Hope for rain, in whatever form.

Thats what CSIRO’s Paul Holper has told the Herald. He says that big power cuts will come into place unless the Snowy scheme gets the water it needs to operate, whether it be rain, snow or hail. The massive water shortage across NSW is so devastating it will now effect water shortages. The story, written by Paul Sheehan

Coal and hydro power generation require very large amounts of water, and the Snowy scheme depends on it for 86 per cent of its generation capacity.

“Last year we had the lowest snowfall ever recorded. If this happens again we are in trouble,” the source said. He declined to be named because electricity pricing and supply is a politically charged subject.

Prices are already tipped to double in South Australia.

The head of the CSIRO’s Australian climate change science program, Paul Holper, said: “Lack of water could become a problem for power generation.

“You’ve got to find a supply of water to set aside for power generation, but there is already a shortage of water for agriculture. So this is going to become more of a problem.”

The stock market has already sent an alarm signal. The price of electricity futures has almost doubled so far this year.

In January the price of a megawatt hour for delivery to NSW in 2008 was $38. This week the price rose to just over $72, a 90 per cent rise in less than five months. The electricity price in Queensland has more than doubled. The volume of trading in electricity futures has roughly quadrupled this year.

According to a market assessment from the Sydney Futures Exchange, it ranks as one of the biggest commodity price increases ever seen, and is not driven by market speculation but is caused by the convergence of several negative trends, dominated by the water shortage.

If this week’s widespread rains continue, and the drought breaks, a power problem will be averted and the market will stabilise. But Australia is now an advanced economy at the mercy of the weather. Certainty over water supply has gone.

Power stations have a voracious appetite for water, and the shortage is affecting production in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, despite an abundance of coal and gas supplies.

This story uses the following news values:

Impact: There is a strong impact on this story as it affects a significant proportion of the Australian population. The fact that electricity rates could double in price is a scary thought, and one that gives impact.

Timeliness: This story holds plenty of ‘timeliness’ factor: This story comes as we are in the middle of a water crisis

Proximity: The drought affects nearly everyone in Australia so they to could be in the same crisis.

Currency:  Australia is going through one of the worst droughts ever and the average man struggles to afford such increases in price.

Proximity: The drought affects nearly everyone in Australia

Byron Bay residents outcry

A community of exlcusive waterfront owners have threatened to sue their local council of it dosen’t protect them from rising sea levels. An interesting article, written by Heath Gilmore- SMH- tells of the residents of Belongil and their lawyer’s, who  fired off a legal warning last month complaining that Byron Shire Council had failed to protect their properties from the threat of erosion. The long standing policy of Byron Bay coucil states, in plain language, that if sea levels became too high, properties at Belongil would be abandoned, not protected.

 The current view from the council is that if the houses were to be protected (Walls built up etc.) the surrounding beaches would be closed.  It is now working on a new coastal development plan that would try to enshrine this policy in state law.

Under the plan, beachfront owners such as John “Strop” Cornell, health-care magnate Paul Ramsay, Seek.com director Robert Watson and others could see their exclusive Belongil Beach properties abandoned to the elements of an increasingly violent Tasman Sea.

Byron Mayor Jan Barham believes Sydneysiders who own waterfront property will be keenly watching the outcome of the debate engulfing her coastal community. Her council’s planning adaptation model is seen as a pacesetter in NSW.

The Greens mayor said she felt strongly about the council’s stance on Belongil Beach and other shire suburbs including Suffolk Park, South Golden Beach and New Brighton.

She said the idea of planned retreat had been council policy since 1988 after the wild cyclonic storms of the 1970s tore away large tracts of land never to be replaced.

Belongil Beach resident John Vaughan said that the council had been told that residents were reserving their legal rights.

He said council had ignored the advice of experts, failed to meet the requirements of the coastal protection act and failed in its duty to protect the residents.

He said in these circumstances the council has a liability in damages and should be be ordered to take steps to discharge its duty to protect the residents.

“We are seeking mediation to deal with our legal rights and other issues,” he said. “We want to explore whether an alternative solution can be developed. So far we have heard nothing from the council.”

 So what do the local residents do to fix their problem, They sue!! An interesting story that I’m sure we haven’t even seen the introduction of!! As the sea levels keep rising, this issue of house safety is going to become a major part of our lives.

