Are more Aussie trees dying of drought? Scientists need your help spotting dead trees

Most citizen science initiatives ask people to record living things, like frogs, wombats, or feral animals. But dead things can also be hugely informative for science. We have just launched a new citizen science project, The Dead Tree Detective, which aims to record where and when trees have died in Australia.

As climate change threatens Australian trees,
it’s important to identify which are at risk. 

The current drought across southeastern Australia has been so severe that native trees have begun to perish, and we need people to send in photographs tracking what has died. These records will be valuable for scientists trying to understand and predict how native forests and woodlands are vulnerable to climate extremes.

Read the piece from The Conversation - “Are more Aussie trees dying of drought? Scientists need your help spotting dead trees.”

Working from Home Makes Companies Greener and Saves a Bunch of Money

His company’s customers don’t know this, but when Darrel Stickler joins a video conference from his home in Mendocino, California, he does the “newscaster thing” — dress shirt and sports coat up top, a pair of shorts down low.

“I admit to that,” says Stickler, the affable head of environmental strategies and initiatives at San Jose–based Cisco Systems who telecommutes four days a week.

Many companies now offer employees the opportunity to work from home at least part of the time. In fact, remote work has jumped by 115 percent in the United States since 2005, according to the 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee Workforce report by FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics.

Read the Medium story by Carol J. Clouse - “Working from Home Makes Companies Greener and Saves a Bunch of Money.”

Gathering Beneath the Wisteria is good for our health

Those of us who gather each month Beneath the Wisteria in Shepparton are playing our part in the broader betterment of humanity’s health.

The implications of that are explained in an account about health and how the taking of action about climate change is implicated is spelt out in a report, “Our Uncashed Dividend”.

The report, subtitled: “The health benefits of climate action”, is the work of The Climate and Health Alliance and the Climate Institute.

Early in the introduction the report says: “Climate change is already contributing to increasing public health problems: injuries and deaths associated with more extreme weather events such as fires, storms and droughts; worsening of chronic illnesses; the spread of infectious diseases; deteriorating water and food quality and availability; declining air quality; and the displacement of populations—all will impact on human health and well-being”.

Conversations about mitigating climate change frequently, rather always, become distracted and derailed by concerns about economic implications, but many of the present carbon abatement proposals have been costed and shown to be economically advantageous, and good for our health.

The final paragraph of the report’s conclusion says: “Finally, given both the tremendous health risks of a more hostile Australian climate and the potential benefits of action, a national health and climate change plan is needed. Such a plan could help communities, businesses and government better prepare for climate change, take advantage of the opportunities provided by low-carbon initiatives, and take actions that cut emissions and promote better human health”.