Well, Mark might not be picking apart the 2020 list, as it’s too obvious, I’m an obvious kind of person…A few hours Googling later, and we have a horribly superficial, uninformed commentary on the 100 (well, 86 actually) listed delegates to the sustainability sub-summit.
Discussion and the annotated, commentated list over the fold.
The first thing to note is the demographic balance of the list; it’s impeccable. That said, the CV’s of the female and non-WASP participants look every bit as impressive as the skip bloke quotient – there’s even a reasonable smattering of dud female company directors amongst the dud male company directors…
One thing that did stick out rather strongly in the list was the number of experts on water policy – water scientists and administrators seem to be a dime a dozen, compared to experts in, say, sustainable transport policy or geosequestration. If I may go out on a limb here, it seems that the “water crisis” affecting our coastal cities is frankly overblown and artificial – as Hannah’s Dad regularly pipes up in comments, urban water usage is a piddle in the ocean compared to those of irrigators, and desalination offers an effectively unlimited water supply at a cost of maybe double what we’re currently paying. The problems affecting the Murray-Darling are the result of a lack of political will to implement solutions (buy back enough bloody water from farmers) rather than not knowing what they are. By contrast, we haven’t even started to grope towards environmentally sustainable urban transport solutions. And, as previously noted, Australia’s greenhouse policy still amounts to a massive bet on carbon capture and storage; wouldn’t it be kind of useful to have more than a couple of people in a position to know whether it’s a goer or not?
Anyway, I’m sure the readers of LP will be able to fill in the gaps in this very incomplete guide to the “best and brightest” environmental minds in Australia. Anybody got any more goss on this lot?
THE LIST:
- Carl Binning is a farmer, environmental economist and is Chief Executive of Greening Australia.
- Irina Cattalini is the Director of Social Policy at the West Australian Council of Social Service.
- Joe Ross is the Director of the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre (AILC), which was established to oversee the Indigenous Leadership Development, with the objective of developing a continueing programs for future Indigenous leaders.
- Cheryl Batalgol is the Chairman of Melbourne Water and “has over 30 years experience in the waste management industry, including commercial, industrial and trade waste management and treatment.”
- Damien Bell manages the Lake Condah Sustainable Development Project and is the chairman of the Windamara Aboriginal Corporation.
- Grant Blashki is a GP and a research fellow at the University of Melbourne. His research interests include “Primary Mental Health Care, Climate Change and Health”
- Larissa Brown is a university student who is the “Founder and Executive Director of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership. Larissa is also the co-founder of an environmental show on youth radio, the award-winning ‘Hour of Eco Power’”
- Russell Ronald doesn’t appear to be googleable
- If you don’t know who Ross Garnaut is, you must be new here…
- Gerry Hueston is the former chairman of BP Australasia.
- Andrew Jaspan is the editor of the Melbourne Age, which continues to publish Tracee Hutchinson and Catherine Deveny’s opinions on the environment.
- Will somebody prepare the chloroform for Barry Jones – you’re fascinating Barry, but we’ve only got two days…
- Professor David Karoly, a Federation Fellow at the University of Melbourne has been a lead author on the third and fourth IPCC reports.
- Professor Amanda Lynch is at Monash University, and specialises in climate and meteorology of the Polar Regions and Australia, using global and regional climate-system models, process models, statistical models and field experiments.
- Robyn McLeod is (or possibly was, it’s hard to be sure) the ” Executive Director, Major Projects Division, Water Sector Group, Victoria Department of Sustainability and Environment”.
- Dr Pamela McRae-Williams is a Research Associate at the Center for Regional Innovation and Competitiveness at the University of Ballarat. Her research appears to concentrate on the importance of economic clusters to regional development.
- Stephen Mills, a Numurkah farmer and Chairman of the Australian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage.
- Natasha Palich, an architect who specializes in sustainable architecture.
- George Pappas, an economist who used to work with the Boston Consulting Group and the Committee for Melbourne. No particular indication of specific sustainability expertise, though…
- Graham Pearman, former CSIRO Chief of Atmospheric Research and now head of the Climate Institute, a farmer-funded lobby group on climate change issues.
