We only have one planet, and its climate and ecosystem are essential to our survival. A veritable tsunami of studies and assessment reports outlines a stark picture of humanity's detrimental impacts on our planet's life and environmental health.

Climate change is at the heart of many of these impacts. We cannot continue to live in the same way; we're facing relentless population growth, paired with ever-expanding energy and resource consumption. Every day we dither exacerbates the issues we have to repair. What are our options, though?

We can still avert the doomsday scenario and choose more sustainable behaviour. Decisive action can still make a significant difference to our environment.

In Rebalancing Our Climate, Eelco J. Rohling documents a wealth of ways to adjust the trajectory of climate change. He outlines measures to drive massive reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, remove these gases from our atmosphere, and reflect part of the incoming energy from the Sun back into space. The book evaluates both advantages and disadvantages of changing our behaviour.

Program

• Introduction by Dr Will Howard, Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment.
• Presentation on the book by Prof Eelco Rohling, The Australian National University.
• Audience Q&A.

Moderated by Dr Bec Colvin, The Australian National University.

About the Speakers

Eelco J. Rohling is Professor of Ocean and Climate Change at the Australian National University. He is secondarily affiliated with the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. He is Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science and of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). A Web of Science 2019 Highly Cited Researcher, Rohling is also a former recipient of a UK Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, an Australian Laureate Fellowship, and the 2021 AGU Maurice Ewing Medal. His research focuses on ocean and climate change with emphasis on sea level, climate sensitivity, and past episodes of enhanced carbon burial in ocean sediments.

Dr Will Howard is the Lead Climate Scientist at the Commonwealth Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, working across climate science, climate adaptation, and Great Barrier Reef policy, negative emissions and other issues.

Dr Bec Colvin is a social scientist and senior lecturer with the Resources, Environment & Development Group at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy. Her research interest is in how groups of people interact with each other - especially in settings of social and political conflict - with regard to climate and environmental issues.

Event registration privacy notice