Kamila Rose and Honey Bear on Belongil Beach, which is at the heart of a row over protecting beachfront properties against rising sea levels.

Conflict: The conflict created between the local Byron Bay council and members of its community.

Timeliness: The story comes at a time when the global warming crisis is at its worst stage yet..making it a timely issue.

Proximity: This article should be a concern to every coastal population around Australia, and the World.

Currency: The currency of the global warming debate

Houston, we have a planet!!

An interesting one to go into the weekend with,  European astronomers think they have found a hot snowball orbiting a star about 33 light years from Earth. The ariticle was published in the Los Angeles Times and speaks of European researchers and their findings of the strange planet-GJ 436b-one similiar to the size of Neptune.

This story has implemented the following news values:

Currency: In a time where more technology is becoming readliy available, researching into the solar system and outside planets have become a popular trend

Human Interest: A softer news story such as this creates human interest, people are curious of their surroundings.

 Here goes the story:

The planet “turns out to be a Neptune-like ice giant, mostly composed of water ice”, the authors wrote. The team made its findings using telescopes in Switzerland, Israel and Chile.

“It’s not a very welcoming planet,” said Dr Frederic Pont, an astronomer at the Geneva Observatory, who helped make the discovery. “The water is frozen by the pressure, but it’s hot. It’s a bit strange … but in fact water can be solidified by pressure.”

The planet was first discovered in 2004 by a team of US researchers led by Professor Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley. It is one of more than 200 planets orbiting other stars that have been discovered in recent years.

Most were found by analysing the motions of their host stars. Although the planets are too far away to be seen directly, their existence can be inferred by the way their gravity tugs on their host stars, making them wobble.

The weakness of this technique is that it turns up planets in very close orbits, which by their nature are too hot to support life.

GJ 436b has one of the tightest orbits of these so-called exoplanets, circling its star every three days. So even though the star is relatively cool, the planet’s surface is hot, estimated at about 247 degrees. The key to the discovery that GJ 436b could be an ocean planet was its density. Researchers first determined the planet’s size by watching it pass in front of its star, causing a kind of mini-eclipse.

“The mass and radius that we measure for GJ 436b indicate that it is mainly composed of water ice,” the researchers said.

The planet could have an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, and a rock-iron core, like Earth. Large amounts of methane, which also shrouds Saturn’s giant moon, Titan, could be present. Combined with the scorching heat, that would make the planet hostile to life as we know it. However, if the planet is covered in water, it makes finding other planets with water in more hospitable orbital zones more likely.

Earth Lives on..

In following the public fad of saving the environment, the press has this week continued to cover the ‘Live Earth’, a series of concerts aimed at creating an awareness of global warming (Live Earth Link). The day itself revolved around 7-7-07 and will “use the global reach of music to engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis,” according to the website.

It will be based in the following cities: New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio De Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Hamburg, Istanbul.

Heres the Sydney Morning Herald’s view of the event: Full Story

Australian musicians will be first to take the stage in a series of seven international concerts to be televised globally as part of a climate change awareness campaign.
Missy Higgins will join the newly re-formed Crowded House and a host of home-grown bands at Sydney’s Aussie Stadium for the Australian concert to be held on July 7, the first of the seven Live Earth shows.

The event, which is aimed at prompting governments and business to help reduce carbon emissions, will be held over 24 hours and watched by an audience estimated at 2 billion people.

Sydney concert promoter Michael Chugg confirmed Higgins and Crowded House would perform on the Australian bill alongside Toni Collette with her band The Finish, Rob Hirst and Ghostwriters, Jack Johnson, The John Butler Trio, Wolfmother, Eskimo Joe, Paul Kelly, Sneaky Sound System and Melbourne band King Brown.

Crowded House frontman Neil Finn said his band was willing their bit in helping the environment

Finn said Crowded House’s involvement at Live Earth would be a “good bookend” for the band, almost 11 years after the group last played in Sydney at a farewell concert at the Opera House.

The Live Earth project is the brainchild of humanitarian concert organiser Kevin Wall and former US vice-president Al Gore.

“Live Earth will touch over 2 billion people with 24 hours of live music across seven continents and with an urgent, hopeful message to trigger a worldwide movement to combat the climate crisis and successfully solve it,” Mr Gore said in a pre-recorded address.