- March Randolph, Group Executive and Chief Executive Ferrous and Coal, Member of the Group Management Committee. Well, he certainly should know something about greenhouse gases…
- Bernard Salt publishes stuff about demographic change – reminds me a little bit of Hugh Mackay, by the sounds of things. this guy doesn’t think much of his stuff…
- David Shelmerdine, member of the extended Myer clan. Your guess is as good as mine.
- John Thwaites, former Victorian Environment Minister.
- Georgina Boon isn’t Googleable except to confirm that she is indeed Tasmanian.
- Anne Howe is Chief Executive of SA Water.
- Susan Jeanes is a former Liberal Party MP and now Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Generators of Australia
- Monica Oliphant is President of the International Solar Energy Society
- Joanne Pfieffer “is a dairy farmer from Long Flat in the Lower Murray who is also a member of the National Murray Darling Basin Community Advisory Committee.”
- Ann Shaw-Rungie appears to be involved in urban studies and Slow Food
- Michael Berwick is an environmentalist involved in protecting the Daintree rainforest in the 1980s, and at one stage Mayor of the Douglas Shire Council in the area.
- Leith Boully is a farmer with rather interesting connections to the widely-hated Cubbie Station.
- Erin Cini is “is national president of the young professionals division of the Australian Water Association and is a project engineer working on the South East Queensland Water Grid.”
- Chris Cocklin is Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and IT at JCU in February 2007, with a long publication record in the areas stuff relating precisely to this summit.
- Cheryl Desha is an engineering lecturer at Griffith University, working on “engineering education for sustainable development”.
- Melissa-Lee George is “the Co-ordinator of the State Indigenous Natural Resource Management Network and is employed by the Burdekin Dry Tropics Board. Melissa-Leigh is an indigenous Australian and has lived on Magnetic Island (her Country) for the last 14 years.
- Professor Ross Guest is an economist whose main academic interest seems to be the effects of an ageing population. Seems a bit of an odd choice for this particular summit.
- Andrew Johnson is “Group Executive, Environment”> at the CSIRO. His past research interests seem to have included Barrier-Reef related material, as well as rural issues.
- Ian Lowe is boss of the Australian Conservation Foundation. He writes well-constructed but misleading rubbish about nuclear power.
- Elizabeth Nosworthy is chair of Queensland Water, a non-executive director of Babcock & Brown (so let’s all hear about the wonders of PPPs), as well as Chairperson of the Commander Communications board (a roaring corporate success story, if anybody wants to look at the share price graph…). She’s also been Deputy Chairman of the
oxymoron boardClean Coal Technology Board. - Hugh Possingham is a Fed Fellow at UQ, working on the mathematics of ecology. Tick.
- John Quiggin hasn’t been quite the same since he shaved off his beard, but I reckon he deserves a guernsey here anyway
- Russell Reichelt is CEO of the Reef Research CRC. If we’re not careful there won’t be any coral reefs left to study soon…
- Lorraine Stephenson is a partner at Deloittes who advises clients on sustainability issues.
- Stuart Blanch is “Freshwater Manager”> with the WWF.
- Stephen Garnett is a professor at CDU whose key expertise appears to be (appropriately enough, given the person who his employing institution is named after) tropical birds, and their conservation.
- Joe Morrison is the executive officer of The North Australian Indigenous Land & Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA)
- Maria Atkinson is the Global Head of Sustainability for Lend Lease and also the Director of the Green Building Council of Australia.
- Marcela Bilek is a Professor at the University of Sydney, whose area of expertise appears to be “surfaces” – custom coatings , for instance to make implanted devices biocompatible. There doesn’t appear to be anything specifically environment-related here.
- Greg Bourne, CEO of WWF Australia, formerly president of BP Australasia.
- Petrea Bradford is the manager of Carbon Markets at Origin Energy, undoubtedly the most vocally green of the members of Big Energy.
- Jillian Broadbent is a former banking executive and now a Reserve Bank governor. No indication of any specific climate change expertise.
