UNE Seminar — Population and consumption: the death of nature and the failure of science

This is a seminar about people; their environment, their future, and whether they will have either. Some in the audience will find my words confronting. I make no apologies. There is no time for apologies. Nor do we have choices. We act now, decisively, and with pain or we will be hated by our children’s children and all those that come after them for having destroyed the world of nature and left them a world without choice, opportunity, or freedom.

I am committed to open debate on Australia’s environmental and population problems and the need to redefine national priorities in the use of Australia’s natural resources. These are discussions that do not happen. To achieve this, I consider it essential to provide conservation scientists with better communication skills and to show them how to use those skills to bring environmental science, irrespective of controversy, into the community. Conservation scientists must set the agenda for society in the 21st Century in the same way that economists set the agenda for the 20th Century. If civilization is to survive, conservation scientists must be leaders and advocates in this process.

Life, Earth & Environment Seminar Series

• When: Wednesday 2nd March, 12 – 1 pm
• Where: Natural Resources Building, Lecture Theatre 1 (EMl}

Biography
Harry Recher held positions at the Australian Museum, Sydney University, and the UNE before his appointment as Foundation Professor of Environmental Management at Edith Cowan University in 1995. Professor Recher was awarded the Order of Australia in 2004. He retired in 2003, but maintains an active research program emphasizing avian ecology and conservation