Live Earth events are billed as carbon-neutral, using recycled paper for ticketing and the ticket price includes public transport to the venues.

Washington Post: Full Story:

The hit-making record producer Pharrell Williams, the wizard behind the beats of everybody from Ludacris to Britney, promises it will be “the biggest party on Earth.” How big?

At the news conference Thursday announcing this summer’s ambitious “Live Earth” concerts — designed as an exercise in “mass persuasion” about threats of global warming — Al Gore described his vision: a 24-hour musical extravaganza across seven continents, featuring as many as 150 of the world’s top recording artists, introduced by an army of “celebrities and thought leaders” (think: Cameron Diaz and Richard Branson), playing before a total live audience of a million people, and reaching 2 billion more via television, radio and the Internet on July 7

The former vice president confirmed that while he was schmoozing at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, where he was a presenter, the Black Eyed Peas agreed to record a new song to promote the cause and perform at one of the concerts. Also off camera at the Grammys, members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers whispered to Gore: “We’re in.” The approximately two dozen artists confirmed today include Snow Patrol, Kelly Clarkson, Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, Duran Duran, Enrique Iglesias, Kravitz, Sheryl Crow and Snoop Dogg [for a full list, see box].

Kevin Wall, the concert producer who has handled the Madonna tours and the Live8 concerts to fight global poverty, promised that the biggest bands on Earth are rearranging their schedules to appear at the Live Earth events. The list of venues, artists and ticket sales will be finalized in March, he said, and in addition to the America-centric stars, each city would also present its own national favourites.

Wall is gunning for saturation coverage. The concerts will be streamed by MSN, the Microsoft Internet portal, and broadcast by NBC. The satellite radio groups Sirius and XM will feature the shows. Similar arrangements are being made in the other six nations. And at the centre of it all? “Two billion sets of eyeballs,” Wall said, “and we’ll hand the mike to Al Gore.”

The media heavily gives references to Prominence: Those in the limelight become the focus of the story, not the event itself.  The strong lineup of Artists throughout the 8 concerts makes it a prominent event

Timeliness: The timeliness of this story is critical. During the worst stage of  global warming, the initiative of Live earth is an inportant device. It is timely because of its relevance to global warming

Proximity: As well as being a world trend, this story has proximity because one of the concerts is in Sydney

Currency: The ‘fight against global warming’ initiatives is a current trend within the press

Melbourne Devastated by Drought

News.com.au today reported what all of Victoria already knows -that Melbourne, along with the east coast of Australia -is still firmly under the thumb of drought. Melbourne, which is more colloquially known as the Garden City has recorded its driest year on record. According to it’s source (the Bureau of Meteorology), Melbourne has received half of its usual average rainfall over the past 12 months. So to be the pessimist here but when was the last time anyone heard the devastation of drought in Goulburn or Toowoomba or other cities through Australia?? There are a lot of other regions throughout Austalia, which are under worse conditions, but a good ‘human interest’ article none the less.. See story below

• Melbourne notches up driest year on record
• Less than half the average annual rainfall recorded
• Follows 10 years of below-average rainfall

MELBOURNE has notched up its driest year on record, with less than half the average annual rain falling on the garden city.

The 40-year record was smashed at 9am (AEST) today with a measly 316.4mm of rainfall recorded in the past 365 days.

Melbourne’s average annual rainfall is 638.8mm, according to the Bureau of Meteorology

This record shows that unprecedented severe drought conditions persist in Melbourne and surrounding areas over the last year,” the bureau’s head of climate analysis David Jones said.

The previous record was 318mm set in 1967-68.

Weather bureau warning

The record follows an unprecedented 10-year pattern of below-average rainfall, prompting a dire warning from the weather bureau.

“Melbourne will need to experience significantly higher than average rainfall for sustained periods for water catchments to return to near-normal levels,” Dr Jones said.

Water restrictions remain at level 3a in Melbourne, despite water storages yesterday reaching the stage four trigger point of 29.3 per cent capacity.

The Victorian Government has refused to introduce the tougher bans, with Water Minister John Thwaites holding out to protect jobs in water-dependant industries, including car washes and nurseries.

Impact: This story holds a significant impact factor for Australia.. It puts into perspective just how bad the drought really is.

