Think: Sustainability

Virtual reality immerses us in artificial experiences of the real world with research also showing VR can create empathy with the environment you're experiencing. But how far does this empathy go? Featuring: Ryan Watson - Head of Community Engagement at New Horizons. Catherine Maree Smith - Ambassador for Parallel Parks. Glenn Albrecht - Retireds Lecturer in Sustainability at Murdoch University. J...

When City of Melbourne launched the Urban Forest Visual strategy to gather data on the city's 77,000 trees, something happened they didn't plan for. In an attempt to engage the community in the data collection process, they added an email function so residents could notify the council if a tree needed help. Instead, the council received an outpouring of love letters, drawings and tributes to the u...

With the public consultation period for the Sydney Marine Park ending today, Marine Ecologist Dave Booth discusses the future of the park and how the scrapping of sanctuary zones could endanger fragile marine ecosystems. You can have your last minute say by following this link to the Marine NSW website.

There are currently more than 10 million refugees worldwide and approximately every minute 24 people around the world are forced to flee their homes. Living conditions within the refugee camps displaced people settle are often characterised by limited resources. But typically, the environmental considerations are put aside while refugees deal with the healthcare deficiencies caused by this global...

The superannuation scheme was introduced in Australia to ensure people have the money they need when they reach retirement. But some 26 years after the scheme was sworn in, at what point did your retirement savings become a means to fund a renewable energy future? Featuring: Michael Bones - Head of Engagement at Future Super. Glen Klatovsky - Deputy CEO of 350 Australia. Stuart Palmer - Head of Et...

The rise of artificial intelligence has as many anxious as it does excited, with people concerned that autonomous technologies could automate them out of a job. But as technology continues to make huge leaps forward, there's very little in the way of policy to ensure these innovations don't disrupt people's working lives and contribute to a more unequal society. Featuring: Nicholas Davis - Head of...

The International Seabed Authority has issued 29 exploration licenses for deep sea mining. But with the deep sea falling under the protections of outdated international agreements and largely remaining a mystery, how can we be sure mining the ocean floor won't bring about ecological destruction? Featuring: Ngenge Sasa - Local Level Government President in Balopa LLG, Manus Province, Papua New Guin...

Two climate engineering technologies have been inscribed into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report outlining they'll be crucial in ensuring we don't exceed 2 degrees of global warming. However, with little evidence as to how these technologies work in the field, is this just another attempt to stall more proactive climate action? Featuring: Jonathan Marshall - Fu...

Warfare is destructive and absolute, but when conflict ends there is often surplus of weaponry. However, in burying or dumping these munitions when they're no longer needed, we've threatened the fabric of fragile ecosystems. Featuring: Stephen Billings - Geophysicist with GapEOD (Gap Explosive Ordnance Detection Pty Ltd). Julie Konzuk - Principal Environment Engineer with Geosyntec Consultants. Dr...

Thanks to overpopulation and man made climate change, global food stocks are running low. Enter ‘future foods’ - the gross, weird and wonderful things clickbait articles tell us will be on our dinner plate in ten years time. But as Think: Digital Futures host Cheyne Anderson finds out, there’s more to this debate than just eating worms. Featuring: Jacqui Newling - Colonial Gastronomer at Sydney Li...

The practice of pastoralism in Mongolia is unlike any other agricultural practice around the globe. But as pastoralists face growing climatic uncertainty, and ongoing socio-political pressures, are the mobile herders of Mongolia at their end of days? Featuring: Enkh-Amgalan (Enkhie) - Manager of the “Green Gold” Pasture Ecosystem Management Project. Dr Jane Addison - Research Fellow and Social-Eco...

