Almost 900 million people today are chronically hungry. They will be just as hungry tomorrow. Most are women and children though many small scale farmers are also hungry. The current broad approaches to global hunger and malnutrition are clearly not working – the numbers are increasing daily. These same people are also chronically malnourished due to a lack of essential micronutrients, particularly iron, vitamin A, folate, zinc and iodine. Typical (well advertised) solutions currently being used tend to create dependence rather than self-reliance.

Front line agriculturalists are again focussing on the forgotten and local food plants of the world. These can deliver the benefits of healthy diets, resilient food systems, lower food prices and great availability of food, particularly to those in need. In other words there is a solution that is local and sustainable.

“Food Plant Solutions” is based on an enviable and huge data-base created by Tasmanian agricultural scientist, Bruce French and made freely available to the world-wide organisation of volunteers, Rotary International. The data-base contains comprehensive information on at least 27,000 edible plants for all countries of the world. Food plants that are well adapted and thrive in a particular region or country and contain the highest levels of key nutrients can be readily identified from the data-base. A global group of economists at the Copenhagen Consensus Centre supported the United Nations and others who maintain that the most cost-effective way to use the ‘development’ dollar is by reducing malnutrition.

Two former Vice-Presidents of the Royal Society of Tasmania, Ian Geard and Dr John Thorne, will illustrate how the ready union of knowledge from the Tasmanian data-base combined with a variety of global volunteers is making a difference in at least 28 countries where hunger and malnutrition is a challenge. “Food Plant Solutions” enhances the ability of local groups to make a difference.

Ian Geard was a senior agricultural scientist in Tasmania including his role as Chief Quarantine Officer. He has been engaged by the United Nations Development Program, the FAO/World Bank, the European Union and the Australian Assistance Bureau to visit and advise on a wide variety of food and plant programs, mainly in Asia. Dr John Thorne is the only Tasmanian to have served on the International Board for Rotary – a global volunteer service organisation with 1.2 million active members in about 200 regions or countries. He is the Foundation Chairman of the Rotarian Action Group – Food Plant Solutions. Ian and John recently visited China together to cement relations with a charitable Foundation giving access to the 100 million ethnic minorities there who are seriously challenged with malnutrition and often with hunger. The group also has clear access to help the hungry in the DPRK (North Korea).

Royal Society Room,
Customs House Building, TMAG,
19 Davey St. Hobart (entry from Dunn Place) 8.00 pm
• All interested people welcome
• Admission is free

Trevor McDougall is the recipient of  The Royal Society of Tasmania Medal for 2013.  Trevor will be presented with his medal and will then give his presentation.

Brief bio = After a 28-year career at CSIRO Marine in Hobart, Trevor McDougall is now the Scientia Professor of Ocean Physics in the Applied Mathematics department at the University of New South Wales in Sydney where he conducts research on the physical and thermodynamical aspects of mixing processes in the ocean.
Précis = The central features of the ocean-ice-atmosphere system will be reviewed, including how we know that the warming of planet earth over the past century is caused by our pollution of the atmosphere with Greenhouse gases. In this coupled climate system the ocean plays two main roles, (i) it is a vast store of heat, acting as a large “thermal flywheel”, and (ii) it transports heat from the equatorial region to the polar regions. The ocean’s ability to perform these roles is sensitive to the amount of mixing in the ocean, and this provides the motivation for studying mixing processes and for properly following the transport of heat throughout the ocean

http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/

The Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to celebrate National Science Week with a special lecture by Dr Niall Doran:

Bookending Tasmanian Education from Antarctica to Thailand

Tuesday 5 August 2014, 8.00 pm
Royal Society Room, Customs House Building, TMAG,
19 Davey St. Hobart

Dr Niall Doran will explain the work of the Bookend Trust, a
philanthropic education initiative that uses multimedia and film to
inspire students and assist them to build their own careers.
Dr Doran is a zoologist with an extensive background in
environmental management in both government and the private
sector.

All welcome and admission is free

Session One:  Wind, Coal and Nuclear Energy Futures

Tuesday,17 June, 7.30 – 9.30 pm – Sir Stanley Burbury Theatre,  University of  Tasmania, Sandy Bay

Chair: Alan Finkell, President of Australian Academy  of  Technology, Sciences and Engineering (ATSE)

Coal Power – Barry Waining

Wind Generation – Andrew  Halley –  Transend, Tasmania

Nuclear Power –  John Soderbaum – Australian Academy of Technology,  Sciences  and Engineering (ATSE)

Forum: Q&A

COAL-RST-ATSE Presentation   Slides from Barry Waining

Nuclear Power for Australia Final  Slides from John Soderbaum

Power Options Lecture Series 2014 – Wind_Final  Slides from Andrew Halley