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Listed under:  Science  >  Earth and space  >  Atmosphere
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Four Corners: Megafires

Are we approaching the 'age of megafires'? It might sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but some scientists believe there is cause for concern. Watch this clip to find out how bushfires as we know them are changing. Discover why.

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Colourful Weather, Ep 1: What shape is a rainbow?

All you need is water, the sky and sunlight and you’ve got something that’s colourful – with a pot of gold at each end. What is it? A rainbow! Find out what happens to sunlight inside a raindrop, why rainbow colours are always in the same order and the real shape of a rainbow. Tip: it’s not an arch!

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Catalyst: Plants and increased levels of carbon dioxide

We know that most plants use carbon dioxide to make their own food. So what might plants look like in 100 years if carbon dioxide levels continue to increase - will they become enormous and overtake our backyards? View the possible effects of changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide on plants and, in turn, humans and other animals.

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Keeping up with carbon

What is the carbon cycle and how does it affect climate? Find out in this fascinating clip from NASA, produced to celebrate Earth Science Week 2009.

Online

Recent evapotranspiration

This resource is a Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) web page with a map of Australia showing daily reference evapotranspiration and also tables of daily transpiration for each Australian state and the Northern Territory. Monthly data is available via the location links in the tables for each state.

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About evapotranspiration

This resource is a Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) web page about evapotranspiration. The resource explains what evapotranspiration is and provides information about how the Bureau's evapotranspiration values have been calculated. It explains how to access the Bureau's daily evapotranspiration maps and tables, provides information ...

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Wine-grape growing and climate change

View vineyards of the Yarra Valley region of Victoria in a news clip from 2006 and discover a warming climate's consequences for the region's wine-grape growers. This clip examines some of the ways these growers can adapt to climate change. An environmentalist also gives views on climate change and issues politicians with ...

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Chemicals on the Great Barrier Reef

This program deals with a range of human impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. Herbicides from land runoff have been traced to algae and sea grasses in river mouths and coastal zones along the Great Barrier Reef. Effects include retardation of photosynthesis and growth of corals. Other pressures on the reef include high water ...

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Drought culprit

This 12 minute video segment from Catalyst is an excellent resource for students researching how oceans influence conditions on Earth's surface. It demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of using models in science and how our understanding is open to revision as more information comes to light.

Interactive

Science Talk 2007: Jack Bacon

An interview with Dr Jack Bacon, NASA engineer and futurist. Jack talks to a teacher from Sydney Girls High School about his experiences on the Vomit comet and his research into alternative energy sources. Jack also shares with us his predictions for the future of science, space travel and energy sources.

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Solar thermal electricity

This program gives an update on research into solar thermal electricity. Liddell Power Station in the Hunter Valley, NSW is a hybrid power station using solar energy to pre-heat water and so reduce the use of coal and the production of carbon dioxide. Some scientists claim that harnessing the solar heat in an area 50km ...

Online

Climate educator guide, activity 5: investments in forest carbon

This is a teaching-learning resource containing teaching strategies and a student activity about identifying the valuable benefits, such as carbon sequestration, provided by forests. The resource has five tabs, four of which are relevant. The first tab provides information about policies and initiatives designed to protect ...

Online

Food for thought: learn resources for science

This is a rich resource for teachers about the impact of climate change on small-scale farmers. It includes two sets of resources, one for the primary level and the other for the secondary level. Each set of resources includes: a teacher guide with learning activities; worksheets for students; crop cards; and a PowerPoint ...

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The price of peak fuel

This ABC In Depth feature article discusses the projections of how long will our energy resources will last given that our need for fossil fuels is insatiable, but coal, oil, gas and uranium reserves are finite and some may even be in decline. This article is comprehensive, but it is dated at 2008.

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Science Talk 2007: Jeremy Leggett

An interview with Dr Jeremy Leggett, global environmental expert from Solarcentury in the UK. Jeremy talks to a teacher from Leumeah High School about global warming, fossil fuels and the design of carbon neutral buildings.

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Forest learning: How is carbon stored?

This resource is a ten-page pdf produced by Forest and Wood Products Australia about the role forests play in reducing climate change. It includes sections on: properties of carbon; how carbon is cycled in ecosystems; the chemical formula for photosynthesis; and calculating CO2 stored in trees. The resource also includes ...

Video

Cloud seeding

This nine and a half minute video segment from Catalyst describes how researchers from Monash University have hard evidence that cloud seeding can produce good amounts of extra rainfall. Data collected over a long period of time has give hope to scientists and environmentalists who are trying to reduce the impacts of droughts ...

Interactive

EarthViewer

Journey through geological time and discover changes on Earth from the Hadean time, more than 4.5 billion years ago, through to today. Find out about plate tectonics, continental movement, atmospheric conditions, life on Earth, extinction events, fossil sites and much more. Contains many features which include allowing ...

Interactive

Why is the ozone hole bigger in the less polluted southern hemisphere?

This article provides an excellent model of a scientific explanation. It addresses the question "if the atmosphere in the northern hemisphere is much more polluted than it is in the southern hemisphere, why is there an ozone hole in the south and not in the north?"

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Climate science analysis from The Conversation

This is a collection of articles about climate science. It includes articles about modelling, explanations about heat trends, predictions about sea level rise, and why the science about climate change is clear. The articles are written in plain language and are authored by experts from universities in Australia and around ...