PUBLIC LECTURE: Questioning Hanrahan: Environmental optimism and realism in the 21st century

The Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson and the Institute of Advanced Studies invite you to a public lecture by Australian Laureate Professor Richard Hobbs.

“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan in the classic Australian bush poem by John O’Brien. Hanrahan saw ruination in the vagaries of the Australian climate – no matter what happened, it was sure to turn out badly. Environmental thinking at the start of the 21st century often takes on a Hanrahanian feel, with predictions of species loss, ecosystem collapse, runaway climate change and the like. Often this leaves people despairing that the problems are too vast to do anything about. There is another way to view our current situation, in which the many positive steps that can and are being taken to manage and repair our environment can be celebrated and encouraged. The field of ecological restoration and the allied science of restoration ecology is undergoing a shift in scope and level of activity both in Australia and elsewhere. Ranging from restoration of local patches of bush through to attempts to restore and revitalise entire regions, these efforts can add up to a large counter-current working against the negative influences we’ve all come to expect. There is potential for an optimistic view of the future tempered by a dose of realism concerning the challenges to be faced.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the University Club at UWA.

The lecture will be followed by refreshments.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

Please RSVP your attendance to 6488 1340 or [email protected].