Australian Broadcasting Corporation



BTN: Episode 3 Transcript 20/2/18

Hey, Amelia here. Thanks for joining me for BTN.

Here’s what’s coming up today.

• Meet a 40,000-year-old skeleton called Mungo Man.

• Find out how heatwaves actually happen.

• And we investigate how gravity works by dropping things over and over and over again.

Cape Town Water Crisis

Reporter: Matt Holbrook

INTRO: You'll see all that and more soon. But first, we're heading to Cape Town which after a long-running drought is now just months away from running out of water. Here's how the residents there are trying to delay what they're calling 'Day Zero' or the day the taps dry up.

MATT HOLBROOK, REPORTER: Just the sight of rain is enough to get people here in Cape Town really excited. Cape Town is a city in South Africa, and for a couple of years now, it's been struggling with a really bad drought. But in recent months, the situation's got worse, and a bit of rain isn't anywhere near enough to help. Water reserves are so low that the whole city is at risk of running out.

Authorities predict taps could be turned off by June 4, and they're calling that "Day Zero". Here in Australia, water restrictions are something many of us have experienced. But Cape Town's are something else entirely. People have been allowed just 50 litres a day, since February 1st.

And 50 litres doesn't actually get you that far. For example, dishes and laundry, 18 litres a day. 90 second shower, 15 litres. 1 toilet flush, 9 litres. Washing your hands, 3 litres. Cooking, 2 litres. Drinking water, 2 litres. 1 dog bowl, 1 litre. And that’s your 50.

If you want more than a minute and a half long shower, or to go the toilet more than once a day, you're in trouble. And people have gone through some extreme lengths to save water. Showering just a handful of times a week, or avoiding washing their clothes.

MARILYN BIGGS, CAPE TOWN RESIDENT: We can't believe nowadays that we miss out on rain. It's very dry in Cape Town. But, we know that God will send the rain.

As the drought continues, people are asking questions about how it was allowed to get so bad, and what's going to happen next. In 2014, the city's water sources were at capacity. But as drought stretched on, water supplies have been stretched to their limits.

ANGA, RESIDENT: The water situation is making our lives very difficult cos we apparently now live, now today we've got water, tomorrow we don't.

RESIDENT: I think the water is going to run out, it's very scary to think about, but I think it's a reality.

PREMIER HELEN ZILLE: This will be a disaster above all disasters. No city in the world has had to deal with a situation such as the taps running dry.

If ‘Day Zero’ does arrive, many will have to go to collection points guarded by security forces for a daily ration of just 25 litres of water. But in the meantime, the restrictions are making a difference. Pushing back the date of 'Day Zero", from April, to May, and now June. Hopefully by then these areas will be recovering.

Mungo Man

Reporter: Ruby Cornish

INTRO: Next today. The oldest skeleton ever found in Australia, Mungo Man, has been returned to his home 40,000 years after his death. He spent the past 40 of those years being studied by scientists. But while he's now been returned to the area he once lived in there are still arguments over what should happen next.

42 thousand years. That's more than 15 million sunrises. It's an amount of time pretty much impossible to imagine, and that's how long-ago Mungo Man lived. Mungo Man is the nickname given to the oldest skeleton ever found in Australia, and his discovery rewrote our history. Mungo Man was found here, in the Willandra Lakes Region at Lake Mungo. It doesn't look much like a lake these days but back then it would've been very wet here. Geologist Jim Bowler found Mungo Man's skeleton on a research trip in 1974. The discovery was a big deal because it proved that Aboriginal people had been here about twice as long as previously thought.

MARY PAPPIN: Mungo Man showed Australia that Aboriginal people have been here for a very, very long time.

Scientists were able to tell a lot about what Mungo man's life would've been like back then by studying his skeleton and the burial site. Mungo Man was about 50 when he died, which is pretty old for an early human. He was tall with big teeth (but missing two at the front). He had bad arthritis in his elbow, most likely from spending a lot of time throwing a spear. When he was buried, he was laid out carefully and sprinkled with red ochre, so he was probably an important guy.

