This week’s links (2024-05-12)

In brief:
🏛 Australia votes ‘yes’ at United Nations as Palestinian push for full membership gathers momentum A total of 143 nations — including Australia — voted in favour, while nine were against and 25 abstained. (2024-May-11) [ABC|News]
…

🔥 Reply to Comment on ‘Self-thinning forest understoreys reduce wildfire risk, even in a warming climate’ (2024-May-10) [Environmental Research Letters]
Philip J Zylstra et al 2024 Environ. Res. Lett. 19 058001 DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/ad40c1

❝ Contrary to the objections of Miller et al (2024 Environ. Res.Lett.), removing lower quality data revealed that the mature forests were even less flammable than expected, so that only annual prescribed burning could reduce bushfire likelihood below that in forests unburnt for 56 years or more. Our findings highlight the role of prescribed burning in creating a more flammable landscape. ❞

❝ The pulse of elevated flammability following burning and the subsequent low flammability of long-unburnt forest were not artefacts of poor data as claimed by Miller et al (2024). Instead, poor data obscured the strength of the pulse. ❞

All the reasons for ignoring the evidence are on the table now, and all have been answered. We can now say with more confidence than ever that the prescribed burning program in SW WA has converted the landscape into flammable regrowth.
9/

— A/Prof Phil Zylstra (@Phil_Zylstra) May 11, 2024

🌳 Uploading Trail Data Guidelines (2024) [Leave No Trace]

❝ Today’s trail mapping applications are changing how we learn about places to spend time outdoors. Like social media use in the outdoors, trail mapping applications can be a force for good, or they can have the opposite effect. Uploading inaccurate trail data can cause avoidable impacts by directing other people to trails that have not been intentionally put there (designated) by land managers. These “social trails” can cause human safety and environmental impact issues. ❞

❝ Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt. ❞

— William Allingham

This week’s links (2024-05-05)

In brief:

…

🌳 High Court rules Parks Australia criminally liable for alleged sacred site damage at Kakadu’s Gunlom Falls (2024-May-08) [ABC|News]

❝ The High Court held that the [director of national parks] can be criminally liable for breach of s.34(1) of the Sacred Sites Act,” the summary judgement said.
The judges found that while there was a basis in case law for a presumption against criminal liability for a “body politic”, there was no such presumption for a “natural person or a body corporate, such as the [director of national parks]
If the [director of national parks] had the immunity from criminal liability that it asserts then it could knowingly carry out work on a sacred site without a certificate and without incurring criminal liability, […] It could knowingly desecrate a sacred site without incurring criminal liability. ❞

⚜️ After years of scandal, Boy Scouts of America changes its name to Scouting America (2024-May-07) [NPR]
The change will go into effect on February 8, 2025, the organization’s 115th anniversary.

❝ We are an organization for all. It’s time our name reflects that, […] Scouting under the name Scouting America will enable us to chart a course towards continued growth, relevance and impact. […] We want to make sure that all youth in America understand that they are welcome in our organization, that this is a safe place for them to learn and grow and to be their authentic self ❞

🧠 Parenting expert Maggie Dent shares her biggest takeaway after raising four boys (2024-May-04) [ABC|Melbourne Saturday Breakfast]
A warning that this interview contains themes which may be distressing to some.

❝ We’ve got to help our boys develop emotional literacy; that means ‘what am I going to do when I don’t win?’, ‘what am I going to do when I fail?’, ‘what do I do when I get rejected?’, other than lash out physically. ❞

🧠 The top 5 issues facing teens today: a doctor’s perspective (2024-Apr-29) [Maggi Dent]

❝ In my consultations with teenage patients, these are the top five issues they’re facing right now.
1. Social media & gaming
2. Drugs and Alcohol
3. Self-harm and suicidal thoughts
4. Bullying
5. Anxiety ❞

