RST Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021.
RST Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021.
The Royal Society of Tasmania Lecture, Thursday 6 March 2025 Professor Nathan Bindoff The Southern Ocean and Antarctica are changing rapidly. New discoveries and understandings are pointing to a growing role of the Southern Ocean in our changing climate. The loss of mass by Antarctica, the slowing of the southern hemisphere over-turning circulation and the remarkable loss of winter sea-ice in the last two years will be discussed. There is an urgent need to understand these changes and track the human contributions to these changes, to support policy makers in this critical decade.
Professor Bindoff has advanced our knowledge of how the global oceans are warming and losing oxygen, and how the changing patterns of salinity reflect an accelerating water cycle. This warming, oxygen loss, and salinity change has the clear fingerprint of human activity through increasing greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. He was the first to document these ocean changes and show their connection to human influence in the climate system. Professor Bindoff has provided outstanding leadership in the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a lead author on several assessment reports that are informing world leaders on climate policy. Amongst his numerous awards, Professor Bindoff received the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for his contribution to the IPCC. In 2024 Professor Bindoff received an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship which is considered one of Australia’s most prestigious scientific awards.
The Royal Society of Tasmania acknowledges, with deep respect, the traditional owners of this land, and the ongoing custodianship of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania. The Society pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge that Tasmanian Aboriginal Peoples have survived severe and unjust impacts resulting from invasion and dispossession of their Country. As an institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, the Royal Society of Tasmania recognises Aboriginal cultural knowledge and practices and seeks to respect and honour these traditions and the deep understanding they represent.
On 15 February 2021, the Royal Society of Tasmania offered a formal Apology to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.