JIM BOWLER: It was a remarkable moment of realisation of just how modern the Earth’s earliest Australians really were.

To do all this research on Mungo Man, scientists took him away from where he was buried and kept him in a university lab. This made the traditional Aboriginal owners of the Willandra Lakes angry because nobody asked their permission.

MARY PAPPIN: These are our ancient cemeteries. These are our burial grounds. These are what we hold very dear to us because we know our old people are sleeping there. Taking the bones away and taking them to a city is taking that person away from their spirit.

It led to years of disagreement between the scientists who were studying Mungo Man and the people who wanted him back in his resting place. In November last year, Mungo Man's skeleton was given back to the traditional owners of his land. Jim says, over time, he's learned why that was such an important thing to do.

JIM BOWLER: I realise that when we took those bones away there was a lot of hurt amongst Aboriginal people. We owe an apology for science and what science has done to Aboriginal people in the past.

And the apology was accepted.

MARY PAPPIN: Thank you Jim. We welcome what you just said. Thank you.

But that's not quite the end of the story. The traditional owners of the Willandra region are now deciding whether Mungo Man should be reburied and left to rest forever, or whether scientists should be allowed to study him again when technology improves. Until they decide, Mungo Man is being kept in a secret place on the country he once called home.

Ask a Reporter

Have you got a question about Mungo Man? Ask me live on Friday during Ask A Reporter!

Head to our website for all the details.

This Week in News

First up, there are a lot of people calling for Barnaby Joyce to step down as Deputy Prime Minister.

Last Friday the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull criticised Mr Joyce who's been in a bit of trouble lately.

Soon after, Mr Joyce fired back calling the PM 'inept' among other things.

He's taken a week off work but says he intends to come back as Deputy PM afterwards.

Meanwhile, the clean-up has begun in Northern Western Australia after it was hit by a category two cyclone over the weekend.

Cyclone Kelvin recorded wind gusts of more than 150 kays an hour and damaged some major roads which authorities say could take months to be repaired. Broome is now on track for one of its wettest seasons on record with around one year's worth of rain falling in just one month.

Over in New South Wales, the government's looking at introducing new rules to help kids recover from concussions.

Experts say kids need a lot of time to recover from the effects of a concussion so they've recommended at least two days off school when diagnosed with one.

Meanwhile, a new study has found that a lot of kids are getting hurt at indoor trampoline parks. Over the past six years more than 450 kids have ended up in emergency departments.

The most common injuries were sprains, strains and dislocations but there were also some fractures and even head injuries.

Most parks go through checks each year to make sure their trampolines and foam pits are safe but health experts reckon the rules could be better.

In Argentina some of the country's beaches have been taken over by penguins.

Hundreds of thousands of Magellanic penguins have been hanging out here for breeding season but experts say they'll soon say goodbye and swim north to warmer waters.

And finally, check out this video of a snake in Tasmania that has surprisingly good balance.

The video was posted on social media showing a tiger snake slithering along a wire fence.

Experts say snakes are actually very good climbers and this one was probably just a bit curious.

Heatwaves

Reporter: Jack Evans

INTRO: Next up. Queenslanders have suffered through some really high temps over the past week and they're not the only ones to sweat it out this summer. It left us wondering - how do heatwaves actually happen? We asked the ABC's weather experts to give us the low down.

Heatwaves are Australia's deadliest natural disaster, they’ve killed more people than bushfires, cyclones and floods combined. But have you ever wondered where heatwaves come from? Well, they come from here: the central Australian desert. The reason the outback is so hot and dry is because of a big high-pressure system which often sits over us. To understand more you really have to go up. You can't see it, but I am surrounded by a high-pressure system. It's very dry and there's not a lot of wind so the temperature just builds and builds.

You might have seen weather maps like this one, the H here represents a high-pressure system and it usually means good weather and clear skies for those below. The L represents a low-pressure system and that usually means the weather could be cloudy or rainy. High and low-pressure systems are actually moving across the country all the time. Often, it's high pressure systems that are responsible for pushing dry warm air towards the coast. But it takes more than that to cause a heatwave.