- Peter Coates, CEO of Xstrata Coal. Maybe if it gets a bit dull one of the renewable energy crowd can challenge him to a duel…
- Mary Crock, a law professor at Sydney University whose research appears to center on the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. While there is of course the possibility of waves of climate refugees, I can’t see an obvious connection here…
- I assume this is the right Stewart Ellis – an irrigator from Deniliquin, in the south-west of New South Wales.
- Penelope Figgis is a Vice President of the ACF and Vice-Chair for Australia and New Zealand of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.
- Tim Flannery. As previously stated, I have reservations about the discrepancy between his willingness to comment on just about anything and the actual breadth of his expertise.
- Tanya Ha, whose enormous photograph on her website demonstrates just how flattering a bamboo background can be, appeared on SBS’s Eco-House Challenge. I hope it was better than the ABC’s excreable equivalent, Carbon Cops.
- Michael Hawker, head of Insurance Australia Group. You might remember that insurance companies were amongst the first businesses to start getting seriously concerned about climate change.
- Lesley Head, a professor at Wollongong Uni whose research focuses on “on long term changes in the Australian landscape and the interactions of both prehistoric and contemporary peoples with these environments”, from what appears to be a bit of a social science perspective.
- Judy Henderson is “the Chair of the Global Reporting Initiative, a voluntary code of conduct for business that covers non-financial reporting or the triple bottom line. She was a non-government member of the Australian delegation at Rio.
- Ros Kelly was the Minister for Whiteboards in the Hawke and Keating governments.
- Shabaz Khan “leads the Irrigation Systems research group, within the Irrigation and Water Resources research program and Rural Water Use Stream of CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Country flagship. He is also Professor of Hydrology in Charles Sturt University’s School of Environmental Sciences and Director of the International Centre of Water at Charles Sturt University”.
- Ian Kiernan is a yachtie who thought that picking up rubbish was a good idea and convinced millions of others to do so. Sometimes the simple ideas are the best…
- Eric Knight was, in 2006, an Arts/Law student who was that close to getting a Rhodes Scholarship.
- Gabrielle Kuiper is an urban planner with an interest in sustainable transport. You would have thought that more than one urban planner might be a good idea…
- Susan Lenehan was a South Australian Environment Minister.
- Romilly Madew is an expert on green buildings.
- Sam Mostyn works for IAG, but, far more importantly, is the AFL’s first female commissioner. Sustainable footy! Yay!
- Elain Prior works for Citigroup and gets quoted on climate change issues.
- This appears to be Tania Ritchie’s weblog from her time in Antarctica with the University of Newcastle’s Space Physics group.
- Anna Rose founded the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.
- The rather disturbingly young-looking Paul Simshauser is CEO of Babcock & Brown Power.
- Will Steffen is an ANU Professor whose “research interests span a broad range within the field of Earth System science, with a special emphasis on terrestrial ecosystem interactions with global change, the global carbon cycle, incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis, and sustainability and the Earth System”.
- Tony Wilkins is an environmental manager for News Limited.
- Valerie Brown is an Emeritus Professor at ANU whose “research applies integrative methods to exploring the construction of knowledge in generating locally sustainable responses to global social and environmental pressures.”
- Peter Cook is the CEO of CO2CRC, the cooperative research center studying geosequestration.
- Wendy Craik is the head of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, and the former head of the National Competition Council (the body responsible for pushing the National Competition Policy), amongst other things.
- Brian Fisher used to be the head of ABARE, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics. ABARE was notorious for its doomsday forecasts about the costs of climate change to the Australian economy.
- Geoff Garrett is the head of the CSIRO. He was a metallurgist by training, and was a university lecturer in South Africa in the 1970s. I wonder what his students went on to do…
- Stephen Hatfield-Dodds is an economist working on climate change and sustainable development issues.
- Warwick McKibbin can’t get over the fact that people just don’t like his approach to carbon pricing.
- Patrick Troy is an urban planner who thinks urban sprawl is great and is happy to appear on Counterpoint to say so.
- Karen Hussey is chair of the ANU Water Initiative
- Chloe Munro is the Chair of the National Water Commission.
