Btn: Episode 22 Transcripts 17/08/10

BtN: Episode 22 Transcripts 17/08/10

On this week's Behind the News:

Wild weather around the world but is it because of climate change?

The dark secret that lies behind these glittering gems.

And we go to cheese school all in the name of science.

Hi I'm Nathan Bazley, welcome to Behind the News.

Also on the show today, we meet the next 'big thing' of Australian basketball; a teenage girl who's more than 2 metres tall.

But first, we're in the last week of the election campaign and so the news has predictably been dominated by politics.

Let's round up what's happened in the wire.

The Wire

Tony Abbott is kicking a few goals.

Polls are showing Tony and the Coalition have gained ground over the last few weeks, although Labor still has the lead with voters, 52 to 48 percent.

But in this game, he says it's nothing personal.

TONY ABBOTT: “You don't dislike them, you just have to play them.”

Both leaders spent the weekend soaking up us much sport as possible or more likely trying to get the attention of sports fans.

But coming into the very last week, things are certainly getting competitive.

TONY ABBOTT: It's going to be a very hard election.

JULIA GILLARD: I think it's going to be one of the closest races the nation has ever seen."

On Monday, Labor officially launched their campaign with a song from a kid’s choir.

Then PM Julia Gillard sung a new song of her own.

JULIA GILLARD: “Yes we will.”

Now debate has turned to whether there should be another debate and who gets the medal on Election Day this Saturday, is looking harder and harder to tip!

Presenter: We've talked a lot about the political campaigns and their strategies over the past month and by now you've probably got an opinion on them.

Because you're too young to vote we thought we'd make a special poll this week that's just for you.

Online Poll

The question is:

Which of the two main political leaders has run the best campaign?

Julia Gillard

Tony Abbott

To vote, just head to our website.

Disaster Recovery Reporter: Natasha Thiele

INTRO: We often hear about disasters like floods, earthquakes and fires on the news.

But when the news stops reporting the story, it doesn't mean the disaster is over.

It can take years to rebuild a country and sometimes disease and lack of nutrition can be an issue long after the initial catastrophic event.

Tash looks at the long-term impact of disaster and how countries recover.

NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: Entire villages have been submerged.

They've lost their own families.

Many families without food, shelter or clean drinking water.

Transporting the sick and injured and delivering aid.

Natural disasters can throw a city and a country into unexpected chaos like the recent floods in Pakistan in South Asia.

More than one and a half thousand people have been killed and around twenty million have been affected as water swept away many homes.

The United Nations says it's affected more people than the Tsunami that hit Asia in 2004!

That's when a huge wave killed more than 230-thousand people from 14 countries.

When natural disasters like these happen, the rescue effort begins.

The priority is to save lives, then rescue those who are trapped or stranded.

In Pakistan the army helped this man to look for his family. They finally found them here and took them to dry land.

But there's a bunch of other things people need when disaster strikes, starting with medical assistance.

There's a range of disasters, each one presenting different types of injuries needing specific medical expertise.

Clean water is needed because it can become contaminated with germs and disease.

So trucks deliver tanks of water and people can fill up their own containers or are given bottles.

Water purification tablets are also important to make water safe to drink and stop the spread of disease.

Food is also on the checklist and things like packaged and canned foods provided, because it's safer than fresh food as it doesn't go off.

And finally people need shelter, like the tents we saw used in Haiti, when a powerful earthquake struck killing tens-of-thousands of people.

REPORTER: But what happens when the disaster doesn't make the news anymore? Well, just because we don't hear about it, it doesn't mean everything's suddenly okay! The recovery process can take years, often rebuilding entire communities from scratch.

So things like schools, homes and hospitals need to be rebuilt or fixed.

And that job can be made even harder when vast areas lose essential services like power.

Sometimes roads are wiped out, making it hard to get near to the affected areas.

So in the recovery process, people like engineers can be just as vital as medical workers.

To do all of this you need plenty of money.

Governments will either donate cash or it can be raised through special appeals to the public.

The affected country, the UN and aid agencies then need to work out how the funds will be used.

It can take a long time to put a country back together.

But as long as everyone works together to help out, countries can be repaired even if it does take many years!

Climate vs Weather Reporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: Pakistan isn't the only place that's had some wild weather lately.

There have also been floods in China and a dangerous heatwave in Russia.

