportion live in converted caravans, vans or buses.

Read more: Interest in tiny houses is growing, so who wants them and why?

Why do you want to go tiny?

First you need to evaluate your motives, which may differ according to your situation or stage of life. The most important question here is, how often do you want to move?

Do you want to be ultra-mobile, and live like a digital nomad, perhaps in a “stealth van” in the city, changing parking spaces every night? Or do you want to travel around Australia like a “grey nomad”, staying in caravan parks or roadside camps for a week or so before moving on?

Alternatively, do you want to be more settled, perhaps moving occasionally, to be closer to work, medical facilities or schools for children? (Yes, some tiny housers have children). Or do you want to travel between the houses of adult children or do petsitting, staying from weeks to months?

Read more: Grey nomad lifestyle provides a model for living remotely

Many off-the-shelf caravans are extremely well designed and are accepted everywhere, at caravan parks or roadside parking areas. On the other hand, a tiny house on wheels is less mobile, and not suited to frequent moving (they are also extremely heavy, not aerodynamic and large tow vehicles are costly).

They’re also less accepted in caravan parks, and most local councils consider them caravans, with restricted periods of occupancy and often onerous conditions. Vans and buses are the most flexible (in the “stealth van” or vanlife movement, people live rent-free by parking, mostly illegally, often in industrial estates, and using public or work/gym bathrooms).

They are, however, extremely small and while it may seem glamorous to live in a van like celebrity rock climber Alex Honnold, the reality may not be practical.

Read more: Is the future of work necessarily glamorous? Digital nomads and ‘van life’

What can you afford?

Cost will likely be the next factor to consider. Ready-built tiny houses range from around A$50,000 – $120,000; DIY are cheaper, especially if self-built, with some costing under $2,000. The higher end, architect-designed ones are more expensive.

Read more: Sick to death of consumerism? Find freedom in a tiny house

Converted caravans can be affordable, even under $10,000, but prices vary markedly, with some ultra-luxurious five-wheelers costing more than a typical suburban house (>$600,000).

Converting old buses and vans is much cheaper, with the cost of the vehicle tending to be under $20,000. Of note, unless you are living under the radar or free camping, you are going to have to factor in the ongoing cost of renting someone’s backyard or caravan park space.

How sustainable is your choice?

Sustainability is a more nuanced aspect of tiny house living; living small means less energy needed for heating and less room for superfluous stuff, encouraging or enforcing a minimalist lifestyle.

Most tiny houses on wheels are off-grid to some extent, relying on solar power, rainwater and composting toilets. They are often built entirely out of sustainable or reclaimed materials.

On the other hand, most caravans and vans are not particularly sustainable — they’re often built out of mass-produced material and may produce outgassing from carpets and paints. Vans and busses are generally no more or less sustainable than any similar vehicle.

What kind of life do you want?

Tiny houses, whatever the type, are just that: tiny. Space is at a premium and living tiny requires reducing stuff, such as clothes, sporting and hobby equipment. Tiny houses on wheels, where parked more permanently, allow for decks and even sheds, but caravans and vans are self contained, unless in a permanent caravan park.

If you are used to living in a very large space, it may take time to adapt to the practicalities of tiny living; people often complain about cooking smells and composting toilets.

Read more: Life in a tiny house: what’s it like and how can it be made better?

Despite the popularity of tiny houses however, very few people actually live in them. Nonetheless, the vast majority of people who live or have lived tiny, view their experience positively, and feel it has greatly enriched their lives, and helped them re-evaluate their life choices, especially consumerism even after moving to more conventional dwellings.

– ref. So, you want to live tiny? Here’s what to consider when choosing a house, van or caravan – http://theconversation.com/so-you-want-to-live-tiny-heres-what-to-consider-when-choosing-a-house-van-or-caravan-129790

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Daley, Chief Executive Officer, Grattan Institute

Countries have long periods in which policies change little, and only by increments.

Occasionally there are turning points, when previously intractable policy problems are suddenly resolved, recasting policy for the long term.

Many are asking whether this summer’s environmental catastrophe might be such a turning point – a Port Arthur moment or Australia’s Sandy Hook, Chernobyl or Pearl Harbour.

The short answer is: it is too soon to tell, but the early signals from the federal government are not good.

Crises can provide a window for big policy changes. In such times, the normal political constraints are relaxed, although not for long.

Crisis can beget change

The need for revenue during World War I opened the way for the federal government to levy a national income tax. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 stimulated many changes concerned with national security.

Typically, a crisis only leads to substantial policy changes if there is also a broader understanding about the need to act, and the shape of the change needed.

The economic theories of John Maynard Keynes provided the basis for policies that ensured full employment during and after World War II.

The monetarist theories of Milton Friedman provided the means to limit inflation in the 1970s and 1980s.

A library of pre-existing publications on national security directed policy in the wake of 9/11.

Theory is needed as well

Crisis and economic theory were essential to some of the big reforms under the Hawke and Keating governments, including a new approach to Australian retirement incomes.

Superannuation had been a patchwork of individual employer arrangements since before federation.

The stagflation crisis of simultaneous unemployment and inflation in the 1970s created the conditions for a new approach. Inflation rose to 15%, unemployment to 6%. It led to government-union Accords and deferred wage increases that were the basis for Australia’s universal employee superannuation scheme.

Read more: Australian politics explainer: the Prices and Incomes Accord

Many see the 1986 Chernobyl disaster as a turning point in ending the cold war and dismantling the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev acted decisively in the midst of a disaster that created a groundswell of support for change bringing in an system (capitalism) which had deep theoretical underpinnings.

Not every crisis leads to change

For decades, gun control has been contentious in the United States, where gun-related homicides are ten times the rates elsewhere. 26 people, including 20 children aged 6 and 7, in a gun massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

President Obama was personally committed to, and moved fast after the crisis to call for, tighter gun control. But change was stymied by powerful stakeholders.

By contrast, John Howard was successful in moving quickly after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre to tighten gun controls.

The Australian gun lobby lacked the political sophistication of America’s National Rifle Association, and Australia’s political system has fewer veto points than in the US.

The attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 brought World War II to America, mobilising huge levels of public support for American involvement. Within days, Roosevelt had declared war on Japan.

The nation might not be ready

There are high levels of public support for action climate change in Australia, but can we say it is the same as “war fever”?

Australia’s emissions policy has been stuck for a long time. Australia was recently ranked as having the worst climate policy in the world, and some of the worst outcomes.

Australia’s annual emissions are not expected to change much between 2020 and 2030 – which doesn’t give Australia much chance of getting to near zero emissions by 2050, which is generally regarded as what’s needed to avoid runaway climate change.

Many in public policy have spent years developing credible policy responses to climate change. But Australia has repealed or failed to implement five versions of climate policy since 2007.

Read more: The good, the bad and the ugly: the nations leading and failing on climate action

There are reasons to believe the summer bushfire crisis won’t be any different.

No-one has accused the Prime Minister of moving too fast or too far in responding to the fires. In his interview with ABC at the weekend, he did not commit to tightening, or even reviewing, Australia’s carbon emissions targets in light of the fires.

Powerful stakeholders continue to deny the need for significant policy change: last month the federal resources minister, Matt Canavan, referred to the “bogeyman of climate change” as a distraction from “shortcomings in managing our land.”

Fake news on social media and in some sections of the mainstream media about an arson emergency has blunted the chance of a broad-based popular groundswell.

There’s hope, but not much

The proposed royal commission might be a means to find a way forward on climate change. But by the time it reports, the fires will be out, and the moment of crisis will have passed.

For now, the fires smoulder on. It’s not too late for the federal government to seize the opportunity for substantial change. State governments may well use the aftermath of the fires to coordinate their responses to climate change – possibly without the Commonwealth. For the moment, they are understandably preoccupied with responding to an ongoing emergency.

Read more: Bushfires won’t change climate policy overnight. But Morrison can shift the Coalition without losing face

There is a real possibility that Australia will have to wait for another crisis – with different leadership, and more public consensus – before there is significant change on emissions policy.

The bushfire smoke that chokes 10 million people in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and elsewhere will no doubt contribute to changing attitudes, and it might even shift the media’s coverage of climate change, but there’s no guarantee that it will be the policy turning point we need.

– ref. Might the bushfire crisis be the turning point on climate politics Australian needs? – http://theconversation.com/might-the-bushfire-crisis-be-the-turning-point-on-climate-politics-australian-needs-129442

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland

The announcement by BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager, that it will dump more than half a billion dollars in thermal coal shares from all of its actively managed portfolios, might not seem like big news.

Announcements of this kind have come out steadily over the past couple of years.

Virtually all the major Australian and European banks and insurers, and many other global institutions, have already announced such policies.

According to the Unfriend Coal Campaign, insurance companies have stopped covering roughly US$8.9 trillion of coal investments – more than one-third (37%) of the coal industry’s global assets, and stopped offering reinsurance to 46% of them.

Blackrock matters because it is big

The announcement matters, in part because of Blackrock’s sheer size.

It is the world’s largest investor, with a total of $US7 trillion in funds under its control. Its announcement it will “put climate change at the center of its investment strategy” raises questions about the soundness of smaller financial institutions that remain committed to coal and to a carbon-based economy.

Blackrock is also important because its primary business is index funds, that are meant to replicate entire markets.

So far these funds are not affected by the divestment policy. BlackRock’s iShares United States S&P 500 Index fund, for instance, has nearly US$23 billion in assets, including as much as US$1 billion in energy investments.

But the contradiction between the company’s new activist stance and the passive replication of an energy-heavy index such as Australia’s is obvious. The pressure to find a solution will grow.

In time, the entire share market will be affected

One solution might be for large mining companies such as BHP to dump their coal assets in order to remain part of both Blackrock’s actively managed (stock picking) and passively managed (all stocks) portfolios.

Another might be the development of index funds from which firms reliant on fossil fuels are excluded. It is even possible that the compilers of stock market indexes will themselves exclude these firms.

The announcement has big implications for the Australian government.

Read more: Fossil fuel campaigners win support from unexpected places

Blackrock chief executive Laurence Fink noted that climate change has become the top issue raised by clients. He said it would soon affect all all investments – everything from municipal bonds to mortgages for homes.

Once investors start assessing government bonds in terms of climate change, Australia’s government will be in serious trouble.

