Think sustainability 2SER 107.3

The way we produce our food needs to change. Our current practices will not meet the demands of a growing population and a warming climate. Algae, that slimy green stuff you find at the beach, might just help us more sustainably produce our food. 

This episode looks at how Algae biotechnologies are revolutionising the agriculture and aquaculture industry. 

Featured: Professor Peter Ralph, Executive Director of Climate Change Cluster at The University of Technology Sydney, Dr Graeme Barnett, CEO and Managing Director of Qponics Limited and Bastien Finet, Operations Manager at Pacific Reef Fisheries

LISTEN > How algae is Changing the Future of Food

In this episode of Think: Sustainability, we discuss space debris, what is it? And why is there more of it? This episode investigates the current and upcoming technology being used to remove space junk. We also speak with Dr Cassandra Steer, an expert in space law and policy, to find out who is held accountable for littering in space.

Presenter/Producer: Marlene Even. Featuring: Dr. Martin Bell, astrophysicist, and lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Dr. Cassandra Steer, a lecturer at the Australian National University College of Law and a mission specialist at the Australian National University Institute for Space, and Mike Lindsay, Chief Technology Officer, Astroscale.

LISTEN > Sustainability in Space

In this episode, we take a look at the world of conservation after two major blows: the Black Summer bushfires and COVID-19. How have these crises affected the work of conservationists? And what are their demands of government, heading into the future? 

Producer/Presenter: Julia Carr-Catzel 

Featuring: Dr Kellie Leigh, Executive Director, Science for Wildlife, Jonathan Webb, Associate Professor and Wildlife Ecologist, School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Reannan Honey, PhD student, School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney

LISTEN > The Search for Koalas 

How do we heal an ecosystem traumatised by fire? How will climate change result in more intense fires? And why aren’t we listening to Indigenous fire management recommendations from past inquiries?

Producer/Presenter: Julia Carr-Catzel

Featuring: Oliver Costello, CEO, Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation, Kevin Tolhurst, Associate Professor, Fire Ecology and Management, University of Melbourne and Brad Murray, Senior Lecturer, School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney

LISTEN > Preparing for the Next Fire

Warfare is destructive and absolute, but when conflict ends there is often surplus of weaponry. However, in burying or dumping these munitions when they’re no longer needed, we’ve threatened the fabric of fragile ecosystems. 

Featuring: Stephen Billings – Geophysicist with GapEOD (Gap Explosive Ordnance Detection Pty Ltd), Julie Konzuk – Principal Environment Engineer with Geosyntec Consultants and Dr Megan Phillips – Lecturer in the School of Life Sciences at Head of PhytoLab at the University of Technology Sydney.

LISTEN > Explosive Remnants of War

Thanks to overpopulation and man made climate change, global food stocks are running low. Enter ‘future foods’ – the gross, weird and wonderful things clickbait articles tell us will be on our dinner plate in ten years time. But as Think: Digital Futures host Cheyne Anderson finds out, there’s more to this debate than just eating worms.

Featuring: Jacqui Newling – Colonial Gastronomer at Sydney Living Museums, Dr Janice McCauley – Research Fellow in the Climate Change Cluster at the University of Technology Sydney, Judy Friedlander – Researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney and Olympia Yarger – Insect Farmer with Go Terra.

LISTEN > Future Foods

The data we collect via satellite informs almost all climate research undertaken today. So, why do half of the earth monitoring satellites currently in orbit restrict the use of climate data?

Featuring: Alfredo Huete – Distinguished Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, Mariel Borowitz – Assistant Professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Institute of Technology and author of Open Space and Rachel Licker – Senior Climate Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

LISTEN > Open Space

Will insurance companies ever offer cover for those living in a high risk flood zone?

Featuring: Lance Leslie – Professor of Climatology in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, Elizabeth Mossop – Professor of Landscape Architecture and Dean of the Design, Architecture and Building Faculty at the University of Technology Sydney, Tim Andrews – Principal at Finity Consulting and Gera and Cherina – Business Owners from Lismore, New South Wales.

LISTEN > When the Levee Breaks

As humanity continues to ponder its existence, ‘where did we all come from? Why are we here?’, researchers have suggested we may be asking the wrong questions in trying to uncover the answers. This episode we explore our evolving understanding of photosynthesis, and why the answers to some of our biggest philosophical questions could be locked in the process that enabled life to inhabit the planet, rather than what birthed us.

Featuring: David Suggett – Associate Professor in the Climate Change Cluster at the University of Technology Sydney, Tim Gibson – PhD Candidate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill University, Canada and Dr Robin Purchase from the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University.