Timeliness: The story comes at a time when the drough is at one of its worst stages ever.

Proximity: The story not only relates to Melbourne, but rather nearly all of the Australian population

Currency: The drought is one of the most reported issues in the press at the moment.

 

Murdoch praised for green pledge

Heres an interesting comparison between rival newspapers shown on the 10th May. 

Rupert Murdoch’s ‘News Corporation’ is the lastest media group to join the fight for saving the environment. Mr Murdoch, News Corporation’s Cheif Executive and Chairman, made the announcement from New York last night. Full Speech

Murdoch was today congratulated by the Australian’s Green party in a story run in the website news.com.au (for which he is the chief executive and chairman)

The Story wrote:

He laid out the plan for the company’s film and television, newspaper, publishing and online divisions to reduce their energy use, invest in cleaner technologies, and buy carbon credits to balance out emissions that cannot be eliminated.

With the company’s carbon footprint estimated at 641,150 tonnes last year, Mr Murdoch said his strategy would be to reduce energy use as much as possible and switch to renewable energy sources.

“Can I congratulate Rupert Murdoch for moving to have a carbon-neutral News Corporation,” Greens leader Senator Bob Brown said today.

“I think we do need leadership from the big end of town on that. I’m not in the habit of being a eulogiser of Rupert Murdoch, but credit where it’s due, and that’s a great move, and I hope that example will be followed by other people in the business.”

 Another story that received attention from Murdoch’s speech in New York last night is that Rupert Murdoch himself recently purchased an environmentally friendly ‘Hybrid Car’

In an interesting comparison, I checked the SMH website and it made no mention of the ‘Environmentally friendly’ move by Murdoch, but the SMH on Wednesday 16th May did.

News Corporation now joins the Sydney Morning Herald and Sunrise as a ambassadors for the fight against global warming.

Going green: Rupert Murdoch says “we could make a difference just by holding our emissions steady as our businesses continue to grow, but that doesn’t seem to be enough”.

This story doesn’t hold too much relevance to most of the Australian population, it is simply Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to save the world. Interestingly, the story did actually receive some attention in other papers.. It was heavily nestled amongst the finance news in the middle of the Sydney Morning Herald..

Prominence: The story was prominent because it was to do with Rupert Murdoch, one of Australia’s biggest media men.

Currency: Murdoch made the announcement at a time where being ‘earthly’ is the popular trend

 

Frog-killer wiping out species

This article was written by Mark Shliebs for the Daily Telegraph on May 3. The Article looks at A DEADLY fungus that has killed thousands of frogs. The Chytrid fungus has brought about the extinction of 8 Species of Australian frogs and up to 100 worldwide, according to research by Kerry Kriger at Griffith University. [Full Story]

The chytrid fungus is responsible for the extinction of up to eight species of frogs in eastern Australia and up to 100 worldwide, according to research by Kerry Kriger at Griffith University.

Although it could wipe out a third of the amphibian population, the skin-disease caused by the fungus does nothing to threaten the cane toad population.

“The disease can have an 80 per cent mortality rate (on frogs),” the PhD student said.

“It’s likely to have driven about 100 species to extinction.”

In my opnion I find stories such as these should be more prominent stories than that of the Humpback whale incident (See story below). It is stories such as this-which see the possible extinction of 1/3 of the total frog population-that still remain relatively unexposed in the light of other stories..

A frog being swabbed to test the fungus. (news.com.au)

Currency: The story comes at a time, when Australia is becoming more beholden to the mighty ‘Cane Toad’. Although these stories aren’t directly related, there is some similarities between the two.

Proximity: As well as affecting frog species around the world, this story is highly relevent to the frog population in Australia.

Human Interest: Stories such as this are always going to brew human interest. The fact that innocent frog species are being wiped out is the significant point here.

Marina Man Fined for harassing rare whale..

The Sydney Morning Herald published an article on the 3rd May about a prominent businessman harrassing a humpback whale. [Full Story] Whilst this story has no where near the capacity of a global warming story I think it portrays what being in the limelight means to the media. The businessman, Denis O’Neil, was at the time putting plans in for a contreversial marina in Rose Bay. The Journalist did his research and managed to turn the story back on the individual.