Australia’s AAA rating will be at risk

The bushfire catastrophe and the government’s inadequate response have shown the world Australia is both among the countries most exposed to climate catastrophe and one of the worst in terms of contributions to solutions.

Once bond investors follow the lead of Blackrock and other financial institutions, divestment of Australian government bonds will follow.

This process has already started, with the decision of Sweden’s central bank to unload its holdings of Australian government bonds.

Taken in isolation, Sweden’s move had virtually no effect on Australia’s bond prices and yields. But the most striking feature of the divestment movement so far is the speed with which it has grown from symbolic gestures to a severe constraint on funding for the firms it touches.

Read more: Climate change: why Sweden’s central bank dumped Australian bonds

The fact that the Adani corporation was unable to find a single bank willing to fund its Carmichael mine is an indication of the pressure that will come to bear.

The effects might be felt before large-scale divestment takes place. Ratings agencies such as Moody’s and Standard and Poors are supposed to anticipate risks to bondholders before they materialise.

It’ll make inaction expensive

Once there is a serious threat of large-scale divestment in Australian bonds, the agencies will be obliged to take this into account in setting Ausralia’s credit rating. The much-prized AAA rating is likely to be an early casualty.

That would mean higher interest rates for Australian government bonds which would flow through the entire economy, including the home mortgage rates mentioned in the Blackrock statement.

The government’s case for doing nothing about climate change (other than cashing in on past efforts) has been premised on the “economy-wrecking” costs of serious action.

But as investments associated with coal are increasingly seen as toxic, we run an increasing risk that inaction will cause greater damage.

– ref. BlackRock is the canary in the coalmine. Its decision to dump coal signals what’s next – http://theconversation.com/blackrock-is-the-canary-in-the-coalmine-its-decision-to-dump-coal-signals-whats-next-129972

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lydia Edwards, Fashion historian, Edith Cowan University

Human beings have a surprisingly long relationship with the concept of swimwear. After all, the first heated swimming pool is believed to have been built by Gaius Maecenas of Rome in the 1st century BC.

Before the early 1800s, it was relatively common to swim either nude or simply in your underwear. When communal swimming baths became more popular and prevalent in the mid-19th century, decorum demanded men and women cover their modesty with garments made specially for the purpose. Women covered up with cotton or wool bathing dresses, drawers, and sometimes even stockings.

While seeming ungainly today, these impractical garments must have been liberating for women used to corsets and long, hampering skirts worn over multiple petticoats. By their very nature these “swimming suits” also threatened entrenched ideas around feminine activity (or lack thereof), perhaps suggesting women who swam energetically could no longer be considered “the weaker sex”.

Nonetheless, modesty presided above all else during this period, and it wasn’t until women began to swim competitively that change began.

A scandalous arrest

Water, particularly the beach, has been described by fashion scholars Harold Koda and Richard Martin as the “great proscenium of twentieth-century dress” – a statement that encourages us to rethink the importance of swimwear in our everyday dress and lifestyles.

In 1907, Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman was arrested on Revere Beach, Massachusetts, for wearing a one-piece bathing suit in public. This garment was a sporting necessity, and fellow athletes successfully championed a skirtless, sleeveless one-piece for the 1912 Olympics.

Kellerman’s incredible figure was admired as much as her actions were berated, and she was known to strip down to her bathing costume in all-female public lectures, proving a healthy lifestyle (rather than a corset) was to thank for her silhouette.

“If more girls would swim and dance and care for athletics”, she commented in 1910, “instead of rushing into matrimony as the only joy in the world, there’d be fewer divorces”.

The new one-piece contributed hugely to what has been described as the “erotic theatre” of the pool edge: swimwear is an item of both form and function, and so the pool or sea is an acceptable space to bare all.

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie

The introduction of elastic yarn in the 1930s created a fabric that clung to the body and enabled risqué designs.

The influence of the Hollywood starlet, lying immaculate (and dry) by a sparkling pool sowed the seed swimwear need have nothing to do with exercise. It could instead suggest leisure and luxury: the embodiment of a society now used to annual holidays.

The 1940s introduced what we now recognise as the bikini, and the 50s saw iconic portrayals of swimsuits worn by the likes of Esther Williams and Marilyn Monroe.

The swinging 60s opened with Brian Hyland’s Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, and further promotion through the Bond franchise firmly cemented the bikini’s erotic prowess.

Soon, swimwear’s eroticism was being used by some to promote ideals of gender equality and acceptance.

In 1964, Austrian-American designer Rudi Gernreich introduced his notorious “Monokini”, a bathing suit featuring two skinny straps just grazing the breasts.

Gernreich hoped the suit would challenge existing prudishness and shame around the nude female body. His plan backfired. From its birth, the press described the monokini as controversial – and, although it sold well, it never became conventional swimwear.

The 1970s and 80s welcomed fashionable suits and bikinis with less internal structuring, fitting the silhouette of the decade. Fashionable first and practical second, they could still withstand a certain amount of sun, sand and chlorine.

A protest symbol

Swimming, fashion, and baring all are not mutually exclusive.

“Rashies” or “rash guards” (so-called because they protect the wearer from rashes and sunburn), are long-sleeved waterproof shirts that first originated as surfwear. In countries like Australia with prominent beach culture and harsh weather the garment has grown in popularity.

In 2004, Australian designer Aheda Zanetti, inspired by the increasing presence of Muslim women in Australian sports (especially swimming), created the “burkini”. Acting as a kind of lightweight wetsuit, the garment covers the entire body and comes in a variety of styles and colours.

The style came under intense scrutiny in 2016 when several French municipalities banned the burkini in line with the country’s secular laws (it had banned the wearing of a burqa and niqab three years earlier).

It doesn’t seem to matter whether women’s swimsuits bare-all or cover-all: those wearing them will still be judged. But much as the shift from bulky dresses to lean one-pieces opened up new opportunities for women in the water, this latest suit also makes the beach lifestyle more accessible, with wearers remaining both cool and UV-protected.

With our “house on fire”, as Thunberg eloquently put it, we may be seeing more swimsuit innovation heading our way as a matter of necessity.

– ref. The erotic theatre of the pool edge: a short history of female swimwear – http://theconversation.com/the-erotic-theatre-of-the-pool-edge-a-short-history-of-female-swimwear-127902

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cherine Fahd, Director Photography, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney

Review: Lady Tabouli, directed by Dino Dimitriadis, National Theatre of Parramatta for Sydney Festival

In Australia in 2020, it’s hard to think homosexuality is still viewed as a sin and a lifestyle choice, but it is. With marriage equality and visibility and activism of the LGBTQI community, especially in inner city Sydney where I live, some claim homosexuality is no longer taboo.

But being part of the Lebanese community, I also know this is far from reality.

Lady Tabouli is a powerful dramatic comedy, written by James Elazzi, confronting the taboo of male homosexuality in the Lebanese Maronite community in Australia.

After breaking off his engagement, Danny (Antony Makhlouf) comes out to his family against the backdrop of a momentous family event – the christening of Danny’s 8-month-old nephew.

A story of tradition

The pressure cooker of the christening exposes desires familiar to migrant families. Danny’s sister Josephine (Nisrine Amine) and his mother Dana (Deborah Galanos) care only for the family’s reputation, keeping busy with beauty regimes, food preparation and housework. They are desperate to appear respectable and devout.

In traditional Lebanese families, boys are revered as kings carrying forth the family name. When Danny comes out, his family want only to deny it.

They suggest it’s just a phase, an illness, a disease, a sin – and a choice he can reverse.

I recall travelling to Lebanon in 1999 and having a conversation with my devout Christian cousin about the fantastic gay bars I had been to in Beirut. She quickly denied my story saying “there are no gay bars in Beirut.”

“We don’t have gays in Lebanon,” she said. Uncomfortably, I laughed. If there were no gays in Lebanon, then who had I been partying with for the last three months?

Denial of homosexuality is also common in the Australian Lebanese community. Homosexuality is difficult to accept in light of traditional family values and religious conservatism. If it does exist it is hidden as a shameful family secret.

“We weren’t brought up like this!” Danny’s sister shouts.

“I will never accept this choice!” his mother screams.

His uncle declares: “Dana will never accept her son is a fucking poofter.”

As Lady Tabouli makes explicit: the worst that can happen to a mother is finding out her son is a poofter.

The heart of the family

When reading the press blurb, I thought: here is another cliche story about growing up Lebanese in Australia. Initially, the performance tracked along predictable lines, with in-jokes that Lebanese Australians laughed knowingly at.

Set in the heart of the family home – the kitchen – Jonathan Hindmarsh’s design clutters the stage with all the accoutrements of Lebanese-Maronite family life: the olive oil pourer, the water jug brik, a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Director Dino Dimitriadis captures the intricacies of this family life. While the mother blesses the house with incense and holy water, the adult kids eat tabouli for breakfast. Everyone yells over each other, and the routine yallah is proclaimed at the end of each statement.

As the play progresses, nuanced details emerge. Social codes and familial obligation begin to erupt. The performance of gender, sexuality and devotion to God have rules and each member of the family (and the Arabic audience) knows implicitly what they are.

And still, Danny feels the need to be authentic and reveal his sexuality. It is a story that will be familiar to many. Lady Tabouli has received support from the Arabic queer community, visualising the suffering queer Arabs experience in what are otherwise the most loving of families.

There is a universal story here which reaches beyond the Lebanese community to talk to all experiences of the personal, intimate, and familial.

Lebanese families pride themselves on loyalty and togetherness. Our overt expressions of affection and love characterise us as a community with strong familial attachment. With so much love, it is difficult to imagine rejection. It is this paradox Danny and his family contend with. The pain that comes with not being accepted for who you are by the people you love the most and who love you the most.

Lady Tabouli is hard. It made me laugh to see myself and my family mirrored in the gestures and anecdotes, but it also made me angry.

This is a play about suffocating expectations. About the ways we love each other. But also the ways we expect each other to play by the rules. The rules are unwritten but are known. They are the rules of God, of the church, of the village, the community and the gossips.

But brave Danny doesn’t care. Or rather: he cares too much for himself and future generations.

We know secrets can be dangerous and hiding sexuality leads to increased rates of depression, anxiety and suicide. In Lady Tabouli, the problem is not Danny and his coming out. The problem is the family, the community and their denial and inability to accept and understand their son’s sexuality is in fact not his death – but his becoming.

