The Royal Society of Tasmania

The advancement of knowledge

.

“Living in an uncertain world: data and decisions”: The psychology of Climate Science Denial

July 27,  7.30 pm Stanley Burbury Theatre, Sandy Bay campus, UTAS

 

Chair: Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner, AM, Governor of Tasmania

 

 

Speaker: Dr John Cook, UQ

 

Around 7% of Australians believe climate change isn’t happening. What drives this rejection of climate science? The biggest driver of climate science denial isn’t education, science literacy, age or income: it’s who you vote for. Political ideology is a key factor, with people who oppose regulation of the fossil fuel industry denying there’s a problem needing solving in the first place. This matters because misinformation generated by this small group confuses the public, decreasing public support for climate action. How do we respond to climate science denial? Presenting evidence about climate change to those who reject climate science is not only ineffective, it can even backfire and harden their views. Instead, psychological research into inoculation theory points to another approach. Just as a vaccination stops a virus from spreading by exposing people to a weak form of the virus, we build resistance to science denial by explaining the techniques and fallacies of misinformation. Rather than try to change the minds of a small minority immune to evidence, we communicate to the majority who are still open to evidence. And not only do we need to communicate the science, we also need to explain how that science can get distorted.

John Cook

John Cook is the Climate Communication Fellow for the Global Change Institute at The University of Queensland. He created and runs the website SkepticalScience.com, which won the 2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for the Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge and the 2016 National Center for Science Education Friend of the Planet Award. John has co-authored several university textbooks on climate change as well as the book Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand. In 2013, he published a paper on the scientific consensus on climate change that has been highlighted by President Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron. He also developed the MOOC (Massive Online Open Course), Making Sense of Climate Science Denial, released in April 2015. He is currently completing a PhD in cognitive psychology, researching the psychology of climate science denial.

“Living in an uncertain world: data and decisions”: Smart Grids, Messy Society

July 27, 7.30 pm Stanley Burbury Theatre, Sandy Bay campus, UTAS

 

Chair: Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner, AM, Governor of Tasmania

 

Associate Professor Heather Lovell, UTAS

 

How we produce and consume electricity is changing: more of us have rooftop solar, there is greater opportunity to purchase household battery storage, and detailed energy data is more widely available. A growing concern of utilities and governments is that large numbers of people will opt to leave the electricity grid (i.e. centralised electricity provision), as it becomes increasingly technically feasible and cost-effective to do so. In this short talk Associate Professor Lovell will explore the nature of the changes already underway in the Australian electricity sector, and consider what past experience tells us about ‘megashifts’. She will also explore how change in an uncertain world can be effectively governed.

HLovell_2015Associate Professor Heather Lovell is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania. Her ARC research is about the learning that is taking place from smart grid experiments. Over the last ten years, her research at Cambridge, Edinburgh and Oxford universities in the UK has focused on how and why technology and policy change occurs, investigating topics ranging from low energy housing to carbon markets.

Winter Lecture Series-Future proofing the food supply: food security and food innovation in Tasmania

Presentation by Chair: The Hon. Michael Field AC,

Sir Stanley Burbury Theatre, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay

Tuesday, 16th July 2013 Commencing 7.30 pm until 9.00pm

Session Two: Food from the sea: the changing marine environment.

 

About the Speaker

1. Professor Colin Buxton, Director – Fisheries, Aquaculture and Coasts Centre, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania. 2. Professor Chris Carter, Aquaculture Program Leader, Fisheries, Aquaculture and Coasts Centre, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania. Chris Carter has worked in aquaculture research since his PhD on grass carp at London University and a Research Fellowship on salmon nutrition at Aberdeen University. His research ranges from understanding the nutritional physiology of aquatic animals to improving aquafeeds through ingredient development and better understanding nutrient requirements. He is currently Professor of Aquaculture Nutrition at IMAS having previously been Professor of Aquaculture and Head, School of Aquaculture, and the Aquaculture Program Leader for TAFI. 3. Dr Gretta Peclis a Fulbright Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow leading several projects within the Estuaries and Coasts Program at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. Her current research activity spans a range of topics including assessing population and fishery responses to climate change, developing and evaluating management adaptation options for fisheries, and on using citizen science approaches for ecological monitoring and engagement (e.g. www.REDMAP.org.au). She is one of several researchers building a virtual network connecting researchers from rapidly warming regions (Global Marine Hotspots Network) and the lead convenor of an international conference Species on the move: detection, impacts, prediction and adaptation planned for Hobart in February 2016.

 

Brief Abstract of the Talk

1. Sustainable marine fisheries. 2. Sustainable marine aquaculture. In the last 50 years marine aquaculture has evolved from small scale commercial experiments to be a mature industry supplying millions of people with seafood. Global aquaculture production comes from fresh and marine waters, it encompasses over 200 species, and production continues to increase at an incredible rate of around 10% per annum. This presentation aims to examine aspects of Tasmanian aquaculture and relate these to the future of national and global aquaculture. Emphasis will be on developing feeds and ingredients for sustainable aquaculture. 3. Our changing marine environment: Redmap and the contributions of citizen science. Over the next century, marine ecosystems off the coast of south-eastern Australia are expected to exhibit some of the largest climate-driven changes in the Southern Hemisphere, impacting both fisheries and conservation management. Major distributional shifts in marine species have already been recorded for several dozen taxa. Even though shifts in species distributions are one of the major responses to climate change recorded here (and globally), monitoring for species range-shifts at the necessary temporal and spatial scales is very challenging. However, observations made by the countless men and women spending time in their environment are rarely recorded, though the potential coverage is vast. As a function of the digital age, advances in our technological capacity have also radically improved the precision and accuracy with which many types of community reported information can now be recorded. REDMAP (Range Extension Database and Mapping project) is an online database and mapping resource allowing members of the public to submit and access observational data (including photographs) of marine species occurring outside their known distribution (i.e. species that may be undergoing range shifts).

BUXTON_Roy Soc Tas July 2013

Redmap Royal Society July 2013

Carter 2013 RST Sustainable Marine Aquaculture Public