Here's the full solution for MUM 2010. Use it to develop your news broadcast.
Shockwave on the Shoreline
Climate change is caused by a tiny change in temperature. In 2020 average temperatures in Australia will be just 1.5°C higher than in 1900. However a small change in average temperature can make a big difference to our lives. There will be a lot more days over 35°C, more severe droughts, more intense rain and more floods. It also affects our oceans as warmer sea temperatures impact on marine life such as seaweed.
Like most of us, the inhabitants of the small seaside town of Mallacoota in East Gippsland knew little about their underwater kelp forest. But they certainly knew what lived there - abalone. The wild east coast of Victoria had an abundance of the shellfish and for fifty years the townspeople had been harvesting abalone commercially. When the State Government limited the number of abalone licences to just 71, the shellfish became a multi-million dollar business and the town’s most important industry, supporting a range of businesses such as boat dealers and refrigeration companies.
Tourism also flourished. The pristine nature of East Gippsland, the subtropical rainforest in Croajingolong National Park, the inlet estuary consisting of Top Lake and Bottom Lake, wildflowers, boating, fishing, walking the wilderness coast, swimming, bird-watching, and surfing attracted visitors every year. Flush with money the tourism operators also moved up-market renovating their un-insulated homes with heated bathrooms, laundries and central heating for those cold Gippsland nights.
Over the years, Mallacoota became hooked on consumerism. In fact when home theatres with plasma and LCD screens went on the market the concept was so enthusiastically embraced by the town the local cinema was forced to close.
With every appliance on standby contributing up to another 15% of each household’s electricity usage, the surge in electricity use was dramatic. The amount of electricity the town used increased so sharply, the electricity supplier upgraded the cable.
Mallacoota was only a tiny player in this buying spree. With a steadily rising stock market and no world war in 60 years, wealthy societies around the globe rushed to buy the latest gadget or appliance designed to make life easier. But it also dramatically increased people’s reliance on fossil fuels such as oil and coal, releasing more and more carbon into the atmosphere, enhancing the greenhouse effect which trapped the planet’s heat.
The warming atmosphere increased the flow of the East Australian Current (EAC) that flows down from the Coral Sea every spring and summer. If the EAC isn't there, the water temperature drops from a tolerable 18 ºC in September to a bone-tingling 12 ºC, the ocean temperature at the same latitude across the Pacific in Chile. But sea-temperature records showed that this warm current is pushing further south, warming the usually cooler waters off south-eastern Australia. Between 1944 and 1999 rises of 1.5 to 2.3ºC were measured in minimum sea-surface temperatures from NSW to Tasmania. This temperature change had a big impact on the large kelp forest off Mallacoota.
Kelp forests provided habitat for an enormous range of sea creatures such as sponges, fish, rays, sea stars, seadragons, crabs, crayfish and abalone, all of whom play a vital part in the local marine ecology. In the 1970s, riding in with the warmer water, came urchin larvae of the Long-Spined Sea Urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii) now able to survive at these more southerly latitudes. The Long-Spined Sea Urchin eats every kind of seaweed and when conditions are good they can destroy entire kelp beds. By May 2010 the exploding population of Sea Urchins had destroyed the kelp habitat of the Mallacoota abalone, leaving little in their wake. This did not bode well for the Weedy Seadragon who also lived in the kelp.
While initially distraught, the Manager of the Co-op, Gazza Breezely, saw opportunity in the crisis. He decided to turn the abalone processing plant into a temporary Sea Urchin processing plant and sell the highly priced delicacy in the Japanese market. Co-op members were sworn to secrecy. Without the kelp the resource would not last in such numbers. The Co-op needed to tie up their export contracts so they could make a fortune before the outside world cottoned on, or before the resource disappeared.
But things did not go as planned for the Co-op. The Weedy Seadragon is Victoria’s marine faunal emblem. Every ten years the Seadragon’s population is counted by volunteers. In April, the Eastern Seaboard Marine Authority (ESMA) asked the local Eco-Tourism Committee to report on the growth in Seadragon numbers. Unaware of the destruction of the kelp forest the ETC President, Emily Vasilopoulos, asked abalone fisherman Gazza Breezely and local surfer turned businessman Stevie Poynter to do a count.
Mallacoota is still a small town and in a small town people tend to stick together. On May 16 the two men reported the complete absence of the Weedy Seadragon from the area. They made no mention of the destruction of the kelp forest.
For the ambitious Emily Vasilopoulos, losing the State’s emblem was a disastrous career move. On the evening of May 17, 2010 Emily placed an emergency call to Catchment Headquarters to report the murder.