Lady Tabouli runs until January 18

– ref. Lady Tabouli review: a hilarious comedy about suffocating expectations – http://theconversation.com/lady-tabouli-review-a-hilarious-comedy-about-suffocating-expectations-129692

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Senior Lecturer Sport Management, Western Sydney University

When Formula 1 announced late last year that the sport would be carbon neutral by 2030, the organisation’s chief technical officer spoke of the transition to a lower carbon world:

F1 could play a huge role in this transition. It has continually proven its ability to advance technology readiness levels from experimental to production and must do so again. It also has the profile to engage the public in these technologies. The difference this time is that it doesn’t have an option. Failure to reduce CO₂ emissions will leave the sport as a pariah with no place in modern society.

F1 has promised a move to “credible offsets and breakthrough CO₂ sequestration programs”. When asked what that would entail, a spokesman for F1 told The Conversation:

We will be looking at tree planting, which is a highly effective biological way of capturing carbon from the atmosphere. We will also be working with our incredible scientists and engineers in the sport to develop breakthrough carbon sequestration innovations that are applicable not just to F1 but to the wider world. This could include technology around carbon sinkholes and materials that extract carbon from the atmosphere […]

We will ensure we have ultra-efficient logistics and travel and 100% renewably powered offices, facilities and factories, improve the sustainability of race events, targeting 100% reused, recycled or composted waste by 2025 and move to 100% Second Generation Advanced Sustainable Fuels in F1 cars by 2030.

We should welcome any effort to address climate change. But promises to “look at” tree-planting and develop innovations speak to a persistent lack of clear detail in the how, what and where.

Read more: Global emissions to hit 36.8 billion tonnes, beating last year’s record high

Formula 1’s contribution in the past – and future

Much of the fuel-efficient technology developed for F1 is passed down into everyday car production, contributing to cleaner vehicles that can run for longer on less. With over a billion cars on the road globally, that’s a really positive contribution.

Even supermarkets have benefited, reducing their refrigeration energy costs through tech originally developed for F1 cars. Sensor and data tools initially designed for F1 cars are also transforming public transport systems.

But despite goals to “move to F1 cars running on 100% advanced sustainable fuel” the fact remains that the F1 is committed to the internal combustion engine, a major contributor to emissions.

Read more: Formula One motor firms are becoming textbook cases in how to successfully branch into other sectors

It’s not just the car emissions

According to its own assessment, Formula 1 emits about 256,000 tonnes of CO₂e in a race season.

Readers can see a pie-chart showing the breakdown of emissions sources for F1 here. You may be surprised to learn that the biggest contributor to F1’s carbon footprint is not the cars themselves.

“Power unit emissions” – meaning “all emissions associated with the fuel usage of the power units across all ten teams, at all 21 Grands Prix, and at pre-, mid- or post-season testing” comes to just 0.7% of its annual emissions.

Excluding power emissions, just 7.3% of its emissions are attributable to the operations of events (including broadcasting, support races, circuit energy use, generator use, and operation of a hospitality package known as Paddock Club).

In fact, international travel and logistics required to put on the race comprise 72.7% of the total F1 series carbon footprint.

Achieving net zero emission within an international Grand Prix structure that will host a record 22 races in 2020 and involve at least ten teams is a significant challenge.

The F1 says it will move to “ultra-efficient logistics and travel and 100% renewably powered offices, facilities and factories”.

And then there’s the promised move to “credible offsets and breakthrough CO₂ sequestration programs”.

Critics of this approach suggest that offsets – such as tree planting – are little more than a band aid since they fail to create real change.

Sport and climate action

There is growing awareness among fans, sponsors and athletes about the carbon footprint of their sport. Lewis Hamilton, six-time F1 world champion champion, received both applause and criticism when he announced plans to personally become carbon neutral by the end of 2019.

As younger fans shift to the Formula E format which promotes electric vehicles, and revenue falls, F1 must be feeling the pressure to keep up.

It’s good F1 is contributing to a broader conversation about ways international sporting competitions can seek to reduce the negative environmental impact they have. It is likely the move will also result in technology that will have a positive effect outside the sport.

However, fans, sponsors, journalists and other F1 observers must demand greater detail on how the sport plans to achieve its ambitious goal by 2030.

– ref. Formula 1 says it’s going carbon neutral but fans must demand greater detail on how – http://theconversation.com/formula-1-says-its-going-carbon-neutral-but-fans-must-demand-greater-detail-on-how-127328

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Schmid, Associate Professor, Queensland University of Technology

As we continue to contend with smoke haze in various parts of the country, many Australians may find themselves with watery, burning, irritated or red eyes.

Data from countries with consistently poor air quality suggest there could also be a risk of longer term effects to our eyes, particularly with prolonged exposure to bushfire smoke.

Although P2/N95 masks can protect us from inhaling harmful particles, unfortunately they can’t protect our eyes.

But there are certain things you can do to minimise irritation and the risk of any longer term effects.

Read more: We know bushfire smoke affects our health, but the long-term consequences are hazy

Irritation in the short term

The eye’s surface is continuously exposed to the environment, except when our eyes are shut when we sleep.

Bushfire smoke contains dust, fumes (such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides), and tiny particles called PM10 and PM2.5.

When the smoke comes into contact with our eyes, the fumes and small particles dissolve into our tears and coat the eye’s surface. In some people, this can trigger inflammation, and therefore irritation.

Read more: Bushfire smoke is everywhere in our cities. Here’s exactly what you are inhaling

The presence of a marker called matrix metalloproteinase-9, or MMP-9, indicates the eye is inflamed.

During periods of poor air quality from bushfires in the United States, MMP-9 was present in the eyes of more people than it ordinarily would be.

Longer term risks

We know very little about how pollution from bushfire smoke might affect our eyes over the longer term, or what damage repeated or chronic exposure might do.

But we do know people who live in areas with high levels of air pollution, such as China, are three to four times more likely to develop dry eye.

Dry eye is a condition where a person doesn’t have enough tears or they are of such poor quality they don’t lubricate and nourish the eye. We need high quality tears to maintain the health of the front surface of the eye and provide clear vision.

For people who already have dry eyes – often older people – poor air quality may increase the damage. The smoke and pollution may cause intense stinging and a feeling of grittiness to the point they can barely open their eyes.

While dry eye is a result of damage to the surface of the eyes, it’s also possible pollutants entering the blood stream after we breathe them in could affect the blood supply to the eye. This in turn could damage the fine vessels within the eye itself.

Research has suggested high levels of air pollution in Taiwan may increase the risk of age-related macular degeneration, which could be an example of this.

We need more research into the long-term effects on our eyes of prolonged poor air quality, particularly from bushfire smoke. But what we do know suggests it’s possible bushfire smoke could be causing subtle damage to the eyes, even in people without any symptoms.

Read more: Even for an air pollution historian like me, these past weeks have been a shock

What can you do to protect your eyes from the smoke?

• the best option is to avoid going outside when air quality is at is worst, where possible
• wearing sunglasses or glasses when outside if you need them might stop some of the dust carried in the wind from contacting the eye’s surface (but it won’t stop the tiny particles getting in)
• avoid wearing contact lenses if possible.

Some tips if your eyes are irritated

• flush your eyes as often as you can, with over-the-counter lubricant eye drops if you have some on hand. If not, use sterile saline solution or clean bottled water
• if your eyes are itchy, flush them and then place a cool face washer over your closed lids
• don’t rub your eyes, as this could make the irritation worse.

If your eyes are red and sore and these steps don’t help, it’s best to see an eye care professional.

Read more: From face masks to air purifiers: what actually works to protect us from bushfire smoke?

– ref. Bushfire smoke is bad for your eyes, too. Here’s how you can protect them – http://theconversation.com/bushfire-smoke-is-bad-for-your-eyes-too-heres-how-you-can-protect-them-129898

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Jenkins, Professor, Respiratory Medicine, UNSW Sydney and Uni of Sydney; Head, Respiratory Group, The George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney

As bushfire smoke continues to pollute the air of large parts of Australia’s eastern states, some people have experienced throat irritation, coughing and breathing difficulties.

Health authorities have also warned more severe symptoms such as chest tightness and wheezing may emerge in people who have underlying asthma and in people who haven’t yet been diagnosed.

Wheezing is a high-pitched whistling sound when you breathe, caused by muscle spasm or inflammation in narrowed airways.

Read more: Bushfire smoke is everywhere in our cities. Here’s exactly what you are inhaling

Normal response to bushfire smoke

Respiratory symptoms can occur in otherwise healthy people in response to bushfire air pollution. This is due to large and small particulates in fire smoke irritating the the thin lining of the respiratory tract, called the mucous membrane.

These particles tend to cause increased secretions, inflammation and irritation of the eyes nose and throat, even in people who have no history of lung disease.

Why it’s important to know your asthma profile

Asthma is an inflammatory disease which causes narrowing of the airways. Symptoms and flare-ups or attacks can occur after exposure to a wide range of triggers.

If the airway inflammation isn’t treated, it can progress to more significant and permanent airway narrowing that results in persistent breathlessness and loss of lung function.

If you have asthma, it’s most important to know the severity, how to control it, and how to identify and promptly treat an attack.

What might signal undiagnosed asthma?

People with asthma can experience severe attacks or flare-ups when exposed to bushfire smoke, or persistent respiratory symptoms that don’t settle promptly after their smoke exposure ends.

Symptoms that suggest the possibility of asthma include chest tightness and wheezing in response to exposure to irritants such as smoke, dusts, aerosol sprays and fumes, or in response to allergic triggers such as pollens, cat and dog fur, house dust, and mouldy atmospheres.

Asthma can also manifest as a cough.

Many people with asthma have a history of hayfever, often provoked by pollens, house dust, cat and dog fur, and moulds.

Read more: What’s the link between hay fever and asthma, and how are they treated?

People with a family history of asthma are at greater risk of developing the disease, as are those with a history of wheezing illness in childhood caused by viral respiratory infections. In fact, viruses that cause the common cold are frequent triggers of asthma attacks.

Some people with asthma may experience symptoms predominantly when they exercise. In such cases, chest tightness and wheezing typically occurs while exercising but often intensifies over a few minutes after stopping.

What to do if you’re unsure

If you experience symptoms of asthma from the bushfire smoke, see your GP.

To assess whether you have asthma, your doctor will undertake a breathing assessment called called a spirometry test. This requires you to blow into a mouthpiece to assess how much air you can blow out and how quickly you can expel the air.

