The SEI Podcast Series

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...

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 polit...

In this public talk, we hear from the former President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, one of the world’s most prominent advocates for global action on climate change. Mr Tong highlights the role of wealthy industrialised nations such as Australia in climate action and the need for global recognition of the threat that climate change represents for vulnerable Pacific Island nations, with responses from P...

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...

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 ac...

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...

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, an...

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. La...

The assumption that helping the environment means changing our individual behaviours is a commonplace of daily life. We are all urged to ‘do our bit’, to ‘consume responsibly’ and to make small changes. This proposition is hotly contested within academic scholarship. Its empirical truth is called into doubt by environmental scholarship emphasising the big gap between intentions and actions. This d...

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 na...

How do oceans remember? What times do they record? Whose histories – and whose futures – are visible by sea-light? The Sydney Environment Institute welcomes Alice Te Punga Somerville and David Farrier, two internationally-renowned scholars, and authors, of ocean stories, for this public lecture. Listen as speakers flow through hemispheric boundaries, incorporating southern and northern seas, to in...

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, risin...

What does it mean to care for Country? How can changes in food production address the historical injustices of colonialism? How can we address our current and future environmental challenges by including First Australian knowledge and experiences of how to care for Country? Drawing on the insights of David King, Gundungurra Aboriginal elder and inspirational leader of the Bushcare Group community,...

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...

Scientists collect data and from it create information about the world, which is of great value to society, but not necessarily reflected in policymaking and political action. The failure of society to act on anthropogenic-driven climate change is the prime example. Artists are now coming together to work on climate change, to deploy research methods that inform art, while at the same time creatin...

Intensive farming in urban areas and the areas on the outskirts of our metropolitan areas and cities hold much promise for delivering healthy and safe food to our cities in an economically efficient and environmentally friendly manner. Research on urban farms shows that not only do they provide local employment, but can serve as hubs of innovation in agricultural technology and logistics. But urba...

Sydney Environment Institute in partnership with The Living Room Theatre presents ‘What Lola Heard’ – the second artistic work from a SSSHARC funded Pop-up Research Lab. ‘What Lola Heard: Theatrical Sounds from Climate Change’, was a fascinating insight into the creative process in contemporary theatre – part public talk, part installation, part concert, the evening brought together internationall...

This panel brings together activists and academics to discuss the central role of communication in environmental debates and launch the book Carbon Capitalism and Communication, Confronting Climate Crisis edited by Benedetta Brevini and Graham Murdock with Naomi Klein, Michael Mann, Alan Rusbridger, David Ritter and Blair Palese. For more information about this event click here . Timestamps 00:00...

Climate change inaction and climate change denial are serious issues, and indeed, a well-organised counter-movement has challenged the science on climate change, and thus the role of science as the basis for guiding public policy (literal denial). Alongside the serious threat to democracy posed by the phenomenon of “literal denial” is “implicatory denial” a phenomenon which occurs when people fail...

Keynote Conversation 10: 'Environmental Justice and Place' from the 'Environmental Justice 2017' Conference, held at the University of Sydney (6-8 November). Chair: Petra Tschakert, University Western Australia Speakers : George Woods, Lock the Gate Mike Campbell, OAM, Community Activist Heidi Norman, UTS Robert Figueroa, Oregon State University Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...

Keynote Conversation 9: 'Just Transition' from the 'Environmental Justice 2017' Conference, held at the University of Sydney (6-8 November). Chair : Linda Conner, University of Sydney Speakers: Blair Palese, 350.org Bronya Lipski, Environmental Justice Australia Tom Reddington, Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keynote Conversation 8: 'Culture, Food and Health' from the 'Environmental Justice 2017' Conference, held at the University of Sydney (6-8 November). Chair: Alana Mann, University of Sydney Speakers: Amita Baviskar, University of Delhi Viliamu Iese, University of the South Pacific Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keynote Conversation 7: 'EJ and Indigenous Cultures' from the 'Environmental Justice 2017' Conference, held at the University of Sydney (6-8 November). Chair: Sarah Wiebe, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Speakers: Kyle Powys Whyte, Michigan State University Seán Kerins, Australian National University Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keynote Conversation 6: EJ Gender and Materiality' from the 'Environmental Justice 2017' Conference, held at the University of Sydney (6-8 November). Chair : Astrida Neimanis, University of Sydney Speakers: Sherilyn Macgregor, University of Manchester Lesley Head, University of Melbourne Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keynote Conversation 5: 'Multispecies Justice' from the 'Environmental Justice 2017' Conference, held at the University of Sydney (6-8 November). Chair : David Pellow, University of California, Santa Barbara Speakers: Michelle Maloney, Australian Earth Laws Alliance Dinesh Wadiwel, University of Sydney Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.