To celebrate World Oceans’ Day, join us to learn & discuss the challenges to the health of our oceans & what can be done to protect them. About this event Oceans act as life support systems for our planet. Our fresh water, weather, climate, coastlines, much of our food, and even the oxygen in the air we breathe, are all ultimately provided and regulated by the sea. Oceans are the world’s largest ecosystem, home to a vast array of incredibly…

Register here. In recent years there has been an explosion of concern around terms like ‘fake news’, ‘misinformation’, and ‘disinformation’. And online social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are often implicated (with good reason) in their spread. But what do each of these terms mean, how do they differ, and what role do the online social networks really play? In this public lecture, Associate Professor Lewis Mitchell will explore mis/disinformation online, and in particular, some of the underlying mathematics…

Environmental water is critical for improving Australia’s freshwater systems. But maximising the benefits from this water can be difficult as environmental responses to watering are often poorly understood. Adaptive management is a process for improving the effectiveness of natural resource management by learning from experience and using current knowledge to inform decision making. Multiple iterations of a ‘plan, do, learn’ cycle can lead to improved decisions and environmental outcomes. Adaptive management is mandatory under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, with several…

Register here. As we head towards COP26, find out about the role our oceans play in climate change. About this event What is the role of the oceans in climate change? As we head towards COP26, our expert panel of speakers from France and the UK look at the urgent need to protect the oceans to preserve the climate. Organised by the French Embassy in the UK, the event will focus on scientific approaches to tackling climate change and protecting…

Register here. How we’re using science to fix the mess we’ve made. From introduced invasive species to pollution and climate change, we’re now facing a lot of issues that society has created itself. This Dean’s Lecture will explore scientific solutions to anthropogenic problems, with speeches including: Saving urban platypus with smart rainwater tanks (& their owners!) Are toad-smart quolls the key to saving a species? Can we save our coral reefs? Building a toolbox for when greenhouse gas mitigation isn’t…

Professor Nigel Clark, co-editor of ‘Environmental Humanities Approaches to Climate Change’, recently commented that ‘bearing witness to the demise or death of what we love is now … an unavoidable part of teaching’*. Scholars increasingly document the emotional labour involved in work on climate change, but there has been limited attention to what this means for university teachers and students. In this inaugural President’s Conversation, Lesley Head will ask a panel of educators at different career stages how they approach…

Our coast is a dynamic system. As the protective boundary between the land and sea it absorbs the constant energy it receives from waves and tides and in doing so creates the landforms on which people recreate and build. The forms we see on the coast today are the result of each interaction waves have with the seabed, averaged over timescales of centuries to millennia. To predict how the coast will look in a future dominated by climate change it…