- Dr Beverly Reynolds is Chief Executive of CSIRO Petroleum. Maybe she knows whether we’re running out…
David Colquhoun is a private Cardiologist at the Wesley and Greenslopes Hospitals who is also a clinical A/Prof at UQ. He is the Qld AMA spokesperson on Cardiology. He was nominated by the National Heart Foundation and mainly works in the field of complimentary medicine & cardiology and depression & cardiology. He is involved in Beyond Blue as well as large scale clinical research projects.
Web reference and resume here: http://www.coreresearchgroup.com/component/option,com_contact/task,view/contact_id,2/Itemid,50/
Dr Colquhoun is listed on the Health panel. I’m not sure if we are deconstructing all the 2020 participants on this thread or not, but that’s at least one more down!
I don’t know most of the people on this list but I do know about Ian Lowe (39). Your meaningless, biased and just plain nasty comment about his opposition to nuclear power suggests that your assessments may well be “a horribly superficial, uninformed commentary” that indicates your own capacity for “misleading rubbish”, not Lowe’s.
Chloe Monro was famous in her job as Secretary to the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment, for approving the 2002 logging of the iconic Goolengook rainforest in the states East.
Ian Kiernan was famous as a slum landlord in Sydney’s Redfern in the 1970s and later a bankrupt developer who took many an honest tradesman down with him. After his fall from wealth he reinvented himself with the help of his partner an expert in PR and emerged to a triumphant arrival in at Sydney harbour after circumnavigating the globe single handed in a yacht. On the back of this PR blitz Kiernan and partner set up the dodgy Clean Up Australia organisation, it happily took sponsorship from MacDonalds, Amatil (Coke) and other gross polluters. NSW Education Dept chucked Clean Up Australia out of its schools after deciding it was in fact a business and not an environment group. Ian just keeps getting richer, the only thing that has ever mattered to him after all.
Keep a close eye on Hugh Possingham – he’s very very sharp and can be relied upon to have something interesting to say.
Must say, though, that in general the research end of the environment/ecology representation looks thin.
Professor David Karoly
has a sharp mind, was for a short period Head of Maths & Stats Dept at Monash Uni (Clayton) where they have a Meteorology speciality within their applied maths; and is a very humane person. He has worked in USA, Australia, etc. A world-class scientist but not an unworldly nerd
Yeah, David Karoly is in the department where I work part-time. I’m not a climatologist, so I can’t speak to his science, but they don’t hand out Fed Fellowships for nothing. He’s clearly a very bright chap, also very affable. I thought he’d probably be on this list, should be an asset to the forum.
Just did quick gooogle on “Robert Merkel”. It seems he is an apologist for the nuclear industry, denies the dangers of radiation exposure and considers opposition to nuclear power as “superstition or remnants of old Soviet propaganda from the Cold War”. At least now I understand his criticism of Ian Lowe.
John Tracey: that was slightly tongue in cheek. I wrote a response to Ian Lowe’s Quarterly Essay on the topic.
But, yes, I do regard a lot of the opposition to nuclear power as either superstition or remnants of the Cold War. Radiation is dangerous, but you get a hell of a lot more of it coming out of the smokestacks of Hazelwood or Kogan Creek than you ever would out of a nuke plant.
Robert Merkel, this is hugely impressive stuff. Well done! BUT…!
Shouldn’t the government have provided such background on all the participants??? I mean, isn’t this supposed to be a public forum, not a closed shop of elites?
I must confess I haven’t even checked out the 2020 website yet, but it’s quite appalling if they have supplied anything beyond a list of names (and even that took a while to come out in full).
Good work Robert.
What a shame there are no science studies scholars and only a couple of social scientists.
List of names, or list by states, Gandhi, that’s all.
Sorry, “if they have supplied” = “if they haven’t supplied”. Which makes a double negative. Doh!
I’m a big fan of Hugh Possingham’s too. Logical, realistic and shrewd, and very good on the difference between uninformed sentimentality on the one hand and genuine long-sighted commitment to biodiversity and animal welfare on the other. He had some brilliant, hard-nosed things to say about the koala overpopulation problem on Kangaroo Island here in SA a few years ago when it got completely out of hand; his natural inclination is to look to the future.
This is terrific, Robert. I might have a go at the Arts one.
