The SEI Podcast Series: Recent Episodes
Sydney Environment Institute
The Sydney Environment Institute, based at the University of Sydney, brings together leading thinkers from across disciplines to address key environmental issues.
In this instalment of the SEI Podcast Series, writer Dr James Bradley joins new scholarship that reckons with humanity’s complex relationship to the natural world. Through the lens and narratives of the ocean, it offers vital new ways of understanding and being in the world, and how we anticipate our climate future. Hear James expand on these ideas alongside Maria Byrne, Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Sydney and world expert on echinoderms; Tishiko King, proud Zenadth Kes/Torres Strait Island woman, marine biologist and climate campaigner; with Guardian Australia’s Helen Sullivan, who hosted this event.
This event was held in partnership with Sydney Ideas.
Timestamps:
0:55 - Welcome from Helen Sullivan
2:07 - How did you approach such a vast topic like the ocean?
4:39 - How has this book changed you?
9:20 - Living on an island when waste washes up on your shores
20:04 - The importance of sea urchins ecologically
27:50 - Massive loss of abundance
36:34 - Lived reality of Indigenous people in the Torres Strait Islands
Speakers:
Dr James Bradley OAM, writer, critic and author of Deep WaterProfessor Maria Byrne, marine biologist at the University of SydneyTishiko King, scientist and climate campaignerHelen Sullivan (Chair), columnist and world news reporter at The Guardian
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At the 2024 Iain McCalman lecture, Dr Sophie Chao considered how mourning has become a necessary disposition of our times: one that enables us to create and commemorate connections by recognising the vulnerability and finitude of non-human others. Dr Chao drew on philosophies, practices, and protocols of “multispecies mourning” enacted by Indigenous Marind People in the Indonesian-occupied region of West Papua, where mass deforestation and monocrop oil palm expansion are undermining communities’ intimate and ancestral relations to forest landscapes and lifeforms. Learn more about the event here.
Timestamps
04:43 - Oil palm plantations in West Papua
14:05 - Noken weaving as a form of mourning
21:23 - Singing for lost kin
31:00 Planting to blur the line between suffering and surviving
Speaker
Dr Sophie Chao, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow and Lecturer in the Discipline of Anthropology at the University of Sydney
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How can we balance the need to halt biodiversity loss against human needs for shelter, fuel, and nutrition? Could a more multidisciplinary approach help? This discussion was hosted by Sustainability at Sydney in partnership with the Sydney Environment Institute. Learn more about the event here.
Speakers:
Associate Professor Ed Couzens, University of Sydney Law School
Dr. Tristan Salles, Faculty of Science
Dr. Lauren Cole, Taronga Conservation Society Australia
Associate Professor Thom van Dooren, Sydney Environment Institute
Associate Professor Catherine Grueber, Faculty of Science
Dr. Eliza Middleton (Chair), Sustainability at Sydney
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In the final episode of the Unearthing Critical Minerals series, Professor Susan Park sits down with Dr Jewellord (Jojo) Nem Singh, an Assistant Professor in International Development, to understand the role the European Union (EU) is playing to reduce the environmental and social harms of critical mineral mining for renewable energy. The EU’s recently launched Critical Raw Minerals Act seeks to build a resilient critical minerals supply chain, strengthen domestic capacity and capability, and establishes a need to build a circular economy.
They emphasise the significance of tracking the EU's role as a key player in the critical minerals race. The EU's pursuit of both higher environmental standards and the success of the clean energy transition in the coming decades adds complexity to this multifaceted challenge, demanding a coordinated approach involving multiple policy instruments.
Learn more about the Unearthing Critical Minerals podcast series and read the show notes here.
Credits:
Featuring: Professor Susan Park, Assistant Professor Jewellord (Jojo) Nem Singh
Produced by: Genevieve Wright
Edited by: Celine Huynh
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In this episode, Professor Susan Parks sits down with political scientist Dr Donald Kingsbury as they delve into the contrasting experiences of mining communities in Canada, Australia, and South America. Explore the influences of mining company dynasties, extractive processes, and citizen engagement. Uncover how governments are actively de-risking the critical minerals industry and incentivising private investment. They’ll discuss how the mining industry is reducing harm thanks to pressure from labour organisations and environmental activism and where there are still areas for improvement.
Learn more about the Unearthing Critical Minerals podcast series and read the show notes here.
Credits:
Featuring: Professor Susan Park, Assistant Professor Donald Kingsbury
Produced by: Genevieve Wright
Edited by: Celine Huynh
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In this episode, Professor Susan Parks sits down with geographer Dr Lian Sinclair to understand how critical minerals impact the communities and environments they interact with along their global production networks. They’ll discuss the geo-economic politics, power struggles and conflicts that are arising within these supply chains and the impacts at the local scale where the mines are located.
The episode will explore how Australia is positioning itself as a critical minerals powerhouse with state investment in refinement infrastructure and they’ll question why governance standards are failing to reduce social and environmental impacts of critical minerals extraction.
Learn more about the Unearthing Critical Minerals podcast series and read the show notes here.
Credits:
Featuring: Professor Susan Park, Dr. Lian Sinclair
Produced by: Genevieve Wright
Edited by: Celine Huynh
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In this episode, Professor Susan Park will unpack what are critical minerals and why they are key in our fight against climate change? Renewable energy is vital for the rapid global decarbonisation needed to reduce global warming. Yet renewable technologies comprise of rare earth elements like copper, cobalt and lithium, whose extraction and refinement process come with many significant environmental and social costs. How can we establish governance mechanisms that ensure just and equitable outcomes in the extraction of critical minerals?
We delve into the 'friend-shoring' of supply chains of critical minerals, a practice that is reshaping traditional offshore dependencies and altering the global landscape. With prominent global players like China, USA, Australia, and the European Union taking an avid interest, we examine the strategic underpinnings that underscore the quest for these essential minerals.
Learn more about the Unearthing Critical Minerals podcast series and read the show notes here.
Credits:
Featuring: Professor Susan Park
Produced by: Genevieve Wright
Edited by: Celine Huynh
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University of Sydney researchers discuss the recent United Nations Global Sustainable Development Report and how multidisciplinary research can help achieve a sustainable world. Learn more about the event here.
Timestamps:
03:00 How the University of Sydney supports researchers in working alongside global partners to meet the SDGs - Amanda Sayan
13:20 How is the world performing at the SDGs? - Jamie Miranda
42:15 The impacts of a warming world on our health - Ollie Jay
54:45 The power of science communication - Alice Motion
Speakers:
Professor Jaime Miranda, University of Sydney
Professor Alice Motion, Sydney NanoProfessor Ollie Jay, Heat and Health Research IncubatorAmanda Sayan, University of Sydney
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In this instalment of Grounded Conversations, political theorist Alyssa Battistoni joins Sydney Environment Institute researcher Anna Sturman to discuss the practical transformation of unjust systems in relation to climate change and critical scholarship. They will reflect on the role of care and multispecies justice in climate movements, and the different social and political contexts the USA and Australia present for organising towards more just futures. Learn more about the event here.
Timestamps:
07:40 The politics of nature: how capitalism values nature
20:35 Australia vs. US climate movements & Green New Deals
32:15 How are people building power and addressing socio-ecological issues
42:45 The role of academia in informing and being informed by movements
Speakers:
Dr. Alyssa Battistoni, Barnard College
Dr. Anna Sturman, Sydney Environment Institute
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In recent years, Australia has been battered by catastrophic bushfires and floods exacerbated by climate change. It is also clear from these shock events that community organised actions fulfil an essential role in disaster preparation, response and recovery. With science warning that the intensity and frequency of fires, floods and other disasters will only increase in future, what lessons can be learnt from communities already impacted by this ‘new normal’? A panel of esteemed community organisers and researchers share crucial new findings from the SEI research project ‘Self-organising Systems to Minimise Future Disaster Risk’ in recognition of the UN’s International Disaster Risk Reduction Day on 13 October. Learn firsthand insights from their collaboration with affected communities in the Northern Rivers, Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains. The research illuminates the essential role of spontaneous community organising in times of disaster underpinned by strong local knowledge and connection. The discussion explores how government and emergency services can effectively support this role and how the most meaningful community actions can often go unnoticed. Learn more about the event here.
Timestamps
8.47 Impact of climate-driven disasters on communities
19.29 What would support communities?
24.51 Recognising the role of local knowledge
31.48 What do communities want from government and agencies?
Speakers
Scott Webster, Researcher, Sydney Environment Institute
Mary Lyons-Buckett, Community Fellow, Hawkesbury
Rebecca McNaught, Plan C
David Schlosberg (Chair), Director, Sydney Environment Institute
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Industrial agriculture is a key contributor to the climate crisis, which threatens the resilience of our food systems. A panel of farmers and researchers explore farming practices that can help restore our ecosystems.
This discussion is part of the Sydney Environment Institute’s Climate Adaptation series. As climate disasters increase, all sectors of society – from food supply chains to investment strategies – must adapt. This series, led by SEI Postdoctoral Fellow Justin See, platforms thought leaders across research, business, policy and communities to delve into just and sustainable climate change adaptation.
Timestamps
1.01 Acknowledgment of Country 6.47 What is regenerative agriculture? 19.38 Who should drive food system adaptation? 30.06 The real cost of food 34.46 What policy shifts do we need? 43.13 The power of big agriculture
Speakers
Joshua Gilbert, Worimi man and Indigenous agriculturist William Thorncraft, regenerative farmer Thomas O'Donoghue, University of Sydney International Centre for Crop and Digital Agriculture Rebecca Cross (Chair), University of Sydney School of Geosciences
In the face of worsening climate disasters, the Sydney Environment Institute's Shoalhaven project seeks to understand the work being done by communities to protect animals during catastrophic fires, and how this can be better supported.
As a way of reflecting back the wealth of information community members generously shared, the research team wrote and recorded a series of vignettes incorporating key themes and findings of the project. Each story is a fictionalised representation of real events, and is an amalgamation of community members’ experiences. The characters are made up, but their experiences are based on those of our interview participants.
Hear SEI researcher Freya MacDonald read the stories.
In the face of worsening climate disasters, the Sydney Environment Institute's Shoalhaven project seeks to understand the work being done by communities to protect animals during catastrophic fires, and how this can be better supported.
As a way of reflecting back the wealth of information community members generously shared, the research team wrote and recorded a series of vignettes incorporating key themes and findings of the project. Each story is a fictionalised representation of real events, and is an amalgamation of community members’ experiences. The characters are made up, but their experiences are based on those of our interview participants.
Hear SEI researcher Freya MacDonald read the stories.
In the face of worsening climate disasters, the Sydney Environment Institute's Shoalhaven project seeks to understand the work being done by communities to protect animals during catastrophic fires, and how this can be better supported.
As a way of reflecting back the wealth of information community members generously shared, the research team wrote and recorded a series of vignettes incorporating key themes and findings of the project. Each story is a fictionalised representation of real events, and is an amalgamation of community members’ experiences. The characters are made up, but their experiences are based on those of our interview participants.
Hear SEI researcher Freya MacDonald read the stories.
Professor Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize laureate and former U.S. Secretary of Energy during the Obama administration, presents new data on climate change that indicates that the Earth’s climate is more sensitive than previously thought.
How we can transition from where we are heading to where we need to be within 50 years is one the most pressing set of issues that science, invention, and innovations need to address. Professor Chu discusses potential solutions that could provide a path to a sustainable and prosperous future.
This event is presented by the Sydney Environment Institute in partnership with the Net Zero Initiative and the United States Studies Centre.
Timestamps
1.45 Climate change stresses 6.39 Energy systems 15.51 Don’t recycle. Reuse 23.28 Hydrogen 28.39 Batteries 39.00 Food 51.57 Carbon capture 59.18 Redefining wealth
Keynote speaker
Steven Chu, Nobel Prize-winning scientist
What if politics were reoriented to take responsibility for planetary flourishing? Such an orientation has been labelled multispecies justice. While it is ‘new’ to modern Anglo-European philosophical and political traditions, multispecies justice grounds Indigenous approaches to ethical living.
Hear from Indigenous scholars and artists as they discuss the potential for multispecies justice to protect the natural world.
Timestamps
3.05 Indigenous multispecies justice 9.18 Chamoru creation 18.20 First Nations responses to colonial and imperial destruction 30.28 Maori rules to maintain harmony and sustainability 42.34 Kuruwari: allowing Country to speak
Speakers
Craig Santos Perez, University of Hawaiʻi Makere Stewart-Harawira, University of Alberta Christine Winter, University of Otago Judith Nangala Crispin, poet and visual artist Danielle Celermajer (Chair), Sydney Environment Institute
Financial experts discuss the rapidly transitioning landscape of climate finance to explore how a variety of public and private financial actors are responding to climate change risks and opportunities, and what role finance can play in adaptation solutions.
