Over recent weeks the residents of Darwin and Top End have experienced first hand the devastating impact that cyclonic weather and floods can have on communities and the landscape.
Charles Darwin University will present a Symposium this week - Prepare for IMPACT – when people and environment collide in the tropics. Issues to be explored include climate change, threats to the biosphere and emerging infectious tropical diseases in the south-east Asian region.
The Symposium will be held at CDU’s Casuarina Campus Darwin on 11 and 12 May and brings together some of CDU’s leading researchers, interstate and international speakers.
CDU Vice-Chancellor Professor Helen Garnett believes the University has an important role to play in helping to raise the level of community debate on many of today’s important global issues.
“The Symposium Series provides a forum where the public can discuss these issues with experts and hear their assessment and predictions for the future,” Professor Garnett said.
CDU Symposium co-convenor Dr Guy Boggs said “the impact of climate changes demands the attention of the public, especially in the tropical regions of Northern Australia that have witnessed the effects of major climatic events during the last months.”
The Symposium is open to everyone, including the general public and there is still time to register online for the two day event. Visit www.cdu.edu.au and registration is free of charge.
Well known ABC TV science reporter Justin Murphy will chair the various sessions of the Symposium and guest speakers will include leading researchers from CDU along with environmental experts from interstate and India, Singapore, Indonesia and Panama.
The Symposium will focus on several themes:
- Drivers of change
- Values and Livelihoods
- What are the changes and their impacts?
- The future – the inexorable and the manageable.
For registration details, programs and information go to:
Prepare for Impact!: www.cdu.edu.au/cdss0605/
Program: www.cdu.edu.au/cdss0605/program.html
Speakers: www.cdu.edu.au/cdss0605/speakers.html
Media contact: Christine Bond 0438 868 048