Latest news with #UniversityofTasmania
ABC News
5 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Former Tasmanian governor Sir Guy Green dies aged 87 after long legal and public career
Flags at Government House are flying at half mast in honour of the former governor of Tasmania, Sir Guy Green, who has died aged 87. He is being remembered as an exceptional statesman as well as a person with a great sense of humour and love for his community. Sir Guy, who also became chief justice of the Supreme Court in his 30s, was born in Launceston in 1937 and attended the Launceston Church Grammar School. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Tasmania in 1960. The current governor, Barbara Baker AC, said in a statement that Sir Guy would be remembered "for his exceptional service to our Tasmanian community across many fields, from the law to education, science and the arts". "His dedication, knowledge and intellectual commitment to the many roles he undertook during his distinguished career were matched only by his passion for Tasmania and its place in the world.' The Supreme Court of Tasmania also issued a statement, noting "with deep sadness that Sir Guy Stephen Montague Green AC KBE CVO has passed away … Tasmania is much the poorer for his passing". Premier Jeremy Rockliff acknowledged Sir Guy's career and paid his respects to the Green family. "As governor, Sir Guy will be remembered for his devotion to the people of Tasmania that was above and beyond his duties." "Sir Guy's life reminds us that true leadership is measured by purpose and service. Tasmania is richer for his contributions, and he will be remembered with deep respect and gratitude." Sir Guy is survived by his wife, Lady Rosslyn Green. He was father of Jill, Ruth, David (dec) and Chris. After a period of private legal practice in Launceston, Sir Guy served as a magistrate from 1971 until he was appointment as Tasmania's chief justice in 1973. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982 and he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1994 as well as being appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order during Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Tasmania in 2000. Sir Guy served as governor of Tasmania for eight years — from 1995 to 2003 — where he was the first Tasmanian-born person to hold the role. During his time as governor, he also served as administrator of the Commonwealth of Australia on several occasions. Sir Guy was actively involved in a number of community organisations, including serving as chancellor of the University of Tasmania from 1985 to 1995. He also served as chairman of trustees of the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery (TMAG), chairman of the board of the Ten Days on the Island festival, chancellor of the Australian Priory of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and chairman of the Churchill Memorial Trust. Former TMAG employee Peter West said it was "like opening the floodgates" thinking about all the memories he had of Sir Guy, from when he was chairman of Trustees. "While he wasn't a slap-stick comedian, he was one of the funniest men I've ever met," Mr West said. "His humour was just so engaging, his intellect was amazing." Mr West said Sir Guy was part of the team, along with director Bill Bleathman, in 2014 that enabled a significant redevelopment of the museum and art gallery site. "Bill and Sir Guy were two great men who worked really closely together and whose passion for the museum enabled the $30 million redevelopment to happen." Dr Tony Press, an adjunct professor at the University of Tasmania, and chair of the Tasmanian Antarctic Gateway Advisory Committee says Sir Guy will be greatly missed by Tasmania's Antarctic community. "I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Guy Green. Among his many achievements, Sir Guy was a champion for Antarctica, and a strong advocate for Tasmania's place in Antarctic affairs," Dr Press said. "He put a great deal of intellectual effort [forward] when he was governor of Tasmania, and afterwards as Tasmania's Antarctic 'ambassador', into Antarctic policy, law and advocacy." A private funeral for Sir Guy Green will be held.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
500km Australian toxic crisis triggers release of seven-point plan: 'Nowhere is safe'
As the worst Australian algal bloom in recorded history continues to kill almost everything in its path across 500km of coastline, the nation's top experts have released a seven-point plan to deal with the problem. With extreme events like this expected to occur not just in South Australia but around the country as climate change worsens, the Biodiversity Council – an independent expert group founded by 11 universities – has created a plan to protect tourism and fishing jobs as well as the environment. One of the plan's authors, Dr Scott Bennet, from the University of Tasmania Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, warned that 'sadly, nowhere is safe' from marine heatwaves. 'We don't see this as an isolated event. This is symptomatic of broader climate change and marine heatwave impacts that are happening around the country,' he told Yahoo News. 'Until this event, South Australia had been relatively immune, and it was an area of least concern. All the ingredients are in these other places for similar events to happen, and they have happened on the east and west coasts, just at a smaller scale.' What is the seven-point plan? The seven-point plan is contained within a new report, Key actions needed to respond to South Australia's catastrophic toxic algal bloom, and the recommendations are: 1. Investigate and fast-track emergency interventions for species at high risk of extinction or major population declines. 