So is there any kind of link between them?

And could it be evidence of climate change which we hear so much about?

Here's Sarah with the answers.

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: Living on planet Earth has always meant living with the best and the worst of the weather. But sometimes the weather behaves in a way you just don't expect and in extreme cases it can be deadly. This is Russia, a country known for its cold winters and mild summers. But right now people are struggling to cope with a record heatwave. Moscow's covered with smoke from bushfires around the country. Many people have died. In China and Pakistan too much rain has caused devastating floods. Even in Australia we've seen some strange weather lately - tornadoes and water filling lakes that have been dry for years.

REPORTER: So what's with this weird weather? Is this what they mean by climate change? And is there more to come?

I went to the Bureau of Meteorology to find out. Meteorology means the study of weather and that's exactly what these guys do. They track what it’s doing now and forecast what it’s going to do next.

REPORTER: The strange weather that we're seeing in places like Pakistan and Russia. Is that climate change?

PAUL LIANIO, METEOROLOGIST: If we experience it on a day to day basis its actually weather. So what we're seeing in Pakistan, what we're seeing in Russia, it's very unusual weather.

Paul explained that weather and climate are not the same thing. Weather is what's going on in the atmosphere at any one time.

PAUL: If we step outside now and the wind is blowing our hair, that's weather.

We measure the weather in four main ways; temperature, air pressure, wind and moisture in the air. Temperature is affected by the sun. Its rays hit different parts of the earth at different angles, giving us different temperatures around the globe. Water from the ocean evaporates into the air and is carried around the planet by winds. And the winds are caused by air pressure; how hard the air is pressing down on the earth. Those elements work together in a complex system that we call weather. Climate is what the weather does over a longer period of time. It tells us about what to expect from the seasons and the places we live. Climate researchers like Lorien study weather records dating back decades and even centuries and compare the conditions back then to today and they use other techniques to look back even further to see what the climate was like millions of years ago.

REPORTER: Are there patterns?

LORIEN MARTIN, CLIMATE RESEARCHER: Yes there are patterns. There are patterns over the short term and longer term.

Those long-term patterns are what we mean when we talk about climate change. Most climate scientists reckon the world is heating up and that could mean more extreme weather events. But extreme weather events have always happened, so it doesn't necessarily mean a changing climate.

Presenter: Weather's an interesting subject so let's have a quiz about it.

Quiz 1

Which country has experienced the hottest temperature on record?

Libya

Ethiopia

Saudi Arabia

Answer: Libya

It was in a place called El Azizia in 1922. The official temperature was 57.8 degrees Celsius.

Blood Diamonds Reporter: Nathan Bazley

INTRO: A couple of weeks ago supermodel Naomi Campbell appeared in a United Nations court but it wasn't for crimes against fashion or anything like that.

It's actually a very serious trial where the former president of Liberia is accused of war crimes.

So how is a supermodel involved?

Well it's all about a gift she was given more than ten years ago. Something now known as a blood diamond.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: Diamonds; they are marketed as a girl's best friend, the pinnacle of wealth, fashion and extravagance.

But behind all the glitz and glamour of one of the world's most popular gems, is a story that is as far removed from this world as possible.

It's a story of war, violence and death.

And at the centre of it all are these little stones, called blood diamonds.

Their journey all starts here; mines in war-torn countries like Sierra Leone and others through Africa.

These areas have some of the largest deposits of natural diamonds in the world, so you'd think they'd be rich.

But take a look around and you'll quickly realise that isn't the case.

Because this area was the centre of a horrible civil war that lasted more than 10 years.

The war was all over tiny little stones, diamonds.

Two groups, a government group and a rebel group, started fighting for control of the mines, knowing that whoever controlled the diamond mines, controlled the wealth of the country.

Mines were seized by force and the diamonds were often swapped for weapons.

Kids were forced to fight for both sides and those that didn't were punished.

In the end, around 120,000 people from this small country were killed and millions were forced to flee.

It was in the midst of all this that the term 'blood diamond' was born.

It refers to any diamond which is used to pay for war, which was a common practice in countries like Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia, Congo and the Ivory Coast.

The issue was brought to light in the movie 'Blood Diamond', starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

One of the men who worked on the film was there as the civil war took over. He is well aware of the true meaning of 'blood diamond'.

