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Listed under:  Science  >  Earth and space  >  Atmosphere  >  Climate  >  Climate change
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Understanding the causes of climate change

Did you know that climate change is not a recent phenomenon? In the past, natural events led to changes in the climate. Although natural events still affect climate, they're not enough to explain the big changes we've been seeing in the last 150 years. What changes on earth can account for such dramatic changes to our climate? ...

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Four Corners: TV killed the radio star

Can you imagine a time when, instead of watching dramas at home on a screen, people listened to them on the radio - a time when the most popular of those dramas were made in Australia? This Four Corners program from 1964 examines the reasons for the death of Australian radio serials, the role played by television in their ...

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Catalyst: Chemical pollutants toxic to whales

Explore how chemical pollutants affect the Antarctic food web. A scientist shows that baleen whales are consuming Antarctic krill contaminated by accumulated residues of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from pesticides and industrial chemicals. Find out why these pollutants are concentrated at the Earth's polar regions.

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Catalyst: Impact of coming to school on carbon emissions

How big is your carbon footprint as you travel to and from school? Watch Daniel O'Doherty, 2008 'Action Against Climate Change' Eureka Schools Prize winner, as he determines his hypothesis then designs and conducts a study about carbon emissions. Listen to the recommendations he makes to reduce and offset the emissions ...

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Catalyst: Climate and bushfires in Australia

What can science tell us about the major cause of bushfires in Australia's past? How can it help us predict future bushfires? Two scientists discuss evidence related to bushfire regimes (bushfire patterns, types and intensity). Please note that this clip contains recent images of homes destroyed by fire that may disturb ...

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Landline: Water footprints in food manufacturing

How much water does it take to produce a large packet of M&Ms? Watch as the 'water footprint' of some household products is presented and hear the concerns expressed about the methods used to calculate these footprints. Discover how an examination of the water used by the components of some manufactured foods has led to ...

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Four Corners: Fire management strategies

What role do fire-behaviour specialists and ecologists have in fire management? Watch this clip to find out about issues relating to fire management in Australia, in particular prescribed burning.

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Foreign Correspondent: Sustainable tourism

The Yucatán Peninsula in south-eastern Mexico is a popular tourist destination. This clip focuses on examples of sustainable tourism - tourism that aims to have a low environmental impact. View Tulum, a town under threat of being developed similarly to Cancún, a major tourist resort destination.

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Four Corners: Surfies, clubbies and a changing way of life

What effect did the rise of surfboard riding and its accompanying surf culture have on surf lifesaving? In the early 1960s, surf lifesaving was regarded as a model of the values that underpin the Australian way of life. This clip from 1964 explores the collision between the new surf culture and the traditions of the surf ...

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Five Australians: Charles Perkins fights for racial equality

Why is Charles Perkins remembered as a significant leader in the struggle for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples? In this clip, he looks back on two campaigns that brought him to public attention in the 1960s and were part of a wider struggle to end racial discrimination in Australia. This clip ...

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Catalyst: Aboriginal fire knowledge reduces greenhouse gases

Come on an eye-opening trip to Western Arnhem Land in northern Australia to find out how Aboriginal fire-control techniques are used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by thousands of tonnes.On the trip you will also find out how exploding ping-pong balls are used to create low greenhouse gas firebreaks at the right time ...

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ABC News: Sound waves measure ocean temperatures

View how scientists use underwater sound waves to measure ocean temperature changes in the Indian Ocean. The animations show how the technology called acoustic thermometry works. Australian scientists are working with a global network of 'listening posts' to monitor the long-term effects of climate change on ocean temperatures.

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Four Corners: Surf culture hits Australia in the 1960s

How did surf culture change Australian popular culture? Rock music and the concept of the 'teenager' had arrived in Australia in the 1950s but in the 1960s the surfboard gave rise to a new youth subculture. This clip from 1964 explores conflict in the water and cultural changes that came with the rise of the 'surfie'.

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Foreign Correspondent: New dam, new house: The Mekong

The mighty Mekong river provides a way of life for millions of people, and is arguably the most important resource in the developing country of Laos. Discover how villagers are being relocated to make way for hydropower dams on this river, which stretches for nearly 5,000 kilometres from the mountains of Tibet to Vietnam. ...

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Daisies describe an ecosystem

Ecosystems are affected by many factors including increasing temperatures, which many scientists believe threaten natural systems on Earth today. This creative clip uses a theoretical world of black and white daisies to show how changes to the natural reflectivity of a planet's surface impacts temperatures and populations. ...

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Weekend Magazine: The Stomp, a 1960s dance craze

Imagine a dance so simple it could be learnt in minutes and so popular it became a craze. This clip from a Weekend Magazine program screened in 1963 looks at such a dance. It was called the Stomp and it was pounded out in surf clubs and council halls around Australia's coast. Watch and listen as teenagers express their ...

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Four Corners: Radio pirates, 1973

Imagine life before mobile phones. In this 1973 clip from a Four Corners program, discover the lengths that many determined Australians were prepared to go to in order to communicate through the air waves from their cars and other locations. This was long before the invention of mobiles, video conferencing, social media ...

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Landline: Winning the race to feed a growing population

The race is on to produce higher crop-yielding plants that will feed an ever-growing world population. See how scientists at the Plant Accelerator facility are investigating ways of increasing crop production. Some are focusing on conventional plant-breeding techniques while others are using GM (genetic modification) technology.

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Catalyst: Sustainable fish farming

There are already more people around the world who eat farmed fish than people who eat beef. With the world's population and demand for food increasing, why is it so important for us to farm sustainably? One fishery near Kakadu in the Northern Territory practises sustainable farming. Find out what makes this farm so sustainable.

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Landline: Feeding the hungry in Timor-Leste

It is often hard for a developing country to grow enough food to feed its population. In this clip you'll see the challenges encountered by the growing nation of Timor-Leste (East Timor). Listen to an AusAID organiser and the East Timorese president describe the importance of food, and the heartbreak of a hungry nation.