DK: while as a sort-of scientist and what I suppose you’d describe as a “realist” I have my suspicions about the science studies crowd, I think there’s definitely room to toss at least one insurance exec or state water board admin overboard to include a few more social sciences types.
Or, for that matter, John Thwaites. Surely Penny Wong or Peter Garrett would still take a call from him direct?
Or toss him…
Worst sort of generationalism rubbish. All Gen Y are… Baby boomers all are…
He’s not in the Hugh Mackay class. Not that I think the Hugh Mackay class is all that spesh.
I hope he provides KPMG with better value for their money than op/ed readers get.
Stuart Blanch #45 has a strong research background in freshwater plant ecology, published several papers on effects of changed flow regimes on key plant spp along the Lower Murray. He came from the Ganf group at University of Adelaide.
John’s got a point Robert. We all know you like nuclear power and you don’t like the Australian Conservation Foundation, but you’re being disrepectful to Ian Lowe.
He’s been a referee for the IPCC, a member of the National Energy Research, Development and Demonstration Council, a member of the Environmental Health Council and the Radiation Health and Safety Advisory Council. He chairs the Brisbane City Council task force on climate change and energy and deputy chair of the Queensland Sustainable Energy Innovation Group, which advises the State government on energy innovations.
That’s in the bio you linked to, and it’s way more relevant than his specific dislike for nuclear power. You’re coming off like Christian Kerr and there’s no future in that, son.
d
Darryl: Ian Lowe is sufficiently well known that I assume everybody knows who the hell he is without me needing to blow additional smoke.
You’ll note that a certain disrespect crept into my descriptions of a number of the better-=known people on that list.
Robert, I appreciate the effort you’ve put into the compilation… but…superficial?
Yes, on reflection, very superficial.
Your list shows that the old adage “I am googleable, ergo sum” is tosh. Google is a wonderful tool, but its results are mere starting points.
To consider the list shrewdly, I think we need to go beyond “do they possess testicles?” “which State are they from?” “What have they published?” “do they disagree with Robert Merkel?” – or with me for that matter…
IMHO the most voluble are not always the most valuable. So let’s hope this group doesn’t include egotistical windbags.
Well, there’s that. Wikipedia is a crock, for a start. If any of these people have been victims of a well-orchestrated online smear campaign, and yes it happens all the time, then much of what turns up on Google will be grotesquely skewed — especially given the proliferation of those stupid auto-site thingies where “information” is simply replicated … usually from Wikipedia.
That said, I don’t think ‘I am googleable ergo sum’ was what Robert was trying to demonstrate, and I found this list really helpful in a general-overview way.
My tip from February was that the Twenty-twenty gabfest would “include a few strategically placed token Hansonites for comic effect so the Annointed can demonstrate their innate moral and intellectual superiority in 15 second sound-bites for the evening news.”
“Impeccable balance” is crucial to casting any stunt for television and picture opportunities.
I found it helpful too.
Professor Lynch is also a Federal Fellow – one of the first targetted to be tempted back to Australia. On the IPCC too.
Specialises in working with communities on the ground to identify climate change threats and help them plan for these.
Relatively young, too – don’t think she’s hit 40 yet.
Geez, of course it was superficial – do you expect multi-chapter biographies on 86 people, some not very well-known, from a few hours work? At least we can get a sense of how many of the participants are scientists, economists, activists, businesspeople, former pollies, bureaucrats, and assorted others through a quick survey like this.
I was hoping that the collective expertise of the LP readership might help to fill in some more detail, to be honest.
For the record (and I don’t see how you read this into it) nor do I think that how Googleable you are determines how much of value you have to say at a discussion like this. Where I had more information available, I added it – and, yes, sometimes with a dose of extra sarcasm.
Yes, I hope there will be more considered analysis of the list over time – particularly who’s not there. For instance, I’m not a huge fan of the guy, but Mark Diesendorf is the go-to academic for the media on renewable energy issues.
Pavlov’s: I agree, good starting point, overview. Better than MSM who merely dived for their photo files.
I too hope other posters will filli in a few gaps. I attempted same, last night.
cheers
jesus christ whingers, do your own homework if you don’t like what Robert’s done.