This discussion is part of the Sydney Environment Institute’s Climate Adaptation series. As climate disasters increase, all sectors of society - from food supply chains to investment strategies - must adapt. This series, led by SEI Postdoctoral Fellow Justin See, platforms thought leaders across research, business, policy and communities to delve into just and sustainable climate change adaptation.
Timestamps
11.05 Roles of financial actors in climate adaptation and mitigation 20.12 Changes needed in the sector to promote climate justice 27.24 Risk vs responsibility
Speakers
Zoe Whitton, Pollination Group Gareth Bryant, University of Sydney School of Social and Political Sciences Sophie Webber (Chair), University of Sydney School of Geosciences
A panel of experts and climate activists discuss Australia’s race to mine critical minerals for renewable technology and the consequences of an unregulated approach.
The transition to renewables such as solar, wind and lithium-ion batteries is vital to decarbonise our energy use, systems, and transport. Renewable energy technology relies on an intensification of mining of ‘critical minerals’ for their production such as rare earths, lithium, and copper. This panel explores the implications of accelerating mining for critical minerals for Australia as we seek to meet our international and national climate targets.
This event was held in partnership with Jubilee Australia Research Centre and marked the launch of their 'Greenlight or Gaslight' report, which unpacks concerns about how we transition to a more sustainable world.
Timestamps
3.52 What are critical minerals? 15.54 Who benefits from the new mining boom? Who bears the costs? 23.00 Governance gaps 37.05 The importance of energy democracy 42.05 Strategies for reducing environmental harms
Speakers
Luke Fletcher, Jubilee Australia Research Centre Kavita Naidu, Climate Action Network Australia Susan Park, University of Sydney Department of International Relations Lian Sinclair (Chair), University of Sydney School of Geosciences
How has capitalism and colonialism rendered multispecies injustice business as usual? A panel of experts unpack this issue and consider what alternative structures could support conditions for justice.
To understand the production of multispecies injustices requires widening the frame beyond specific acts of violence, exploitation and marginalisation. To counter such injustices and create alternatives demands an appreciation of how capitalism and colonialism have put in place the meanings, forms of relationship, and institutional arrangements that render multispecies injustice business as usual.
To launch the recently published Special Issue of the journal Cultural Politics on Multispecies Justice, the editors and four contributing authors explore the capitalist and colonial roots of injustices that occur at the sites where they work – in the worlds of First Nations Peoples, in Oceans, in the sites of industrialised animal slaughter, and even in contemporary artworks seeking to resist the erasure of more-than-human lives. They speculate on how anti- or post-capitalist and anti- or post-colonial forms of life, meanings, and institutional arrangements might create the conditions for justice for all earth beings.
Timestamps
0.51 Acknowledgement of Country 2.14 What is Multispecies Justice? 17.19 Anti-Colonial Multispecies Justice 20.24 Plant Sentience in Art, Science, Religion and Nationalism 28.21 Ocean Justice 37.38 Literary Responses to Industrial Animal Agriculture
Speakers
Dr Christine Winter, University of Otago Dr Sria Chatterjee, Paul Mellon Centre for British Art Dr Susan Reid, University of Sydney Department of Gender and Cultural Studies Hayley Singer, University of Melbourne Professor Danielle Celermajer (Chair), Sydney Environment Institute Dr Sophie Chao (Chair), University of Sydney Department of Anthropology
SEI Director Professor David Schlosberg sits down with multidisciplinary scholar Professor Farhana Sultana to discuss a broad range of pressing climate topics from political ecology to nature-society relationships.
SEI’s Grounded Conversations Series highlights the potential of low-carbon academic networking and creates an environment where early career researchers can meet influential and impactful climate and sustainability scholars. The conversations are quite literally ‘grounded’ with invited scholars remaining in place and limiting travel emissions, but also thematically ‘grounded’ in experienced research.
Farhana talks about her intersectional approach to research, the exclusion of minority communities in academia and the steps being taken to address this.
Timestamps
01.00 Introduction - David Schlosberg 07.08 A Grounded Approach to Research 13.50 The Critical and the Resconstructive 22.35 Feminist Critiques of Capitalism 33.27 Unequal Authorship in Climate Publications 43.30 Communities and Care Ethics
Speakers
Professor Farhana Sultana, Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Professor David Schlosberg (chair), Sydney Environment Institute Dr Anna Sturman, University of Sydney Department of Political Economy Dr Justin See, University of Sydney School of Geosciences Maria Paula Cardoso, Sydney Environment Institute
How can we adapt all sectors of society to respond to climate pressures? In the first event of SEI’s Climate Adaptation series, leading political scientist Daniel Aldrich delves into the meaning of climate adaptation and the role of social capital in building resilience.Timestamps00:50 Introduction: SEI Climate Adaptation series - Justin See04:15 What is climate adaptation and its necessity?13:00 The hesitancy towards transformative adaptation16:15 Why is social capital critical for building resilience especially with mental health?28:35 Social infrastructure: creating spaces for building community relationships34:45 Q&ASpeakersProfessor Daniel Aldrich, Northeastern UniversityDr Jo Longman, University Centre for Rural Health, USYDProfessor David Schlosberg (Chair), Sydney Environment InstituteDr Justin See, Sydney Environment InstituteThis event was held at the University of Sydney on Tuesday 18 April 2023. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/44iHKHERead the latest journal article from researchers Dr Jo Longman, Professor David Schlosberg and more titled 'Building resilience to the mental health impacts of climate change in rural Australia' here: https://bit.ly/3n5cEm1Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
Many of us understand the gravity of the climate crisis and what needs to be done, so what’s standing in our way? What will it take for our future to be reimagined to enable all life to flourish? In this panel discussion, hear from researchers and communities from across Australia and India who are taking collective action to create real and sustainable futures.Timestamps00:50 Introduction: what are climate imaginaries? - Danielle Celermajer06:50 Food security and the need for resilient local food systems - Stuart Whitelaw13:15 How are Himalayan communities reimagining their survival? - Mayank Shah20:10 What it means for all of us if glaciers disappear? - Lobzang Wangtak25:50 The entanglement of climate and social justice - Rohit Nair31:40 What it means to be connected to the more-than-human world - Deepthi Indukuri37:20 How imaginaries address converging crises - Gijs Spoor42:15 Q&ASpeakersProfessor Danielle Celermajer (Chair), sociologistDeepthi Indukuri, a curious rewilderRohit Nair, researcher and activistMayank Shah (PhD), Himalayan researcherGijs Spoor, social change leaderLobzang Wangtak, glacier and water conservationistStuart Whitelaw, founder of a community-led food initiativeThis event was held online on Thursday 6 April 2023. For more information about this event & project visit: https://bit.ly/3mGqRpoLearn more about these speakers' extraordinary stories in the Reimagined Futures podcast series: https://bit.ly/3GVRwFDSign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
How can Australia successfully transition and adapt its interconnected social and technological systems as the climate crisis intensifies? Environmental law and governance expert, Dr Kate Owens, presents the 2023 Iain McCalman Lecture on how we can effectively harness climate governance to achieve deep coordination and sustained change.SpeakerDr Kate Owens, University of Sydney Law SchoolThis event was held at the University of Sydney on Monday 20 March 2023. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/40xJWboSign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
Property and ownership are at the core of global crises so how can we rethink our relationship with property and redistribute it in the interests of justice and the flourishing of life?Timestamps00:46 Introduction: unpacking property from the perspective of multispecies justice – Dinesh Wadiwel4:51 Abolition for alternative geographies of abundance - Rosemary-Claire Collard and Jessica Dempsey15:16 Whenua/Land is freedom, land is servitude – Christine Winter26:20 The state of agricultural extension labour on biodiverse property - Rebecca Pearse39:33 Revisiting the problem of animals as property – Dinesh WadiwelSpeakersAssociate Professor Rosemary-Claire Collard, Simon Fraser UniversityAssociate Professor Jessica Dempsey, The University of British ColumbiaDr Christine Winter, University of OtagoDr Rebecca Pearse, Australian National UniversityAssociate Professor Dinesh Wadiwel, University of SydneyThis event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 23 November 2022. For more information about this event visit: bit.ly/3kOnRpC Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
Hear from a multidisciplinary range of experts as they assess the stability and resilience of our electricity grid in the face of increasing climate disasters.
Panel 3: Using the planning framework to build resilience: a national perspective
“Will Australia’s current state planning frameworks build resilience in the future grid 2040?”
Timestamps 00:48 Introduction and Renewable Energy Zones – Professor Rosemary Lyster 11:42 Resilience planning frameworks in Victoria – Dr Anne Kallies 28:42 Climate resilience and assessment in NSW – Stephanie Vatala 48:30 Planning laws and natural hazards in Queensland - Dr Philippa England 1:05:21 Reflections on community tolerance for risk 1:10:00 Infrastructure and levels of governance 1:16:26 Conclusion
Speakers Professor Rosemary Lyster, University of Sydney Dr Anne Kallies, RMIT Dr Philippa England, Griffith Law School Stephanie Vatala, Dentons
This event was held via Zoom on Thursday 10 November 2022. For more information about this event visit: bit.ly/3AQ2Lfr
Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
Hear from experts as they unpack how responses to the climate crisis have been organised by business, government and civil society, and what possibilities of transformation lie ahead.
Timestamps 0:50 Introduction – Zoe Whitton 5:36 Reimagining dominant imaginaries, and the three conceits we tell ourselves in solving the climate crisis 35:56 Solutions and actions to shift our imaginaries, from governance to activism 51:40 Alternative pathways: democratic innovation and degrowth 58:40 Questions from the audience
Speakers Professor David Schlosberg (Chair), University of Sydney Professor Rosemary Lyster, University of Sydney Claudia Migotto, Audit Office of New South Wales Dr Anna Sturman, University of Sydney
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 26 October 2022. For more information about this event visit: bit.ly/3SSt6zR
Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
What will it take for communities, the private sector, and government, to build preparedness and resilience in the face of increasing disasters?
Timestamps
00:50 Introduction – David Schlosberg 4:15 The Role of Government in Reducing the Risk of Climate-Induced Disasters – Rosemary Lyster 12:16 How Does the Audit Office Assess and Manage Risk? - Claudia Migotto 17:34 How Can Communities Organise to Protect Animals? – Anna Sturman 22:06 Barriers in Governance and Insurance – Rosemary Lyster 30:16 What Needs to Change in Risk Management? - Claudia Migotto 34:54 Mobilisation of Communities – Anna Sturman 40:16 Living with Increased Risk and Loss 53:06 Disaster Response and Keeping the Government Accountable – Claudia Migotto And Anna Sturman 54:26 How Can the Law Protect the Environment from Disaster? – Rosemary Lyster 59:38 Realities of Increased Risk and Responsibility in Our Economy 1:03:50 Supporting Our Native Biodiversity – Anna Sturman How Can We Demand a Broader Sharing of Risk? – Claudia Migotto And Rosemary Lyster 1:07:38 How Can We Get Involved in the Face Of Increasing Disasters?
Speakers
Professor David Schlosberg (Chair), University of Sydney Professor Rosemary Lyster, University of Sydney Claudia Migotto, Audit Office of New South Wales Dr Anna Sturman, University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 12 October 2022. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3N6a7k8
Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
In response to the dire findings of the recent State of the Environment Report, this panel will explore the political, economic and ideological constraints that got us here, and the ways forward to ensure meaningful environmental protection.
Timestamps 00:52 Introduction – David Schlosberg 07:35 Environmental Legislation and How we Got to this Current State of the Environment – Gerry Bates 13:48 What is the Government’s Relationship with Civil Society? - David Morris 19:46 What are the Economic Interests, Ideologies and Institutions that Have Brought us to this Current Situation? – Frank Stilwell 27:52 Ethical Frameworks and Principles Underpinning Biodiversity Concerns – Danielle Celermajer 33:30 Possible Responses and Solutions to the Current State of the Environment 44:06 Questions for the Panel
Speakers Professor David Schlosberg (Chair), University of Sydney Professor Danielle Celermajer, University of Sydney Dr Gerry Bates, University of Sydney Professor Emeritus Frank Stilwell, University of Sydney David Morris, Chief Executive Officer, Environmental Defenders Office
This event was held via Zoom on Tuesday 16 August 2022. For more information about this event visit: bit.ly/3R4vQtY
Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
Sociologist and SEI’s 2023 Environmental Humanities Visiting Fellow Sebastián Ureta, explores how the waste produced from mining interacts with human and non-human ecologies.