2. Immediately invest a minimum of $10 million to start research to understand the impact of this bloom and inform plans for what to do when the next bloom hits. 3. Accelerate Australia's decarbonisation efforts and become a global leader in climate action. 4. Reduce nutrient and dissolved carbon pollution. 5. Restore and protect marine ecosystems. 6. Establish a long-term monitoring program for the Great Southern Reef 7. Establish mechanisms to plan for and respond to catastrophic natural disasters Key sign algal bloom is now fuelling itself The scale of the karenia mikimotoi algal bloom is associated with events linked to climate change. The first was the flooding of the Murray River, which resulted in nutrient-rich water entering the Southern Ocean in 2022/2023. The second was a cold upswelling that drew this runoff to the surface. And the third was a marine heatwave that began in September, 2024. It was in March, 2025 that dying fish began to be documented, and a group of beachgoers reported feeling sick. Since then, more than 14,000 observations of dead marine species have been recorded, and 450 species have been impacted. Some, like the giant cuttlefish and leafy seadragon, have restricted ranges, and their long-term future is in doubt. 'We did initial surveys at a couple of sites that were known as good "leafy" sites, but we didn't see any,' Bennett said. 'They're only found in southern Australia, so if we lose these local populations, that's most of the species' distribution. And once they're gone, they're gone, we can't bring them back.' The problem is greatest when you look under the surface of the ocean, as report author and Biodiversity Council member Professor Gretta Pecl explained. 'Looking at the footage under the water, it's absolute devastation. What's turning up on beaches in South Australia is only the tip of the iceberg. There are dead bodies lying everywhere, decaying,' she said. Bennett added that because everything across the ecosystem has been impacted, there's nothing to feed on the bodies of dead organisms. 'There's an idea now that the bloom is fueling itself… the dead stuff is just decomposing, and all those nutrients are then recycling back into the system,' he said. It had been hoped the problem would dissipate over winter as the air temperature cooled, but this has not occurred. Now the winter solstice has passed, and the weather is warming again. Calls for Albanese Government to declare a disaster While the Albanese Government has committed $14 million to help South Australia respond to the problem, Environment Minister Murray Watt has said he's not able to officially declare the situation a Natural Disaster. The Malinauskas state government has connected the bloom to climate change and voiced concerns the problem will occur again. It is understood to have spoken to the Commonwealth about updating the 2018 Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, so future blooms can be declared Natural Disasters like floods or bushfires, streamlining the process for securing federal funding. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called for the Albanese Government to declare the situation a 'national disaster', referencing the National Emergency Declaration laws that were introduced in 2020. This was activated once before in 2022, when flooding along Australia's east coast killed 26 people and displaced thousands. It would need to be declared by the Governor General at the request of the Prime Minister, and it would open up significant emergency management resources to tackle the problem. Yahoo has asked Minister Watt's office if he has broached this idea with Albanese, but it has yet to respond. In a statement, a Commonwealth government spokesperson said the response was the 'primary responsibility' of the South Australian government, but it would support its efforts. 'The health and resilience of Australia's ocean is a high priority for the Albanese Government. We are deeply concerned by the widespread marine species mortalities caused by this extreme event,' it said. Marine heatwave bigger than South Australia Pecl, who is also a professor at the University of Tasmania, said she believes the response from government should match the scale of the impact and the risk. 'For example, when we had the massive Black Summer bushfires, there was $2 billion in the national bushfire recovery fund, including a $200 million response for wildlife,' she said. The marine heatwave isn't just isolated to South Australia, the problem has been detected all around Australia's coastline, killing up to 80 per cent of corals in one surveyed region in Western Australia, and bleaching reefs on the east coast at the same time. 'Scientists have been banging on about this for 30 years now, so it's not a surprise to us. These patterns are entirely consistent with what we thought would happen. They are a very strong indication of exactly the magnitude of the challenges we'll face in the future,' Pecl said. Addressing whether Australia is doing enough to slow climate change, her response was blunt. 'I can conclusively say that whatever we're doing is not enough,' she said. 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Miami Herald
21-07-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Climate change is making fire weather worse for world's forests