Disagree that Thwaites shouldn’t be there, he’s now got a few sustainability roles going, and he’s quite bright and forward thinking (though for Don at #5, he also approved lots and lots of logging).
My goodness that Babcock and Brown fellow must bathe in babies blood. Looks about 25.
Bernard Salt wrote in the Herald-Sun recently that he’s never read a novel http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23314093-5000117,00.html
so he’s definitely a philistine, and unless his education was bizarrely deficient, a liar as well.
Agree Thwaitesy is forward thinking (but why then did they plan a DESAL plant for Wonthaggi?)
He resigned as Deputy Premier only because Bracksy went, IMHO.
laura says;
Maybe he thinks novels themselves are “philistine” – I mean, they’re more or less associated with bourgeois individualism, aren’t they? I mean, other than post-structuralist novels, and they’re just effing unreadable.
Ambigulous: some LP commenters have stated that recycling sewage was considered, but polling suggested they wouldn’t be able to sell the idea to the public.
That’s sad, but I suppose sometimes you have to choose what battles to fight.
Thwaites was against the desal plant, it was Brumby’s big idea. Thwaites wanted more recycling and sewer mining.
Of course he only went because Bracks went. That was part of his resignation speech.
Well it’s been sold to the public in South East Queensland. Shows you shouldn’t just take polls lying down but try to educate and turn them around.
Even in Toowoomba, where the recycled water referendum in 06 failed dismally, the candidate for Mayor who’d led the no case got 17% of the vote in the election the other week. Of course their dams are now down to 13%, and they’ll be paying a lot more for water because they ruled out recycling.
I did some work with Salt over a decade ago. He’s a smart, nice man but he’s carved out, indeed, a Hugh-McKay-like space for himself in the Australian media as sound-bite demographer to the masses. Hopefully he has a grasp on enough of the population detail to warrant his place in this summit.
Incidentally, I wonder is Monica Oliphant a descendent of Sir Mark?
The balance is great in terms of male/female and indigenous representation, but are there many under 40s, let alone under 30s on the list? I haven’t done a complete check, but it doesn’t look like there are many, and I would have thought there should be for this group, even if the others are more lacking.
As you note there could have been more urban planners, given the importance of the issue and its pretty scary that one of the two seems to be the token Hansonite/global warming denier.
This places a lot of weight on Kuiper’s shoulders. She’s very ambitious and diplomacy is not her strong suit. However, she’s exceptionally smart and has a scary amount of energy so she should do as good a job of ensuring that transport issues don’t drop off the agenda as a solo voice can.
Crikey’s been doing some analysis of the balance:
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080401-Possum-on-2020.html
For non subscribers, the graphs and number crunching were done by Possum, so keep an eye on his blog for the story:
http://possumcomitatus.wordpress.com/
Sir Mark Oliphant, a giant of Aussie science. Professor Courtney Mohr (deceased) who worked there too, described Mark Oliphant as “Ernest Rutherford’s blue-eyed boy” in the labs in the 1920’s. He must’ve been good to impress that crusty old Kiwi.
Robert, on sewage and its political odour: there’s a theory that one of the reasons Brendan Jenkins lost the State seat of Morwell in November 2006, was that LaTrobe Valley residents thought the “water factory” and various other schemes meant that
1. clean river water was to be sent from the Valley to Melbourne,
in return for
2. recycled Melbourne sewage to be sent to the Valley (for drinking).
I believe this was never on the cards, but to echo Mark @ 12.28, it appears the attempt “to educate” the public was not successful.
OTOH 1. with 2. might be thought “bloody typical Melbourne arraogance” by long-term Valley residents. So: “no mo’ dis sh*t!”
Possibly you need some gutsier politicians in Victoria, Ambigulous. Whatever you think about Peter Beattie, he did a very good job on this issue.
feral sparrowhawk says;
“The balance is great in terms of male/female and indigenous representation, but are there many under 40s, let alone under 30s on the list?”
Yes, they could definitely take a lead from the US version of the “Today” programme where there appears to be very strict protocols regarding ethno-linguistic-gender-meterosexual-age-weight-confessional-hip to waist ratio-height balance-sectional-life expectancy balance.