SORIUS SAMURA: I think for most Sierra Leoneans and myself, when we see a diamond, we see blood. We see dead bodies, we see burning houses, you know? It's all the negative things.

Eventually the rest of the world found out what was going on here and diamonds that came from these areas were banned.

NATHAN: These days things are a little better. Conflict-free diamonds are given certificates and transported in tamper-proof containers, so you can be assured that symbol of love didn't cause heartbreak overseas.

A very small number of illegal blood diamonds are still thought to be smuggled into the system, but authorities are trying to stamp this out while prosecuting those involved.

This brings us back to the red carpet and one of the people usually seen on it, supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Recently she was forced to swap the runway for the dock, as she gave evidence in a war crimes trial.

NAOMI CAMPBELL, SUPERMODEL: Two men were there and gave me a pouch and said 'A gift for you'. I saw a few stones in there. And they were very small, dirty looking stones.

They were uncut blood diamonds, thought to be from the president of a country neighbouring Sierra Leone, who's accused of being a big part in the fighting that went on there.

Which goes to show these beautiful stones, can hide a bloody and violent past.

Cheese School Reporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: Now, do you know how cheese is made?

If you don't you wouldn't be alone. It’s not something they teach you at school.

Or at least it never used to be.

In Queensland, they've started a program that mixes cheese making with high- school chemistry.

Sarah found out about a class that's swapped Bunsen burners for curds and whey in the name of science and agriculture.

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: Think of a chemistry class and you probably think test tubes, mixing solutions, periodic tables, probably not cheese.

KID: What?

But this is a Chemistry class and these kids are making cheese.

It’s an idea being trialled by 15 schools in Queensland; bringing cheese making into the science curriculum as a way of teaching kids how chemistry's used in the real world.

Because, believe it or not, there's some pretty complex chemistry involved in cheese making.

REPORTER: It's about actually changing the structure of proteins in the milk. You might have seen that happen naturally if you've let the milk go off. But cheese makers do it by adding mould and this stuff called rennet which is made from the enzymes in an animal’s gut. It makes the milk curdle. You get milky white whey and these lumpy curds. That's what the cheese is made from.

RUSSELL SMITH, CHEESE JUDGE: If you stop stirring for 10 seconds you're going to denature the proteins and you're really going to make it difficult for yourself.

But, before they could teach the kids, the teachers had some learning to do from Aussie cheese guru Russel Smith.

RUSSELL SMITH: I think it's a great opportunity for kids to see how, you know, one of the products’ basic primary products is produced.

They said not every kid would realise where cheese came from.

TEACHER: Talking to some students years ago asking them - younger students, not senior students - about where milk came from and a young girl told me they came from seals and she had no idea of a farm and cows and the only reason she said seal was that because on the label of the milk it was Paul's gold seal milk and so for all those years she thought it was seal milk.

Then came cheese making day at Sandgate High.

ALISON TURNER: The milk has quite a good fat content for making cheeses and then once they're properly warmed you will be putting them into your containers.

REPORTER: The kids were making camembert cheese. That's this stuff. It’s soft and mild and really creamy to taste.

Although to some Sandgate kids it seemed like a weird idea.

STUDENT 1: Camembert, honestly not really.

STUDENT 2: When we first were told that it was cheese making that we were doing this term I was a bit sceptic, I didn't think it was anything to do with chemistry at all but it's really interesting.

STUDENT 1: I thought cheese was just, you know, milk, done something to it. I didn't know it was moulds and all this so it's sort of put a different spin on cheese. Who doesn't want to make cheese for a day? It's like something you don't normally do.

They mixed warm milk with a special type of mould then added the rennet and watched as milk slowly turned to curds and whey.

RUSSEL SMITH: For me cheese making is mostly science and a bit of art in there. I mean it's the most successful cheese makers really are artists as well.

But cheese making takes more than one lesson. The curds have to be separated from the whey then stored at just the right temperature for eight weeks. And it has to be turned over regularly.

There are lots of things that can go wrong. If any of the wrong sorts of bacteria get in or the temperature's not right or if their quantities are wrong they could get very dodgy camembert. The big test came at the Royal Queensland food and wine show. For the first time ever there was a student cheese making section and camemberts from all over the state were put to the test.

RUSSELL SMITH: I expect to see cheeses that are much better than what we see on the shelves actually.