In this talk, Sebastián Ureta will draw on his recently published book with Patricio Flores, 'Worlds of Gray and Green', to challenge us to rethink extraction as ecological practice. This book offers a rich ethnographic exploration of the waste produced by Chile’s El Teniente, the world’s largest underground mine. Deposited in a massive dam, the waste — known as tailings — engages with human and non-human entities in multiple ways through a process the authors call geosymbiosis.
Timestamps 00:55 Introduction - Thom van Dooren 05:20 Extracting Critical Minerals for the Energy Transition - Sebastián Ureta 33:20 Politics of Weakness - Sophie Chao 38:20 Trying to Regulate Extraction in a Volatile Environment - Susan Park
Speakers Associate Professor Sebastián Ureta, Universidad Alberto Hurtado Dr Sophie Chao, University of Sydney Professor Susan Park, University of Sydney Associate Professor Thom van Dooren (Chair), University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 27 July, 2022. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3SOo2O2 Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
A panel of chemists and social scientists unpack current alternative technologies on the path to decarbonisation and the complex social implications that surround them.
Timestamps
00:50 Introduction - Katherine Owens 06:18 The 'Disorderly Transition' to Renewable Energy - Susan Park 14:26 Carbon Capture and Direct Air Capture: What are the Potentials for Achieving Net Zero? - Deanna D’Alessandro 22:04 The Role of Green Hydrogen and Technology Monitoring - Francois Aguey-Zinsou 26:06 What are the Ethical Concerns with Solar Geoengineering? - David Schlosberg 34:14 Policy Recommendations and Listening to Community - Susan Park 36:14 Best Practice for Geosequestration - Deanna D’Alessandro 38:23 National Strategies and Planning for a Technological Transition - Francois Aguey-Zinsou 38:23 The Importance of Governance Structures and Research on Impacts - David Schlosberg 41:08 Questions for the Panel
Speakers
Dr Katherine Owens (Chair), University of Sydney Professor Francois Aguey-Zinsou, University of Sydney Professor Deanna D’Alessandro, University of Sydney Professor Susan Park, University of Sydney Professor David Schlosberg, Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Thursday 28 July 2022. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3C1fYn7
Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
In a time of environmental crisis and heightened social and political tension, a panel of SEI experts call for institutionalising justice for all species through key areas of innovation such as international laws on ecocide and the expansion of personhood beyond humans.
Timestamps 00:50 Introduction - Danielle Celermajer 02:35 The Current Context and Radical Politics 08:55 Ecuador and the Rights of Nature - Erin Fitz-Henry 19:40 Wild Law Judgments and Multispecies Justice - Nicole Rogers 34:10 The Expansion of Legal Personhood and Maori Philosophy: What is a Person? - Christine Winter 45:10 Democratic Innovation and Moving Beyond Traditional Institutions - David Schlosberg 54:10 How Can We Invert the Gaze?
Speakers Professor Danielle Celermajer (Chair), University of Sydney Professor David Schlosberg, University of Sydney Dr Christine Winter, University of Otago Associate Professor Nicole Rogers, Southern Cross University Dr Erin Fitz-Henry, University of Melbourne
This event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 22 June 2022. For more information about this event visit: bit.ly/3OHLmdS
Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
Hear from MPs and the authors of a major study on the social impact of large-scale renewable energy in rural communities as they launch their ground-breaking report and discuss the local and national policy implications of this research.
Read the landmark report, 'Renewables & Rural Australia: A study of community experiences in Renewable Energy Zones in NSW and the case for more equity and coordination of the clean energy transformation' here: https://bit.ly/3zXSmPw
The discussion is accompanied by slides, view them here whilst listening: https://bit.ly/3biVQBF
Timestamps 00:55 Introduction - Susan Park 03:35 An Overview of Australia's Renewable Energy Zones (slides 2-6) - Linda Connor 08:15 The Rural Spatial Shift of Energy Generation (slides 7-11) - Riikka Heikkinen 13:25 Social License: Consultation, Compensation and Location - Joe McGirr MP 22:05 Social Impact Findings (slides 12-14) - Rebecca Pearse 29:15 Policy Recommendations: Regional Benefit Sharing (slides 15-18) - Dan Cass 35:50 Ensuring Community are at the Forefront of Transition - Alex Greenwich MP 40:30 The Domination of Market Forces in Transition Decision-making - Christopher Wright 45:40 Best Practice Examples of Community Collaboration 47:30 Who Gets Renewables and Why? 52:25 How Can Government Support Community Ownership? 55:55 The Decommissioning and Rehabilitation of Renewable Infrastructure
Speakers Dan Cass, The Australia Institute Emeritus Professor Linda Connor, University of Sydney Alex Greenwich MP, Independent Member for Sydney in the NSW Parliament Riikka Heikkinen, University of Technology Sydney Dr Joe McGirr MP, Independent Candidate for the State Seat of Wagga Wagga Professor Susan Park (Chair), University of Sydney Dr Rebecca Pearse, Australian National University Professor Christopher Wright, University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 15 June, 2022. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3y9LrRL Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
In the third event of SEI’s Communities on the Frontline Series, in partnership with University of Sydney's Institute of Agriculture, SEI research lead Professor Susan Park sits down with farmer Tabitha Karp, gas expert Dr Madeline Taylor, and agriculture expert Dr Rebecca Cross, to discuss the regulatory failures of coal seam gas, the impacts of extraction on the regions’ ‘black soil’, possible co-benefits for farmers for carbon sequestration, and the future of agriculture in Australia.
Timestamps 01:10 Introduction - Susan Park 06:15 Experiences of Communities on the Ground - Tabitha Karp 16:20 The Failures and Burdens of the Extraction Industry on Farming Communities - Madeline Taylor 26:35 How can Local knowledge be Harnessed for Natural Research Management? - Rebecca Cross 33:30 Busting the Myth of Environment Versus Jobs 36:25 The Future Between Farming and Energy Giants 40:00 Can Coal Seam Gas and Farming Coexist? 46:30 Should We be Slowing Down Mechanised Food Production? 51:30 The Threat of Zoning of Prime Agricultural Land 53:00 Conclusion
Speakers Dr Rebecca Cross, University of Sydney's Institute of Agriculture Tabitha Karp, Farmer from the Darling Downs, Queensland Professor Susan Park, University of Sydney Dr Madeline Taylor, Macquarie University
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 25 May, 2022. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3NwxeDM Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
In the second event of SEI’s Communities on the Frontline Series, filmmaker Kim Nguyen sits down with coal industry representatives and climate activists to view his film, Conversations with Coal Miners about Climate Change, and unpack how we can support coal mining communities in the just transition away from fossil fuels. You can watch Kim's film here: https://youtu.be/EGCYrK9ZC7k
With more frequent climate disasters unfolding here in Australia and around the world, the need to act has never been greater. But the pace of change, and the transitioning away from fossil fuels, urgently needs to speed up.
One of the key rationales used to oppose transition is in ensuring the welfare of communities that work in the fossil fuel industries, and coal mining in particular. This consideration cannot be overlooked, but what if we could get these communities to support an energy transition? It could remove one of the last political hurdles to climate action in this space.
Timestamps 01:15 Introduction - Kim Paul Nguyen 04:15 From Coal Miner to Climate Activist - Grant Howard's Story 9:15 What is a Just Transition from Coal? - Robert MacNeil 17:05 Supporting Communities at the Centre of a Just Transition 21:40 Q&A - A Coal Miner's CO2 Revelation 24:20 Community Reactions to the Film, Conversations with Coal Miners 28:25 Does a Successful Model of a Just Transition Exist? 31:05 What Needs to Happen for Climate to be at the Fore of the Political Agenda? 42:25 Empowering Miners to Lead a Transition Away From Coal 48:50 Will A Transition Away From Coal Impact Australian's Standard of Living? 51:45 The Communications Issue at the Centre of Climate Change
Speakers Grant Howard, coal mine worker from the Bowen Basin, Queensland Dr Robert MacNeil, Department of Government and International Relations Kim Paul Nguyen, filmmaker and journalist Andy Paine, activist for Frontline Action on Coal
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Tuesday 12 April, 2022. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3L5MGES Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
How is the concept of a ‘just transition’ understood? In the first event of SEI’s Communities on the Frontline Series, we hear from researchers and community on why a ‘just transition’ from coal remains a challenging idea to discuss and engage with in Australia.
This panel brings together community advocates and academics to talk about Australia’s use and export of coal in light of our commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This panel will present the results of a collaborative report by the British Academy and SEI on A Just Transition from Coal in Australia, which details how the concept is understood in Australia and what this means for climate action. Read the report here: https://bit.ly/3vYOpq7
Timestamps 00:55 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - Susan Park 05:40 What is a Just Transition? 07:40 Communities' Need a Plan and Certainty from Government 09:20 Supporting Communities at the Centre of a Just Transition 10:55 Who's Affected by a Just Transition? 12:40 Empowering Regional Communities So They're Not Left Behind 16:20 Public Ownership of Energy 20:25 Five Key Findings and One Warning 34:05 Australia's Addiction to Fossil Fuels 42:25 Gradually Shifting Governments' Attitudes 47:05 The Transition Is Inevitable but Will It Be Just?
Speakers Associate Professor Gareth Edwards, University of East Anglia Wendy Farmer, Voices of the Valley Jan Kucic-Riker, University of Sydney Professor Susan Park (Chair), University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 6 April, 2022. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3vCaziX Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
SEI Postdoctoral Fellow on the FoodLab Sydney project, Kate Johnston, explores the potential of care to address our broken food systems and inform our approach to designing food systems of the future. Care is not usually associated with our food system, which tends to be “reduced to neutral (or amoral) transactional relationships.” (Giraud 2021). Yet it is worth considering what our food system might look like if a care ethic was central. A care ethic promotes collaboration, peer support and generosity, creating an alternative to an individualistic and aggressive marketplace. It also recognises the social context of food.
Timestamps 00:50 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - Alana Mann 06:40 Transforming Food Systems with Care - Kate Johnston 38:30 An Ideological Embrace of Care 44:55 Growing Locally and Consuming Locally 49:00 Ethics of Exclusion in Food Systems 52:40 The Mental and Social Benefits of Connecting to the Land
Speakers Dr Kate Johnston, Sydney Environment Institute Associate Professor Alana Mann (Chair), Department of Media and Communications
This event was held via Zoom on Thursday 16 December, 2021. Find out more about this event here: https://bit.ly/3FrfllW Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
The Usyd Philosophy Society (PhilSoc) in partnership with Sydney Environment Institute present a discussion on the legal and philosophical limits to environmental justice in Australia and transnationally. A panel of researchers who sit at the intersection of law and Indigenous rights will discuss experiences of local communities, especially First Nations, with formal justice systems; access to justice; and the ability of the Courts to prevent or redress environmental wrongs.
Timestamps 00:55 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - Samuel Naylor 10:15 A Secretive and Strategic Destruction of Country - Jakelin Troy 16:00 A Transnational Comparison: Brazil's Undermining Legislation - Sara Leon Spesny 24:45 Environmental Justice in Australian Rural Communities - Gemma Viney 33:00 Can We Remedy These Legal Injustices? 40:30 Certain Rights that Extend Beyond Our Legal Structures 51:00 A David and Goliath Legal Battle Against Big Corps 58:50 The Power of Citizen Action 1:10:35 What Does Environmental Justice Mean? 1:16:45 Reconciling Two Conflicting Notions of Progress
Speakers Samuel Naylor (Chair), USyd Philosophy Society Professor Jakelin Troy, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research, University of Sydney Dr Sara Leon Spesny, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney Gemma Viney, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 8 December, 2021. Find out more about this event here: https://bit.ly/3pjfEtf Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
Leading environmental scholars highlight the value Indigenous philosophies have for solving global environmental problems as we launch Christine Winter’s new book, 'Subjects of Intergenerational Justice: Indigenous philosophy, the environment and relationships'.
To whom (and what) do we owe responsibilities of justice? What happens to ideas of intergenerational and environmental justice if we drop the fiction of individualism? Are there conceptions of time and space beyond progress and resources that assist us conceive of justice for the future? Why is the decolonisation of theory and politics important for the future of the planet and as a matter of justice?