The doctor will also determine whether there is airway narrowing which improves after taking a bronchodilator – a reliever medication such as Ventolin.

It’s not OK to just take asthma medicines, gain some benefit and conclude you have the condition. Many respiratory symptoms can easily be mistaken for asthma, particularly when they occur in association with viral respiratory infection.

How is asthma treated?

Many people believe their asthma is being treated if they use their blue reliever inhaler as needed.

But relievers don’t address the underlying airway inflammation, even though they relieve the symptoms. They should never be used as a daily medication for asthma.

Asthma treatment requires an anti-inflammatory medication, usually an inhaled corticosteroid taken regularly. These medications control the underlying inflammatory process and prevent symptoms and attacks.

Anti-inflammatory treatments are effective in maintaining asthma control day by day so that even with smoke and air pollution exposure, symptoms and attacks are less likely to occur.

Read more: We know bushfire smoke affects our health, but the long-term consequences are hazy

People with asthma should have a written action plan which identifies symptoms that typically occur during asthma flare-ups and enables patients to increase their medications appropriately.

Finally, because asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition it requires monitoring and regular review. In these reviews, your doctor will check your lung function and ensure you’re taking the right medication and that your action plan is up to date.

– ref. I’m struggling to breathe with all the bushfire smoke – could I have undiagnosed asthma? – http://theconversation.com/im-struggling-to-breathe-with-all-the-bushfire-smoke-could-i-have-undiagnosed-asthma-129903

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael J. I. Brown, Associate professor in astronomy, Monash University

“He [God] does not play dice”, quipped Albert Einstein, but for mortals chance is part of life. We cannot experience, measure and predict with absolute certainty. We may win a prize in a Christmas raffle. There’s also a small but real chance of being struck by lightning.

Statistics enables understanding of numerical data, including probabilities. But it is also a subject worthy of university degrees and entire careers. Statistics can be complex, and it can be ignored and misunderstood.

But a simple dice can provide a gateway to basic statistics. And not just your chance of rolling two sixes. A dice can tell you about opinion polls, risk, wages and even starlight.

Roll a dice

You’re probably familiar with a six-sided dice – a cube with sides numbered from one to six. The chance of rolling each number is one in six, or 16.67%. Conversely, the chance of not rolling a six is five in six, or 83.33%. In other words, you could roll a six but more often you won’t. Easy? Perhaps not.

Back in 2016, American statistician Nate Silver, famed for his election forecasts, gave Donald Trump a 28.6% chance of victory. Obviously his prediction strongly favoured Hillary Clinton, but didn’t rule out Trump. In fact, the odds of a Trump win were better than the odds of rolling a six.

If you had to lay money on rolling a six, you would perhaps bet against it but not be unduly surprised if you lost. And yet many people believe Trump’s victory proved Nate Silver “wrong”.

Our appreciation of odds can also be distorted when risk is involved. So-called “lukewarmers” acknowledge climate change is real, but consistently favour the minority of projections that result in least warming and smallest costs. Hoping for the best is understandable, but should you bet serious money on rolling a six? Again, no.

Simple statistics can confound. We can be handed the numbers, but gut feeling may distort our appreciation of them. We don’t see the dice in our hand.

Read more: The seven deadly sins of statistical misinterpretation, and how to avoid them

Averages, midpoints and wages

If we roll a dice many times over, we know we aren’t going to roll a six every time.

The average value of a dice is 3.5 (21 spots divided by 6 sides). This value is also the “midpoint”; we would expect half the rolls to be below it, and half the rolls to be above it.

While the average and midpoint are often similar, they don’t have to be. Get a marker pen and replace the number 6 with 12. Now the average value of rolls with this dice is 4.5.

But what about the midpoint for our vandalised dice? It hasn’t budged from 3.5 – half the rolls are below 3.5 and half are above it. These differences turn up elsewhere, and they can absolutely matter.

Lets look at the weekly earnings of full-time Australian employees. In 2018 the midpoint was A$1,500, while the average was A$1,730. Ten per cent of employees earned A$925 or less, whereas 10% earned A$2,771 or more. You can boost the earnings of some employees and move the average, while the earnings for most employees and the midpoint remain unchanged.

So is an average actually useful? Absolutely, but it doesn’t give a full picture. Average earnings may grow, but not everyone may share that growth.

Noise and light

With a good six-sided dice I can determine the average and midpoint trivially with a calculator. But what if I wasn’t absolutely sure the dice was fair? How many rolls would it take to check?

I can try to measure the average by rolling the dice many times and seeing how it compares with the expected value of 3.5. I rolled a dice 24 times and initially measured an average value of 3.79. I then repeated the experiment and got averages of 3.62, 3.13, 3.59, 3.75, and 3.25.

In this instance I had a perfectly good dice, but my measurements of the average are noisy. When I roll a dice 24 times, I don’t get four of each number every time. Sometimes I roll a few more sixes, other times a few less. It is just the nature of chance.

This type of noise can turn up in all sorts of places. For example, when I observe distant galaxies there may be a 1% chance of detecting a light particle in a given millisecond. If I take a series of ten-second exposures, I may detect 110 light particles in the first exposure, then 92 in the next, then 108, and then 112.

These fluctuations are not the result of defects in my equipment or interference from our atmosphere – this noise is inherent to measuring light from stars and galaxies. Such noise is inherent to many scientific endeavours. Indeed, noise not behaving as expected (or being absent) is a great way of detecting research fraud.

Read more: Election explainer: what are the opinion polls and how accurate are they?

Polls and herds

Political opinion polls should also show noise. If two political parties each have 50% of the vote, and we poll 1,800 people, there is a 40% chance we will measure one of the parties as having 51% (or more) of the vote. In other words, polls of 1,800 people should randomly fluctuate by roughly 1%.

In the runup to the 2019 Australian federal election, these random fluctuations did not happen. Election analyst Kevin Bonham and Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt both noticed that opinion polls were not showing the expected noise. Instead, their results were strangely close to each other – a phenomenon called “herding”.

Somehow, the polling was being tweaked to remove fluctuations that are intrinsic to the data, and this can introduce very serious errors. In the end the opinion polls predicted a Labor victory, but it was the Coalition that won .

Unfortunately, Australian media and politics has a reputation for being poll-obsessed. A half-percent shift in polls is interpreted as meaningful rather than just meaningless noise.

If such noise is being interpreted as the result of performance or policy, how Australia is governed may be compromised by statistical naivety. We may crave absolute certainty, but sometimes things really do just hinge on chance.

– ref. From election upsets to climate chaos, rolling the dice helps us appreciate the odds – http://theconversation.com/from-election-upsets-to-climate-chaos-rolling-the-dice-helps-us-appreciate-the-odds-124996

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By George Newhouse, Adjunct Professor of Law, Macquarie University

This summer’s bushfire apocalypse has caused many Australians to express their fury at a federal government they feel is either in denial about the impact of climate change or failing to address it sufficiently.

To many, the fact the Morrison government did not act on warnings from former firefighting chiefs or take meaningful action to implement a natural disaster plan is further evidence of a broken political system and a political elite that isn’t listening.

When you consider the full impact of the bushfires, it is no wonder there are now calls for a class action lawsuit to hold our government accountable for these failures and its inaction on climate change.

I’ve brought several class action suits against the government on issues such as asylum seekers and breaches of privacy. Though climate change class actions might be possible elsewhere in the world, here in Australia, there are many obstacles to success.

Legal precedent for climate change suit

Many environmental activists have been emboldened by a significant legal victory by the Dutch environmental group, Urgenda Foundation. For seven years, the Urgenda Foundation has been fighting the Dutch government to force it to reduce Holland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by the end of 2020.

In December, the Dutch Supreme Court upheld the finding of the Hague Court of Appeals that the government is obligated by the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights to take

suitable measures if a real and immediate risk to people’s lives or welfare exists and the state is aware of that risk.

The ruling further stated

the obligation to take suitable measures also applies when it comes to environmental hazards that threaten large groups or the population as a whole, even if the hazards will only materialise over the long term.

The case marked the first time a government has been required by the courts to take action against climate change.

Urgenda’s success has led to similar legal strategies in a host of countries, including Canada, France, Germany, India, New Zealand, the UK and the US. Australia, however, is missing from the list.

Read more: Some say we’ve seen bushfires worse than this before. But they’re ignoring a few key facts

The reason is that a climate change class action is unlikely to succeed here because we do not have the equivalent of the European Convention on Human Rights incorporated into our legal system.

Without a bill of rights or other laws that mandate precautionary measures to mitigate climate change, it is unimaginable that an Australian judge would make a ruling requiring our government to take measures to reduce carbon emissions.

Class action suits against companies

Nevertheless, our courts still have a role to play in cases related to natural disasters, particularly when the cause of damages is clearly identifiable.

There have been successful class action suits against businesses that were found to be responsible for igniting bushfires.

For instance, survivors of the devastating 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria received a payout of A$500 million from the power company SP AusNet after the courts ruled the fires were caused by poorly maintained powerlines. It was the largest settlement in Australian legal history.

In the current bushfire crisis, however, there is no faulty powerline to point to as the cause of the destruction. And when it comes to suing the government for failing to take steps to prevent a bushfire, things get much trickier.

What is required to sue the state

For starters, it is doubtful the federal government would ever be held responsible for the current crisis because the states and territories are responsible under Australian law for bushfire fighting and land management.

Our courts are also reluctant to impose a duty or liability on any government regarding its policy-making functions – including how to prepare for a fire season. The courts have likewise been reluctant to mandate how a government allocates resources and how they make day-to-day fire management decisions.

As a result, claimants in bushfire cases have had to argue the government owed them a common law duty of care. And this can only be determined through a complex evaluation of the relationship between the person who is harmed and the state.

Read more: Australian building codes don’t expect houses to be fire-proof – and that’s by design

When our courts have considered claims arising from bushfires in the past, they have tended to put limits on the ability of individuals to take action against the state.

For example, when the Mount Stromlo Observatory was destroyed in the 2003 Canberra bushfires, one of the affected parties, Electro Optic Systems Pty Ltd, sued the state of NSW.

The case alleged the state’s Rural Fire Service and National Parks and Wildlife Service owed a duty of care to the plaintiffs and that its fire-fighting strategy was flawed. As a result, the state should be held responsible for any losses.

