Are this region's forests able to persist under the onslaught of climate-driven disturbance? Forest ecologist and silviculturist Professor Patrick Baker argues we need to consider whether there is a role here for forest management and, if so, what that might look like.
The current trajectory of the Earth System is a rapid exit from the Holocene, accelerating towards a much hotter climate system and a degraded, ill-functioning biosphere.
We are drowning in bad news. Two pages into the (1000pg) United Nations Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and you’ll be pleading for Tolstoy. Even David Attenborough is depressing these days. Ecosystems collapse and species loss is being documented across the planet, with profound existential ramifications. Habitat degradation and loss remains the…
Human pressures on the planet as a whole – the ‘Earth System’ – have now become so great that scientists have proposed that we have now left the Holocene, the geologic epoch that has been humanity’s accommodating home for the last 11,700 years. It’s proposed we’ve entered a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene, characterised…
The 2021 Howitt Lecture Presented in partnership with the Geological Society of Australia (Victoria Division). 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…
Australia has the highest per-capita greenhouse emissions of any advanced economy, we’re on track to miss our Paris commitment, and we're nowhere near achieving net zero.
This emotive exhibition features six new musical works by Australian composers Damien Barbeler, Kate Moore, Bree van Reyk, Cathy Milliken and Daniel Blinkhorn exploring the emotional impacts of climate change, and propels us to consider what it feels like to live through a time when climate change affects every aspect of our lives.
An exciting opportunity for families to deepen their understanding of climate science and our changing world, as they discuss climate action and work together as a family to create a climate pledge.
Join acclaimed writer and climate activist Sophie Cunningham (author of Melbourne and City of Trees) in conversation with Clare Hart, Manager Horticulture, and Peter Symes, Curator Horticulture, about the Gardens’ Landscape Succession Strategy and the international Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens. Collaboration between botanic gardens across the globe is essential in understanding how plants will grow and survive in a warming climate. Clare and Peter will discuss how the…
Join Tom May, Principal Research Scientist (Mycology) in a discussion with writer and climate activist Sophie Cunningham (author of Melbourne and City of Trees) about the future of fungi. Fungi are megadiverse, estimated at several million species globally. Discover the role of fungi in ecosystems and how they will fare in future climates; and learn how fungi experts tackle the challenge of documenting the numerous "dark fungi". This event will be livestreamed – details…
Join us for our ACCLIMATISE special panel conversation, streamed live from the Legislative Council Chamber at Parliament House with a small invited live audience of families.
Compounding crises have revealed the cracks in Melbourne's food supply system, flaws that make our population vulnerable to scarcity.