Timestamps 00:50 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - David Schlosberg 08:10 Westernised Disconnection from Past and Future Generations - Christine Winter 19:30 Multidimensional Environmental Humanities - Joni Adamson 29:55 What it Means to be in This World - Sophie Chao 37:25 Embodying the Past, Present and Future 44:05 Intersecting Science and Indigenous Philosophy 49:55 Walking Back into the Future 57:05 Understanding Time 1:00:50 Being Part of a Multispecies Community
Speakers Dr Christine Winter, Sydney Environment Institute Professor Joni Adamson, Arizona State University Dr Sophie Chao, University of Sydney Professor David Schlosberg (Chair), Sydney Environment Institute
This event was held via Zoom on Tuesday 7 December, 2021. Find out more about this event here: https://bit.ly/3FjkxrR Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
Environmental historians, like others who study and write about the environment, have long worked with the emotional and psychological impact of environmental change, including grief, anxiety, rage, and despair. What do we do with that emotion? How do we write about the psychological components of human interactions with other species? Hear from a diverse panel of historians who work on drought, flood, climate change and ecological anxiety, as they discuss these themes, looking for clarity, community, and relief.
This event is in partnership between the Sydney Environment Institute and the Australian and New Zealand Environmental History Network (AANZEHN).
Timestamps 00:50 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - Andrea Gaynor 03:05 Emotional Health and Extreme Weather - Rebecca Jones 11:00 The Emotional Toll of Enduring Fires and Floods - Margaret Cook 19:20 Anger in the Coal Mining Region of the Hunter Valley - Nancy Cushing 28:40 Navigating the Boundary Between Emotion and Mental Illness - James Dunk 37:00 Projecting Present Emotions into the Past 41:30 Insanity vs. Emotional Instability 43:50 Historians and Health Workers in Collaboration 48:45 Understanding the Emotional State of the More-Than-Human 51:05 Emotional Engagement Inspires Action
Speakers Dr Margaret Cook, University of the Sunshine Coast Associate Professor Nancy Cushing, University of Newcastle Dr James Dunk, University of Sydney Associate Professor Andrea Gaynor (Chair), University of Western Australia Dr Rebecca Jones, History Council of South Australia
This event was held via Zoom on Thursday 28 October, 2021. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3sr1tUM Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
In public discussion, climate finance is often bandied around with banks positioning themselves as positive actors in addressing climate change. But what do they do?
This panel examines how the finance sector is shifting to incorporate climate modelling into its risk assessments for investments, how finance can create new ‘green’ markets and products, be used for investing in ‘green infrastructure’, and how climate finance is being used for addressing international climate injustice for those most affected by climate change such as the Pacific.
This event was part of the Sydney Environment Institute's Extraction Series that probes the use, impact and future of gas, coal and lead extraction in Australia at a critical point in our changing climate.
Timestamps 00:50 Introducing the Extraction Series and Acknowledgement of Country - Susan Park 02:25 Climate Finance at COP26 - Tim Stephens 09:40 What is Climate Finance and Why is it Important? - Gareth Bryant 13:45 The Changing Landscape of Public Finance - Kate Owens 22:55 A Blurring Boundary Between Private & Public Finance - Gareth Bryant 27:00 It's All About Climate Financial Risks - Tanya Fiedler 32:55 Can Climate Finance Promote Climate Justice? 42:45 The Climate Refugee Crisis and Finance's Role 45:20 The Power of Regulation in Capital Markets 47:50 Mainstreaming Climate Finance 49:40 The Role of Transnational Litigation in Climate Finance
Speakers Dr Gareth Bryant, Sydney Policy Lab Dr Tanya Fiedler, University of Sydney Business School Dr Katherine Owens, University of Sydney Law School Professor Susan Park, Sydney Environment Institute Professor Tim Stephens (Chair), University of Sydney Law School
This event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 10 November, 2021. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3mprLDd Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
NSW communities have for decades battled against an influx of large-scale resource extraction projects and fossil fuel industry adjacent developments. The 2020 formalisation of the Morrison government’s ‘gas-fired recovery plan’ has now solidified that the state and national reliance on gas will likely only increase.
This panel discussion highlights the risks and burdens of a Gas-Led Recovery in regional NSW. Examining the policy and social impacts of this decision, and of the current Australian trajectory more broadly, panellists take a community centred approach to the debate. In particular, the discussion will emphasise the importance of having this crucial conversation now to capture the opportunities for community-led growth and change in ushering in a just energy transition.
This event was part of the Sydney Environment Institute's Extraction Series that probes the use, impact and future of gas, coal and lead extraction in Australia at a critical point in our changing climate.
Timestamps 00:50 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - Susan Park 04:15 A Farmer's Long Fight Against Fossil Fuels - Rosemary Nankivell 09:10 Australian Government's Fossil Fuel Order - David Ritter 16:15 Communities Consumed by the Bureaucratic Fight Against Resource Extraction - Gemma Viney 23:05 What Could a Future Without Gas Look Like? - Madeline Taylor 29:50 Empowering Rural Communities to be the Power Hubs of the Future 34:10 Santos and Narrabri a 'Trojan Legal Horse' 49:00 More Needs to be Done About Methane
Speakers Professor Susan Park (Chair), University of Sydney Rosemary Nankivell, Farmer on the Liverpool Plains David Ritter, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Dr Madeline Taylor, Macquarie University and Climate Council Gemma Viney, University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 3 November, 2021. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/32q5WfA Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2VRxq7u
Why is the Australian Government accelerating the expansion of coal and gas exports as other nations commit to emission reduction targets, and what could our future look like instead?
In this panel discussion, leading climate and energy experts explain where global climate action is heading and why Australia is so out of step. The panel explores how renewable energy could lead Australia towards a sustainable emissions pathway, breaking the fossil fuel hegemony that controls national climate policy.
This event was part of the Sydney Environment Institute's Extraction Series that probes the use, impact and future of gas, coal and lead extraction in Australia at a critical point in our changing climate.
Timestamps 00:40 Introducing the Extraction Series and Acknowledgement of Country - Susan Park 02:30 The Tension Between Domestic Politics and Global Reality - Tanya Fiedler 07:40 Global Capital Markets are Leaving Australia Behind - Tom Arup 16:20 Australia's Regulatory Red Tape Around Renewables - Dan Cass 24:40 Australia's History of Predatory Delay - Christopher Wright 30:50 Australia's Energy Future is in the State's Hands - Dan Cass 36:54 How to Make Australia Competitive in the Energy Market - Tom Arup 42:20 Australia's Absent Government Leadership - Christopher Wright 47:20 A Just Transition Towards Renewables
Speakers Tom Arup, Investor Group on Climate Change Dan Cass, The Australia Institute Dr Tanya Fiedler (Chair), University of Sydney Professor Christopher Wright, University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Tuesday 12 October, 2021. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3FmCaqD Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: https://bit.ly/2VRxq7u
In this PhD Seminar, SEI Doctoral Fellow Anna Sturman draws upon her thesis to explore the capitalist state as a key terrain of inquiry for environmental and social justice movements. This analysis draws upon both the contemporary revival of state theory scholarship and on-the-ground responses from movements navigating rolling crises.
Timestamps 00:40 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - Blancher Verlie 03:20 Unravelling the Capitalist State Discussion (Q&A) 37:30 Communicating the State's Role in Climate Change 40:53 State Interventions During COVID and Lessons for Climate Change 43:00 Alternative Models for the Future 46:15 Material Barriers to Regenerative Agriculture 50:30 Prospects for Forming Solidarity Against Capital 54:15 How to Deal with Apathy 57:30 Can We Modify Capitalism Through Consumer Action?
Speakers Anna Sturman, Sydney Environment Institute Blanche Verlie, Sydney Environment Institute
This event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 25 August, 2021. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3ySFnvU
Lecturer in Environmental Politics, and SEI Postdoctoral Fellow-Multispecies Justice, Dr Christine Winter explores this year's NAIDOC week theme 'Heal Country, Heal the Nation' in a four-part podcast series. The series asks Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to explain what ‘Heal Country, Heal the Nation’ means to them. Running through the series is an exploration of First Nations knowledge and philosophies as key to healing (and protecting) human and nonhuman realms.
In Episode 2, Christine speaks to Nicole Graham, an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Law School and an expert in private property rights and the environmental regulation of land use practices.
Nicole explains why in order to heal our Country we must acknowledge the fundamental flaws in Australia’s dominant model of property – a property regime, she says, that regulates lands and waters, without taking into account the quality, health, or specificity of those landscapes and waterscapes. From the Murray Darling, to the catastrophic decline of the Great Barrier Reef, Nicole underscores the urgent and highly visible need to learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander property regimes, moving away from an abstract land law system, towards a system that integrates land ownership with land use responsibilities.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction - Christine Winter 02:18 Western Abstract Understandings of Country 15:16 Diagnosing the Problems with Australian Land Law 21:07 Attaching Responsibilities to Rights of Title 30:33 Rights of Nature 41:20 Where is the Love (of Country)
Speakers
Associate Professor Nicole Graham, University of Sydney Law School Dr Christine Winter, Sydney Environment Institute
Find out more about The Heal Country Podcast Series: bit.ly/3xkRuQB Image by Hypervision Creative, via Shutterstock 561255421
Warning: The podcast contains explicit language.
Just as COVID-19 has laid bare the racial, gender, and economic inequalities upon which our societies are built, the accelerating climate catastrophe has made the violence of capitalism and colonialism inescapable. Yet as social and political structures around the world buckle and break, writers are finding new ways of representing and interrogating the world we inhabit. What is the role of the writer in such a moment? What is the role of writing in helping us imagine and reimagine the future?
Writers Evelyn Araluen, Tony Birch, and James Bradley examine the power of writing during a moment of multiplying and interconnecting crises.
Timestamps 01:00 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - Chris Wright 02:55 Poem: Acknowledgement of Cuntery - Evelyn Araluen 08:40 Writing in a Time of Converging Crises 24:15 Growing Realisation That We're Entwined with the Natural World 43:30 The Role of the Writer in the Age of Crisis 55:35 Creating Space for Both Grief and Hope 1:05:40 The Confronting, Violent and Horrific Reality of the Climate Crisis 1:19:15 Storytelling Through Different Mediums
Speakers Evelyn Araluen, Poet and Researcher Professor Tony Birch, Author Dr James Bradley, University of Sydney Professor Christopher Wright (Chair), University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Thursday 1 July, 2021. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/32rIvSZ
Lecturer in Indigenous, intergenerational, environmental and multispecies justice, and SEI Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Christine Winter explores this year’s NAIDOC week theme ‘Heal Country, Heal the Nation’ in a four-part podcast series. The series asks Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to explain what ‘Heal Country, Heal the Nation’ means to them. Running through the series is an exploration of First Nations knowledge and philosophies as key to healing (and protecting) human and nonhuman realms.
In Episode 1 Christine speaks to Justin Ridgeway, a Worimi man and Cultural Heritage Education Manager from the Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council and Murrook Cultural Centre about why recognising the inextricable links between Country, culture, and identity is fundamental to healing Country and securing the future.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction - Christine Winter 00:35 Connecting Community with Country 05:55 Identities and Histories Woven into Country 13:40 Respecting the Land's Generosity 19:55 Our Responsibility to Heal the Nation 24:40 Cultural Identity and Spirituality
Speakers
Justin Ridgeway, Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council and Murrook Cultural Centre Dr Christine Winter, Sydney Environment Institute
Find out more about The Heal Country Podcast Series: https://bit.ly/3xkRuQB
Today, a range of disciplines are discovering or perhaps acknowledging the many and marvelous capacities and qualities of beings other than humans, the complexity of their relationships, and the twin fallacies of human exceptionalism and individualism. Yet even as what or who we know is undergoing radical transformations, writers find themselves working with the languages and grammars forged to convey and compose worlds we would better leave behind.
Writers Alexis Wright, Danielle Celermajer and Hayley Singer dissect dominating writing forms and explore how to move beyond human exceptionalism when writing about more-than-human worlds. They reflect on their own writing practices and how they are navigating the challenge of crafting texts that open out to the adventures of living differently and living together that writing might reveal.
Timestamps 00:00 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - Blanche Verlie 07:30 Excerpt from The Swan Book - Alexis Wright 10:55 What Motivates You to Write? 23:00 Experimenting with Form and Language 35:25 Who Do You Write For? 55:50 The Next Direction For Writing 1:05:05 Giving Voice to the More-Than-Human
Speakers Professor Alexis Wright, University of Melbourne Professor Danielle Celermajer, Sydney Environment Institute Dr Hayley Singer, University of Melbourne Dr Blanche Verlie (Chair), Sydney Environment Institute
This event was held via Zoom on Thursday 24 June, 2021. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3sph9be
Eating ties us to the social and environmental challenges inherent in our food system. It is a system that is currently unsustainable and rife with injustices: from exploitative labour practices to the pressures of climate change, loss of farmland and food traditions to the disempowerment of communities. And paradoxically, people struggle to put food on the table, whilst so much food goes to waste. COVID-19 has not only made visible these challenges but also spurred visionary local food actors to innovate, cooperate and diversify.