Because the direct cause of the fire was a lightning strike, the ACT Court of Appeal found the state did not owe a duty of care to property owners to prevent harm caused by the spread of the bushfire.

Why legal action is important, even if it fails

One final question remains: are our courts really the best place to address political inaction on climate change?

Court proceedings are slow and expensive. They will take years to reach finality, as the Urgenda case shows. And the climate crisis requires urgent action both locally and internationally.

Read more: We know bushfire smoke affects our health, but the long-term consequences are hazy

But despite the fact a successful class action along the lines of Urgenda is doubtful in Australia, there are some who may go forward with a case.

Many advocates believe that arguing for a reduction of CO₂ emissions in court would provide a compelling, fact-based case they could use to demand change from the government. And this process might give those who are concerned about our planet some hope in dark times.

– ref. I’ve won cases against the government before. Here’s why I doubt a climate change class action would succeed – http://theconversation.com/ive-won-cases-against-the-government-before-heres-why-i-doubt-a-climate-change-class-action-would-succeed-129707

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Charlson, Conjoint NHMRC Early Career Fellow, The University of Queensland

You’re scrolling through your phone and transfixed by yet more images of streets reduced to burnt debris, injured wildlife, and maps showing the scale of the fires continuing to burn. On the television in the background, a woman who has lost her home breaks down, while news of another life lost flashes across the screen.

You can’t bear to watch anymore, but at the same time, you can’t tear yourself away. Sound familiar?

We’ve now been confronted with these tragic images and stories for months. Even if you haven’t been directly affected by the bushfires, it’s completely normal to feel sad, helpless, and even anxious.

Beyond despairing about the devastation so many Australians are facing, some of these emotions are likely to be symptoms of “eco-anxiety”.

Read more: The rise of ‘eco-anxiety’: climate change affects our mental health, too

If you’re feeling down, you’re not alone

Research on previous bushfire disasters shows people directly affected are more likely to suffer mental health consequences than those who have not been directly affected.

After Black Saturday, about one in five people living in highly affected communities experienced persistent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression or psychological distress.

Recognising this as a critical issue, the Australian government has announced funding to deliver mental health support to affected people and communities.

But living in an unaffected area doesn’t mean you’re immune. In addition to contending with rolling images and stories of devastation, we’ve seen flow-on effects of the bushfires reach far beyond affected areas.

For example, schools and workplaces have been closed, people have been forced to cancel their summer holidays, and sports matches and community events have been called off. This disruption to normal activities can result in uncertainty and distress, particularly for children and young people.

What is eco-anxiety?

Distress around the current fires may be compounded by – and intertwined with – a pervasive sense of fear and anxiety in relation to climate change-related events.

The American Psychological Association defines eco-anxiety as “a chronic fear of environmental doom”.

While concern and anxiety around climate change are normal, eco-anxiety describes a state of being overwhelmed by the sheer scale, complexity and seriousness of the problems we’re facing. It can be accompanied by guilt for personal contributions to the problem.

Read more: Rising eco-anxiety means we should address mental health alongside food security

The Australian bushfires may have signalled a “tipping point” for many people who held a passive attitude towards climate change, and even many who have held a more active view of climate denialism. In the face of current circumstances, the crisis of climate change now becomes almost impossible to ignore.

While eco-anxiety is not a diagnosable mental disorder, it can have significant impacts on a person’s well-being.

Whether you think you’re suffering from eco-anxiety or more general stress and depression about the bushfires, here are some things you can do.

We’re pretty resilient, but support helps

We’re now living with the environmental consequences of a changing climate, and this requires people to adapt. Fortunately, most of us are innately resilient and are able to overcome stress and losses and to live with uncertainty.

We can enhance this resilience by connecting with friends and family and positively engaging in our communities. Making healthy choices around things like diet, exercise and sleep can also help.

Further, supporting those who are vulnerable has benefits for both the person giving and receiving assistance. For example, parents have a critical role in listening to their children’s concerns and providing appropriate guidance.

Read more: Babies and toddlers might not know there’s a fire but disasters still take their toll

Become part of the solution

Seeking to reduce your own carbon footprint can help alleviate feelings of guilt and helplessness – in addition to the positive difference these small actions make to the environment.

This might include walking, cycling and taking public transport to get around, and making sustainability a factor in day-to-day decisions like what you buy and what you eat.

Joining one of the many groups advocating for the environment also provides a voice for people concerned about the changing climate.

Finally, there are many ways you can provide assistance to bushfire relief efforts. The generosity shown by Australians and others internationally has provided a sense of hope at a time when many are facing enormous hardship.

Seeking professional help

Some people, particularly those living with unrelated psychological distress, will find it harder to adapt to increased stress. Where their emotional resources are already depleted, it becomes more difficult to accommodate change.

Although we don’t yet have research on this, it’s likely people with pre-existing mental health problems will be more vulnerable to eco-anxiety.

If this is you, it’s worthwhile seeking professional help if you feel your mental health is deteriorating at this time.

Read more: How to donate to Australian bushfire relief: give money, watch for scams and think long term

Whether or not you have a pre-existing mental health disorder, if you’re feeling depressed or anxious to a degree it’s affecting your work, education or social functioning, you should seek advice from a health professional.

Evidence-based psychological interventions like cognitive behavioural therapy reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, improving mental health and well-being.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

– ref. You’re not the only one feeling helpless. Eco-anxiety can reach far beyond bushfire communities – http://theconversation.com/youre-not-the-only-one-feeling-helpless-eco-anxiety-can-reach-far-beyond-bushfire-communities-129453

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel da Silva, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne

As bushfire smoke blankets large parts of Australia, it’s time to examine what this complex chemical mixture is made of, to better understand what it’s doing to both our bodies and the planet.

I research the chemical processes that create pollutants in flames, and what happens when they are released into the air we breathe.

Bushfires are not the only source of smoke we are exposed to in our everyday lives. We breathe smoke from cigarettes, wood-fired heaters, coal-fired power stations and vehicles.

But smoke stemming from the bushfires is accumulating over cities in concentrations rarely seen before in Australia, badly affecting cities including Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. This poses risks to public health and the environment. Read on to find out exactly what you’re breathing in.

It’s largely water

First, there is a lot of water in bushfire smoke. When fire rips through a forest it burns off the water held in the trees, sending rolling clouds of steam up into the atmosphere.

Water might seem harmless, but it actually enables bushfires to form their own weather. Water vapour condenses on smoke particles and forms huge pyrocumulonimbus clouds. We saw these storms in the current fire crisis. They can complicate firefighting efforts by producing wind and lightning strikes but unfortunately rarely bring rain.

Read more: Even for an air pollution historian like me, these past weeks have been a shock

These clouds also inject smoke high into the atmosphere from where it can circle the globe. We recently saw this when smoke from bushfires in Australia’s south-east drifted to New Zealand and then on to South America. Smoke lofted into the stratosphere influences the climate by blocking the movement of light and heat, and can even interfere with chemistry in the ozone layer.

The climate effect

Smoke also contains gases, most notably carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂). Carbon dioxide is the end-product of combustion and is the most significant contributor to man-made global warming.

Forests sequester massive amounts of carbon as wood and other organic matter and much of this is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide when burned.

Within about a year, these molecules could be anywhere in Earth’s atmosphere. CO₂ is so long-lived that many of these same molecules will remain circling the globe for hundreds of years.

Read more: We know bushfire smoke affects our health, but the long-term consequences are hazy

This bushfire season, more than 10 million hectares of land has already burned. Estimates based on satellite data put the subsequent CO₂ release at 400 million tonnes. This is close to Australia’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions of around 500 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.

Our planet’s climate emergency is already making Australia hotter and drier, with more frequent extreme weather events. The ensuing fires are in turn releasing carbon back into the atmosphere, forming a dangerous positive feedback loop.

The poisonous sibling

Whereas CO₂ presents a long-term threat to us all, its poisonous sibling carbon monoxide (CO) is a more immediate concern to those directly exposed to smoke. Carbon monoxide forms when combustion is interrupted on its way to make carbon dioxide.

At the high concentrations found in smoke, carbon monoxide can be deadly. It binds strongly to our haemoglobin – the molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body. At around 100 parts per million in air it can starve the human body of oxygen, asphyxiating its victims.

Carbon monoxide poisoning through smoke inhalation is a direct concern to firefighters and those sheltering from flames. Those fighting bushfires often work long shifts, sometimes over several weeks, with face masks that offer limited protection.

But that’s not all

In addition to these two gases, smoke contains trace levels of many other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). In a bushfire, these are produced through the burning of sulfur and nitrogen in plants.

(These gases are also produced through burning fossil fuels. Over eons, ancient trees fossilise into oil and coal but retain some sulfur and nitrogen).

Read more: In this new world of bushfire terror, I question whether I want to have kids

Both SO₂ and NO₂ irritate our respiratory system. Atmospheric SO₂ is also problematic because over time it gets converted in air into sulfuric acid, forming acid rain. NO₂, on the other hand, breaks down in sunlight causing harmful ground-level ozone to form.

We are still learning about other dangerous trace gases in smoke. For instance, in the last decade we have come to realise that highly toxic isocyanic acid from smoke can be present in urban air at concentrations approaching those which are known to impact our health. Unfortunately, little research is available for Australian conditions.

Don’t forget the tiny particles

The final component of smoke we need to consider are the solid particles, or particulate matter (PM). This is both soot that builds up during combustion, and ash that breaks down from the remnants of burnt fuel.

What we see following a bushfire are mostly the larger particles, which reduce visibility and settle on cars and buildings. But the most dangerous component to our health are microscopic particles around one millionth of a metre in size.

These particles can penetrate deep into our lungs and make their way into our bloodstream, potentially impacting almost every bodily system.

Moreover, because of their size they are more likely to stay aloft in air and be transported away from their source.

Particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres, known as PM2.5, settled on Canberra in recent weeks – a problem so severe on some days the city could lay claim to having the most polluted air in the world.

Be prepared

Bushfire smoke is a complex chemical mixture that can affect humans in many ways. As fires become increasingly common across our continent, we must become more familiar with what we are breathing in.

Australia’s unique vulnerability to climate change, as has been evident this bushfire season, means we should also lead the world in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

At the same time, Australians need to adapt. This means equipping our buildings with sensors and purifiers to respond to air pollution and educating the public on how to stay safe during an air quality emergency. It’s clear we must prepare for many smoke-filled summers to come.