There are a few different systems that can contribute. First droughts, if there is a drought here the air that gets pushed down here will be hotter than usual. And if that high-pressure system doesn't move the hot air will stay around for longer making the heatwave worse. Cyclones can also help to cause a heatwave. If there’s a cyclone around here it can push the heat here where it gets sucked down over central Australia adding to the hot air already there. If these conditions happen to combine then the heatwave is going to be much more intense and dangerous.

DR STEPHEN GOURLEY: Well, heatwaves are so dangerous because people are often caught unawares when they do it. They’ll go out on a day when they can usually get away with something and when it is really hot their normal activities can lead to being over heated. You are particularly vulnerable at the extremes of age. So the very very young and the elderly are more particularly at risk of getting heatstroke but anyone is susceptible anyone and that's why it's a problem.

Out here in Alice forty degrees is just another summer’s day. But down in Tassie, a couple of days over thirty can be enough to be dangerous. It's all about what you're used to. So, keep an eye on your local forecast and the next time there’s a heatwave on the way take it easy in the sun, and keep an eye out for your elderly neighbours and relatives. Perhaps go for a swim.

Quiz

What’s the hottest temperature ever recorded in Australia?

40.6

45.6

49.6

The answer is 49.6. That was recorded at Moomba in SA.

BTN Investigates: How does gravity work?

Reporter: Jack Evans

INTRO: Hi BTN, my name is Zia and my question is: How does gravity work?

It dropped. It fell. Oh no. It dropped again. Is gravity getting you down? Introducing, Gravi-gone, 'cause you're a better you in space. Thanks, Gravi-gone.

JACK: Pfft, as if anybody’s gonna fall for that.

MATT: Hi, yes, I’ll have one Gravi-gone please, or 2, we’ll just make it 4.

Unfortunately for Matt there is no escaping gravity, here on Earth anyway. Gravity is basically the super glue that holds everything down, in fact, it’s the reason we even have a 'down'. But how does it actually work?

Well gravity is one of those things people have been wondering about for a really, really long time. There were lots of early theories and experiments to try to find out why things fall down. The guy who most of us think of as the grandfather of gravity is this guy, Sir Isaac Newton. He was an English mathematician, astronomer, theologian, author and physicist who came up with a theory about gravity almost 300 years ago. The story goes that Newton was sitting under a tree when an apple fell and hit him on the head.

JACK: Although some say that never actually happened, but whatever. But, whatever. The point is that whatever fell whether it was an apple or a banana or a fish led to Newton asking this question.

Why did the apple fall down onto the ground and not up into the sky, hmmm? He realised there must be an invisible force pulling the apple to the ground and he called that force gravity.

Now gravity works because every object that has mass is attracted, or naturally pulled towards, every other object that has mass. The force of that pull depends on how much mass an object has. An apple has a small mass whereas the Earth has a much, much larger mass so the apple falls towards the Earth. But the interesting thing about gravity is that it pulls everything towards the Earth at the same rate. That was discovered by a famous Italian guy called Galileo who dropped a heavy ball and a light ball from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa. Both were said to have fallen at the same speed.

JACK: Although that probably didn't happen either. But in any case, the moral of the story is that the two balls would fall at the same speed.

Of course, if you dropped a feather and say a hammer the feather would obviously take longer. That's because air pushes against the feather more than the hammer slowing it down as it falls. However, if you did the same experiment somewhere without an atmosphere, say on the moon, you'd find they both fall at the same rate. And here's proof from US astronaut David Scott in 1971.

DAVID SCOTT: How ‘bout that.

Speaking of space, in order to get to the Moon, you have to fight very hard to break away from gravity. Which is why you need a really big rocket to say send a sports car into space. And why you'll need something more legit than a Gravi-gone.

MATT: I'm not sure if these are working. I need to buy some more.

Quiz

If you dropped something, how far would it theoretically fall in one second?

1.8 metres

9.8 metres

90.8 metres

The answer is 9.8 metres.