These sorts of things are vitally important in mapping the future directions of the nation. Say? The Prime Minister will be in China that day, won’t he?
Yes: Beattie was very impressive. Coulda been spin, but from over here he seemed to have determination and also the ability to listen.
Where exactly is the 2020 sustainability supposedly to happen? Unless I’ve missed something, there are no participants with expertise in either arid systems or tropical savannas.
Seems like a colossal oversight…
TFA: good question. I didn’t see anything much on specific expertise in those areas.
Robert M: its all too common a problem. There’s an increasing amount of economic activity in these areas, and there is a lot of pressure to exploit water resources.
The arid regions combined with the tropical savanna constitute by far the majority of the continent to the west of the Dividing Range. From an ecological perspective, much of it is driven by infrequent and largely unpredictable climatic events. How climate change is going to affect this is pretty much anyone’s guess AFAIK.
Its crucial that decision-makers understand that there is more to a sustainable Australia than looking after the fertile well-watered coastal strip along the eastern seaboard.
Major omissions listed below, prone to a google or three. Agree with the reverse sledge re Prof Lowe. Undid alot of kudos with that like an Olympic swimmer going the king hit, failure to apologise is boorish too.
Agree about Ian Kiernan puffery getting the public to subsidise Local Council budgets that they already fund as ratepayers – WTF! And they say Earth Hour was shallow.
By the by Ian Kiernan facilitated the North Shore Sewerage Tunnel in Sydney for an in with the Carr govt – which should have all been about recycling, but that was 1998 when Warragamba water supply to Sydney was full. Now it’s all turned to (dry) tears.
Significant omissions include:
Prof Peter Newman, Murdoch Uni
Prof Stuart White, UTS
Dr Diesendorf, UNSW
Prof Jamie Kirkpatrick, Tasmania
Senator Christine Milne (Taswegian)
Peg Putt MP, community politics
Jill Redwood, sustainbility, forests
Dr Judith Adjani – though disagree with her on not privatising NSW plantations.
Alexandra De Blass – environmental broadcaster
Dr Sharon Beder, engineer, educator
Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith (Phd law) senior adviser National toxics network
Kirsty Ruddock, senior solicitor EDO (daughter of you know who)
Prof David Lindenmeyer (CRES)
Clive Hamilton (principal researcher RAC, founder TAI)
Senator Bob Brown
Prof Tony Norton (CRES)
Professor Andrew Cockburn (ANU)
David Holmgren/Bill Mollison, founder(s) of permaculture global movement
Scott Kinear organic farming expert
Dr Geoff Mosley AM – heritage pioneer, world heritage issues
Professor Tim Bonyhardy, environmental law academic, author
Brian Preston chief judge Land & Environment Court
Alec Marr, Director The Wilderness Society (not pretty but very smart)
There’s some ALP aligned stodge woven in there? Mostyn used to work for Keating. Sinecure on the Oz Museum Trust. Figgis is an ALP loyalist imho. Ros Kelly – give me a break.
No high montane world class climbers like say Brigitte Muir or Tim McCartney-Snape who have actually been to most of them and know the truth about the canary effect.
Just one piece of goss. Guy Pearce told us of the Greenhouse Mafia of the fossil fuel industry. There are other ostensibly green industry associations which seems to have the aim more of protecting the interests of that industry in general and the livelihoods certain members in particular. Two members of one of these groups appear in the list above.
Tom, I note that the first three of your omissions seem to be from what the non-G8 universities.
Glyn Davis at work?
UNSW is a Go8 uni. Besides, scanning through the list of attendees I see Ballarat, JCU, Griffith, CDU, Wollongong, CSU, Newcastle all mentioned, so it would seem that an effort has been made for diversity here too.
Ros Kelly, forever the Minister for Whiteboards. Deservedly so. Gave portk-barrelling a bad name. Demonstrated that it’s not achieved solely by the Country Party.
If Bernie Salt’s never read a novel, how does he know they’re not good for the balance of his finely tuned mind? You can’t be that bloody smart if you sweepingly dismiss something you’ve never tried. Usual disclaimers apply for incest, folk dancing and carnal knowledge of Wayne Carey.