A panel of change-makers discuss food insecurity and how each of their organisations are tackling this unjust system. We hear from USU operations manager, Ben Pinney, about his work transforming the University’s ‘food system’. Shaun Christie-David, CEO and founder of PlateitForward, will talk about his Sri Lankan restaurant that employs, educates and feeds some of our most vulnerable in the community. And Post-doctoral researcher Kate Johnston shares with us her work with The University of Sydney led food business incubator, FoodLab Sydney, and the intersection of research and community action.
Each organisation also explains the opportunities that a Community Kitchen Hub on campus can provide. This project needs your support to get up and running. Do you agree that it is time for the University of Sydney to join the local food revolution? Add your voice to this quick survey: https://bit.ly/3sZLolz
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to Country – Yvonne Weldon 07:00 Introduction – Alana Mann 11:50 Empowering Communities Through Social Enterprises – Shaun Christie-David 18:20 Food Insecurity in Universities – Ben Pinney 26:00 Inspiring a New Generation of Food Entrepreneurs at FoodLab – Kate Johnston 43:00 Sourcing Sustainable Produce and Packaging 50:45 Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge into Food Systems 58:50 The Future of Urban Agriculture in Sydney 1:05:25 Australia’s Multicultural Banquet 1:11:50 Launching the USYD Community Kitchen Hub
Speakers Shaun Christie-David, PlateitForward Dr Kate Johnston, FoodLab Sydney Associate Professor Alana Mann (Chair), FoodLab Sydney Ben Pinney, University of Sydney Union Yvonne Weldon, Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council
This event was held at the University of Sydney in partnership with The University of Sydney Union on Tuesday 20 April, 2021. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3FjCqGN
We can’t call out violence in its myriad of forms if we don’t know what it looks like, what it sounds like, or what it feels like.
This panel discussion will explore the power of the creative and performing arts to transform abstract concepts of violence, into visceral, corporal experiences, and the responses these embodiments can evoke. Hear from prizewinning author Charlotte Wood and an interdisciplinary panel of artists, scholars and practitioners as they reflect on the many ways violence is represented in their own practice.
Timestamps 00:00 'the foul of the air' Trailer 01:15 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - Killian Quigley 06:40 How Violence Embeds Itself Into Different Spaces 23:05 Ethics vs. Aesthetics 42:20 Framing Violence in Different Mediums 53:35 Violence, Beauty and the Sublime 58:00 Layers of Framing Within Spaces 1:01:20 Difference Between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Responses to Violent Landscapes 1:12:05 The Evocative Language of Legal Cases 1:16:30 Sonically Portraying Violence and the Audience as a Witness or Voyeur 1:24:40 'And the Curtains are Blowing Slowly' - Michelle St Anne, Will Hansen
Speakers Associate Professor Bruce Isaacs, Department of Art History Dr Carolyn McKay, Sydney Institute of Criminology Dr Killian Quigley (Chair), Australian Catholic University Melbourne Michelle St Anne, Sydney Environment Institute and The Living Room Theatre Charlotte Wood, Author
Musician Will Hansen, Double Bassist
This event was held at the University of Sydney in partnership with The Living Room Theatre on Wednesday 3 March, 2021. For more information visit: https://bit.ly/3sZv84u
Drawing on the systemic mechanisms of violence they see emerging in their fields, an interdisciplinary panel, including award-winning journalist Jess Hill, share their insights into the ways that cycles of violence endure within our society.
To understand and dismantle human and non-human experiences of violence we must begin by addressing the broken systems and structures that not only perpetuate unchecked violence but allow us to remain largely in denial of its insidiousness. The heart of this work lays in recognising the legacies of injustice carried by the landscapes and people that surround us, regardless of the discomfort it invokes. In shedding light on the experiences of survivors, and rendering the invisible visible, we can begin to identify a path where the burden of that violence can be shared and lifted.
Timestamps 00:00 'the foul of the air' Trailer 01:15 Introduction and Acknowledgement of Country - Michelle St Anne 06:10 Who Has the Right to Dignity? - Megan Mackenzie 20:00 Coercive Control and Writing About Violence - Jess Hill 35:20 The Weaponisation of Care - Danielle Celermajer 52:15 Violence on the Body and Within the Home - Michelle St Anne 57:35 Failure of the Family Court System 1:01:40 The Home is a Warzone 1:05:00 Is Violence an Individual or Societal Issue? 1:13:00 How to Foster Care for the Non-Human 1:17:45 'The Natural Way of Things' - Mary Rapp
Speakers Professor Danielle Celermajer (Chair), Sydney Environment Institute Jess Hill, Investigative Journalist Professor Megan Mackenzie, Simon Fraser University Michelle St Anne, Sydney Environment Institute and The Living Room Theatre
Musician Mary Rapp, Multidisciplinary Musician, Composer and Sound Designer
This event was held at the University of Sydney in partnership with The Living Room Theatre on Wednesday 24 February, 2021. For more information visit: https://bit.ly/38jsHlH
The University of Sydney Philosophy Society’s (PhilSoc) Philosophy on the Ground series takes everyday issues in the public discourse and shows how philosophy can enrich our discussion of these topics. In doing this, PhilSoc aims to show that philosophy is far from an outdated or abstract discipline, but something in which everyone can participate and have a voice. The events will take various forms, including debates, discussions and workshops, and engage with experts at Sydney University as well as community actors.
For the inaugural event, PhilSoc, in association with the Sydney Environment Institute, will host a moderated conversation on environmental ethics in a world in the throes of climate change. What are the obligations owed between ourselves, the environment and future generations? The guest speakers at this event are Sydney University academics, Dr Killian Quigley (Department of English) and Professor Danielle Celermajer (Department of Sociology and Social Policy). Dr Quigley has a broad background in environmental humanities, with a focus on theories of the ocean where he has been a contributor to the Open Learning Environment course Global Ethics: The Great Barrier Reef. Professor Celermajer has researched extensively on human rights policy and is director of the Multispecies Justice Project.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country - Samuel Naylor 07:35 Expanding the Reach of Justice - Danielle Celermajer 11:40 Environmental Aesthetics - Killian Quigley 15:00 Human Exceptionalism and its Flaws 33:00 Perceptions of Environmental Catastrophe: Science vs. Stories 55:35 Current Issues in Environmental Ethics 1:06:10 How to Make the Abstract Real? 1:10:00 Are Emotions Helpful or a Hinderance when Confronting Climate Change? 1:16:15 How to Motivate Urgent Action? 1:19:40 Recognising Nature's Otherness 1:23:05 Navigating Survival and the Human Ego
Speakers
Danielle Celermajer, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney Samuel Naylor (Chair), Secretary, PhilSoc (University of Sydney's Philosophy Society) Killian Quigley, Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Monday 2 November, 2020. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3FjCd6t
Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2ErKfQD
The Critical Companions Series celebrates innovative and rich thinking. The series aims to traverse disciplinary silos to provoke different perspectives and invite new conversations.
Ethnographic museums across Europe are full of objects with a troubled past. The interests of early collectors rarely extended to detailed provenance and the often-colonial context of early collecting left such material tainted by unpalatable histories, not easily rescued even by the new taxonomy of ‘world culture’. But these collections have lives beyond their historic problems. As archives of shell, fibre, hair, tendon, feather, leather and wood, they also offer environmental snapshots of the place and time of their origin, some more than a century old.
Through a case study of an Australian shell ornament held in Stockholm’s National Ethnographic Museum, Christine Hansen's project explores the opportunity to reconceive such collections as baseline environmental data. Reconfiguring ethnographic collections as both scientific and cultural not only invites western biodiversity scientists into museum storehouses, it shines a light on non-western knowledge systems in communities of origin, born of deep ties to more-than-human life-worlds. In this exchange, new environmental understandings are advanced and new relevance is given to objects stranded in European collections.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country - Rebecca Lawrence 01:20 Objects of Science and Culture - Christine Hansen 33:55 Recognising Swedish Colonialism and Historic Trauma
Speakers
Christine Hansen, historian and curator, QVMAG Tasmania Rebecca Lawrence (Chair), Senior Research Fellow, Sydney Environment Institute
This event was held via Zoom on Thursday 15 October, 2020. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/30RMjg8
Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2ErKfQD
The Critical Companions Series celebrates innovative and rich thinking. ‘Critical Companions’ are individuals within the Sydney Environment Institute’s network that inspire others with their unique methodology to stretch horizons and strengthen thinking.
The inaugural lecture was given by Nicole Larkin, University of Sydney Masters of Architecture graduate and affiliate of the Sydney Environment Institute. Larkin’s research is based on capturing ocean pools in New South Wales and looks to publish a best practice design guideline for ocean pools as a resource for professionals and the community.
Her presentation gives an overview of the Wild Edge, a project which documents NSW’s ocean pools. Set against sublime headlands and tucked into sweeping beaches, ocean pools are understated turquoise sanctuaries. Concrete walls meld with natural rock and are engulfed by the surf twice a day.
Download the full Wild Edge Report: https://bit.ly/33Z0WvC
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country – Abbas El-Zein 04:40 The Wild Edge – Nicole Larkin 35:30 Adaptation with Rising Sea Levels 39:55 Respecting the Coastline 42:55 Designing a Space for Humans and Non-Humans 46:50 Nicole Larkin’s Favourite Ocean Pool 47:35 Who Holds Responsibility for Maintaining Ocean Pools? 52:00 The Debate Around State Heritage Protection of Ocean Pools 58:50 Ocean Pools in the Context of Rising Sea Levels 1:02:15 Indigenous Aqua-culture
Speakers
Professor Abbas El-Zein (Chair), School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney Nicole Larkin, Architect and Designer
This event was held via Zoom on Wednesday 9 September, 2020. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/32fyTeo
Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: bit.ly/2ErKfQD
Anthropologist Tess Lea has recently launched her remarkable new book, 'Wild Policy: Indigeneity and the Unruly Logics of Intervention'.
Drawing on her years in “the field”, which included being a lurker in the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program – until she was thrown out by a Commonwealth Minister, her many years working with Indigenous people, bureaucrats, and construction crews on Groote Eylandt, and helping to establish and work in the Karrabing Film Collective, Tess gives us a book that is totally enthralling.
Wild Policy is compulsive and absolutely necessary reading for all of us who, as Tess notes, “eat the mine[s]” that eat into unceded Indigenous land, where the violence of “the settler is reasserted everyday”. It is a call to arms on many levels: a reminder that the “familiar tools of scrutiny can blind us to what might also be there, hidden in plain sight, if we care to look askance”; to know that while “good policy” may not be possible, rerouting its effects may allow for multiple points of intervention; and that “sometimes all it takes is to start doing and expecting, differently”.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country - Elspeth Probyn 03:05 Note from the Author - Tess Lea 05:15 Speaker Introductions - Elspeth Probyn 08:15 Book Response - Heidi Norman 20:25 Book Response - David Ritter 32:25 Book Response - Jakelin Troy 41:15 Book Response - Ghassan Hage 53:20 Author Responds to Respondents 01:03:20 Condensing Decades of Research into a Book 01:06:00 Blending Different Mediums and the Power of Visuals 01:10:45 Ethnographic techniques and Indigenous Research Practices 01:19:35 Closing Remarks
Speakers
Professor Ghassan Hage, Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne Associate Professor Tess Lea, Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney Professor Heidi Norman, Social and Political Sciences Program, University of Technology Sydney Professor Elspeth Probyn (Chair), Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney David Ritter, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Professor Jakelin Troy, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research, University of Sydney
This event was held via Zoom on Friday 11 September, 2020 in partnership with the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/3qlh0Df
Sign up to the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming events and new articles published weekly: https://bit.ly/2ErKfQD
International guest Professor Kari Marie Norgaard joins Professor Jakelin Troy to discuss violence, denial, cultural identity and Norgaard’s latest book Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People (Rutgers University Press, 2019).
Once the third-largest salmon-producing stream in the Western United States, the Klamath River has, as of 2014, fallen to only 4% of its previous productivity. This gives the once wealthy Karuk Tribe the dubious honour of having one of the most dramatic and recent diet shifts in North America. Unable to fulfil their traditional fishermen roles, Karuk people are now among the most impoverished in the state.
In Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People, renowned environmental sociologist Kari Norgaard draws upon nearly two decades of examples and insight from Karuk experiences on the Klamath River to illustrate how the ecological dynamics of settler-colonialism are essential for expanding theoretical conversations on health, identity, food, race, and gender that preoccupy many disciplines today.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country – David Schlosberg 05:05 Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People – Kari Norgaard 31:10 Education’s Role in Making Indigenous Voices Visible 42:15 The Radical Potential of Indigenous Sight 49:30 Intersectional Anxiety and Environmental Justice
Speakers
Professor Kari Marie Norgaard, University of Oregon Professor Jakelin Troy, Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research, The University of Sydney Professor David Schlosberg (Chair), Sydney Environment Institute
This podcast is part of The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture multimedia series. Find out more here: bit.ly/2LHl9xf
Professor Kari Norgaard was a Visiting Fellow as part of the Sites of Violence research project. This event was held at the University of Sydney on Monday 25 November, 2019. For more information visit: https://bit.ly/2OQbYw8
The Pacific has been at the forefront of climate change’s most immediate impacts over the years, with rising sea levels threatening communities, their livelihoods and their culture. Dr Jessica Pasisi, of Niuean descent, critiques the current colonial representations of climate change in the Pacific and demonstrates how they obscure Pacific voices and fail to recognise the importance of Indigenous knowledge in the fight against the changing climate. Of particular interest in her research has been the experiences and perceptions of climate change of Niuean women.
While undertaking her doctoral research, she developed her own research methodology that moved her from a position of researching what she thought she wanted to know to one in which she was guided by the women participants. Consequently, she was able to gather the experiences and perceptions of climate change from Niuean women, and attend to the role that Indigenous knowledge, language and cultural practice can have in fighting climate change.
In this discussion, she shares insights into her methodology and some of her findings including the women’s resistance to western framings of climate change, the marketing of climate change as they see it, and their fearless leadership as they navigate their own paths to protect their lives, livelihoods and community.
Timestamps
00:11 Introduction – Christine Winter 01:35 Research Informed by a Sense of Space 07:20 Expelling Colonialism from Research Methodology 13:50 What is Climate Change to Niue? 16:40 The Marketing of Climate Change 22:40 The Stories of the Women 25:00 Taking the Research Back to Niue
Speakers
Dr Jessica Pasisi, University of Waikato Dr Christine Winter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sydney Environment Institute
Find out more about The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Series: bit.ly/2LHl9xf
Water is the lifeblood of civilisations, ecosystems and cultures, however, for years this source of life has been exploited and polluted. As the threat of climate change worsens, academics and scientists are turning to Indigenous knowledge to alter attitudes and encourage sustainable practices.
Dr Virginia Marshall is a Wiradjuri Nyemba woman, practising lawyer and legal scholar. She is particularly focussed on critically analysing Indigenous water use – nationally and internationally – and in developing Indigenous culturally appropriate mechanisms for water frameworks and ethical water use.
Here Virginia talks along a continuum of interconnected ideas: water, land, Indigenous science, Indigenous knowledge, IP, identity, climate change, policy and truth and reconciliation. She discusses the imperative to secure Aboriginal water rights, that is in disbanding the notion of aqua nullius – that the waters of the Australian continent were outside of Indigenous governance structures and cultural use and thus ‘free’ for colonial claims. She explains the inseparability of land and water and Indigenous identity and of the disaster of creating water property rights in Australia.
She discusses the important impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples and the need for Indigenous people and knowledge to be central in climate change debates globally, before turning the discussion to creating truth and reconciliation in Australia.
Timestamps
00:11 Introduction – Christine Winter 02:30 The Birth of Aqua Nullius 09:40 Sacredness of Water and Land 12:10 Epistemology of Indigenous Science 17:00 Who’s Realising the Importance of Indigenous Science? 22:55 Legally Protecting Indigenous Knowledge 26:25 Indigenous Inclusion in Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Decisions 32:40 The Importance of Respect
Speakers
Dr Virginia Marshall, Australian National University Dr Christine Winter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sydney Environment Institute
Find out more about The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Series: bit.ly/2LHl9xf
International guest Kari Marie Norgaard, Associate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon, joins Dr Christine Winter to discuss her new book Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People: Colonialism, Nature, and Social Action (2019). Kari's work focuses on the social organisation of denial (especially regarding climate change), and environmental justice and climate work with the Karuk Tribe on the Klamath River.
This book is the culmination of years spent collaborating with the Karuk tribe whose view of themselves as "fix the world people", has been threatened by the downstream environmental, health, cultural, spiritual and political impacts of the dams connected to the Klamath River. Dr Norgaard and the Karuk people seek to bring healing and visibility to the intimacy of the ways people's lives are connected to the river.
There's no doubt that there is an ongoing lived reality of racism and colonialism manifesting in natural resource policy in explicit and visceral ways. Dr Norgaard and the Karuk tribe encourage listeners to help join their efforts in returning responsibility back to the Indigenous people as a warming world threatens this important river. Learn more about the Karuk Climate Adaptation Plan: https://bit.ly/3f3Q0k7
This podcast is part of The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture multimedia series. Find out more here: bit.ly/2LHl9xf
Timestamps 00:11 Introduction - Christine Winter 01:55 Karuk's Intimate Connection to the Klamath River 07:45 Moulding a Project from Outrage 12:05 Forging Collaborative Relationships and Navigating Ethical Terrain 19:30 Celebrating Vibrant Living Cultures and Avoiding Anthropology 24:00 Pervasive Colonialism 32:10 Intersection of Emotions and Power 36:55 Karuk Public Outreach Campaign 40:40 Encouraging Sociology to Mobilise Change 44:10 Navigating Discipline Hostility
Speakers Professor Kari Marie Norgaard, University of Oregon Dr Christine Winter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sydney Environment Institute
Professor Kari Norgaard was a Visiting Fellow as part of the Sites of Violence research project.
The Pacific Oyster is an invasive species. As it moves along the coast, it ‘colonises’ the rocky shoreline. And as with settler colonialism, this oyster comes to stay, picking off the prime spaces in the intertidal zone ensuring it gets maximum nutrition while displacing native Sydney Rock Oysters to rocky perches that are reached by sea and nutrients only at high tide.
Mitchell Gibbs, a Dunghutti man from Kempsey near Port Macquarie, NSW, is focusing his PhD research on oysters – especially oyster and oyster habitats on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales. As this podcast reveals, his research is based firmly in scientific method, and it is threaded through with an intense interest in traditional Aboriginal oyster farming practices – practices that protected and enhanced oyster habitats and promoted sustainable harvesting.
Focusing on the stressors of climate change – ocean acidification and temperature – on oyster populations, Mitchell seeks to find out what impact they have on the next generations of oysters. Mitchell is keen to blend Indigenous knowledge and science systems with the Western scientific knowledge and approaches and looks at how they can move together in expanding our understanding of the world.
Timestamps
00:11 Understanding Oysters in a Warming World 02:55 Native vs. Invasive Species 06:35 Indigenous Aquaculture Practices 10:15 Restoring Lost Traditions 12:45 Navigating Conflicting Systems 16:00 Sustainability Rooted in Tradition 17:35 What can Science Learn from Indigenous Knowledge 21:50 Bridging the Divide Between Two Cultures
Speakers
Mitchell Gibbs, PhD student, University of Sydney School of Life and Environment Science Dr Christine Winter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sydney Environment Institute
Find out more about The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Series: bit.ly/2LHl9xf
Sophie Chao has worked with the Marind people of Indonesian West Papua for over a decade. With them, she has watched as the Indonesian government and large agribusinesses have entered traditional Marind territories and converted them to Palm Oil plantations.
Here she shares with us her experience of what was to be a two-day mapping expedition – which grew to a three-week encounter with Marind song, lands, vegetation, bird and animal life and a map of coexistence rather than a map of topography, or ownership, or territory. It became a multi-sensory map, a map of shifting flexible demarcations. This multi-sensory world view is demonstrated too in the Marind response to and empathy for the Oil Palms – a ‘greedy’ plant that is cast adrift from its African kin and transplanted, replacing the native flora of West Papua.
Timestamps
00:30 Introduction – Christine Winter 05:20 Maps: Tools of Domination 10:40 On a Journey with the Marind People in Re-mapping the Land 16:30 Communicating a Map of Entangled Relationships and Coexistence 22:15 Marind Activism and its Challenges 30:15 What Would the World Look Like If Power Dynamics Were Reversed? 33:55 Marind’s Emotive Response to Oil Palm Invasion
Speakers
Dr Sophie Chao, University of Sydney Dr Christine Winter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sydney Environment Institute
Find out more about The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Series: https://bit.ly/2LHl9xf
Militarisms are all around us, but they're often hidden – not in the sense that we can't see them or taste them or touch them, but in the sense that we don't notice them, or recognise them as such. They're hidden in plain sight.
In this podcast, University of Sydney researchers Astrida Neimanis and Tess Lea offer the concept of ‘everyday militarisms’ to explore these issues in more depth. They suggest that this concept helps us think more flexibly about operations of power. It invites us to examine more closely our own entanglements with militarisms—how they shape our everyday lives for better or worse.
The conversations in this podcast were first seeded during a walking tour organised by Astrida and Tess on ANZAC Day 2019, during which Uncle Jimmy shared his knowledge about the militarisation of everyday life around Sydney Harbour. On this ANZAC Day, might the reflections in this podcast help us pay attention to the militarisms that continue to structure our everyday lives, even and especially under the extraordinary conditions of pandemic response.
Timestamps
00:00 Surrounded by Sydney Harbour 03:28 Speaker Introductions 04:50 What are Everyday Militarisms? 07:40 Knowledge Beneath the Botanical Gardens 15:35 History’s Indelible Mark on Contemporary Society 24:30 Camouflaging Celebrated Militarisms 27:00 Military’s Involvement in Climate Change 33:10 Benefits of Identifying Militarised Structures
Speakers
Dr. Astrida Neimanis, University of Sydney Assoc Prof Tess Lea, University of Sydney Uncle Jimmy, Wiradjuri Cultural Consultant
Written and narrated by Astrida Neimanis, Tess Lea and Uncle Jimmy, produced and composed by Anja Kanngieser, mastered by Daniel Jenatsch.
The Everyday Militarisms research collaboratory brings together researchers, artists, activists and other professionals to generate new perspectives and dialogue on the ways in which militarisms are inseparable from everyday life. Visit their website to find out more: www.everydaymilitarisms.squarespace.com
Dr Tanya Fiedler in conversation with Professor Michael Mann and Professor Christopher Wright.
In the wake of the catastrophic bushfires that have devastated Australia this summer, a growing groundswell of the population are demanding greater action on climate change and the rapid decarbonisation of our economy. And yet, business as usual goes on, leading many to feel powerless in the face of this existential juggernaut.
So, what can we do? What are the ways in which we – as academics, researchers, educators, administrators and managers – can engage our respective communities to bring about change? How can we, as non-climate scientists, employ the personal and professional skills at our disposal to become agents of change?
Timestamps
00:00 Introductions and Welcome to Country 06:13 Michael Mann’s Experience of Australia’s Extreme Summer 13:16 Business School’s Relationship with Climate Change – Christopher Wright 17:00 What Space is Most Powerful for Advocacy? 25:00 Mainstreaming of Climate Change 27:45 Media’s Influence in the Climate Debate 35:00 How Can We Influence that Debate? 37:23 Investment in Renewable Energy 44:40 Framing Conversations Around Climate Change 48:50 How to Attitudes in the Construction Industry? 52:44 The Power of Litigation in Moving the Climate Conversation 57:46 Offshoring of Emissions and Accountability of Big Businesses 1:02:50 Were the bushfires the tipping point we needed? 1:06:28 Role of Universities as Advocates for Change 1:08:07 Do Deadlines Restrict Climate Action? 1:13:26 How Can We Support Difficult but Necessary Transitions? 1:20:15 Carbon Off-sets and Do They Work?
Speakers
Dr Tanya Fiedler (Chair), University of Sydney Dr Michael Mann, Pennsylvania State University Prof Christopher Wright, University of Sydney
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Tuesday 3 March, 2020. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/2yNoJCC
An interdisciplinary panel considers how government and industry should best respond to climate-related disasters, which will only become increasingly common, intense, widespread and destructive as the planet warms.
The current state and federal approaches to disaster management are failing, as there are inadequate laws and policies to fund government agencies and compensate victims, especially where they are uninsured. With the government defunding research and ignoring recommendations on disasters, resilience and adaptation planning, is a community-based, collaborative approach the only way forward?