In 2023 and 2024, the hottest years on record, more than 78 million acres of forests burned around the world. The fires sent veils of smoke and several billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, subjecting millions of people to poor air quality. Extreme forest-fire years are becoming more common because of climate change, new research suggests. 'Climate change is loading the dice for extreme fire seasons like we've seen,' said John Abatzoglou, a climate scientist at the University of California Merced. 'There are going to be more fires like this.' The area of forest canopy lost to fire during 2023 and 2024 was at least two times greater than in the previous nearly two decades, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers used imagery from the LANDSAT satellite network to determine how tree cover had changed from 2002 to 2024, and compared that with satellite detections of fire activity to see how much canopy loss was because of fire. Globally, the area of land burned by wildfires has decreased in recent decades, mostly because humans are transforming savannas and grasslands into less flammable landscapes. But the area of forests burned has gone up. Boreal forests lost more than two times the canopy area in 2023-24 compared with the period between 2002 and 2024, the study found. Tropical forests saw three times as much loss, and North American forests lost nearly four times as much canopy, mostly because of Canada's wildfires. Significant losses were in remote forests, far from human activities. That isolation suggests that fires are increasing primarily because of climate change, said Calum Cunningham, a fire geographer at the University of Tasmania who was not involved with the study. 'Chronic changes in climate are making these forests more conducive to burning,' Cunningham said. Climate's fingerprint on forest fires, particularly remote ones, can be obvious. That's because fires are limited either by how much there is to burn or by how wet or dry the fuel is. So, when scientists see more fires in remote forests, far from cities, infrastructure or other human activities, such as logging, they look to climate for an explanation. Specifically, they look to fire weather. Fire weather encompasses all the conditions that have to be right for a blaze to take off. Unrelenting spells of hot, dry weather and high evaporation rates let plants and soil dry out. Local wind patterns can shift, potentially pushing fires across a landscape, up and over hills and roads. Longer, hotter, drier stretches of fire weather make fires more likely. Climate change is making severe fire weather more common around the world, raising the chances of worsened forest fire seasons, a study in the journal Nature Communications found. Previous work has shown that climate change is in many places making the fire season longer. But many studies that attribute climate change to fires are regional, not global. The study assessed globally how much more likely extreme fire-weather conditions are to occur in the modern climate, compared with the preindustrial period, before greenhouse gas emissions rose significantly. The researchers used satellite observations of burned areas, along with weather data, to connect observed fire weather with actual occurrences of forest fires. The chances of seeing extreme fire weather are roughly double in today's climate compared with the preindustrial period, the researchers found. Years with extreme fire-weather conditions had more forest fires and more carbon dioxide emissions than typical years without severe fire weather. Carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, acts as a blanket in the atmosphere, trapping the sun's heat and warming the environment. Neither study's findings were particularly surprising to the experts, because most of the regions that the studies highlighted have burned in recent years. Both studies add to a growing body of evidence that points to climate change as one of the main reasons that the planet is experiencing more frequent and more severe forest fires, often overlapping. 'It really puts to bed any debate about the role of climate change in driving these extreme fires,' Cunningham said. When more places are hit with fire weather at the same time, countries' capacities for sharing firefighting resources drop. 'You get stretched thin,' Abatzoglou said. Reduced firefighting can create a dangerous feedback loop: Bigger fires mean more emissions, which creates more fire weather and makes future fires more likely. Budget and staffing reductions at science agencies in the United States, along with policy changes, can exacerbate climate-driven changes to fire trends, said Peter Potapov, an ecologist at the World Research Institute who led the PNAS study. For instance, repealing the 'roadless rule,' which banned roads in some remote American forests, could increase human activity there, along with fire risk. Terminated satellites could degrade fire forecasting. And funding cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, a State Department program that has been largely dismantled by the Trump administration, ended a program that helped other countries improve their fire-monitoring capabilities. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
Perth Now
19-07-2025
- General
- Perth Now
Stories in the stars shared at science festival
Theresa Sainty can't imagine looking up at the night sky and not seeing the stars. The Pakana woman says looking up at the night skies above lutruwita (Tasmania) she can see the creation stories of her people. "It's important, culturally, for us to be able to continue that," she said. "It is a part of culture and it is part of caring for Country." Ms Sainty, a scholar at the University of Tasmania, will share stories of Wurangkili Liwari Nipaluna (the night sky of Hobart) with visitors to the city's Beaker Street Festival. Drawing on her work in language revitalisation and traditional knowledge systems, Ms Sainty will talk about the connection between the sky, land, culture and people. The session, held on kunanyi (Mt Wellington), is not about becoming an expert in Palawa creation stories and astronomy, Ms Sainty said, but gaining an understanding of the ways culture has endured for thousands of years. "It's about continuing the Palawa story, which is a story of survival and