Sport

It's been an exciting first week for the Aussie Olympics team at the Winter Olympics.

Matt Graham picked up silver in the men's moguls. Jarryd Hughes snagged silver in the snowboard cross and Scotty James took out bronze in the snowboard half pipe while his school cheered him on back home.

Nice!

Meanwhile, Melbourne City is celebrating its third straight championship in the W-League after defeating Sydney F-C 2 - nil.

Jess Fishlock made all the difference scoring in the 35th minute and then delivering this free kick that led a second goal from Jodie Taylor.

City is the first club in league history to claim three consecutive titles.

Footy fans have now had their first taste of AFL X. It's the league's new pre-season comp with modified rules. It's played on a rectangular ground with fewer players on field and much shorter games.

There's no centre bounce after a goal and a ten-point super goal is awarded if it's kicked from 40 metre mark. After three big nights the overall winners were the Adelaide Crows, Melbourne Demons and the Brisbane Lions.

Donovan Mitchell has won the NBA's annual dunk contest. The contest pits the league's best dunkers against each other and this year saw some impressive ones.

This amazing recreation of Vince Carter's 360-degree spin dunk from the 2000 comp got Mitchell the win. This was a highlight, too. An incredible "double tap" dunk.

And finally, Tasmania has held its first state scooter comp. More than 50 riders took part and some of their tricks and stunts were pretty impressive. Out of the fifty riders, only two were girls.

AMEYAH: Me and her were the only girls, so I kind of had to come second.

That's something the organisers want to change next time.

DYLAN MORRISON, SCOOTER PRO: In 10 years there might be like 100 girls in the comps.

Scooter Pro Dylan, says the sport is growing in popularity every year and so is the quality of competition.

DYLAN: It was so much fun. I never thought it would get this crazy but it has and now I'm over here inspiring all these little kids to do their best in comps.

Indigenous Winter Olympian

Reporter: Matthew Holbrook

INTRO: Finally today, 21-year old Harley Windsor made history last week as the first Indigenous Australian to compete at the Winter Olympics. So, let's find out more about him and his journey to South Korea.

This was an incredible moment for Harley. The culmination of a life-long dream, and a milestone for the whole country. The first time an Indigenous Australian has competed at the Winter Olympics. But it all started back when Harley was just 9 years old.

HARLEY WINDSOR, SKATER: I got in to figure skating by accident. I took a wrong turn with my mum one day and I found Blacktown ice-rink, so I asked if I could go in and everything took off from there. It was so different to the regular sports and I'd never done it before so it sort of was a bit of an exotic sport to try.

It turned out he was a natural.

HARLEY WINDSOR, SKATER: From such a young age I always did Aboriginal dancing, and I've always been involved in Aboriginal culture, so I guess that's helped a bit with the movement on the ice and the transition from dancing from when I was young to skating now has really helped.

By the time he was ten, he'd won gold at a state championship, and within three years he was competing overseas. Things have really taken off since pairing up with Katia, who moved here from Russia two years ago to dance with Harley. Their sport is all about working in unison with your partner, and includes things like lifts, death spirals, and throw jumps, so you really need to be able to trust them.

KATIA, SKATING PARTNER: I like skating with Harley, he's a good partner. He's not angry, he's quiet.

Their partnership was tough work to start with, because they didn't speak the same language. But it turned out to be a good match. In March of last year, Harley and Katia became World Junior Champions. The first Aussie pair to win the title. Now he's officially an Olympian, Harley would like to use his achievements to inspire other Indigenous Aussies.

HARLEY WINDSOR, SKATER: At first it was a little bit of a shock and stuff like that, but I guess it just makes me feel a bit proud and a little bit honoured that I can be the first one.

And while this team won't be coming home with a medal this time, this is just the start of what they hope to accomplish.

HARLEY WINDSOR, SKATER: It's going to be a good memory for me and a good experience that I can carry with me for the rest of my life.

Closer

And that brings us to the end of today's show but you can always head to our website for more including your chance to submit a question for BTN Investigates and I'll see you next week for more BTN.

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