Timestamps
00:00 Introductions and Welcome to Country 04:05 How are Bushfires Linked to Climate Change? 07:35 Will Extreme Summers Become the New Normal? 10:55 Media's Misinformation of Climate Crisis 15:50 Living with the Fires on your Doorstep 19:35 Resilience to Shock Events 23:45 What does our Disaster Management Taskforce Look Like? 33:00 How are Business Leaders Reacting to the Fires? 39:55 How do we Transform Governance Structures? 52:25 Insurance in Disasters 58:55 Rise of Climate Militant Workplace Unions 01:04:25 Harnessing Democracy to Tackle Climate Change? 01:12:20 Responsibility of Universities to Act 01:17:30 Money Motivates Action 01:20:00 What Plea Will Get People to Act?
Speakers
Professor Danielle Celermajer, University of Sydney Professor Dale Dominey-Howes, University of Sydney Dr Tanya Fielder (Chair), University of Sydney Dr Michael E. Mann, Penn State University Professor David Schlosberg, Sydney Environment Institute Professor Christopher Wright, University of Sydney
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 26 February, 2020. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/35aheC3
'Swinging the Pendulum Towards the Politics of Production: Animal-Based Food and Environmental Justice'
Dr Wadiwel explores the impact of animal agriculture on climate, planetary health and justice, and the issues with focusing on individualised responsibility, rather than structural and institutional reform.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction – David Schlosberg 12:15 Keynote Lecture – Dinesh Wadiwel
Speakers
Professor David Schlosberg (Chair), Sydney Environment Institute Dr Dinesh Wadiwel, University of Sydney
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Thursday 6 February 2020. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/2KBu7vB
Humans seem to agree on few ethical principles, but one that seems to be near universal is that unless it serves the ultimate purpose of peace, violence ought to be condemned.
In this recording, SEI hosted an interdisciplinary panel on 'Violence in Plain Sight' with visiting scholar Professor Kari Marie Norgaard, that explored the reality of violence in research, the mechanisms of denial and invisibility, and the institutional realities that ensure the persistence of concealment.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction - David Schlosberg 01:53 Welcome to Country - Yvonne Weldon 05:54 Speaker Introductions 10:17 Invisible Realities of Violence - Kari Norgaard 17:35 Why is Violence Woven into All Research? 35:20 Systems of Violence That Allow Us to Function 39:50 Pleasure and Pain 45:00 Violence's Many Definitions 55:35 Hope do You Cope with Researching Violence 1:03:25 Do We Turn a Blind Eye to Violence because it Threatens Our Privileged Lives? 1:08:55 Is All Violence Bad? 1:11:35 Politics of Sight and the Spectacle of Violence in Entertainment 1:24:10 Non-Human Violence 1:28:35 Long Neck Ensemble Performance - Introduced by Michelle St Anne
Speakers
Professor Danielle Celermajer, University of Sydney Brian Joyce (Chair), University of Newcastle Professor Megan Mackenzie, Department of Government and International Relations Professor Kari Marie Norgaard, University of Oregon Professor David Schlosberg, Sydney Environment Institute Dr Dinesh Wadiwel, University of Sydney
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 27 November, 2019. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/2LB19MX
From the shipwrecked swims of Odysseus and Robinson Crusoe to the immersive poetry of Byron and Whitman, swimming captures the human experience of environmental alienation.
In this recording, SEI welcomes visiting scholar Professor Steve Mentz for his keynote lecture, 'Swimming Into the Blue Humanities'.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and Introduction - Killian Quigley 05:15 Keynote Lecture - Steve Mentz 54:21 Q&A
Speakers
Dr Killian Quigley (Intro), Sydney Environment Institute Professor Steve Mentz, St John's University, New York
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Tuesday 29 October, 2019. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2BXS0Ju
In this panel discussion, a group of academic experts and business practitioners discuss how businesses might change their approach to environmental and social sustainability in a warming world, and what is needed to build genuine business leadership which better engages with citizens, communities and governments at this critical time.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and Introduction – Christopher Wright 02:45 Flawed Business Structures – Kate Mackenzie 15:20 Businesses’ Social and Environmental Purpose – Rachel Mason Nunn 19:50 Science to Finance – Tanya Fiedler 28:06 Do Corporations Hold a Broader Social Responsibility? 42:15 Has CSR Actually Been a Success in Deterring Change? 53:40 But What About the Power of Government? 59:45 What is a Good Term for CSR? 01:08:25 Is Lobbying Successful? 01:11:20 How Can You Measure Sustainability? 01:17:45 Is There Any Profit in Ethics? 01:19:30 The Misinformation of Branded Content 01:22:15 Responsibility Within the Banking Sector
Speakers
Rachel Mason Nunn, Social Development Specialist Dr Tanya Fiedler, University of Sydney Kate Mackenzie, Independent Researcher & Consultant Professor Christopher Wright (Chair), University of Sydney
This event was held in partnership with the Waste Fighters Society at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 16 October, 2019. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2JkAL8Z
Mine rehabilitation and mine closure is at first glance much less “spectacular” than the arrival of a new mine – there are rarely protests, blockades, or election promises when it’s time to close a mine. But it is in these apparently mundane spaces we catch a glimpse of the long-term social and environmental impacts of mining.
In this recording, a panel of experts challenge Australia’s current approach to managing mining legacies, embracing ethical, economic, environmental and social perspectives in an exploration of responsible mine closure.
Timestamps
00:00 Introductions and Welcome to Country 08:04 Trauma within Indigenous Sámi Communities – Rebecca Lawrence 10:25 Rehabilitation Discourse – Dave Sweeney 15:25 Difficulty of Quantifying the Issue – Mia Pepper 21:22 Language Behind Mining – Gavin Mudd 27:12 Learning from the Most ‘Regulated’ Mine in the World 34:03 Toxic Management of Mining Legacies 36:40 Different Cultural Understandings of Mining 43:30 Mine Design and Changes to Regulatory Systems 48:15 Positive Stories from Communities Reclaiming Power 53:08 How Can Communities Rehabilitate and Engage More Effectively? 1:01:50 Mining Rehabilitation Bonds 1:06:38 Is Australia the Leader in Mining Governance? 1:10:13 Mining’s Impact on Underground Water Sources 1:13:10 Is this an Intergenerational Equity Issue of Species-Scale Proportions? 1:19:50 Closing Statements
Speakers
Dr Rebecca Lawrence, Sydney Environment Institute Associate Professor Gavin Mudd, RMIT University Mia Pepper, Murdoch University Dave Sweeney, Australian Conservation Foundation Charles Roche (Chair), Minerals Policy Institute, Murdoch University
This event was held in partnership with the Mineral Policy Institute and the Australian Conservation Foundation at the University of Sydney on Thursday 26 September, 2019. For more information about this event visit: https://bit.ly/35cIgbw
Climate science and the models it uses to project climatic changes over the 21st century were designed to answer big picture policy questions at the global scale. So just how can science be adapted to answer the questions businesses want to know? For example, how can scientists advise a company whether a particular piece of infrastructure at a specific address is likely to be rendered useless because of a cyclone in 2030?
The speakers in this panel take us through the ways in which they are assisting a variety of business sectors in answering such questions. They explain where the science is at – what it is capable of and what it is not yet capable of – and the opportunities and challenges they face in working with the business community.
Part Three of The Business Making of Climate Change series.
The Business Making of Climate Change series of public talks brings together investors, lawyers, insurers, corporates, consultants and scientists, as they collectively consider why climate change is increasingly relevant to the business community and how businesses can make sense of climate change in a way that is relevant to them.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country - Tanya Fiedler 12:01 Translating Climate Models to Businesses - Andy Pitman 19:55 Adaptating our Agricultural Industries - Brendan Cullen 25:35 How do Insurers Price Climate Change? - Kate Simmonds 31:05 Climate Change and Credit Liability - Nick Wood 34:35 Is there a Climate Data Deficit? 42:10 Differentiating Between Natural and Climate Variability 47:25 Could Climate Change Lead to Economic Collapse? 55:30 Is there Scientific Literacy and Passion in Australia? 58:15 What can Farmers do? 1:07:20 Role of Artificial Intelligence in Climate Science 1:10:25 Understanding Droughts 1:14:25 What does the Future of Australia's Agricultural Industry Look Like? 1:18:00 Collective Actions Across Sectors
Speakers
Brendan Cullen, University of Melbourne Dr Tanya Fiedler (Chair), University of Sydney Andy Pitman, ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes Kate Simmonds, Willis Towers Watson Nick Wood, Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 19 June, 2019. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2MObGYy
Why are financial regulators, investors and other entities demanding greater insight into the financial risks and opportunities posed by climate change? Are businesses responding to these demands? If so, how? And does that response hold up under scrutiny? This event, part one of the Business Making of Climate Change series, brings together investors, lawyers and academics as they consider these questions.
The speakers will outline the case for publicly listed companies to develop governance structures, risk management, strategies, metrics and targets for climate-related risks and opportunities that, where material, are disclosed in annual financial reports.
Part One of The Business Making of Climate Change series. The Business Making of Climate Change series of public talks brings together investors, lawyers, insurers, corporates, consultants and scientists, as they collectively consider why climate change is increasingly relevant to the business community and how businesses can make sense of climate change in a way that is relevant to them.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and Introduction – Tanya Fiedler 09:00 Who is the IGCC? – Emma Herd 14:55 Incorporating Climate Change into Portfolio Management – Kate Bromley 19:15 Legal Risks of Climate Change – Sarah Barker 23:20 Scenario Modelling – Jillian Reid 26:45 What are the Key External Pressures? 42:30 Q&A
Speakers
Sarah Barker, MinterEllison Dr Tanya Fiedler (Chair), University of Sydney Emma Herd, Investor Group on Climate Change Kate Bromley, QIC Jillian Reid, Mercer
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 22 May, 2019. For more information about this event: https://tinyurl.com/y56gb5ak
This Sydney Environment Institute and Sydney Ideas event examined a variety of ways of rethinking local politics for more sustainable and democratic ends. Speakers addressed the potential of coalitions forming to prevent the increased enclosure of public lands, grassroots efforts to create new food systems, and new forms of cultural intervention and shifts – value-guided ecological democracy. The goal was to put innovative thinkers and actors into a conversation to examine the role of the local in living practices of ecological democracy.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country - Dr Alana Mann 05:40 Democracy and Sustainability - Dr Marit Hammond 18:46 Social Movements and Action - Professor David Schlosberg 35:00 Public Trust Populism - Professor Lisa Disch 49:46 Q&A 50:20 Power of Art Projects to Open Up Democratic Possibilities 53:45 Trust Litigation
Speakers
Professor Lisa Disch, University of Michigan Dr Marit Hammond, Keele University Dr Alana Mann (Chair), University of Sydney Professor David Schlosberg, Sydney Environment Institute
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Thursday 21 February, 2019. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2tA5JSo
To celebrate the career of retiring Co-director Professor Iain McCalman the Sydney Environment Institute launched an annual lecture aimed at highlighting early-career researchers who, like Iain McCalman, are working across disciplinary boundaries to impact both scholarship and public discourse.
The inaugural lecture was given by Dr Frances Flanagan, whose incredible talked titled, ‘Climate Change and the New Work Order’ explored how the workforce can (and must) become a site of social and ecological renewal.
Timestamps
00:41 Welcome to Country - Uncle Allen Madden 03:41 Introduction - Professor David Schlosberg 18:41 Climate Change and the New Work Order (Keynote Lecture) - Dr Frances Flanagan 1:04:55 Response - Professor Iain McCalman
Speakers
Dr Frances Flanagan (Keynote), University of Sydney Fellow Professor Iain McCalman, Emeritus Professor of History and former Co-Director of the Sydney Environment Institute Professor David Schlosberg (Chair), Sydney Environment Institute
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 6 February, 2019. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2WM6dCl
Over the last twenty-five years, the weight of evidence about the causes and consequences of climate change have become compelling, and yet little action has resulted. The problem is political rather than scientific: we know the risks and we know how to address them, but we lack the political will to do so. The media are pivotal in this equation: they have the power to set the public and the political agenda.