I’ve dealt with George Pappas a few times over the years and my take on him is that he’s an excellent and razor sharp organiser of other people’s ideas. Which sounds like what this whole summit schmear desperately needs.
Btw, the next exciting instalment of “the 2020 summit participants annotated” hits this here website at 12.00 am Brisbane time. Ben Eltham parses the “Creative Australia” crew. We’re very happy to bring this information out into the public domain, but just a tad justified in our cynicism about the whole thing that we’re doing the unpaid labour the Department of PMC can’t be bothered doing to inform all of Oz about who the “best and brightest” might be – beyond Hugh Jackman and Claudia Karvan of course.
I thought we all agreed that 2020 was a “wankfest”? What’s it matter who attends?
Like I said, wbb, I’m trying really hard to wish it success. Not my fault if they seem determined to freak it up.
This thing really needed about a year’s lead up, to be honest.
Yes, Mark, more time always helps. I’d like to see this type of thing happen again. So am happy to get this one under the belt as a first cut.
2020 website is hopeless and appreciate Merkel’s research. Started doing it myself the other day. Got up to the third name and then remembered that I only really have about 90 minutes per day to myself and that this was not going to be all that quick.
Surely the papers will do it in time.
Would love for them to webcast the sessions – but suspect they are not up to the task this time.
Only those of you who have been repeatedly saying it’s a wankfest. Some of us have been keeping our heads down and forming our own views.
wbb, if the blogosphere ignored everything that could be possibly be described as a “wankfest”, then we’d only be left commenting on cat and kid photos and failing footy teams.
And what pray tell would be wrong with that?
Kitty?
Glad to hear it, PC. I’ve been bobbing up here and there as an enthusiastic cheer-leader for the weekend-fest – but have been met with the type of derision usually reserved for the teacher’s pet.
(Actually I was a bit of a teacher’s pet come to think of it.) Anyway, I’m still excited by 2020. Wierd?
“And what pray tell would be wrong with that?”
OK, you trying a group blog where the only topics are “look at my kute kid, kat and krap team”.
Hmm..now I think about it…as you were. Please disregard my last few comments. The world is not ready for AFL lolcats.
It’d get more traffic than this one, Nabs.
AFL, Lolcats – SEO dream!
Here’s the list of “Creative Australia” summitteers:
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2008/04/02/guest-post-by-ben-eltham-annotating-the-creative-australia-2020-summitteers/
It’s not ‘Russell Ronald’. It is ‘Russell Ronald CAPLAN’. The chairman of Shell!
Monica Oliphant is Mark’s daughter-in-law. Monica is also a Physicist and has been involved in alternate energy (in particular solar) since the early 70’s.
“Georgina Boon isn’t Googleable except to confirm that she is indeed Tasmanian”
A Boon from Tasmania? She must be related to David Boon!
How I failed at 2020.
Given this great opportunity I admit that I failed to achieve much at 2020. It was virtually impossible to talk about anything but climate change or water in our sessions – so the really long term issues like biodiversity and soil barely got a mention. When did climate change become the only important environmental issue?
As for tying the writers/reporters down to specific quantifiable objectives, and actions that address those objectives – impossible – they didnt want a bar of it. I spat the dummy near the end and that didnt even work. Most of our recommendations ended up being about process and planning to other groups to have meetings and develop plans. If influencing beaurocrats and politicians is a skill, I don’t have it. I apologise to anyone who cares about nature.
One very good recommendation to emerge was a call for credible, popular and independent national environmental accounts/metrics. At least if we count some important things for a while, and we can deliver that to the public in a meaningful and engaging way, the nation may get a better handle on some of the big environmental issues, like extinctions, and want to do something serious about them.
Hugh – what exactly did you aim to achieve? What were your major ideas that won’t be apparent to anyone reading the report?
And allow me one climate change question: among the ‘ambitions’ in the initial report was
What’s your view on the notion that organisms and ecosystems can ‘adapt’ to substantial abiotic change over relatively short timeframes?
prof. possingham: many of us who love nature were very glad to see that you were invited… not many other biodiversity boosters were present… good on you for trying.