GCCW 2020
GCCW 2020 featured events
LSE’s Sustainability Strategic Plan Launch
Date: Wednesday 21 October, 4 – 5.30 pm BST
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a world leading international university based in London, ranked 2nd in the world for social sciences and management. Creating a sustainable LSE is one of the commitments of LSE’s 2030 strategy. In close partnership with our diverse community, LSE has developed a Sustainability Strategic Plan focusing on six key themes to maximise our impact in shaping a sustainable world and responding to the climate crisis: Education, Research, Engagement & Leadership, Investment, Operations, Collaboration. This public event will be hosted by LSE’s Director Minouche Shafik and Professor Nicholas Stern Chair of the Grantham Research Institute at LSE. Join us to learn more.
You can find out more about Sustainability at LSE at lse.ac.uk/sustainableLSE and on our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook).
Contact person: Scarlet Prentice – s.prentice@lse.ac.uk
tUrn Climate Crisis Awareness & Action Week
Dates: October 12-17 2020 on-line
Description: An invitation to all members of higher education institutions and partner networks, alumni & community members to lean in to the climate crisis because it is time. and we must.
tUrn offers an invitation for everyone, from artists to scientists, from economists to ecologists, to shape one lecture, meeting, or event to address climate crisis during tUrn weeks or attend a tUrn event – 23 events over 5 days. All free and open to the public on zoom.
Who should attend? People who understand that only together, with time and space to learn, contemplate, converse, and activate new behaviors and actions, can we make a u-turn for the planet and future generations.
Contact person: Kristin Kusanovich, Director of tUrn, Center for the Arts & Humanities, Santa Clara University College of Arts & Sciences, Santa Clara, CA
Wellbeing in a changing climate
Date: Monday 19 October, 4pm AEDT
Description: A changing climate impacts individuals in multiple ways and to varying extents. These impacts can lead to wide-ranging psychological responses in individuals, with broader social implications. Exploring ways to manage these responses both individually and collectively is imperative; care for oneself and care for the planet are inextricably linked.
We invite all UTAS staff and students to join panellists Anna Seth (GP, Doctors for the Environment Australia, Climate Resilience Network), Clare Pitt (PhD candidate, Risk and Resilience Group, College of Health and Medicine, UTAS), Dr Susie Burke (Psychologists for Peace, Australian Psychological Society) and Chloe McCann (Australian Youth Climate Coalition) for a rich discussion on achieving and maintaining wellbeing in a changing climate.
Contact person: Belle Workman (belle.workman@utas.edu.au)
Poets for Planet A
Date: Monday 19 October, 7 – 9 30 pm AEDT
Description: A night of poetry dedicated to climate change awareness. Poets from Tasmania, interstate and even overseas are invited to join via Zoom or live performance at Phoenix Bar and Restaurant, 63 Brisbane Street, Launceston. If you would like to share a poem, please email eviewoodspoetry@gmail.com
Resilient Responses to Climate Change
Dates: Tuesday 20 October 10 am – 12 pm and Tuesday 17 November 9.30am-12pm (AEST)
Jesuit Social Services and RMIT Climate Change Exchange are hosting a two part workshop that builds knowledge around the compounding and complex impacts of climate change on community service organisations. The workshops will also offer tools to adapt organisational cultures, practices and operations to respond equitably and responsibly to climate risks.
Who should attend: Community service staff across program delivery, operations, advocacy, community development and management. Participants do not need to be working directly in sustainable or environmental projects, and no prior knowledge of climate change is required.
Participants are encouraged to attend both workshops. The workshop is free to attend. Please register your expression of interest here.
Contact person: Mahira Sobral / mahira.sobral@jss.org.au
Living in a Changing Climate
Date: Tuesday, 20 October 5 – 6.30 pm AEDT
Description: We are now living in a changing climate. With no meaningful government or global action in sight, our lives are increasingly framed by uncertainty and growing inequality. Changing individual consumption and recycling habits alone do not address the impacts of climate change. Instead, systemic changes – institutional and structural changes – are required to ensure equity and liveability for diverse communities and households.
Climate, Disaster and Mental Health
Date: Wednesday 21 October, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm online
Description: This year alone, our region has seen drought, bushfire and flood and now the world is experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. Climate scientists warn that climate change is contributing to an increase in natural disasters and eco-anxiety has become a very real problem.
So what is the connection between climate change and disaster? What impact does climate anxiety and ongoing disaster have on our mental health? And what can we do to recover, heal and build resilience?UOW Global Challenges is hosting an online panel discussion during Climate Change Week (October 19-23) and Mental Health Month (October).