How and why has media coverage fallen short in communicating both the science and the politics of climate change? An expert panel discusses at the Sydney launch of Climate Change and the Media, edited by Benedetta Brevini and Justin Lewis.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country – Benedetta Brevini 09:20 Climate Change and the Media – Justin Lewis 16:30 Ignoring Climate Change, Celebrating Coal – Terry Woronov 24:20 Mobilising People through Alternative Media Channels – Alana Mann 32:10 Views from within the News Machine – Peter Hannam 43:15 How to Make Climate Change Newsworthy? 49:10 Alternative Media: Online and Offline Mobilisation and Protest 52:35 Importance of Identity in Selling Propaganda 57:50 Role of Mining Industry Lobby Groups 1:01:05 Activists Reframed into Terrorists 1:08:30 How can Journalists Hold Politicians Accountable? 1:12:10 How can Academics Become Part of the Story? 1:17:30 How to Elevate Environment to Economic Status? 1:25:20 Balanced Reporting 1:28:50 Consolidation of Media Landscape
Speakers
Peter Hannam, Environment Editor, Sydney Morning Herald Professor Justin Lewis, Cardiff University Dr Alana Mann, University of Sydney Dr Terry Woronov, University of Sydney Dr Benedetta Brevini (Chair), University of Sydney
A Sydney Environment Institute event hosted in partnership with the Department of Media and Communications, at the University of Sydney on Monday 5 November 2018. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2F4T8iB
In response to the social inequities and ecological damage wrought by an industrial and globalised food system, a growing food movement that champions food and farm justice, sovereignty and democracy is driving social, economic and political change across the globe. What structures and mechanisms are needed to ensure that those most affected by food and farm insecurity in Australia are heard? How do we strengthen social and political networks to sustain transformative public policymaking in food and agriculture?
In this Sydney Ideas lecture, International expert Eric Holt-Giménez explains how social movements are addressing the economic and political structures that currently work against sustainability, with responses from local food systems experts Eva Perroni and Joel Orchard.
Timestamps
00:00 Introductions and Welcome to Country – Dr Alana Mann 09:44 Sustainability in Food Systems (Keynote) – Dr Eric Holt-Giménez 38:08 Amplifying Voices and Dismantling Power – Eva Perroni 52:00 Food Activism – Joel Orchard 1:11:13 Sydney Food Campaigns to Join 1:12:30 Australia’s Diversity in Food Distribution 1:18:10 Alternatives to Private Property for Production 1:27:35 Implementing Indigenous Practices into Farming 1:34:20 Closing Statement – Dr Eric Holt-Giménez
Speakers
Dr Eric Holt-Giménez (Keynote), Author and Executive Director of Food First Eva Perroni, Independent Researcher and Writer Joel Orchard, Farmer and Food Systems Activist Dr Alana Mann (Chair), University of Sydney
A Sydney Ideas and Sydney Environment Institute event hosted in partnership with the Sydney Policy Lab and held at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 17 October 2018. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2S3dhIu
Part Four of the Living in a Warming World series convened by Dr Frances Flanagan and Michelle St Anne and co-presented by Sydney Ideas.
The radical threat posed by global warming poses a profound challenge to every vocation. At the core of every profession, from engineering to accountancy to law to journalism, is the idea of providing expertise in service to the public good. Professionals must act ethically, in accordance with relevant codes and standards. But with the whole system under challenge from the possible collapse of the natural systems that support life on earth, will these ethics be sufficient?
How are professional standards and codes of ethics shifting in response to the catastrophic threat posed by climate change? These outstanding speakers consider these and other profound questions facing all professionals in the age of global warming.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and Reflecting on Series – Frances Flanagan 08:40 Introduction – Christopher Wright 14:00 Media’s Role in Painting the Big Picture of the Climate Crisis – Anna Krien 33:00 How to Talk About the Topic that Affects Everyone? – David Ritter 47:30 Reclaiming Climate Change as the Critical Ethical Issue of Our Time 53:35 Australia’s Agriculture Industry 56:15 Exposing Political Corruption 58:20 How the Noise from Media Distracts from Action
Speakers
Anna Krien, Author and Journalist David Ritter, CEO, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Professor Christopher Wright (Chair), University of Sydney
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Monday 24 September, 2018. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2PYNgIe
It’s time we talked about jellyfishes. They dazzle us, terrify us, nourish us, and fascinate us. They can seem utterly otherworldly, and yet they’re among the more ancient species to inhabit earth. And because of rising ocean temperatures, they are moving. Scary news, this: it’s not comforting to imagine deadly Irukandji box jellyfish appearing along the New South Wales coast – let alone in Sydney Harbour – but recent sightings at Fraser Island indicate that they are indeed southward bound.
This event delivered the latest research into jellyfishes’ changing behaviour and also helps understand and imagine what that research means for the future of the sea. It will bring you closer to these diverse, complicated, and fantastically beautiful creatures, whose lives, we’d better recognise, are inextricably linked with our own.
Timestamps
00:00 Aesthetics in the Sea (Introduction) – Killian Quigley 05:50 Speaker Introductions – Maria Byrne 08:30 Where are Jellyfish and Where are They Going? – Will Figueira 22:35 Jellyfish Behaving Badly – Mike Kingsford 38:00 History of Jellyfish Studies – Jude Philp
Speakers
Professor Maria Byrne (Chair), University of Sydney Dr Jude Philp, Macleay Museum Professor Mike Kingsford, James Cook University Associate Professor Will Figueira, University of Sydney Dr Killian Quigley, Sydney Environment Institute
A Sydney Ideas and Sydney Environment Institute event hosted in partnership with the Sydney Science Festival and held at the University of Sydney on Tuesday 14 August 2018. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2Mfmo9C
For millennia, Tibet’s nomads flourished sustainably on the ‘roof of the world’. Today they are being forcibly removed from their ancestral lands. At the same time, the climate crisis is bringing dramatic changes to Tibet, with profound consequences both for Tibetans and the hundreds of millions of people who live downstream.
Tsechu Dolma, 25, is a Tibetan refugee, Columbia University graduate, and founder of the Mountain Resiliency Project. Her pioneering work led Tsechu to be recognised as one of Forbes 30 under 30 in social entrepreneurship. In this public lecture, Tsechu explains why Tibet lies at the heart of many of the great development challenges of the 21st century.
Tsechu explores how Tibet lies at the heart of many of the great development challenges of the 21st century. Learn about how climate change is impacting Tibet, and how this affects the fresh water supply and food security of a staggering proportion of the world’s population. What is the role of nomads in protecting Tibet’s environment, and the importance of traditional knowledge and practices in responding to climate change?
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country – Leanne Cutcher 05:30 Social Entrepreneurship – Tsechu Dolma 26:20 Defining Nomads – Robyn Alders 32:20 Tibet Trapped Between Two Global Problems – Kyinzom Dhongdue
Speakers
Professor Robyn Alders, University of Sydney Professor Leanne Cutcher (Chair), University of Sydney Kyinzom Dhongdue, Australia Tibet Council Tsechu Dolma (Keynote), Founder of the Mountain Resiliency Project
A Sydney Ideas and Sydney Environment Institute event, held at the University of Sydney on Monday 7 August 2018. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2vEpnx2
Part Three of the Living in a Warming World series convened by Dr Frances Flanagan and Michelle St Anne and co-presented by Sydney Ideas.
It is inarguable that Australia needs to urgently transition from fossil fuels to a renewables-based energy system if it is to play its part in avoiding catastrophic climate change. Such a transition, though, cannot be undertaken in a purely technical manner. Land must be made available for wind and solar farms, solar panels and mills must be constructed and installed, and decisions must be made about the way our new energy systems are owned and distributed.
This event brings together policy experts, activists and academics to ask what conceptual frameworks we should be reaching for in trying to build a renewable energy system that is fair.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and Introduction of Series – Frances Flanagan 03:15 Introduction – Christopher Wright 05:55 Building Stronger Local Economies – Amanda Cahill 16:15 Supporting the Frontline Workers – Godfrey Moase 26:25 Coping with Heatwaves with Affordable Energy – Joseph Scales 38:15 Technology is There, but Politics Isn’t
Speakers
Dr. Amanda Cahill, The Next Economy Godfrey Moase, National Union of Workers Joseph Scales, Solar Citizens Professor Christopher Wright (Chair), University of Sydney
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Monday 2 July, 2018. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2Kzv3lN
In this public event, contributors Tara Moss, Berndt Sellheim and Lesley Hughes, join lead author David Ritter for the national launch of The Coal Truth: The Fight to Stop Adani, Defeat the Big Polluters and Reclaim our Democracy. Each panellist discusses their contributions to this unique new book, which provides a timely and colourful contribution to one of the most important struggles in our national history – over the future of the coal industry.
Since 2012, the fight to stop the opening of the vast Galilee coal basin has emerged as an iconic pivot of the Australian climate and environment movement. Written by an environmental insider with an eye on the world his daughters will inherit, The Coal Truth is told with wit and verve, drawing in other specialist voices to bring to life the contours of a contest that the people of Australia can’t afford to lose.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country – David Schlosberg 03:55 A Book of Many Voices 12:40 How to Animate a Movement? 17:50 The Power of the Coal Industry 21:55 Public Fatigue of Pisstaking and the Legitimation Crisis 27:10 What Role Does Science Play in This? 34:15 Reclaiming Democracy 38:05 What Do You Want the Book to Do? 46:00 A Message of Hope
Speakers
Professor Lesley Hughes, Macquarie University Tara Moss, Author David Ritter, Author and CEO, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Berndt Sellheim, Poet Professor David Schlosberg (Chair), Sydney Environment Institute
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 13 June, 2018 in partnership with Greenpeace Australia Pacific. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2wYupZm
Part Two of the Living in a Warming World series convened by Dr Frances Flanagan and Michelle St Anne and co-presented by Sydney Ideas.
Climate change has the potential to significantly accelerate inequality. Low income and precariously employed Australians tend to live and work in areas more susceptible to temperature extremes, and in buildings less able to withstand them.
At the same time, rising inequality in Australia is making it harder to tackle climate change. Elites in highly unequal societies pollute more, waste more water, emit more carbon dioxide, and produce and consume more products that are designed not to last. Highly unequal societies are less democratically responsive, and are more likely to accept climate change ‘solutions’ that are premised on the privatisation of ‘liveable space’.
This panel brings together speakers who make the case for the necessity of seeing climate change and inequality as entwined challenges.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country – Christopher Wright 06:15 The Vulnerability of Women in a Warming World – Kate Auty 20:10 Building a Better Future by Recognising the Honest Reality – Marc Stears 33:30 Community-based Solutions to the Climate Crisis
Speakers
Professor Kate Auty, ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment Professor Marc Stears, Sydney Policy Lab Professor Christopher Wright (Chair), University of Sydney Business School
This event was held at the University of Sydney on Monday 4 June, 2018. For more information: https://bit.ly/2rxZvSs
Void. Mirror. Sanctuary. Habitat. Drowned Earth. Saltwater country. These represent a tiny fraction of the ideas and images the ocean has been seen to express. This Sydney Ideas seminar gathered insights from philosophy, marine geoscience, art, and literature exploring how different ways of knowing the sea have informed one another, and how they might inform one another in the future.
Science can explain how waves activate oceanic forms, and how those forms affect lives, sands, reefs, and coastlines. Through poetry and art, it’s possible to witness how waves and other sea-structures have stimulated imaginations to move beyond the limits of the shore. Truly thinking past terrestrial boundaries requires new connections among ethics, natural science, and creative practice.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country – Susan Reid 06:25 The Poetic History of the Ocean – Killian Quigley 18:55 Wave Formations and Coral Reefs – Ana Vila Concejo 31:55 Creation Represented in the Land – Brian Robinson
Speakers
Dr Killian Quigley, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sydney Environment Institute Associate Professor Ana Vila Concejo, University of Sydney Brian Robinson, Contemporary Artist Susan Reid (Chair), University of Sydney
A Sydney Ideas and Sydney Environment Institute event, held at the University of Sydney on Tuesday 8 May 2018. For more information about this event: https://bit.ly/2K1VlsP
Starting in April 2016, thousands of people, led by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal members, gathered at camps to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)—creating the #NoDAPL movement. The movement ultimately blocked pipeline construction, though under a new U.S. presidential administration, many are waiting to see what steps will need to be taken to continue resistance.
NoDAPL has mobilized Indigenous peoples and allies everywhere. What is its significance for Indigenous peoples and environmentalism, including the global climate justice and environmental justice movements?
Dr. Kyle Powys Whyte, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, holds the Timnick Chair in the Humanities at Michigan State University. He discusses his work on climate and environmental justice especially concerning the ethics of cooperative relationships between Indigenous peoples and climate science organisations and delves deep into his writings on the #NoDAPL movement.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Country - David Schlosberg 03:25 Systematic Indigenous Injustice and the Dakota Access Pipeline - Kyle Powys Whyte
Speakers
Professor David Schlosberg, Sydney Environment Institute Associate Professor Kyle Powys Whyte, Michigan State University
This event was held at the University of Sydney on 21 February 2017. For more information: https://bit.ly/2Uy4zET