Denis O’Neil, was at the time planning to build a giant marina in Rose Bay has been fined $10,000 for buzzing a rare humpback whale off North Head in a borrowed speedboat. O’Neil pleaded guilty in Manly Local Court this week to zig-zagging around and pursuing the whale last July.

Denis O’Neil, a former Olympian, has lodged plans for a 174 luxury boats in Rose Bay, which would be the largest marina in Sydney. (Last par)

I think if the person charged was just your average joe, the story wouldn’t of received as much media attention.

Promincence: Obviously the story wouldn’t have received nearly as much media attention if it didn’t involve someone in the limelight.

Timeliness: Because Dennis O’Neil is involved with a controversial development at present, it is crucial that the story be published now, other wise the story wouldn’t go anywhere.

Human Interest: Most people will have a soft spot for huge sea animals such as the Humpback Whale, this story would have created a lot of human interest

The Unusual: How often is it that we here of a grown man chasing a whale in a speed boat!!??

Dawning of a new hero..

After all the hype of ‘Earth Hour’ -the innaugural powersaving event by the SMH- it seems as though Channel 7 is now taking the reigns of the ‘Earth Saving’ hero’s. Yep, Mel, Kochie and the gang are now promoting a ‘Cool the Globe’ campaign on their popular morning show ‘Sunrise‘.

The ’Cool the Globe’ campaign is undertaking a number of issues all based around the global warming crisis. Interestingly, It will follow on from the Sydney Morning Herald’s Earth hour with “Lights of Australia..

The first Wednesday of each month has been designated Lights Off Australia night, when residents switch off lights and businesses turn off lights that aren’t required overnight.

 The Initiative is based on the website href=”http://www.cooltheglobe.com/” mce_href=”http://www.cooltheglobe.com/”

The website is quite informative and is showing many initiaves of saving greenhouse gases as well as general information about climate change.

Climate change is the greatest threat facing our planet. Humans are causing climate change, and humans can stop it getting worse. We can keep our planet healthy for future generations by acting on climate change now and reducing our greenhouse pollution.Australians are the worst greenhouse polluters per capita in the industrialised world. This is largely due to our electricity consumption, which makes up 35% of Australian greenhouse emissions.

Interestingly, I couldn’t find any other sources or articles which were publicated about Sunrise’s new endevour, which proves one immediate point from a consumer point of view.. Has the media become involved in the Global warming fix because they care?? Or does the media attempt these schemes as a pure struggle for ratings??  Judging from the the appearence of the SMH’s website since earth hour, one would definitely suggest the latter..

Timeliness: Timeliness is an important factor in this story. If Sunrise had proposed such an idea 15 years ago, people would probably think they were crazy!

Proximity: This story affects a large proportion of the Australian population.

Prominence: Because the members of Sunrise are individually promoting the earth, the story holds great prominence

Currency: We are in the middle of one of the worst global warming crisis’ ever, need I say more??

A Surfer’s Paradise

I found this interesting article in the SMH this week but it has also been mentioned in other news bulletins. The magnificent man-made waves of the Gold Coast ‘Superbank’ beach are now under ridicule for the havoc created on the shores of the Surfers Paradise.When the ocean produces lines of barrelling waves, some 500 surfers from around the world can litter the long line-up, hungry for the perfect wave. With this is mind, there is a constant line up of injured surfers-either by accident, dropping in or anger.   The article goes on;

“Australian big wave rider Dylan Longbottom, who rides 10 metre plus waves, had his jaw broken and checkbone fractured in an accident with another surfer at the break.”

“While in January a local surfer was fined and ordered to pay damages after being found guilty of serious assault on a surfer and beachgoer at Superbank over surfing’s cardinal sin – “dropping in” or stealing another surfer’s wave.”

The article takes aim at a ‘dark heart of surfing’, according to the reporter. I find this ridiculous-the sport of surfing shouldn’t be targeted in this article-those few idiots who are too aggressive or didn’t pay attention at surf school are the ones to blame. The beach is the heart of tourism at the Gold Coast, this asks the question if there should be more policing of the ‘Superbank’ wave break.

Impact: This story impacts the greater surfing population in Australia.

Conflict: The conflict that would follow on from the story between surfers, Gold Coast residents and businesses.

Proximity: Sand erosion is a factor on all coastal beaches throughout Australia