❝ To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. ❞

— George Santayana

In the May-2024 Sky

04 May – Daytime occultation of Saturn
05 May – Early Morning occultation of Neptune
05 May – Crescent Moon very close to Mars
06 May – Lunar perigee at 363,163 km
06 May – Eta Aquarids meteor shower peak
06 May – Crescent Moon near Mercury
08 May – New Moon
10-12 May – G4 geomagnetic storm – Aurora Borealis Northern lights / Aurora Australis Southern lights widely visible [Current Aurora Conditions BOM – Space Weather Forecasting Centre]
18 May – Lunar apogee at 404,640 km
23 May – Full Moon (Flower Moon)

🌗 Skynotes: May 2024 [Scienceworks]
🌗 Monthly sky guides: Sky Guide May 2024 [Powerhouse Museum]
🌗 The Sky Tonight: May 2024 [Scitech]
🌗 Astrophiz – Astrophiz: May SkyGuide [Astrophiz|SoundCloud]
🌗 Planets Visible in the Night Sky in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia [timeanddate.com]
🌗 Moon Phases – Lunar Calendar for Melbourne, Victoria, Australia [timeanddate.com]
🛰️ AUSTRALIA – Melbourne [Find Starlink]
☄️ Coming Events: A Year of Southern Astronomy for 2024 [astroblogger]
☄️ Meteor Shower Calendar [timeanddate.com]

May – Waring Wombat Season

Waring Wombat Season (April-July)
Cool, rainy days follow misty mornings. The time of highest rainfall and lowest temperatures.
Waring (wombats) emerge to bask and graze in the sunshine.
Bulen-bulen (Superb Lyrebird) males perform their courtship displays.
Hearts of Kombadik (Soft Tree-ferns) are the major food when no fruits are available.
Days are short and nights are long.
The constellation of Sagittarius rises in the southeast after sunset, indicating the mid-point of cold weather.

❝Wumangurruditj, that’s wombat. Put a piece of wombat, a piece of pork and a piece of porcupine [echidna] and you can’t tell the difference. ❞ – Jessie Hunter, 1999

— Eastern Kulin Seasonal Calendar [Melbourne Museum]

This week’s links (2024-04-28)

In brief:
🏕️ South Korea: World Scout Jamboree disaster blamed on government (2024-Apr-26) [BBC|News]
🏕️ Schoolgirl hospitalised by fallen tree branch in high country (2024-Apr-24) [Herald Sun]
…

⚙️ Technical Tip: Petzl Tandem Pulley (2024-May-02) [The Equipped Real Quick Update]

❝ We’ve recently been made aware of discussion in the field regarding the use of Petzl Tandem pulleys (one of the most widely used in the industry) in an adventure parks and Outdoor Ed settings.
In 2021, Petzl released released a statement, recommending the Tandem pulley no longer be used on cables, in adventure park settings. This was due to an update to the EN17109 standard, that meant the pulley did not meet the criteria of the standard.
However, it is worth noting that this statement is NOT a stop-use directive and the pulley continues to meet ANSI/ACCT 2019 standards. Should an organisation wish to continue to use the pulley, it’s imperative that they review and understand the statement, available HERE.
Many other products on the market, such as Beal Tran’sfair Twin pulleys, such also do not state compliance with EN17109 but have not made a similar statement suggesting their revision of use. ❞

📄 Using the TANDEM SPEED trolley on cable (2021) [Petzl]
Since September 2021, trolley use on cable has been guided by the EN 17109 standard, which covers only Adventure Parks. The TANDEM SPEED does not meet two criteria of this standard: drop resistance and finger protection. There is no other PPE standard covering trolley use on cable.