We have entered the age of personalisation where algorithms filter and feed you your digital experience. But as the power of the algorithm has grown, why are they filtering out the environment? Featuring: Dr Jonathan Marshall - Future Fellow in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. Cheyne Anderson - Host of Think: Digital Futures

The data we collect via satellite informs almost all climate research today. So why do half of the earth monitoring satellites currently in orbit restrict the use of climate data? Featuring: Alfredo Huete - Distinguished Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. Mariel Borowitz - Assistant Professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia I...

It’s being called the biggest infrastructure project in human history, the likes of which Planet Earth has never seen before. And up until now, the disastrous environmental implications of the Belt and Road Initiative have gone unrecognised and underreported. In a special Think: Sustainability update, you’ll hear exactly what this environmental damage looks like and the forces pressing infrastruct...

How a community in regional Australia has distanced itself from the electricity grid and powered the town through its own energy system. Featuring: Matt Charles-Jones - President of Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY) Geoff James - Research Principal from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney. Donna - Resident from Yackandandah. Producer: Emma Rapaport.

How would pumped hydro storage help us transition to 100% renewable energy? Featuring: Tom Morris - Senior Research Consultant at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney. Andrew Blakers - Professor of Engineering at the Australian National University. Giles Parkinson - Editor of Renew Economy. Producer: Jake Morcom.

Will the political crisis in the Maldives unravel their tourism industry and bring about climate disaster? Featuring: Azim Zahir - PhD Candidate in the Centre for Muslim States and Societies at the University of Western Australia. Stephen Schweinsberg - Lecturer in Sustainable Management at the University of Technology Sydney Business School. David Beirman - Senior Lecturer in the Management Disci...

Will insurance companies ever offer cover for those living in a high risk flood zone? Featuring: Lance Leslie - Professor of Climatology in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. Elizabeth Mossop - Professor of Landscape Architecture and Dean of the Design, Architecture and Building Faculty at the University of Technology Sydney. Tim Andrews - Prin...

Free public transport, road space rationing, banning diesel cars; there are plenty of efforts to control levels of air pollution, but with more than 3.5 million premature deaths each year because of it, we’re failing to act quickly enough. This episode we unpick how the framework regulating air pollution in Australia is doing little to reduce toxic emissions, and how a small town in the Hunter reg...

As humanity continues to ponder its existence, ‘where did we all come from? Why are we here?’, researchers have suggested we may be asking the wrong questions in trying to uncover the answers. This episode we explore our evolving understanding of photosynthesis, and why the answers to some of our biggest philosophical questions could be locked in the process that enabled life to inhabit the planet...

Australia's long history with drought and fire has cemented a strong dependence to the water around us, so why do we continue to contaminate our finite supply? This episode we uncover what we’re doing to our water in ways you may not know about, and look at the efforts trying to appease the damage before it’s too late. Featuring: Simon Mitrovic - Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences...

When booking your last plane trip, you may have noticed the option to offset the carbon cost of your flight. Paying an additional fee to render your flight carbon neutral some say makes more aware of what they’re doing to the environment, but others criticise the idea calling it baseless and not as transparent as it may seem. This episode we explore how environmental offsetting goes way beyond the...

As global carbon emissions rise year in year out, many are brainstorming creative ways to reduce how much we’re spitting out into the environment. However, there’s one technology that’s raising just as many eyebrows as it is has others hopeful. This episode we explore the potential of carbon capture and storage, and why around the globe we’re seeing a lack of political will and investment into the...

As global sea temperatures continue to rise, our coral reefs are turning from thriving marine ecosystems into underwater graveyards. But scientists have discovered a set of coral superheroes who might save the day. Speakers: David Suggett: Associate Professor The University of Technology Sydney Martina Doblin: Associate Professor The University of Technology Sydney Producer/Presenter: Miles Herber...

Citizen scientists and members of the public have done everything from discovering species, to documenting sea temperature changes. Just this year in Australia, an amateur astronomer named Andrew Grey, a mechanic from Darwin, helped scientists discover a whole set of new planets. But why are people like you, donating their time, to help scientists document and discover. And is crowdfunding the sci...