initiative and adaptability," she said. "We were the first astronomers, we were the first scientists and I think it's really important that the wider community ... know that we have survived and we continue with culture that has miraculously continued uninterrupted irrespective of colonisation." At nearby Piyura Kitina (Risdon Cove) Kitana Mansell will be telling stories of Palawa people and celebrating their knowledge and strength through food. The event, ningina Palawa kipli piyura kitina-ta, which means to give, to get, to bring Palawa food, was more than a shared meal, she said. "It's a journey into the heart of what Aboriginal food is and our culture and telling those stories of Country and tradition," Ms Mansell said. "Piyura Kitina is a perfect example of how we've been able to do that with the land given back to our community since 1995, showing how we as Aboriginal people can take care of Country in our own way, and not having rules and regulations around practising our culture." There's a dark history at Risdon Cove, as the site of first impacts of colonisation in Tasmania. But Ms Mansell said she hopes to showcase the native flavours of the area, and the stories that stretch far beyond colonisation. "For over 150 years Aboriginal people were not allowed to eat our traditional foods, or practice our cultural harvesting," she said. "To be able to have the responsibility as a proud Palawa woman to showcase that we're reconnecting back to our food and our history, it's a great opportunity." Beaker Street Festival will be held on August 12-19.
The Sun
15-07-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Sabah, S'wak gain voice, but autonomy push remains
PETALING JAYA: Although Sabah and Sarawak have gained increased representation in the federal government, analysts say ongoing discussions over administrative powers and jurisdictional responsibilities remain relevant, particularly in sectors such as oil and gas, education and healthcare. University of Tasmania professor Dr James Chin noted that the inclusion of leaders from East Malaysia in senior federal roles marks a significant development in terms of political presence. 'For the first time in Malaysian history, we have a deputy prime minister from Sarawak,' he said, referring to Deputy Prime Minister II Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof. He added that four Sarawakian MPs currently hold full ministerial positions – Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri (Women, Family and Community Development), Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi (Works), Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing (Tourism) and Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang (National Unity). In total, seven out of 28 full ministers are from East Malaysia, making up 25% of the Cabinet. Chin also pointed out that at the deputy minister level, representation is slightly higher, with six deputy ministers from Sarawak and seven from Sabah. However, he said despite this level of representation, there are continued calls from both states for greater decision-making authority in certain policy areas. 'In Sarawak, for example, there have been long-standing proposals for more local control over education and health services. These remain under federal jurisdiction,' he said. He explained that such arrangements reflect the broader framework of federal governance, where the central government maintains oversight over certain portfolios. 'Changes in governance structure typically require time and coordination among various agencies.' Chin also noted that political structures differ between the two states. In Sabah, the presence of multiple parties within the governing coalition can affect policy cohesion. 'There is currently no single party with enough seats to govern Sabah independently. This can influence the state's ability to negotiate or present unified proposals at the federal level,' he said. In Sarawak, the situation is more consolidated. Of the 82 seats in the state legislative assembly, 80 are held by Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), comprising Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, Sarawak United Peoples' Party, Sarawak Peoples' Party and Progressive Democratic Party. The coalition left Barisan Nasional in 2018 and has since governed Sarawak on its own. Chin said this stability has contributed to more consistent policy positions and engagement with the federal government. He also remarked on public perceptions in Sabah, where federal-state relations are sometimes viewed through the lens of political alignment. Nusantara Academy of Strategic Research senior fellow prof Dr Azmi Hassan offered similar observations. He said that political representation from East Malaysia has improved, though there are distinctions between the two states. 'Sabah is still developing a stronger coalition identity, while Sarawak's GPS is more established and cohesive,' he said. Azmi added that East Malaysian parties will likely continue to play a significant role in federal politics, particularly in light of ongoing political fragmentation in Peninsular Malaysia, as seen during the last general election. He also expects the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) to remain a point of interest in upcoming state elections, especially in Sabah, where it holds historical and emotional significance. 'While national issues remain important, MA63-related matters continue to be a key focus for many voters in East Malaysia,' he said. In a related update, Deputy Prime Minister II Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said on Monday that the federal government is expected to make a decision on matters related to MA63 on Sept 12. This will follow further discussions in a technical committee involving both Sabah and Sarawak.
