SFU honours Australian climate-change expert and author Tim Flannery

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      One of the world's most influential writers on climate change has won the 2015/16 Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue.

      Australian Tim Flannery is being honoured not only for his ground-breaking books, including The Weather Makers and Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet, but also for his work in promoting engagement through the Copenhagen Climate Council and Australian Climate Commission.

      Flannery was named Australian of the Year in 2007 and taught at Macquarie University until 2013.

      After a new right-wing Australian government abolished the Australian Climate Commission, Flannery and others created the nongovernmental Climate Council.

      "Professor Flannery has played a critical and high-profile role in the ongoing conversation for how the world can reconcile global climate concerns with economic growth and prosperity," Shauna Sylvester, director of the SFU Centre for Dialogue, said in a news release.

      Flannery will give a public lecture on October 14 at the Vancouver Playhouse, which will be part of a "short programming residency" at SFU.

      It coincides with the release of his newest book, Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for Solutions to the Climate Crisis.

      His last book, Here on Earth, relied, in part, on Gaia theory to explain how the Earth is a self-regulating system capable of responding to new challenges. 

      In the same book, Flannery also argued that free-market ideologues had perverted Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.

      Comments

      3 Comments

      Anonymous

      Aug 20, 2015 at 12:54pm

      We deny 34 yrs. of climate action failure with science's 97% certainty ( that's certainty not consensus).

      It's tragic that science isn't allowed to say it's; "proven" the end is near to end this debate as it could prevent another 34 more years of not achieving the climate action targets CO2 scientists said we needed 25 years ago to save the planet.

      Yes, the end is near and all because of a; "scientific method" law.

      Kim Collins

      Aug 20, 2015 at 1:38pm

      The end is not near because of ""a scientific method" law." The end is not near IF we get our act together and starting responding to this emergency with the urgency that it requires. Dr. Flannery has been making that case for a long time as have other scientists. But, our populations are not very scientifically literate, big polluting companies and countries don't want their profits eroded (even if climate change will do that to them and us anyway) and people don't want to change. The reality of climate change bursts so many psychological bubbles and creates so much discomfort that most people would rather look away. It's ultimately a self-defeating strategy, but then we are a rather short-sighted species.
      I believe that we can change, that there is still time to pull away from catastrophe, but it will mean making major changes to our economies and lives. Many are already embracing that. However, we can't focus solely on individual change. Fundamentally, climate change is a systemic crisis and a symptom of a global economy that is exceeding the carrying capacity of the planet. Author and 350.org founder Bill McKibben recently outlined a strategy:

      "Well, we’d treat it the way we did during World War II, we would mobilize the world's industrial might to get it done. We’d take every tool we could—like a serious and rising price on carbon—to make that happen. The tools really are less in question than the motivation to get there. I mean every economist for 25 years has said we need a price on carbon. We know how to do it. People talked a lot about the fee and dividend plans and things like that. But all of this is, you know, just talk, until there’s the political will to make it happen, that’s what we’ve got to, I think that’s job one. That's why we organize the way we do.

      My house is covered with solar panels, and I drove the first hybrid electric Ford in Vermont and on and on and on. I try not to fool myself with that’s how we’re going to win this fight. Global warming is a structural and systemic issue, that’s where it comes from, the structures and systems. So changing those is what’s key. As individuals, we’re relatively powerless against climate change. That’s why the most important thing an individual can do is not be an individual, which means joining with other people in this battle."
      Source: http://goo.gl/Rreo4z

      As you say..

      Aug 20, 2015 at 1:40pm

      As you say Anonymous, 'it's proven.. the end is near'.
      True Believers of all stripes pretty much always sound that same.

      Me I'm a true believer now too. I read the Gospel Accoriding to Mark Steyn. It works for me.