Organised by the University of Wollongong, this seminar will focus on climate, disaster and mental health as part of its ‘A Conversation With…’ seminar series, featuring Professor Sharon Robinson, Samantha Avitaia, Dr Joshua Whittaker, Dr Anthony McKnight and Professor Lorna Moxham.
Contact person: Emma Leslie (ekucelj@uow.edu.au)
Climate Change, Disasters and Mobility: A roadmap for Australian action
Date: Wednesday 21 October 1 pm – 2 pm AEDT
Description: Across the globe, the adverse impacts of disasters and climate change are prompting millions of people to move. Disasters now displace many more people within their countries each year than conflict, and the Asia-Pacific region is the hardest hit. Between 2008 and 2018, more than 80 per cent of all new global displacement occurred in this region. Australia cannot ignore the fact that internal and cross-border displacement within and from the Pacific Islands is likely to increase as disasters intensify and/or become more frequent, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. In this presentation, Professor Jane McAdam will explain why Australia should harness migration as a climate change adaptation strategy, and set out the legal and policy reforms necessary to achieve this.
Contact person: tamara.wood@utas.edu.au
A Climate Emergency for Business Schools: A Social License to Teach & Learn
Date: Wednesday 21 October 3 – 4 pm AEDT
Description: This forum will allow us to hear the latest around business and climate with a presentation from Monica Richter, Senior Manager, Low Carbon Futures WWF, on the importance of Science Based Targets for companies to achieve net zero emission targets and Corinne Schoch, Head of Programmes, GCNA. You will also have the opportunity to hear reflections from business academics teaching in this space and engage in breakout rooms discussions on the challenges and actions required to move the climate conversation forward.
Contact person: Belinda Gibbons (bgibbons@uow.edu.au)
Climate Change and Tasmania –Are we doing ok?
Date: Wednesday 21 October, 6 – 7 pm AEDT
Description: Join experts from Climate Tasmania, the University of Tasmania, and the community to discuss if we are doing ok? What are the implications of climate change for Tasmania? Should we be doing more? And what?
The session may also include several discussants from the local community. With the exception of Professor Bowman, the speakers are members of Climate Tasmania. Climate Tasmania is a group of Tasmanian experts committed to providing independent and authoritative advice to Tasmanian business, government and community leaders on climate change and appropriate policy responses. https://www.climatetasmania.org
Climate, Society and Insurance – capacities and limitations
Date: Friday 23 October 7 – 8 am AEDT
Description: This academic forum brings together Australian and international social science researchers with a focus on insurance. Climate change is fundamentally changing the ways we insure, and the ways we think about insurance. The impetus of this forum is to grow this body of research and chart the terrain for future inquiry, building knowledge on the capacities and limitations of insurance in a rapidly changing world.
Engaging Tales of Social Justice: Sonia Caton, Tim McCormack, Tamara Wood & Jan Linehan
Date: Friday 23 October 11 am – 12 pm AEDT
Description: A special Engaging Tales where we ask what can law and lawyers do about people on the move and seeking refuge in Australia and around the world because of conflict, human rights breaches, or climate change.
We have experts on migration law, climate change and displacement of people, and international law and you can expect a broad ranging discussion-not limited to lawyers-exploring legal strategies, advocacy, and taking ideas into the community.
Last year Sonia Caton talked about her experience as a lawyer working for many years with asylum seekers and detainees and many people asked for a follow up discussion. COVID 19 meant we had to cancel the planned April session, but we are pleased to revive the idea and mark Global Climate Change Week.
Engaging Tales of Social Justice conversations are opportunities for students and staff to hear first-hand from lawyers and activists who work to provide justice for vulnerable and marginalised people. Students who are eager to learn more about social justice are exposed to a breadth of knowledge and experience that would not otherwise be provided in a normal lecture setting. As well as insights from their personal journeys, speakers reflect on the challenges of their areas and how to bring about positive social change.
This session is supported by the Faculty of Law’s Engaging Tales Talk Series and Climate Justice Network.
https://www.utas.edu.au/law/news/item/2020/engaging-tales-of-social-justice
https://www.climatejustice.network
The Role of Cli-Fi (climate fiction) in Addressing the Climate Change Crisis
Date: Friday 23 October 11 am – 12 pm AEDT
Description: Climate Fiction (or ‘Cli-Fi’) is a body of literature that addresses the issue of anthropogenic global warming and climate change. Cli-Fi adopts many forms, including dystopian stories that act as cautionary tales about the climate injustices that will result if the causes of anthropogenic global warming are not addressed. Tim Cadman’s ‘The Changes: Refuge’ is one such cautionary tale. Other Cli-Fi works, such as Jackqui Svenson’s ‘Direct Action’ and Marty Branagan’s ‘Locked On!’, explore the role that activism can play in resisting major polluters and promoting the socio-economic changes required to effectively address the issue of anthropogenic climate change. In this online workshop, Cadman, Svenson and Branagan will discuss what motivates their Cli-Fi writing and what purposes they believe such fictional works can serve.
