AQ Volume 93, Issue 2

AQ 93.2 - April 2022

Embracing the Complexity of Bushfire in the Pyrocene

The Earth has been on fire for 400 million years. Fire is a part of our cuisine, our language, our psyche, and our culture, but it does not mean that our relationship with the phenomenon is fixed. In fact, the changes wrought by our own development and industry have changed our relationship with fire. It’s not simply that climate-change is shifting the carbon cycle, or that our populations and land use have altered the interface between fire and humans…it’s more complicated than that.

Hamish Clarke

Places, Systems and Stories: The Role of Storytelling in Place-Based Initiatives

When it comes to communities, a one-size-fits-all model of intervention is flawed. Instead, place-based approaches attempt to move away from centralised methods of social improvement, towards collaborative, long-term systemic change. Yet evaluating these discreet, tailored interventions can be hard. Humans are storytelling creatures, so how can narrative help us understand the changes in people’s lives and the impact on communities?

Thea Snow, David Murikumthara, Teya Dusseldorp, Rachel Fyfe, Lila Wolff, Jane McCracken

Context Matters: Science, Policy and the Lingering Effects of Colonialism

General wisdom is that robust scientific evidence can help inform smart and effective government policy – and many western countries have established science advice systems. But what about developing countries that are being encouraged to adopt similar practices to deal with the pandemic, meet the SDG goals, and battle climate change? The models and literature on science advice is largely western centric and doesn’t necessarily accommodate the lingering impacts of colonialism or non-western contexts. We can do better.

Chloe Patterson

State Of The Nation: Start Me Up - Science Creates Business

When innovation is done well it can look to an outsider as if a revolution is plucked clean out of the air…but in reality, innovation is the result of decades of commitment, investment and long-term thinking. Queensland’s burgeoning culture of innovation and entrepreneurialism is a testament to the work that has been put in by government, business owners and creative citizens over the long-term. Prof Hugh Possingham is the Queensland Chief Scientist and he takes us on a flyover of some of the amazing things coming out of Queensland science.

Hugh Possingham

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