ECO Environmental Careers and Opportunities Expo, Brisbane

Thanks very much to the Reef Guardians here for bringing this event for students, parents and teachers to our attention. 

We are advised that It will be held Tuesday 23 July 2013 at The Edge, Southbank, Brisbane.

Wild Mob, Volunteers for Wilderness Conservation here, is partnering with the Land Trust, Nudgee Beach Environmental Education Centre and The Smith Family to host this great event, highlighting the opportunities that are available. 

The event includes:

·         A range of industry professionals sharing their experiences

·         Study options for the future

·         Volunteer opportunities

·         Interactive displays and stall

·         Education workshops

·         Lucky door prizes.

There are two sessions, from 10-2pm (schools) and from 3-6pm (students and parents). For more information and to register, please email Renee at Wild Mob on renee@wildmob.org.

www.ausmepa.org.au

One last chance to save mankind - opinion - 23 January 2009 - New Scientist

One last chance to save mankind - opinion - 23 January 2009 - New Scientist

The New Scientist interviewed James Lovelock and he has an interesting take.

"James Lovelock is a British chemist, inventor and environmentalist. He is best known for formulating the controversial Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s, which states that organisms interact with and regulate Earth's surface and atmosphere."

During the interview he says:

"We have the example of the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum event 55 million years ago. About the same amount of CO2 was put into the atmosphere as we are putting in and temperatures rocketed by about 5 °C over about 20,000 years."

"There is one way we could save ourselves and that is through the massive burial of charcoal. It would mean farmers turning all their agricultural waste - which contains carbon that the plants have spent the summer sequestering - into non-biodegradable charcoal, and burying it in the soil. Then you can start shifting really hefty quantities of carbon out of the system and pull the CO2 down quite fast."

"Carbon trading, with its huge government subsidies, is just what finance and industry wanted. It's not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it'll make a lot of money for a lot of people and postpone the moment of reckoning."

You can read this article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126921.500-one-last-chance-to-save-mankind.html?page=1

AUSTRALIA'S NATIONAL SEAWEEK

National Seaweek is a longtime tradition with schools around Australia and AUSMEPA is a proud sponsor of the Marine Education Society of Australasia (MESA).

This year the theme is OCEANS OF LIFE; ours to explore, ours to restore. Seaweek is set for the first week in March 2010 although all are invited to pick up and take it further at any time of the year.

On the website you will find some interesting general information about oceans, who owns the sea and what are major threats to it. Healthy oceans are vital to our health. The Big Blue provides us with important environmental services and one of those is production of most of the oxygen that allows people to breathe!

I highly recommend that you take a good look at the articles and fact sheets available on the MESA website: www.mesa.edu.au There is still time to put your thinking cap on and create an activity to celebrate our Oceans of Life. What will you do?

Solar goes underground!

Hidden fibres capture solar power
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/11/10/2738182.htm?

Something interesting from ABC Science Discovery News. The first 3-D solar panel systems have been developed that can work underground. New panels could be unobtrusive and placed in walls or under the house instead of roof tops.

Mother Earth

Mother Earth
Source: www.youtube.com
A video about Mother Planet Earth by OneEarth.Org

"How We Know What We Know: Looking at Climate Change Through Polar Science"

Friday 16 October 2009 - 9 am Alaska Daylight Time.

To join you must register online at PolarTREC. Once registered an email is sent out and downloads will be available on the website. If you can't join you should have a look at the IPY Polar Week classroom activities

Contact: info@polartrec.com
http://www.polartrec.com

What are Live events?
* These are real-time, interactive events that utilize the Internet
and phone for presentations.
* These events allow participants to learn about the research being
conducted in the polar regions.
* Events are free to the public and at minimum require a phone or
Internet access.

NOTE: To see what that time is where you live visit World Clock
For Australians(Qld)this is 3pm Sat 17th October

Deadly Seaweed in Europe Could Be Just a Warning to Australians

Recent reports of death and human health concerns from France and England revolve around the humble Sea Lettuce or Ulva sp. It appears that high growth of the common algae has resulted in the cyclic die-off forming mounds of decaying weed along some shorelines. As the weed dries up it forms a white crust sealing in the gases produced as a result of decomposition. When the crust is broken highly concentrated gasses are released where the foot falls.

These high growth events are not known yet in Australia but wherever stormwater run-off carries high nutrients from the drains, creeks and rivers to shallow coastal waters Ulva becomes more prolific.

AUSMEPA and it's other Education Partners in Australia are working to educate about what stormwater brings with it and how we can change our own contribution to the problem. Learn more at http://www.ausmepa.org.au/marine-stormwater-pollution/

Marine pests; finding a use for them?

This news article highlights how some think that marine pests (N Pacific Seastars) may be put to good use by harvesting for use in pharmaceuticals. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/29/2640227.htm?site=news

Free tips for education around marine pests can be found on units of work in AUSMEPA's Pests and Threats unit http://www.ausmepa.org.au/other.asp?pageId=14#

KIDS AND WATER - marine education readers available online

‘Kids and Water’ marine education readers are now online! All 18 Marine readers and 4 Teacher Resource books from the Kids and Water Series can be accessed at http://www.wetpaper.com.au/ausmepa/ausmepa-readers.asp

Great opportunity for teachers wanting to integrate marine education into their workplans.

Ships, Ports and the Marine Environment

Maritime industries have always been important to Australia yet there has been little educational material around for teachers and students. Free online education units on both Ships and the Marine Environment as well as Ports and the Marine Environment are currently available now at AUSMEPA School webpages.

www.ausmepa.org.au/other.asp?pageId=14