The SEI Podcast Series

Keynote Conversation 4: 'EJ and Climate Governance' from the 'Environmental Justice 2017' Conference, held at the University of Sydney (6-8 November). Chair: Rosemary Lyster, University of Sydney Speakers: Chuks Okereke, University of Reading Jon Barnett, University of Melbourne Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keynote Conversation 3: 'EJ and Climate Governance' from the 'Environmental Justice 2017' Conference, held at the University of Sydney (6-8 November). Chair: John Dryzek, University of Canberra Speakers: Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne Maxine Burkett, University of Hawaii Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keynote Conversation 2: 'Looking Forward' from the 'Environmental Justice 2017' Conference, held at the University of Sydney (6-8 November). Chair: Gordon Walker, Lancaster University Speakers: Julian Agyeman, Tufts University Alice Mah, University of Warwick David Pellow, University of California, Santa Barbara Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keynote Conversation 1: 'Looking Back' from the 'Environmental Justice 2017' Conference, held at the University of Sydney (6-8 November). Chair: David Schlosberg, Sydney Environment Institute Speakers: Robert Bullard, Texas Southern University Nick Low, University of Melbourne Petra Tschakert, University of Western Australia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can we build fairer urban food systems in the face of growing climate challenges? Never in human history has our interconnected global food system faced the diversity, intensity, and urgency of challenges that it faces today. Our global population has exploded, with an unprecedented number of these people living in cities. Our climate is changing, putting increased stress on the ecosystems tha...

The idea of, and movements around, environmental justice continue to grow. From lead contamination of water in Flint, to infringement of Aboriginal rights for coal mines in Queensland, to the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities in the global south, environmental justice is embraced as a powerful organising discourse and demand. What is the future of Environmental Justice? What are...

In the last 30 years, we have lost 50% of the world’s corals, and coral bleaching events are likely to become even more frequent and severe due to climate change. The documentary Chasing Coral highlights a dimension of the global threat of coral bleaching to the world’s reefs that would otherwise be hidden underwater. Featuring over 500 hours of underwater footage of reefs from over 30 countries,...

Global energy markets are in process of rapid change and transformation. Over the last decade, renewable energy technologies like solar and wind have become dramatically cheaper and now challenge the economics of traditional fossil-fuel energy systems. Added to this, the catastrophic implications of human-induced climate disruption are forcing governments to seriously embrace decarbonisation as de...

One third of all food produced in the subsequent stages of the food supply chain is wasted between initial production and household consumption. Food waste poses serious environmental and social consequences, which will only increase in the future. While it is easy to see the issues of food wastage, it is often difficult to locate the source of these problems. Are consumers ultimately responsible...

Humans modify the biosphere at an accelerating rate, directing evolution of species and ecosystems, trans-locating organisms across the globe, appropriating huge energy resources, and increasing biological interaction with technology. These changes have been unfolding for millennia, but have accelerated in the past two centuries. How might these patterns be reflected in the geological record? And,...

Climate change is now widely recognised as one of the paramount environmental challenges of our time. As a so-called global issue, the social and political response to climate change has traditionally been seen as a matter for international negotiations and the politics of national governments, transnational corporations and non-governmental organisations. However, over the past two decades it has...

Australian suburbs have been a site of food production for over one hundred years. This seminar explores the past, present and future for urban food production. Who are the suburban harvesters? What do these histories tell us about the cultures and values of suburban Australia? In an era of rapid social, environmental and economic change, how can the suburban harvest contribute to a vision of a mo...

Too many Australians are going hungry in the City. Recent research from the City of Sydney found that a staggering 8% of residents were food insecure, struggling with the challenge of putting good, healthy, and sustainable food on the table. What is being done—and what more can we do—to help address this problem? What food-related urban planning policy actions are required to promote food justice?...

Universities have long been advocates for more healthy and sustainable societies. Across Australia, though, campus food systems are anything but, being saturated with unhealthy options sourced through unsustainable supply chains. How can we make universities walk the talk on building more healthy and sustainable food systems? What role do students have to play in mobilising to demand fair food env...

Leading up to our 2017 Food [at] Sydney series, we are looking back at our previous food events... Too much of the world’s food goes to waste. This is a problem both for the planet, and for the task of feeding the world’s people. Wasted food represents a burden on our scarce environmental resources that we can scarcely afford, and loss of product that could (indeed, should) be made available for t...

In this special Sydney Ideas public lecture, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Professor Terry Hughes and a distinguished panel of academics and environmental activists discuss the future of the Great Barrier Reef in the face of climate-induced coral bleaching. The panel and audience had a unique opportunity to hear about the state of Barrier Reef corals from one of...

While we have known for some time that plastic debris is a visible nuisance in oceans, increasing evidence suggests it is, bluntly, everywhere – from the Antarctic Ocean to the St. Lawrence Seaway – and that the problem is getting worse. We have moved from casual observations and stern warnings to sophisticated, verifiable scientific evidence and an emergent global policy imperative. This plastic...

Efforts to reconcile theories and practices of democracy with environmental sustainability have long been central to environmental political thought. Innovative work in the 1980s and 1990s addressed issues of the representation of the nonhuman, the relationship between democracy and ecological ‘limits’, and the design of ‘green’ states. Since this first wave of scholarship on ecological democracy,...

Starting in April 2016, thousands of people, led by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal members, gathered at camps to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)—creating the #NoDAPL movement. The movement ultimately blocked pipeline construction, though under a new U.S. presidential administration, many are waiting to see what steps will need to be taken to continue resistance. #NoDAPL...

Because the health risks of climate variability and change are not new, it has been assumed that health systems have the capacity, experience, and tools to effectively adapt to changing burdens of climate-sensitive health outcomes with additional climate change. However, health systems in many low-income countries have insufficient capacity to manage current health burdens. These countries also ar...

With the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States, it now seems climate change denial has reached into the most powerful political office in the world. In this special Sydney Ideas public lecture, world-renowned climate scientist Professor Michael Mann provides a somewhat light-hearted take on a very serious issue—the threat of human-caused climate change and what to do abou...

Our relationship with the environment can be expressed in terms of our love for the transcendent beauty of nature, or the scientific building blocks of life, or the mundanities of everyday experience. Our panel of distinguished speakers come from a wide variety of fields, including literature, science and the arts, to discuss how we can communicate about the environment at a time when the natural...

Fish, with their lack of facial expressions or recognisable communication, are often overlooked when it comes to welfare. Annually, millions of fish are caught on barbed hooks, or left to die by suffocation on the decks of fishing boats – should we be concerned about this? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Forward-thinking communities pay greater attention to their most vulnerable citizens. As we age poor nutrition has a profound impact on our health and well-being in gender-specific ways. Yet low funding, over-stretched carers and overzealous regulations are among the factors limiting the food choices and enjoyment of eating that everyone deserves in their later years. And the baby boomers are comi...

The food environment we experience most is not at home; it is the one we find in and around the places we work or study. Food courts, vending machines, corner stores and school canteens present a wide range of options for those of us eating on the run in the city. To what extent should school administrators and employers be responsible for creating healthy food spaces or it is up to you – or mum –...