In Term 2 Year 8 we had to write a letter to our Member of Parliament concerning a relevant issue that they can address. I chose the subject of climate change as I believe it is a rapidly worsening issue that the Australian federal government must address. The letter I wrote is below:

11 May 2022

Mr Steve Irons MP

PO Box 1060

East Victoria Park WA 6981

Dear Mr Irons,

I am writing to request Australia’s federal government to further address the rapidly worsening issue of climate change and renewable resources.

I am a resident of WA and I attend All Saints’ College. Even with Australia’s Net Zero Emissions goal, there is much more the Australian government can do in preserving our world for future generations.

I believe this issue is the most relevant to us today and will be devastating if left uncontrolled. Interconnection causes a chain reaction that affects agricultural and rural areas first, then ravages the economy and ultimately the entire country. The children today will have to grow up in a bleak world of the future.

The multiplying effects of climate change are deadly. Warmer temperatures due to carbon emissions make weather patterns unpredictable and extreme, increasing natural disasters. The destruction of the disasters increases the average temperature. This makes climate change both rapidly worsening and terrifying.

The global average temperature has risen by 1.2 degrees in 170 years due to the Industrial Revolution. The over-popularity of coal (due to its plentifulness, efficiency, and cheapness to manufacture) and other non-renewable resources created a rising demand for factories. Massive amounts of greenhouse gases are produced through manufacturing, causing a spike in average temperature in a minimal period. This manufacturing style – while lessening due to innovation – continues today.

It is expected if the average temperature rises by 8 degrees, billions of lives will be lost. Yet this is not a problem of the future – especially in developing countries, some families cannot feed their children as farming is impossible due to the temperatures.

Even though every citizen can get involved in solving this issue, Australia’s federal government has the best position to mitigate climate change.

We are greatly fortunate as Australia is wealthy and has a sturdy workforce. We are one of the best candidates to aid developing countries from the ruin of climate change. In the past, Australia helped Indonesia and Thailand in measuring, reporting, and verifying greenhouse gas emissions.

There is the argument that developing countries shouldn’t limit their emissions as their focus is to build GDP first. However, it is possible to increase GDP while reducing emissions. Australia can continue supporting and developing technology to aid poorer countries from climate change.

One way is to invest in batteries and carbon capture technology. Battery prices decreased by 97% in the past 30 years, and carbon capture technology is also easy to acquire. Another way is to focus a larger ratio of taxes and efforts on technology and sustainability.

Limiting unrenewable fuel/resource industries and replacing them with sustainable technology on a national level would greatly help (e.g., primarily using solar energy). Sustainable livestock farming methods would also decrease greenhouse gases.

I understand that many industries solely depend on unsustainable methods and that job opportunities and workers will decline if limited. Many believe the economy will struggle if restrictions are placed. This is as many people value monetary income – and therefore non-renewable resources’ efficiency and cheapness – over preserving our environment.

I argue that setbacks in these industries will be short-term and outweighed by essential long-term benefits to the environment. An example is that traditionally fuelled car industries shifted to electric cars. The lack of jobs will quickly be overridden by job opportunities in developing technology/other works in favour of climate change.

These methods foster improvement without sacrifice. It is possible to reduce emissions while raising GDP – for example, the Czech Republic dropped CO2 emissions by 13% and their GDP grew by 27%. Better technology not only mitigates climate change but provides growth for the economy.

There is undeniable evidence that climate change is real and relevant, and it is also undeniable that the Australian federal government is in the best position to solve it. If these actions are put into place, I believe Australia will be a sustainable and prospering place for future generations to come.

Yours Sincerely,

Saskia Catalan

1. What is the project you have been working on?  What are the success criteria for the competition (i.e. how will your video be assessed)?  You may like to include a link to your video at this point (you can upload your video to Microsoft Stream).

Our video: https://allsaintswaedu.sharepoint.com/:v:/s/8Science2022WZ-8W-LeahKatherineSaskia/EVJpD25T6ZFGsaT6HST-n2QBpBn1qVCc_IhNEqo4ZjlhbQ?e=dsrZa5

At the end of Term 1 and the start of Term 2, we split into groups to make a video for the Science Sleek Geek Competition. The theme for the competition was ‘Change’, so we composed our video on the topic of climate change. The success criteria for the competition assesses how effective our video was in communicating scientific knowledge and how entertaining it was.

• How did you organise your group? Did each person have specific roles? Did each person have the opportunity to contribute their ideas?  How would you improve your work in this aspect if you had another opportunity to repeat the project?

Our group consisted of 3 people – me, Katherine and Leah. Although we didn’t concretely agree on roles, we naturally assigned ourselves tasks based on our strengths and circumstances. For example, I was away for a few sessions, so Katherine and Leah wrote the script and storyboarded, and when I came back I did the editing of the video. I believe each person had the opportunity to contribute their ideas: we collaboratively brainstormed on an online document. We ran into one problem when working on the project: we collected inaccurate information on the causes of climate change. We could improve our work if we had an opportunity to repeat the project by checking the sources of our information again.

• Did your group have any disagreements? What strategies did you use to resolve these conflicts? How would you improve your work in this aspect if you had another opportunity to repeat the project?

Our group did not have any disagreements. I think this was because we were already good friends as we chose our own group members and we had similar priorities for the project. Everyone agreed on each idea easily and we all contributed to the project using our individual strengths.

• How did your group manage your time? Did you finish the project on time? How would you improve your work in this aspect if you had another opportunity to repeat the project?

Our group managed our time efficiently and we finished our project on time. We allocated time to do each task of the project (e.g. brainstorming, production, etc.) accordingly up to the due date. I edited on the weekends to save time. In some of the first few sessions of working on our project, we weren’t very focused on our work. We could improve our time management by diving straight into work and tackling the largest tasks that needed to be done first.