🌳 Wellbeing and nature connectedness for emerging adult undergraduates after a short expedition: A small pilot study doi.org/10.1002/hpja.555 (2021-Nov-07) [Health Promotion Journal of Australia, Volume33, Issue3]

❝ Incorporating regular contact with nature into the structure of undergraduate programs may improve wellbeing and protect this population’s mental and emotional health. In a world adjusting to the effects of a global pandemic, opportunities for teaching in non-traditional classrooms (such as outdoors) may also protect physical health. ❞

❝ The difference between an adventure and an ordeal is attitude. ❞

— Bob Bitchin

You can choose 4 of the following

This is doing the rounds again;

❝ You are stranded on a desert island, you can choose 4 of the following ❞

Alone Australia S2 – Start of episode quotes

At the start of each Alone episode there is ominous, inspiring, or adventurous introduction quote to lead us into the contestants in the wilderness. I’m collecting them here to see if they tell a story by themself.

Episode 1

❝ Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. ❞

— Donna Tartt

Episode 2

❝ The most important factor in survival is neither intelligence nor strength but adaptability ❞

— Charles Darwin

Episode 3

❝ Necessity is the mother of invention ❞

— Richard Franck

Episode 4

❝ Life is a circle. The end of one journey is the beginning of the next ❞

— Joseph M, Marshall III

Episode 5

❝ When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on ❞

— Franklin D Roosevelt

Episode 6

❝ Anywhere the struggle is great, the level of ingenuity and inventiveness is high ❞

— Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin

Episode 7

❝ The triumph can’t be had without the struggle ❞

— Wilma Rudloph

This week’s links (2024-04-21)

In brief:
🏛 Netanyahu’s office hosts emergency talks on feared ICC warrants for PM, ministers (2024-Apr-19) [Times of Israel]
🌳 Aerial video shows mass coral bleaching on Great Barrier Reef amid global heat stress event – video (2024-Apr-16) [The Guardian]
🌳 Incomplete nature reforms leave our environment dangerously exposed (2024-Apr-16) [Climate Council]
…

🌳 From bird baths to rocks, seven things people put in their gardens to help wildlife, and how well they work (2024-Apr-23) [Biodiversity Council Australia]

❝ While all seven feature types were used by wildlife during the study, water sources were used more frequently compared to shelter sites, with bird baths being the most commonly utilised wildlife-friendly structure …
For structures that were already present in gardens when the project began, citizen scientists completed 179 surveys of 23 ponds and 1513 surveys of 119 bird baths. Bird baths were used by birds on 53% of surveys, while ponds were used by animals on 45% of surveys. In comparison, artificial refuges such as reptile shelters, frog hotels and nest boxes were used on less than 20% of inspections. ❞

🌳 Labor’s broken promise on environment protection laws (2024-Apr-20) [The Saturday Paper]

❝ Scathing independent assessments of the Environment Protection Biodiversity and Conservation (EPBC) Act, amid mounting evidence of biodiversity loss and habitat destruction, have presented the Albanese government with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen Australia’s environmental framework. This week’s announcement that the government is only advancing parts of its promised package, however, suggests it is choosing instead to walk back its commitments to deliver the necessary overhaul. ❞

❝ Nature is in crisis. The 2021 “State of the Environment” report declared, in no uncertain terms, “the general outlook for our environment is deteriorating”. The condition of rivers, reefs, wetlands, soil, native vegetation and biodiversity is continuing to decline, while the number of plant and animal species listed as threatened or endangered increases. Australia has lost more mammal species than any other continent, has one of the highest rates of species decline in the developed world, and is the only developed country that is a deforestation hotspot. Climate change is compounding damage from deforestation, invasive species, pollution and urban expansion.
This poor environmental scorecard is due largely to Australia’s broken Commonwealth environmental law. Professor Graeme Samuel’s review of the EPBC Act, delivered to government in October 2020, painted a dire picture of a dysfunctional legal framework lacking integrity and in need of fundamental reform. He found a lack of public trust in the act’s ability to protect nature, stemming from poor transparency, inadequate opportunities for community participation in decision-making and approval processes, limited pathways for legal review, and perceptions of poor accountability for government decisions. ❞

📄 Australia state of the environment 2021 [Commonwealth of Australia]

🏛 Subject: Violence against women (2024-Apr-19) [Press conference – Melbourne, Attorney-General’s portfolio]

❝ ATTORNEY-GENERAL MARK DREYFUS: There is a crisis of male violence in Australia. It’s a scourge on our society and it must end. We have to do more. We know we can do more. We’ve done a lot in the last few years. I think there’s been a change in the way in which society thinks about the issue of family violence but we’ve got to do more.

