Climate change – let’s talk about it
Understanding climate change
Recent heatwaves, bush fires and other catastrophes have made it clear we are living in a new climate disrupting world. The next decade is critical to reducing our emissions to meet the Paris agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 C.
Speaker Profiles
Professor Steven Chown
Why Antarctica's tomorrow should be your concern today
Professor Steven Chown is the Director of Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), an Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative. His research mainly concerns biodiversity variation through space and time, and the conservation implications of environmental change, including the means to mitigate it. He is widely recognised for his contributions to Antarctic science policy and evidence-based conservation policy. In recognition of these contributions, in 2009 he was the inaugural awardee of the Tinker-Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica, and this year the French Republic awarded him the once-off Medal of the 30th Anniversary of the Madrid Protocol.
Professor Christian Jakob
Professor Christian Jakob is a climate scientist. He’s interested in how scientists around the world can work together better to improve climate models. He has worked for organisations as varied as the United States Department of Energy, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and the Bureau of Meteorology.
“The thing to understand in all this is that it’s a game of probabilities. It’s not about whether or not something will happen, it’s about the chances of something happening.”
Professor Doug MacFarlane
Professor Doug MacFarlane is an ARC Laureate Fellow at Monash University. He is also the program leader of the Energy Program in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES). He is currently researching materials that will enable new pathways to generate energy and fuel from sustainable resources (e.g. the sun, air and water). One of his main focus areas within ACES is the generation of Green Ammonia from nothing more than N2, water and sunlight.
Professor Carla Sgrò
Researching insects, evolutionary biologist Professor Carla Sgrò has found that not all species possess the genetic capacity to survive rapid environmental change. Carla’s findings are helping to refine government policies on biodiversity management, and are motivating her to step into the policy arena.
Professor Julie Arblaster
‘Her prophecy of an Australian Inferno was correct’.
Professor Julie Arblaster is a climate scientist in the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, joining Monash in 2016 after more than a decade at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. She has served on many national and international committees, including the National Climate Science Advisory Committee and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and is currently on the Scientific Steering Committee for the WMO/UNEP Scientific Assessment for Ozone Depletion. Her research uses climate models as tools to understand the mechanisms of climate variability and extremes in observed and future climates.
Past Climate Change Seminar events
Did you miss one of the Climate Change seminars? You can watch the recordings here.
Professor Steven Chown
Why Antarctica's tomorrow should be your concern today
Professor Steven Chown's research mainly concerns biodiversity variation through space and time, and the conservation implications of environmental change, including the means to mitigate it.
Professor Christian Jakob
Climate models: The good, the bad and... the future
Professor Christian Jakob is a climate scientist who is interested in how scientists around the world can work together better to improve climate models.
Professor Doug MacFarlane
Towards the Hydrogen-Ammonia Economy
Professor Doug MacFarlane is currently researching materials that will enable new pathways to generate energy and fuel from sustainable resources.
Professor Carla Sgro
Biological Responses to Climate Change - why they matter and what we can do about it
Researching insects, evolutionary biologist Professor Carla Sgrò has found that not all species possess the genetic capacity to survive rapid environmental change.
Professor Julie Arblaster
The Roaring 40s in a warming climate
Professor Julie Arblaster's research uses climate models as tools to understand the mechanisms of climate variability and extremes in observed and future climates.