Belbin team roles and my team.

Week nine has come to an end, and the seminar set to be sent for mailing today.

Today I am going to consider the Belbin team roles associated with me and my team mates. I remember reading through these roles in week five and finding it hard then to associate any of these roles directly to myself or my team. I found when I did associate myself with a role, there would be a certain aspect about it that didn't quite fit.

I think that our team was unique in the fact that it originally had two member in New Zealand and two in Dubai, and the only way to communicate was email. There was a certain time frame of about four hours where we could all directly communicate with each other if we were available.

Looking into the different roles, I could easily associate Sean with the role of resource investigator in both assignment two (A2) and the seminar (A3). In both experiences, he was a great communicator and completely practical. He gained ideas from the outside for the seminar and A2, these were outside of his subject from A1. I don't believe he was easily bored, as I think he enjoyed sinking his teeth into a paper.

I believe both Mandy and Sean took on the roles of complete finisher. They both paid high attention to detail, and in A2 Mandy had quality control. Sean took on quality control in A3. The role here has introverted noted down. I feel we may all be slightly introverted here, but that may be because we only ever had email contact. This way, we never got to see what we were all like as a team in person.

I feel that I fit into the team worker role, as well as Mandy. We were quite concerned about each other and the team all around. I am not sure we were the social glue of the team, as all three of us were quick to email when we needed to and reply to others thoughts, ideas, and concerns.

I also find that all three of us took on the role of implementer in each of our targets. As we live so far apart, and relied on email for contact, we set tasks and a time and a date to finish. We all stuck to our word and had our own work down on time. I feel we were all disciplined and hard working. I think we all got some direction from each other, and we shared ideas. I don't believe any of us were rigid or hated change as we faced some difficulties in A2, which we all took on board and worked that little bit harder. 

I believe we all played several roles each. I think we did extremely well despite the obstacles. I think if we had have been able to do this face to face from the start, more ideas would have come out and we would have done even better. As we relied on email heavily, we sometimes only got to see each others work close to the due dates instead of throughout. This was a new experience for me, and one I will find a lot easier the next time around. 

How does climate change effect us?

Climate change is a tricky subject. Some groups are willing to turn a blind eye and put doubt into the minds of others, as there is a fear that our comfortable lives may be thrown right out the window. So I thought I would address how climate change has one, proven to be human-caused and two, is happening right now. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report in 2001, noting that the only way to absolutely prove climate change is to do a controlled experiment.

But as we have only one Earth, we are currently doing our own uncontrolled experiment! We are injecting carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and other gases into the atmosphere, and then observing the changes.

And so, here, a computer model can be made to prove cause and effect. It includes all the natural variables from the earth such as weather fluctuations like the El Nino. The variables made by humans are also put in, such as CO2 and methane releases. This model is then a good description of how the system works. It will be able to show how the atmosphere responds to more CO2, or how reduced snow may effect different parts of the world. If the model is created well, it can be re-run, but all the factors by humans may be left out.

If the model without human inputs is inconsistent with the observed changes in temperatures, and if the model with human inputs is consistent, then one can be very confident, that the human inputs have made the difference. This shows that without the human input, the changes would not have been so dramatic.

Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are the three most important and damaging greenhouse gases. All of these gases are released naturally in different ways. But when looking at a graph like the one below, it shows that the natural forcings of these gases are small and relatively average across time. When this is coupled with human forces, then the warming is explained.

Should we care about the warming of the globe? What are the effects of climate change? One that most people have heard about is the polar regions are warming much faster than the rest of the world. The extremes being witnessed are consistent with climate models. In the artic, the sea ice is only half as thick as it was 30 years ago! This affects a range of wildlife. 

Another scary thought is that the Greenland ice cap is melting twice as fast as it was a few years ago, and if it completely melts, it holds enough water to raise the sea level by about 7 metres. All over the world, species are dying out or extending their territories to places that are now warmer or cold enough for them to thrive in.

The worst effect for humans currently would be the extreme weather changes. Droughts are becoming more regular. In Africa, droughts have increased by 30% since 1970. Droughts are the single largest cause of famine. On the other end, there are stronger storms and they are becoming increasingly more damaging. For example, hurricane Katrina, demolished an area the size of Great Britain, and caused $200 billion damage. It was the greatest storm loss in American history. As the climate continues to warms and the weather patterns continue to change, should we be preparing for even worse weather patterns? What can be done to stop this from happening?