JOURNALIST: Even looking around that room I can see more women. How do you see men taking a bigger role in addressing this?

ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I think by men in positions of leadership, and you’re starting to see that, calling it out, and by men everywhere in society, acknowledging that this is a problem for men. That we have to talk to our sons, we have to talk to our colleagues. We’ve got to acknowledge it as a problem for men. ❞

🏛 Rape Culture Pyramid (2018-Sep) [11th Principle: Consent!]
Version 5 Created by Jaime Chandra & Cervix (CC BY-NC-SA)

“Rape Culture Pyramid” by 11th Principle: Consent!, used with permission from Jaime Chandra, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

❝ Tolerance of the behaviours at the bottom supports or excuses those higher up. To change outcomes, we must change the culture.
If you see something, say something! ❞

🏛

pic.twitter.com/3RZs3Ozjay

— Henry James Garrett (@henryjgarrett) April 16, 2024

❝ (Violence against women) That we have to talk to our sons, we have to talk to our colleagues. We’ve got to acknowledge it as a problem for men. ❞

— Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus
2024-Apr-19

Banff Mountain Film Festival 2024

Get some Banff stoke into your day!

❝ The 2024 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is a celebration of the mountain and adventure sport world. Sharing over 2 1/2 hours of the most exhilarating short films from explorers, runners, mountain bikers, skiers, paddlers and climbers from around the globe. ❞

Tickets

This week’s links (2024-04-14)

In brief:
🏛 Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment) [2024] FCA 369 (2024-Apr-15) [Federal Court of Australia]

…
🚴‍♂️ Women’s Race – Live Stream – Amstel Gold Race 2024 Sun 14 Apr at 9:00pm [SBS On Demand]
🚴‍♂️ Men’s Race – Live Stream – Amstel Gold Race 2024 Sun 14 Apr at 10:45pm [SBS On Demand]
…

🌳 Brumbies & the ABC (2024-Apr-15) [ABC|Media Watch]

❝ Jamelle Wells has a clear personal bias on the issue of control of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park … and has also been directly working to assist activists in their campaign to stop the control of feral horses. ❞
– Email, Jack Gough, Invasive Species Council, 10 April, 2024

🌳 Top environmental groups say some of Labor’s new laws could take conservation backwards (2024-Apr-13) [The Guardian]

❝ The Albanese government is backing away from a promise to substantially transform how nature is protected in Australia and is planning some changes that would make things worse, according to eight of the country’s top environment groups.
The conservation organisations said they were concerned the government planned to break up promised legislation for new environmental laws and defer some difficult reforms until after the next election, if it wins a second term. ❞

🏕️ OutdoorHer (2024) [The BMC]

❝ This resource is for everyone who is looking to learn more about women’s health and kit requirements in the outdoors, from participants to leaders and allies. It has been created with inclusion in mind and we hope that it helps to support and improve adventures for all, speaking to a range of issues that have often been overlooked.
Inspired by conversations with walkers, climbers and leaders about managing their periods, menopause and toileting when out in the wild, BMC and Mountain Training have created some simple ‘how-to’ guides that go through these topics and more. ❞

🏕️ Three castaways rescued after a week on Pacific islet (2024-Apr-12) [The New Daily]

❝ Three castaways stranded for a week on a remote desert island in the western Pacific Ocean have been rescued after using palm fronds to spell out the word “HELP” on a sandy beach. […]
While stranded on the island, which is part of the Federated States of Micronesia, the men had access to food and water. They also recovered their damaged skiff. ❞

❝ The comforts of life’s essentials — food, fire, and friendships… ❞

— Julia Child