Read more: Bushfires won’t change climate policy overnight. But Morrison can shift the Coalition without losing face

– ref. Bushfire smoke is everywhere in our cities. Here’s exactly what you are inhaling – http://theconversation.com/bushfire-smoke-is-everywhere-in-our-cities-heres-exactly-what-you-are-inhaling-129772

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Nimmo, Associate professor/ARC DECRA fellow, Charles Sturt University

If you’ve been following the bushfire crisis on social media and elsewhere, you may have seen reports of benevolent wombats herding other animals to shelter into their fire-proof burrows.

These stories went quickly viral – probably reflecting the appetite for good news after the horrors of the bushfire crisis. However the accounts are not entirely accurate.

Wombats do not heroically round up helpless animals during a bushfire and lead them to safety. But wombats do help other animals in a different way – even if it’s not their intention.

Accidental heroes

Wombats can emerge as accidental heroes during a bushfire, by providing a safe refuge underground for other wildlife.

Wombat warrens – networks of interconnecting burrows – are large and complex, and considerably shielded from the above-ground environment. Small mammals are known to use wombat burrows to survive an inferno.

One study of the southern hairy-nosed wombat, for instance, found warrens with 28 entrances and nearly 90 metres of tunnels.

What’s more, temperatures deep within burrows are very stable compared to surface temperatures, with daily temperature fluctuations of less than 1℃, compared to 24℃ on the surface.

This thermal buffering would help a great deal during intense fires, and you can understand why other species would want access to these safe havens.

The wombat sharehouse

By placing camera traps outside 34 wombat burrows, a 2015 study showed a surprising variety of animals using southern hairy-nosed wombat burrows. Researchers observed ten other species, six of which used them on multiple occasions.

Read more: You can leave water out for wildlife without attracting mosquitoes, if you take a few precautions

The intruders ranged from rock wallabies and bettongs to skinks and birds. Little penguins were recorded using burrows 27 times, while the black-footed rock wallaby was observed using wombat burrows more often than wombats – nearly 2,000 visits in eight weeks! They were even observed using the burrows to specifically avoid birds of prey.

But wombats aren’t alone in providing real estate for other species. Hopping mice, echidnas, sand swimming skinks, barking geckoes and numerous invertebrates were found using the warrens of bettongs and bilbies in arid Australia.

Anybody home?

It’s also important to recognise wombats don’t have “a burrow”. Rather, they have multiple burrows within their home range. In fact, a 2012 study tracked one wombat to 14 different burrows.

While wombats are often regarded as quite sedentary, another study found the average home range size of common wombats is 172 hectares.

Read more: A season in hell: bushfires push at least 20 threatened species closer to extinction

They spend a few nights sleeping in one burrow, before moving onto another.

Since each wombat has multiple burrows, many can be vacant within a home range, and abandoned burrows are common in some areas. A 2007 study showed that even among “active” burrows (those with signs of recent use), only one in three are actually occupied by a wombat at any given time.

This means, at times, other species may not need to share burrows with wombats at all. It’s vacant real estate.

So how might a wombat react to an uninvited guest? This is difficult to know, and likely depends on who’s visiting. Wombats prefer not to share burrows with other wombats, although burrow sharing can be common when wombat populations are very high in one place.

In her book Wombats, Barbara Triggs recalls a fox being chased from a burrow by an angry wombat. Meanwhile, the crushed skulls of foxes and dogs in wombat burrows suggest not all intruders are welcome.

That a suite of species use wombat burrows suggests wombats may not notice or care about squatters – so long as they don’t pose a threat. But more research is needed on the fascinating interactions that take place in wombat burrows, particularly during fire.

The battle is not over

While empirical studies are needed, the available evidence suggests wombats may well provide an important refuge for other wildlife during fire.

In any case, it’s important to recognise that surviving fire is only half the battle.

Wombats and their house guests face a medley of challenges post-fire – not least avoiding predators in a barren landscape and eking out a living in a landscape with scarce food.

Read more: Animal response to a bushfire is astounding. These are the tricks they use to survive

– ref. Tales of wombat ‘heroes’ have gone viral. Unfortunately, they’re not true – http://theconversation.com/tales-of-wombat-heroes-have-gone-viral-unfortunately-theyre-not-true-129891

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judith Seaboyer, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland

Public anxiety about the capacity of digital-age children and young adults to read anything longer than a screen grab has come to feel like moral panic. But there is plenty of evidence to suggest we must take such unease seriously.

In 2016, the US National Endowment for the Arts reported the proportion of American adults who read at least one novel in 2015 had dropped to 43.1% from 56.9% in 1982.

In 2018, a US academic reported that in 1980, 60% of 18-year-old school students read a book, newspaper or magazine every day that wasn’t assigned for school. By 2016, the number had plummeted to 16%.

Those same 12th graders reported spending “six hours a day texting, on social media and online”.

Read more: Why it matters that teens are reading less

American literacy expert and neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf describes the threat screen reading poses to our capacity for “the slower cognitive processes such as critical thinking, personal reflection, imagination, and empathy that are all part of deep reading”.

She asks:

Will the mix of continuously stimulating distractions of children’s attention and immediate access to multiple sources of information give young readers less incentive either to build their own storehouses of knowledge or to think critically for themselves?

But rather than taking up defensive positions on either side of the digital-analogue reading divide, Wolf encourages us to embrace both. As parents and teachers we can help our children develop a bi-literate reading brain. There are several ways we can do this.

Reading pathways

Reading is a learned skill that requires the development of particular neural networks. And different reading platforms encourage the development of different aspects of those networks.

Screen-reading children, immersed from toddlerhood in the pleasures and instant gratification of skimming, clicking and linking, develop cognitive skills that make them adept power browsers, good at the useful ability to scan for information and analyse data.

Read more: Three easy ways to get your kids to read better and enjoy it

But Wolf suggests this kind of reading “can short-circuit the development of the slower, more cognitively demanding comprehension processes that go into the formation of deep reading and deep thinking.”

Unless the cognitive skills required for deep reading are similarly developed and nurtured, new generations of readers – distracted by the ready availability of digital information – may not learn to venture beyond the shallows of the reading experience.

Along with others concerned with early childhood education Wolf advises encouraging paper literacy from infancy. She doesn’t recommend forbidding devices. Instead we should regularly turn them off and make the time and space to read books on paper with children.

We can model our own reading practices by setting aside our own smart phones to lose ourselves in a book.

Read more: Love, laughter, adventure and fantasy: a summer reading list for teens

But how can secondary and tertiary teachers help inexperienced readers? The problem is likely to be aliteracy, meaning students can read but they choose not to because they don’t see it to be important for learning. And because they haven’t read much, it’s hard work. The problem can seem intractable. But it can be done.

Turn off the phone and read

My first venture into helping tertiary students read better was a 2011-2013 cross-university government-funded project that set out to foster what we termed “reading resilience”. We found if students were persuaded to prioritise reading as they did a test or an essay, they would invest the time to get into the zone that is the other world of the text.

We complemented complex texts with a guide that encouraged students to think critically as they read and to keep going when the language seemed impenetrable, the narrative incomprehensible (or dull) and the length endless. Or when the siren call of the smart phone became irresistible.

They experimented with switching off their devices for blocks of two hours while they simply read. And they did read.

Students prioritised this difficult work because we rewarded pre-class reading with marks. Some classes uploaded one-page, carefully argued responses; others answered complex feedback-rich quizzes.

I surveyed a large first-year introduction to literary studies at the University of Queensland in 2013 before testing a version of the same “reading resilience” course in 2014. The rise in reading rates was exponential.

The number of students who completed all ten primary texts (including the poem Beowulf and Toni Morrison’s Beloved) more than tripled, and the number who completed the ten accompanying secondary texts (selected chapters from an introduction to literary theory and criticism) went up by more than six times.

Reported student satisfaction for this course from 2008 to 2012 had ranged between 64% and 75%. Once reading resilience was introduced, many complained about the reading load yet the level of overall satisfaction jumped to 86%.

We can all do it

It’s not just readers raised in a digital-age who have difficulty with long-form text. Have you have lost the skill of deep reading? Are you finding it increasingly difficult to stay with, say, a literary novel? You are not alone.

Wolf, who despite having two degrees in literature, confesses to the shocking discovery that recently she found herself struggling to stick with a beloved Herman Hesse novel.

Read more: 5 Australian books that can help young people understand their place in the world

We too can switch off our devices and set aside a space and time to revitalise the neural pathways that once made us immersive readers.

As Wolf argues, the skills of “deep reading” that involve “slower, more time-consuming cognitive processes […] are vital for contemplative life”. Deep readers are likely to be more thoughtful members of the community at a time when good citizenship may never have been more important.

– ref. If you can read this headline, you can read a novel. Here’s how to ignore your phone and just do it – http://theconversation.com/if-you-can-read-this-headline-you-can-read-a-novel-heres-how-to-ignore-your-phone-and-just-do-it-116524

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Duygu Yengin, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Adelaide

“Fake news”, the chief executive of Lufthansa has called it. But his counterpart at Air France calls it the airline industry’s “biggest challenge”. So does the president of Emirates: “It’s got to be dealt with.”

What they’re talking about is “flight shame” – the guilt caused by the environmental impacts of air travel. Specifically, the carbon emissions.

It’s the reason teen climate-change activist Greta Thunberg refused to fly to New York to address the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September, taking a 14-day sea voyage instead.

In Thunberg’s native Sweden, flight shame (“flygskam”) has really taken off, motivating people to not take off. Last year 23% of Swedes reduced their air travel to shrink their carbon footprint, according to a WWF survey. Swedish airport operator Swedavia reported passenger numbers at its ten airports in October were down 5% on the previous year.

The potency of this guilt is what put Lufthansa’s head, Carsten Spohr, on the defensive at an aviation industry conference in Berlin in November.

Read more: Flight shame: flying less plays a small but positive part in tackling climate change

“Airlines should not have to be seen as a symbol of climate change. That’s just fake news,” he declared. “Our industry contributes 2.8% of global CO₂ emissions. As I’ve asked before, how about the other 97.2%? Are they contributing to global society with as much good as we do? Are they reducing emissions as much as we do?”

Does he have a point? Let’s consider the evidence.

How bad are aviation CO₂ emissions?