VICTIM: Weedy Seadragon Phyllopteryx taeniolatus,
VILLAIN: Rising temperatures
CRIME SITE: Genoa catchment, Mallacoota Victoria
Shockwave on the Shoreline
Climate change is caused by a tiny change in temperature. In 2020 average temperatures in Australia will be just 1.5°C higher than in 1900. However a small change in average temperature can make a big difference to our lives. There will be a lot more days over 35°C, more severe droughts, more intense rain and more floods. It also affects our oceans as warmer sea temperatures impact on marine life such as seaweed.
Like most of us, the inhabitants of the small seaside town of Mallacoota in East Gippsland knew little about their underwater kelp forest. But they certainly knew what lived there - abalone. The wild east coast of Victoria had an abundance of the shellfish and for fifty years the townspeople had been harvesting abalone commercially. When the State Government limited the number of abalone licences to just 71, the shellfish became a multi-million dollar business and the town’s most important industry, supporting a range of businesses such as boat dealers and refrigeration companies.
Tourism also flourished. The pristine nature of East Gippsland, the subtropical rainforest in Croajingolong National Park, the inlet estuary consisting of Top Lake and Bottom Lake, wildflowers, boating, fishing, walking the wilderness coast, swimming, bird-watching, and surfing attracted visitors every year. Flush with money the tourism operators also moved up-market renovating their un-insulated homes with heated bathrooms, laundries and central heating for those cold Gippsland nights.
Over the years, Mallacoota became hooked on consumerism. In fact when home theatres with plasma and LCD screens went on the market the concept was so enthusiastically embraced by the town the local cinema was forced to close.
With every appliance on standby contributing up to another 15% of each household’s electricity usage, the surge in electricity use was dramatic. The amount of electricity the town used increased so sharply, the electricity supplier upgraded the cable.
Mallacoota was only a tiny player in this buying spree. With a steadily rising stock market and no world war in 60 years, wealthy societies around the globe rushed to buy the latest gadget or appliance designed to make life easier. But it also dramatically increased people’s reliance on fossil fuels such as oil and coal, releasing more and more carbon into the atmosphere, enhancing the greenhouse effect which trapped the planet’s heat.
The warming atmosphere increased the flow of the East Australian Current (EAC) that flows down from the Coral Sea every spring and summer. If the EAC isn't there, the water temperature drops from a tolerable 18 ºC in September to a bone-tingling 12 ºC, the ocean temperature at the same latitude across the Pacific in Chile. But sea-temperature records showed that this warm current is pushing further south, warming the usually cooler waters off south-eastern Australia. Between 1944 and 1999 rises of 1.5 to 2.3ºC were measured in minimum sea-surface temperatures from NSW to Tasmania. This temperature change had a big impact on the large kelp forest off Mallacoota.
Kelp forests provided habitat for an enormous range of sea creatures such as sponges, fish, rays, sea stars, seadragons, crabs, crayfish and abalone, all of whom play a vital part in the local marine ecology. In the 1970s, riding in with the warmer water, came urchin larvae of the Long-Spined Sea Urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii) now able to survive at these more southerly latitudes. The Long-Spined Sea Urchin eats every kind of seaweed and when conditions are good they can destroy entire kelp beds. By May 2010 the exploding population of Sea Urchins had destroyed the kelp habitat of the Mallacoota abalone, leaving little in their wake. This did not bode well for the Weedy Seadragon who also lived in the kelp.
While initially distraught, the Manager of the Co-op, Gazza Breezely, saw opportunity in the crisis. He decided to turn the abalone processing plant into a temporary Sea Urchin processing plant and sell the highly priced delicacy in the Japanese market. Co-op members were sworn to secrecy. Without the kelp the resource would not last in such numbers. The Co-op needed to tie up their export contracts so they could make a fortune before the outside world cottoned on, or before the resource disappeared.
But things did not go as planned for the Co-op. The Weedy Seadragon is Victoria’s marine faunal emblem. Every ten years the Seadragon’s population is counted by volunteers. In April, the Eastern Seaboard Marine Authority (ESMA) asked the local Eco-Tourism Committee to report on the growth in Seadragon numbers. Unaware of the destruction of the kelp forest the ETC President, Emily Vasilopoulos, asked abalone fisherman Gazza Breezely and local surfer turned businessman Stevie Poynter to do a count.
Mallacoota is still a small town and in a small town people tend to stick together. On May 16 the two men reported the complete absence of the Weedy Seadragon from the area. They made no mention of the destruction of the kelp forest.
For the ambitious Emily Vasilopoulos, losing the State’s emblem was a disastrous career move. On the evening of May 17, 2010 Emily placed an emergency call to Catchment Headquarters to report the murder.
VICTIM: Weedy Seadragon Phyllopteryx taeniolatus,
VILLAIN: Rising temperatures
CRIME SITE: Genoa catchment, Mallacoota Victoria
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