CLIMATE. CHANGING. ART
Date: Friday 23 October 12.30 – 1.30 pm AEDT
Description: To coincide with Global Climate Change Week, the School of Creative Arts and Media at the University of Tasmania invites you to a discussion and reconciling of a simple yet complex question: What’s Art got to do with climate change? The evidence is clear. The world is rapidly changing. The climate is rapidly changing. Urgent action is needed. Collectively we are witnessing devastating fires, drought, loss of biodiversity and damaged ecosystems, rising sea levels and displaced people … The list is long. The issues faced are complex and contested. And no one is immune to this change.
Join academic staff members Martin Walch, Jan Hogan, Toby Juliff and Niklavs Rubenis as they present case studies of their individual practices and how their work negotiates concerns of a changing climate and the conundrums of a world under rapid transformation.
Our Changing Oceans and Cryosphere
Date: Friday 23 October 2 – 3 pm AEDT
Description: How are our oceans changing with a changing climate, and what does this mean for people and ecosystems? What solutions are available to address the challenges?
In September 2019 the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Special Report on the Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC). The report assesses the physical processes and impacts of climate change on ocean, coastal, polar and mountain ecosystems. It also assesses the consequences for human communities, and the options for people to adapt to climate-related changes for a more sustainable future. Nathan will summarise key findings.
Jess and Camilla will then will introduce Future Seas, an interdisciplinary project envisioning sustainable futures for marine socioecological systems under climate change and other key global challenges.
Presenters:
Professor Nathan Bindoff, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
Dr Jess Melbourne-Thomas, CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere and Centre for Marine Socioecology
Dr Camilla Novaglio, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, and Centre for Marine Socioecology
Facilitated by: Dr Stuart Corney, IMAS, University of Tasmania
Transition Australia – local solutions to global problems
Date: Friday 23 October 4 – 5pm AEDT
Description: A presentation by Paul Shelton, Convenor of Transition Australia and a panel discussion with transition leaders from Transition Margaret River, Transition Bondi, Transition South Barwon and Transition Tamar.
What if we thought of a city, a community or village as an ecosystem? One where there are flows of energy, food and waste that circulate around the system and are influenced by the provision of education, housing, transport, finance and entertainment. What if a group in this system became acutely aware of this ecosystem’s hard limits to growth? An awareness that made them confront the reality that their addiction to consumption, expansion and waste was unsustainable. That the only option was a more low-energy, localised existence. What would that group do?
This is what Transition culture is about. It applies the foundations of permaculture and systems thinking to provide a holistic framework to how areas can become localised, resilient and interdependent. In effect it’s about local solutions to the global problems of climate change and limits to growth.
This session will explore Transition Towns at the national, regional and local level. It will delve into the importance of positive vision to drive action, the central need to work in new ways that highlight cooperation and interdependence and the parallel requirement for inner transition to build resilient change systems. We’ll see what this looks like in action in regional, rural, online and urban settings and flag key actions to amplify local solutions to global problems.
Student and alumni presentations on Sustainability and Environment
Date: Friday 23 October 10 am IST
Description: Students past and present from the Azim Premji University will present research papers and creative expressions on the Climate Crisis and sustainability.
Contact person: sunayana.ganguly@apu.edu.in
Knowledge production on Climate Change and the global South
Date: Friday 23 October, from 4.30 – 7 pm IST
Description: The panel will examine how the Global South is coping up with equity being pushed out of Climate research and policy, as well as the general absence of resources and funding in international negotiations. It will be a two hour online session on the 23rd of October 2020 (Friday, post 4:30pm) and will consist of 4 panelists.
Contact person: aravindhan.nagarajan@apu.edu.in
Integrating Climate Change into Higher Education
Date: Saturday 24 October 4pm IST onwards
Description (<200 words): The workshop will include elaboration of the broader context of climate change education in India and the global South, interactive elements on challenges and best practices in specific contexts, and hands-on activities on integrating climate change considerations into specific curricular and institutional contexts.The workshop will be facilitated by faculty members at Azim Premji University.
Contact person:abhayraj@actionclimate.org