There were a few too runny or too mouldy or too hard but, overall, the judges said the kids’ cheese was as good as stuff you'd buy from a shop. The very best came from St Aidens Anglicans girls school but Sandgate did pretty well too, bagging third place. The program was such a success that next year there'll be more Queensland teachers and students learning the art and the science of cheese.

Teachers: Are we winners? Yes. Are we grinners? Yes.

Say cheese CHEESE

Presenter: OK, how much do you know about cheese? Let's have a quiz.

Quiz 2

The question is:

Which of these is a blue cheese?

Brie

Roquefort

Ricotta

Answer: Roquefort

The others are all soft cheeses.

The Score

To sport now and the English Premier League kicked off the new season on the weekend.

Let's check out what happened in the Score.

********* Arsenal have managed to salvage a freak draw in their opening match after Liverpool gifted them an own goal in the dying minutes.

David Ngog put Liverpool ahead with a stunning finish just after halftime which had looked to be enough until the very last minute.

After a long cross into the box, goalkeeper Pepe Reina misjudged a deflection off the post causing him to fumble it back into the goal leaving both teams with a point each.

*********

To netball now and the Diamonds have dominated Jamaica in the third and final game of their test series.

Captain Sharelle McMahon came back from injury with a stellar performance, netting 21 goals in the Aussie team's 71 - 40 demolition of their Caribbean competitors.

The win gives the diamonds a whitewash of the series.

*********

To mini-golf now and maybe there is some golfing talent in the white house

President Obama took his family for a few holes and his daughter Sasha took the first shot.

*********

Finally, to a slightly more sedate sport – dominos - although this version has a strange twist.

The dominos are human!

Ten thousand Chinese people have come together to claim the world record in this semi-sport.

Officials say each person needs to fall back within 5 seconds of each other for the record to be a success and all ten thousand managed it without too much trouble.

Basketball Star Reporter: Natasha Thiele

INTRO: You're about to meet a teenager who's tipped to be the next 'big thing' in women's basketball.

Liz Cambage only started playing when she was 10 but very quickly she became a star and has even played for Australia.

She's more than 2 metres tall and possibly still growing so it's no wonder experts are tipping big things for her career.

Tash has the story.

NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: Basketball's been around for many years.

It was invented by a Canadian guy who was asked to come up with a game of skill that could be played indoors in a small space.

Although it's a national sport here in Oz, it doesn't get a lot of attention.

But there's one person who's tipped to get a lot of that in the Aussie women's league!

Liz Cambage was born in London, but her family moved to Australia when she was a baby.

She got into basketball at the age of 10, after her mum encouraged her to join up to make new friends after moving house.

LIZ CAMBAGE: I absolutely hated playing basketball because I was such a chubby lazy kid, but it was a good idea by my mum I guess.

It wasn't easy growing up though.

LIZ CAMBAGE: That's me! How chubby! When I leave school I want to be remembered by my tallness. When I get older I want to be a vet.

As she predicted, her height became one of her memorable features.

REPORTER: At the age of 10 Liz was already taller than most grownups, she was 182 centimetres tall. Four years later she'd grown to 198. And the last time she was measured she was 203 centimetres tall and she's still growing!

But being a top basketballer isn't just about being tall, although it can be an advantage.

You need to learn skills like dribbling and shooting and for Liz, that took lots of hard work.

LIZ CAMBAGE: My first coach, he put a lot of effort into me, I guess. Thinking about how bad it was back then.

At school Liz was often teased about her height.

But instead of beating her, the bullies made her more determined to succeed.

And after lots of practice Liz was picked up by the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, and later signed for a professional team in Victoria.

But even now, as a full international player, she still chooses to balance her time playing sport with studying.

Although that could change, if she's snapped up by some of the big teams overseas.

LIZ CAMBAGE: It's tough in Australia because over here it's all about the cricket and AFL, but overseas it's different. I just wish it was better here in Oz, that's why we lose so many of our players to Europe and the WNBA because there's not enough here.

Next month Liz will be a key player as Australia attempts to defend its title at the World Championships in the Czech Republic.

Some basketball experts reckon she has what it takes to be one of the world's best players alongside fellow Aussie, Lauren Jackson.

Closer

And that's it for the week.

Don't forget to hit our website for more info about any of our stories. You can send us your comments and tell us what you think in our poll.

And we'll see you next time.