LISTEN > Why Photosynthesis is our Genesis 

Australia’s long history with drought and fire has cemented a strong dependence to the water around us, so why do we continue to contaminate our finite supply? This episode we uncover what we’re doing to our water in ways you may not know about, and look at the efforts trying to appease the damage before it’s too late.

Featuring: Simon Mitrovic – Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, Maurizio Labbate – Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, and Lee Blaney – Associate Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, US

LISTEN > What Are We Doing To Our Water

When booking your last plane trip, you may have noticed the option to offset the carbon cost of your flight. Paying an additional fee to render your flight carbon neutral some say makes more aware of what they’re doing to the environment, but others criticise the idea calling it baseless and not as transparent as it may seem. This episode we explore how environmental offsetting goes way beyond the world of air travel and how these offsets could in fact devastate some of our most crucial forest and bushland.

Featuring: Dr Leigh Martin – Scholarly Teaching Fellow in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, Daisy Barham – Campaigns Director at the Nature Conservation Council and Simon Kilbane – Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture in the Faculty of Design, Building and Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney.

LISTEN > The Slippery Slope of Environmental Offsetting 

Martina Doblin, from the University of Technology Sydney is asking the public to come with her on an underwater journey with drifting microscopic plankton to help build a global picture of how the organisms are affected by changes in ocean conditions.

These microscopic organisms play a hugely important role in our ecosystem. Not only do they fuel the underwater food chain, but it is estimated that over 90% of the world’s oxygen is produced by marine plankton. 

Martina has spent her entire career looking at microscopic plankton under a microscope, and is excited the public will finally get a chance to see the underwater species that has such a large impact on our oceans, up close. 

LISTEN > How Data Visualisations of Plankton Can Connect Us To Underwater Ecosystems (2SER)

As global sea temperatures continue to rise, our coral reefs are turning from thriving marine ecosystems into underwater graveyards.

But scientists have discovered a set of coral superheroes who might save the day. 

Speaker: David Suggett, Associate Professor at The University of Technology Sydney

LISTEN > The Hunt for Coral Superheroes

Citizen scientists and members of the public have done everything from discover species, to document sea temperatures changes.

Just this year in Australia, an amateur astronomer named Andrew Grey, a mechanic from Darwin, helped scientists discover a whole set of new planets.

But why are people like you, donating their time, to help scientists document and discover. And is crowdfunding the scientific method really trustworthy?

Presenter: Miles P Herbert

Speakers: Annette Scanlon: Lecturer School of Natural and Built Environments, John Turnbull: Marine Ecologist and Social Scientist, University of New South Wales and Shuanna Murray: Associate Professor, Climate Change Cluster at the University of Technology Sydney

LISTEN > The Age of Citizen Science 

Australia’s tropical cyclone season began on November 1st and will run in till April of next year. The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted we will be impacted by 11 to 13 tropical storms.

But ocean temperatures are rising globally, and the BOM predicts the chances of more cyclones impacting Australia is 50 percent.

Think Sustainability spoke with  Lance Leslie, Professor in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney about what we should be expecting from this tropical cyclone season and how we might not be measuring the rising sea temperatures well enough.

LISTEN > What Does the Indian Ocean Have to Say About Tropical Cyclones (2SER)

Naomi has spent the last two years living in a tent in the Kimberley in Western Australia. But she’s not a backpacker, she’s not doing a roundhouse trip of the Australian countryside. Naomi is capturing cane toads and turning them into sausages. Speakers: Naomi Indigo – PHD Candidate in the Faculty of Science at the University of Technology Sydney.

LISTEN > Turning Cane Toads Into Sausages 

The Great Barrier Reef has taught us much about marine ecology, but there’s still so much we don’t know.

Do we have enough time to learn everything we can before the natural landmark is lost forever?

Speaker: Caitlin Lawson – PHD Candidate in the Climate Change Cluster at the University of Technology Sydney.

LISTEN > Why Are Corals So Gassy 

As the temperatures slowly begin to warm as we move into the summer months, so do our anxieties around bushfires.

Nearly 4 years on from the New South Wales Bushfires that resulted in two deaths, 500 destroyed buildings and $100 million in damages, it’s safe to say our relationship with these unpredictable blazes remains tense.

But what if we could tell ahead of time how bad the bushfire season was going to be?

Speakers: Rachael Nolan – Research Fellow in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney.

LISTEN > Can We Better Predict The Upcoming Bushfire Season (2SER)

The first recorded acid rain events date back to the 17th century, but it wasn’t until the early 1970s that it became a huge problem. Today, while the global community seems focused on dealing with climate change, what’s important about the story of acid rain is not only can it teach us how we can tackle global climate issues but also why we’re so bad at doing it.

Speakers: Derek Eamus – Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, Charles Driscoll – Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University, New York.

LISTEN > Whatever Happened to Acid Rain