SPEAKERS: Quentin Beresford and David Ritter
HOST: Deb Tribe
Our Prime Minister recently declared the need for “fair dinkum power" when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining. But can this “fair dinkum power” be good for the planet, leaving the 90 per cent of the nation’s coal reserves in the ground estimated for Australia to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement?
Join Prof Quentin Beresford (author of Adani and the War on Coal) and David Ritter (Greenpeace CEO and author of The Coal Truth) as they discuss the Adani saga and the power behind our government’s passion for coal over a 100% renewable energy future.
SPEAKERS: Angie Plummer, Cecile Godde, Matthew Evans and Andy Lowe
HOST: Deb Tribe
Can we really tackle climate change without addressing our relationship with meat consumption and the livestock industry? Ditching the snag on the BBQ and shifting to a more plant based diet is a demand-side solution but only half the consumption / production equation. What needs to be done to change a livestock industry that contributes 15% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions? That’s even more than the transportation sector.
Inaugural Director of Food Innovation at the University of Adelaide, Andy Lowe, Less Meat Less Heat CEO Angie Plummer, CSIRO food systems scientist, Cecile Godde and farmer/SBS TV food documentary maker, Matthew Evans have a few thoughts on where to start, even if you don’t want to become a vegan.
SPEAKERS: Brian Pickles, Monica Gagliano and Alex Gaut
HOST: Robyn Williams
Join pioneering scientists Brian Pickles and Monica Gagliano alongside Nature Connection guide, Alex Gaut as they discuss the fascinating world of tree communication, plant cognition and the healing powers of forest bathing. Gagliano’s bio acoustics research in plant cognition and Pickles’ work revealing a mycelium communication network dubbed “the Wood Wide Web” has exposed an incredible hidden world where plants and trees share, trade, care for family, display altruism, wage war, and even think!
And the connection between trees and humans and is just as fascinating. Originally established with Japanese government support because of its measurable health benefits, tree bathing has become widely popular in Japan, Europe and the US as a mind-tree-body therapy.
Speakers: Genevieve Bell, Kristin Alford and Toby Walsh
Host: Bernie Hobbs
Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Machines represent the most significant social and organizational challenges since human civilisation emerged 5000 years ago. How humanity engages with these technologies today is the key to ensuring that the future development of these tools benefit both society and the environment.
Joining Bernie Hobbs for a live discussion exploring the ramifications of technologies set to disrupt our sustainable relationship with the planet will be three of Australia's brightest minds - cultural anthropologist and former Adelaide thinker in residence Genevieve Bell, futurist and Director of .MOD, Kristin Alford and one of the world’s leading scientists researching Artificial Intelligence, Toby Walsh.
Speakers: Vaughan Levitzke, Vivian Sim, and Anne Sharp
Host: Deb Tribe
An estimated five trillion plastic items - mostly less than five millimetres in size - are currently circulating the surface of the world's oceans and scientists cite microplastics (particles less than 5mm) entering our food chain as a potential toxic ticking time bomb. Let that sink in for a minute... ('scuse the pun).
Three experts in waste, microplastic contamination research and consumer behaviour, Vaughan Levitzke, Vivian Sim, and Anne Sharp sit down with the ABCs Deb Tribe to discuss the scale of the world's addiction to plastic and the possible solutions.
Speakers: Clare Press, Gab Murphy and Megan O’Malley
Vogue Australia's Sustainability Editor-at-Large, respected fashion journalist and author Clare Press brings her popular "slow fashion" podcast Wardrobe Crisis to a live recording at the Planet Talks! The WARDRODE CRISIS Podcast decodes the fashion system and digs deep to explore fashion’s effects on people and planet. Sitting down with Clare are intrepid documentary makers Gab Murphy and Megan O’Malley of "Walk Sew Good" to investigate the impact of our modern fashion consumption habits. These two intrepid explorers walked 3500km across South East Asia to find and document positive stories they hope will change the way people see, value and talk about fashion.
Speakers: Kyle Wiens | Veena Sahajwalla | Nicholas Chileshe
Host: Robyn Williams
We’re running out of resources but according to this panel, we’re going to be ok. Can we compete with the convenience of the garbage dump and the latest iPhone? Are tech companies taking away our right to extend the life of products? Is a waste-free economy possible? iFixit founder Kyle Wiens, UNSW’s Scientia Professor of Materials Science, Veena Sahajwalla and UniSA’s reverse logistics expert Nicholas Chileshe know a thing or two about delaying entropy, so let’s ask them.
Speakers: Dee Madigan | Jane Caro | First Dog on the Moon
Host: Tory Shepherd
Can effectively communicating facts about climate change make any difference to how people vote in the next election? What is the PR pollution clouding carbon politics? Is it possible to make an issue this complex simple enough to get good decisions within our short-term electoral cycle? This panel of communications gurus and a canine political cartoon commentariat are masters of words and pictures, so what’s their world-saving climate change action pitch?
Speakers: Naomi Oreskes | Tanya Monro | Karl Kruszelnicki
Host: Paul Willis
Is economic growth possible if we truly address climate change or will a transition require serious economic pain before any gain? Is coal about to disappear as fast as Kodak did and, if so, can new energy technologies deliver a ‘win-win’ for the environment and the economy? This panel features some of our foremost economic and political minds discussing the possibility of a new economy and clean growth.
Speakers: Ross Garnaut | John Hewson
Host: Lenore Taylor
Is economic growth possible if we truly address climate change or will a transition require serious economic pain before any gain? Is coal about to disappear as fast as Kodak did and, if so, can new energy technologies deliver a ‘win-win’ for the environment and the economy? This panel features some of our foremost economic and political minds discussing the possibility of a new economy and clean growth.