Here is a link to a website that gives you tips on how you can help to protect the climate. It has tips for at home, work, school, and on the road.

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/

I hope this has some helpful information. There are plenty of eco-friendly tips on websites, books and magazines out there as well.

Hot Summer - is this a good or a bad sign.

Climate change has caused many debates the world over in the last few decades. And there is now very little doubt that climate change is caused by human action.

Climate change has always been something I am interested in. After all, we only have one Earth. There is hardly a place on Earth now that is not affected by the pollution made by man. One of the biggest effects of climate change is obviously warmer temperatures. As the newspapers this week confirmed, January has broken records in New Zealand (NZ) with an extremely sunny and dry month. The fifth of January saw a 35.1 degree Celsius high recorded in Clyde near central Otago. That far down south is saying something!!

And again hitting the papers this week is record-sized fish being caught in NZ's warm waters. Scientists are saying that NZ is lurching into a drought on the back of a likely El Nino global weather system. Because of this, there are countless marlin, kingfish, tuna, and what was once considered rare, tropical fish swimming in NZ waters.

But what is an El Nino global weather system. An El Nino happens when the ocean and atmosphere change their regular patterns. When the ocean currents shift, areas of warm water slosh back and forth. This sloshing influences low-pressure in the atmosphere, and the consequence of this is a change in wind and rain patterns. 

The name El Nino came about by Peruvian fishermen, who were the first to notice these irregular cycles of rising ocean temperatures as this determined the size of their catch. They named these irregular cycles El Nino, which is spanish for 'the Christ child' because they most often occur around Christmas. El Nino can cause intense storms and heavy rain, but more likely in NZ, warm, sunny weather, or droughts.

The world is getting warmer each year, and 2014 was the hottest recorded in 135 years. The water in the North Island this week touched on 24 degrees Celsius. This is 6 degrees higher than normal. Ocean environmentalists believe the warmth explains the unusually large marlin, and the return of tropical fish. An Aucklander is waiting for confirmation that she now holds the women's world record for catching the largest kingfish at 48.6kg. This was caught in the Bay of Islands.

While catching big fish, being able to swim longer over summer, and enjoying the intense summer may be a bonus for us all, but what does it actually mean for climate change? 

Next week I will address the consequences of climate change itself on NZ and the world in more depth. Enjoy the warmth, as there is still more to come!

Rochelle Potter from Auckland is claiming a world record for this kingfish.

Learning to work within a team.

Welcome back, and I hope that everyone had an exciting christmas with friends and family. This week I have decided to write about what I am learning from my topic for Assignment Two.

This is a very broad concept, as I feel I am learning more from this paper than any others I have taken so far. I am not sure if this because we have a team to keep in contact with. My team is great, and full of ideas and praise for each other. I have found that we can suggest new ideas easily, and ideas are formed through emails to each other.

We have a unique team in the fact that two members live in Dubai, and the other two are in New Zealand, but too far away to have face to face contact. We rely heavily on email contact. I have learnt that this way we really have to watch each others time zones, and help each other out where possible. I try to send through any data, drafts, questions etc by 8pm at the latest in NZ time, as this seems to be a good time of morning in Dubai for the other two members to pick it up. Then they have the day to work with that information, and I normally hear back from them by the time I wake up in the morning.   

I am also learning that while working in a team, we have to stick to what we have said in our work and deadlines. I have chosen to do two of the three questions in Set C: Healthy Communities. As the immunisation question was from my position paper, I already had a wealth of information. With the second question, I have used a teams members position paper, along with some extra information. I was fearful that I would not adequately be able to answer the question. But finishing the draft today, I feel I accomplished all the questions asked within the objectives. 

So apart from learning about immunisations and nutrition guidelines in a scientific context, I feel learning to work in a team has been a lot more beneficial to me. I have learnt to trust that my team mates will get their own work out on time, as well as realising that they also depend on me to do the same. I have also learnt to check my emails regularly. I think that the prompt feedback we give to each other helps, not only in our work but in how we feel about the progress the report is heading in. 

This time next week, we will have a finished report!