The International Council on Clean Transportation (the same organisation that exposed Volkwagen’s diesel emissions fraud), estimates commercial aviation accounted for 2.4% of all carbon emissions from fossil-fuel use in 2018.

So it’s true many other sectors contribute more.

It is also true airlines are making efforts to reduce the amount of carbon they emit per passenger per kilometre. Australia’s aviation industry, for example, has reduced its “emissions intensity” by 1.4% a year since 2013.

However, the ICCT estimates growth in passenger numbers, and therefore total flights, means total carbon emissions from commercial aviation have ballooned by 32% in five years, way faster than UN predictions. On that trajectory, the sector’s total emissions could triple by 2050.

Alternatives to fossil fuels

A revolution in aircraft design could mitigate that trajectory. The International Air Transport Association suggests the advent of hybrid electric aircraft propulsion (similar to how a hybrid car works, taking off and landing using electric power) by about 2030-35 could reduce fossil fuel consumption by up to 40%. Fully electric propulsion after that could eliminate fossil fuels completely.

Read more: Get set for take-off in electric aircraft, the next transport disruption

Even with the advent of electric airliners by mid-century, the huge cost and long lifespan of commercial jets means it could still take decades to wean fleets off fossil fuels.

A shorter-term solution might be replacing fossil fuels with “sustainable aviation fuels” such as biofuels made from plant matter. But in 2018 just 15 million litres of aviation biofuel were produced – less than 0.1% of total aviation fuel consumption. The problem is it costs significantly more than standard kerosene-based aviation fuel. Greater use depends on the price coming down, or the price of fossil fuels going up.

Pricing carbon

This brings us to the role of economics in decarbonising aviation.

An economist will tell you, for most goods the simplest way to reduce its consumption is to increase its price, or reduce the price of alternatives. This is the basis of all market-based solutions to reduce carbon emissions.

One way is to impose a tax on carbon, the same way taxes are levied on alcohol and tobacco, to deter consumption as well as to raise revenue to pay the costs use imposes on society.

The key problem with this approach is a government must guess at the price needed to achieve the desired reduction in demand. How the tax revenue is spent is also crucial to public acceptance.

Read more: Why our carbon emission policies don’t work on air travel

In France, opposition to higher fuel taxes led the government to instead announce an “eco-tax” on flights.

This proposed tax will range from €1.50 (about A$2.40) for economy flights within the European Union to €18 (about A$29.30) for business-class flights out of the EU. Among those who think this price signal is too low to make any real difference is Sam Fankhauser, director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in London.

Trading and offsets

Greater outcome certainty is the reason many economists champion an emissions trading scheme (also known as “cap and trade”). Whereas a tax seeks to reduce carbon emissions by raising the price of emission, a trading scheme sets a limit on emissions and leaves it to the market to work out the price that achieves it.

One advantage economists see in emissions trading is that it creates both disincentive and incentives. Emitters don’t pay a penalty to the government. They effectively pay other companies to achieve reductions on their behalf through the trade of “carbon credits”.

The European Union already has an emissions trading scheme that covers flights within the European Economic Area, but it has been criticised for limiting incentives for companies to reduce emissions because they can cheaply buy credits, such as from overseas projects such as tree-planting schemes.

This led to the paradox of scheme delivering a reported 100 million tonnes of “reductions/offsets” from Europe’s aviation sector between 2012 and 2018 even while the sector’s emissions increased.

A better solution might come from a well-designed international trading scheme. The basis for this may be the global agreement known as the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. Already 81 countries, representing three-quarters of international aviation activity, have agreed to participate.

Read more: Carbon offsets can do more environmental harm than good

What seems clear is that guilt and voluntary action to reduce carbon emissions has its limits. This is suggested by the data from Sweden, the heartland of flight shame.

Behind the 5% reduction in passenger numbers reported by Swedavia is a major difference between domestic passengers (down 10%) and international passengers (down just 2%). That might have something to do with the limited travel alternatives when crossing an ocean.

For most of us to consider emulating Greta Thunberg by taking a sailboat instead, the price of a flight would have to be very high indeed.

– ref. Shaming people for flying won’t cut airline emissions. We need a smarter solution – http://theconversation.com/shaming-people-for-flying-wont-cut-airline-emissions-we-need-a-smarter-solution-127257

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), University of Melbourne

Artists are again finding themselves at the receiving end of criticism over funding.

A mural on the wall of a fire station funded through the Western Australia Percent for Art scheme has met with a hostile reaction in the light of the bushfire crisis.

In WA all new public buildings costing $2 million or more must spend 1% of the building costs on public art projects – a bipartisan initiative since 1989.

Public art plays an important role in connecting communities, humanising the environment and giving a community a unique identity, but WA Shadow Minister for Emergency Services Steve Thomas told the ABC “I think it is time for this policy to end”

“[It] is more important to put that money into the equipment [emergency services] require rather than art work to decorate the building,” he said.

Artists are a critical community resource, but this criticism is a familiar refrain in Australia where arts practice is seen as non-essential.

The federal government determined in December 2019 the arts no longer matter to the nation by disappearing the arts from mention as a governmental responsibility and continuing to cut arts funding.

Read more: Remember the arts? Departments and budgets disappear as politics backs culture into a dead end

Crucial fundraisers

Across the country, the average income of artists from their artwork is A$18,800, yet artists have raised millions of dollars in support of the 2020 bushfire crisis.

Comedian Celeste Barber has raised over $50 million from more than 1.2 million people to help those who need it.

Pink, Elton John, Metallica, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Chris Hemsworth, Kylie and Danni Minogue – to name only a handful – have personally donated large amounts of their own money to help fighters and victims.

Visual artist Scott Marsh raised more than $60,000 by painting a mural in Chippendale lampooning Scott Morrison.

The Stardust Circus prevented a blackout at the Ulladulla Evacuation Centre by lending their generator. Theatre companies are organising collections at their performances for bushfire relief.

More than 32 concerts are taking place across the country with musicians giving their time for free to fundraise. Visual artists are auctioning their work.

Writers, illustrators and editors are donating books, mentoring, and naming rights to characters in forthcoming books to support firefighters.

As one viral Facebook post asked: “Tell me again that the Arts have no value?”

Restoring hope

Silo art, the painting of water towers and other utilitarian sites such as fire stations, have transformed rural areas by the impact of arts practice. This has contributed to the economic well-being of these communities, as well as making the local community feel a sense of pride in their town.

Art and artists can have a transformational role in rural communities by building resilience. Rural communities value their local history and artists can play an essential role in recording and validating a community’s culture.

Arts institutions, such as regional galleries, can also have a dramatic impact on a community. In 2012, the Bendigo Art Gallery generated $16.3 million for the local economy. The Book Town festival in Clunes, the Writers Festival in Byron Bay and the Folk Festival in Port Fairy are all crucial to the sense of community in those towns.

Artists can be critical in restoring hope and providing healing to a community after it has experienced trauma.

The Creative Recovery Network works together with emergency management agencies across Australia to help communities affected by trauma and natural disasters to recover from their experiences.

Urban Initiatives and Arterial created a moving memorial in collaboration with the local community to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfire victims at Strathewen.

The memorial incorporates 10,000 words by community members and serves as a place for community reflection as well as an ongoing learning site for young people. In this way the experiences are never forgotten, and passed on to the next generation.

While the arts can create provocation, they can also be a means of honouring feelings and processing grief. There are times when communities need more than financial relief to recover from loss. They need a way to make sense of it so they can move forward.

Committed to their community

Artists have stepped up in a huge way at this dark time in Australian history by volunteering their talents and resources to support communities and firefighters.

They have demonstrated artists and arts practice can contribute to our society with passion, ingenuity, and imagination. It is time the arts and artists received the respect they deserve by our governments and the broader community.

The arts always matter, but at times of crisis they are especially valuable.

– ref. Artists help communities during a crisis, not hinder. Why are we still told they don’t matter? – http://theconversation.com/artists-help-communities-during-a-crisis-not-hinder-why-are-we-still-told-they-dont-matter-129695

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shiva Pedram, Associate Research Fellow, University of Wollongong

In recent years, experts have focused on finding better ways to improve remotely delivered mental health care.

Now, virtual reality (VR) may pave the way for myriad new opportunities.

Using VR for remote therapy involves conducting “face-to-face” sessions in a virtual environment. This mode of treatment could make counselling more accessible to those living and working remotely.

My colleagues and I published a paper exploring VR’s potential in providing counselling for people in regional areas.

While face-to-face therapy remains the optimal treatment method, we discovered VR-based therapy was more effective than Skype-based counselling.

Taking advantage of available tools

We compared the experiences of 30 participants aged 21 to 63, who participated in both VR-based and Skype-based mock counselling sessions.

To deliver the VR sessions, the participants and trained therapists used the Oculus Go head-mounted display and vTime social networking app. This provided them with a multisensory and interactive VR experience.

Read more: ‘Use this app twice daily’: how digital tools are revolutionising patient care

We used cartoon-like avatars to represent the two therapists, modelled closely to how they looked in real life.

We then compared participants’ responses in both settings to determine which type of therapy was more engaging, less stressful and preferred overall.

Results were compiled based on factors including a perceived level of “presence” (being there), “co-presence” (being together with the therapist), “social presence” (engaging with each other) and “realism”.

Virtual environments bring real results

On almost all accounts, participants responded greatly in favour of VR-based therapy sessions. The use of VR generated high levels of engagement between client and therapist, without causing stress or feelings of sickness.

Participants reported their virtual experience was consistent with what they might expect from a face-to-face experience. This heightened sense of realism made the interaction more meaningful.

Using a VR avatar also encouraged most participants (22 out of 30) to more freely express themselves without fear of judgement. This was observed in both introverted and extroverted participants.

Our results suggest VR-based telehealth sessions could greatly reduce dropout rates for clients and produce positive clinical outcomes.

Moving beyond standard practice

In Australia, around 7 million people live in rural and remote areas. Many either can’t access face-to-face counselling, or have to travel large distances for it.

Remote workers such as mining and construction workers are at greater risk of mental health problems, usually requiring ongoing counselling or psychotherapy.

These individuals often work long hours in harsh climates, and some have to live far from family for extended periods. Accessing quality mental health care can be particularly difficult under such circumstances.

Currently, it’s common to use mobiles and video conferencing to deliver telehealth sessions remotely using programs such as Skype, Zoom and Facetime.

