My trip-to-Australia story seems like a day dream. I took a one and a half hour flight from Houston to Dallas, then 17 hours to Sydney, which while extremely long but incredibly comfortable and easy. For some reason, the flight I took straight to Sydney was pretty empty and my original seating got switched, allowing me a whole three seat row (that doubled as a bed) to myself. Now, let's rewind a bit to the weeks leading up to the trip. This semester was my last at the University of Texas at Austin. I technically graduate at the end of summer, but I was allowed to walk across the stage in the spring ceremony. While walking across the stage and nearly gradating was amazing, I had no idea how stressful lining up plans for moving, graduation day, driving home to Houston, a graduation party and flying out all within days of each other would be. It seemed like I was moving, packing, unpacking and running thousands of random errands all day for two weeks straight, but once I finally got on the flight to Sydney, all of the stress fell right off of my shoulders. I slept, ate pretty good food for being on a plane, and caught up on a favorite show. Sydney was quick but fun. The part of the hostel I stayed in was an old house with some added touches like outside door locks and bunk beds to make it more secure. The room had amazing character in the hard wood floors and Victorian-esque light fixture. I hit all the major sights like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, The Chinese Garden of Friendship and Bondi Beach. The food was all delicious and included a variety of tastes from typical Australian like meat pies and Tim Tams (heavenly small chocolate-coated cookies) to different Asian cuisines like Thai and Chinese. Getting around on the buses and trains was super easy and even fun as I got to see more of the city. Overall it was a fantastic introduction to Australia that made me look forward to the rest of the trip even more. My good luck continued with a smooth flight from Sydney to Brisbane on Saturday and I got to see a few more things and eat before the program officially got started. My first solo flying and traveling experience has so far been close to perfect and I am beyond excited and optimistic for the adventure still to come!
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According to the MIT Technology Review, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced the establishment of a $1 billion clean-energy innovation fund ($760 million in American dollars) that will invest money into businesses and technologies that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now, if you just read that and though “Uh…okay? So?” Here’s why it’s a big deal. First of all, Australia is one the most vulnerable developed countries to effects of climate change. In recent decades, the country has experienced devastating wildfires and extreme degradation to coral reef systems due to rising temperatures and shifting, volatile weather patterns. Australia also heavily relies on coal to power two-thirds of its electricity, so a new fund that supports climate-friendly initiatives is being celebrated as a positive move by many. Another reason why this is a big deal is because of Australia’s political history of dealing with climate change. Before Turnbull, Prime Minister Tony Abbott was known for his skepticism of global warming and strong support of the coal industry and staunch opposition to a carbon taxing system.
Ultimately, it’s strange to see such abrupt differences in political action on climate change within a few years in Australia, but maybe this can be seen as a glimmer of hope on the horizon. For those in positions of power still standing in the way of climate change action, perhaps support for common sense changes to reduce green house emissions is just around the corner. I'm sure you've heard of it. Climate change, global warming, climate disruption...these are all terms for how weather patterns on Earth have been drastically changing. Some people argue that varying weather patterns are natural and have occurred throughout history, however, the rapid, intense and specific changes we are witnessing today can only be scientifically and logically explained by human activity. So what about human activity causes such a huge disruption in our natural climate patterns? The answer is greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, being added in huge amounts to the atmosphere by activities like deforestation and the mass burning of fossil fuels. Because of what’s called the “greenhouse effect,” these huge amounts are being added to the atmosphere at rapid rates, and once they hit the atmosphere, only part of the heat absorbed by the gases is released into space. This results in a steady rise of global temperatures that cause the melting of large quantities of ice, rising sea levels that threaten both poor and developed civilizations and increasingly dangerous hurricanes and storms. As we’ve seen in recent American politics, global warming is a concept that isn’t taken seriously by some groups due to belief that the science is inaccurate or conflicting or that taking action to prevent further damage will be too expensive and harm the economy. Though controversy surrounds the issue of climate change, we, as humans, can no longer ignore the blatant effects of it on our world. Confusing or not, the bottom line is that our global climate is changing, and, unfortunately, negative effects will only continue to become more detrimental to people, animals and habitats all over the world. |