However, one of the biggest challenges with this is that clients are often unmotivated to commit to the treatment.

A phone session using audio without video doesn’t convey important non-verbal cues.

Read more: Why virtual reality won’t replace cadavers in medical school

Even with video, the physical distance between a therapist and client can prevent clients from being fully engaged. In this context, engagement refers to the client’s commitment to willingly disclose their thoughts, feelings, problems and history.

This is essential for successful psychological treatment, as past research has found clients displaying lower levels of engagement are more likely to discontinue treatment.

A successful program delivering VR-based mental health services to remote areas would have a far-reaching impact.

Further testing

So far in clinical psychology and psychiatry, the primary focus of VR has been its role in treating anxiety and stress-related disorders, specific phobias, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Soon, VR may be the next major avenue for remote mental health care delivery.

Moving forward with this technology, one important consideration will be assessing an avatar’s capacity to act and move in a believable manner.

In virtual environments, the use of hyper-realistic avatars can generate cold and eerie feelings (known as Uncanny Valley (UV) effects).

Similarly, avatars that are too unrealistic and cartoon-like could negatively impact a client’s experience.

In the next phase of our research, we will conduct clinical interviews via both VR and face-to-face methods, and measure participants’ physiological responses. This will include monitoring their heart rate, skin conductance (how much they sweat) and reported experiences.

We hope further trials will bring us closer to providing a world-leading VR-based therapy option for Australians living and working remotely.

Read more: Curious Kids: How do you know that we aren’t in virtual reality right now?

– ref. Virtual reality may be the next frontier in remote mental health care – http://theconversation.com/virtual-reality-may-be-the-next-frontier-in-remote-mental-health-care-129187

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Pappas, PhD Candidate, UNSW

As fires continue to burn along Australia’s south-east, it’s impossible to ignore how climate change can wreak devastation and disrupt lives.

Australia has always experienced bushfires. However, climate change means this year’s bushfires were so extreme in their ferocity and spread they could be seen from space. And this is just a taste of what’s to come.

Read more: Weather bureau says hottest, driest year on record led to extreme bushfire season

I’m a marine scientist, and research the effects of climate change on coral reefs. Aside from bushfires, coral bleaching is one of the most severe manifestations of climate change in Australia. Watching corals turn white and die is just another daily reminder of the disasters our children will be up against.

Until now, my partner and I have both wanted to be parents one day. Now I’m not so sure. Here are the things I’m weighing up.

The forces at play

I am not alone in these family planning concerns. In September last year I hosted a Women in STEM seminar and photography exhibit showcasing female scientists at the University of New South Wales. One of the major points of discussion was how to plan for a family, knowing how climate change will affect the quality of life of the next generation.

Cases of “eco-anxiety” when it comes to family planning are on the rise. Many couples in my generation are rethinking what it means to start a family. Even Prince Harry and Meghan Markle said last year they’ll have only two children at most, for the sake of the planet.

But other factors also affect family planning decisions, such as religious, cultural and societal expectations. And of course there are the views of partners and spouses to take into account.

In my case, I come from a large Italian-American, Catholic family. My family expects me to settle down and have babies as soon as possible. But my partner and I both agree the planet cannot sustain a growing population that results from these traditional religious expectations.

Would going childless make a difference?

Studies show having fewer children is one of the most effective ways an individual can mitigate climate change. Choosing to have one less child prevents 58.6 tonnes of carbon emissions entering the atmosphere each year, according to a 2017 study. That’s like 25 Australians going car-free for the rest of their lives.

Read more: The rise of ‘eco-anxiety’: climate change affects our mental health, too

In fact, even if you do your bit to reduce emissions in your lifetime, such as riding a bike and using energy-saving lightbulbs, having two children means your “legacy” of carbon emissions could be 40 times greater than that saved through lifestyle changes.

But having one less child is not a quick fix for climate change. As research in 2014 pointed out, even one-child policies imposed worldwide, coupled with events causing catastrophic numbers of deaths, would still leave the world population at 5–10 billion people by 2100 – enough to cause stress on future ecosystems.

So it’s critical we, as consumers, start now in making our lifestyles more environmentally friendly if the world’s population continues to grow.

The above research concluded the most immediate and effective way to keep the planet’s warming at bay is policies and technologies to reign in global emissions.

The planet our children will inhabit

On our current business-as-usual trajectory, we’re on track for at least a 4℃ temperature increase by 2100. Even if the temperature increase was limited to 2.8℃ (now an optimistic scenario) major changes in weather patterns would occur by 2050.

These changes would bring more severe droughts, flooding, heatwaves, sea level rise and bushfires. This is not a future I want for my children.

Already, climate hazards have been implicated in pre- and post-natal health problems for children. Children whose mothers were exposed to floods while pregnant exhibited increased bedwetting, aggression towards other children and below-average birth weight, juvenile height and academic performance.

Read more: How family planning could be part of the answer to climate change

What’s more, exposure to smoke from fires during pregnancy may have affected brain development and resulted in premature birth, small head circumference, low birth weight and foetal death

This season’s bushfires caused a 51% spike in people needing help for respiratory issues on one of the most extreme days in Melbourne. Children are among the most vulnerable to respiratory issues stemming from poor air quality.

But it’s not just physical health in question – mental health is also at risk.

Today’s children already know that without major change, the world they were born into will limit their quality of life. It’s not only affecting their mental health, but also their process of identity formation, with children experiencing an “existential whiplash”.

They’re caught between two forces: the belief held by previous generations that if you work hard you’ll have a high quality of life, and knowledge that climate change will make parts of the planet inhabitable.

Weighing it all up

Of course, improvements in family planning are not solely a matter for the developed world. As experts have stated, family planning has the potential to empower women in developing nations, giving them the basic human right to choose whether to have children.

Policies to support this – such as better access to contraception and giving more girls a quality education – would be a “win-win”, improving reproductive rights and slowing the population growth to combat climate change.

Read more: Nine things you love that are being wrecked by climate change

As for my own situation, my mind isn’t yet made up. I am seriously considering not having kids altogether. Or perhaps my partner and I will have only one child, or adopt.

But one thing is clear. Whether you want to create a healthier planet or you’re concerned about the Earth your children will inherit, climate change should weigh heavily on your family planning decisions.

– ref. In this new world of bushfire terror, I question whether I want to have kids – http://theconversation.com/in-this-new-world-of-bushfire-terror-i-question-whether-i-want-to-have-kids-126752

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shiva Pedram, Associate Research Fellow, University of Wollongong

In recent years, experts have focused on finding better ways to improve remotely delivered mental health care.

Now, virtual reality (VR) may pave the way for myriad new opportunities.

Using VR for remote therapy involves conducting “face-to-face” sessions in a virtual environment. This mode of treatment could make counselling more accessible to those living and working remotely.

My colleagues and I published a paper exploring VR’s potential in providing counselling for people in regional areas.

While face-to-face therapy remains the optimal treatment method, we discovered VR-based therapy was more effective than Skype-based counselling.

Taking advantage of available tools

We compared the experiences of 30 participants aged 21 to 63, who participated in both VR-based and Skype-based mock counselling sessions.

To deliver the VR sessions, the participants and trained therapists used the Oculus Go head-mounted display and vTime social networking app. This provided them with a multisensory and interactive VR experience.

Read more: ‘Use this app twice daily’: how digital tools are revolutionising patient care

We used cartoon-like avatars to represent the two therapists, modelled closely to how they looked in real life.

We then compared participants’ responses in both settings to determine which type of therapy was more engaging, less stressful and preferred overall.

Results were compiled based on factors including a perceived level of “presence” (being there), “co-presence” (being together with the therapist), “social presence” (engaging with each other) and “realism”.

Virtual environments bring real results

On almost all accounts, participants responded greatly in favour of VR-based therapy sessions. The use of VR generated high levels of engagement between client and therapist, without causing stress or feelings of sickness.

Participants reported their virtual experience was consistent with what they might expect from a face-to-face experience. This heightened sense of realism made the interaction more meaningful.

Using a VR avatar also encouraged most participants (22 out of 30) to more freely express themselves without fear of judgement. This was observed in both introverted and extroverted participants.

Our results suggest VR-based telehealth sessions could greatly reduce dropout rates for clients and produce positive clinical outcomes.

Moving beyond standard practice

In Australia, around 7 million people live in rural and remote areas. Many either can’t access face-to-face counselling, or have to travel large distances for it.

Remote workers such as mining and construction workers are at greater risk of mental health problems, usually requiring ongoing counselling or psychotherapy.

These individuals often work long hours in harsh climates, and some have to live far from family for extended periods. Accessing quality mental health care can be particularly difficult under such circumstances.

Currently, it’s common to use mobiles and video conferencing to deliver telehealth sessions remotely using programs such as Skype, Zoom and Facetime.

However, one of the biggest challenges with this is that clients are often unmotivated to commit to the treatment.

A phone session using audio without video doesn’t convey important non-verbal cues.

Read more: Why virtual reality won’t replace cadavers in medical school

Even with video, the physical distance between a therapist and client can prevent clients from being fully engaged. In this context, engagement refers to the client’s commitment to willingly disclose their thoughts, feelings, problems and history.

This is essential for successful psychological treatment, as past research has found clients displaying lower levels of engagement are more likely to discontinue treatment.

A successful program delivering VR-based mental health services to remote areas would have a far-reaching impact.

Further testing

So far in clinical psychology and psychiatry, the primary focus of VR has been its role in treating anxiety and stress-related disorders, specific phobias, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Soon, VR may be the next major avenue for remote mental health care delivery.

Moving forward with this technology, one important consideration will be assessing an avatar’s capacity to act and move in a believable manner.

In virtual environments, the use of hyper-realistic avatars can generate cold and eerie feelings (known as Uncanny Valley (UV) effects).

Similarly, avatars that are too unrealistic and cartoon-like could negatively impact a client’s experience.

In the next phase of our research, we will conduct clinical interviews via both VR and face-to-face methods, and measure participants’ physiological responses. This will include monitoring their heart rate, skin conductance (how much they sweat) and reported experiences.

We hope further trials will bring us closer to providing a world-leading VR-based therapy option for Australians living and working remotely.

Read more: Curious Kids: How do you know that we aren’t in virtual reality right now?

– ref. Virtual reality could expand therapy options in remote areas – http://theconversation.com/virtual-reality-could-expand-therapy-options-in-remote-areas-129187