The Planet Talks Guide 2017

presents

T H E WO R L D’S F E S T I VA L 2 0 1 7

The Planet Talks Proudly supported by

Media partner Generously supported by David & Claire Paradice.

Images of Research 2016, Pink veil portrait, Daniel Connell, PhD Candidate, School of Art, Architecture and Design

TIME TABLE Under the stunning tree lined canopy of Botanic Park’s ‘Speakers’ Corner’ join the world’s great minds as they discuss issues, ideas and solutions for an environmentally sustainable planet.

Saturday @ 2.00pm

Sunday @ 3.00pm

Richard Fidler in conversation with Sir Tim Smit

Do Something

Speaker: Sir Tim Smit Host: Richard Fidler

At UniSA our research is inspired by challenges and opportunities, partnered with end-users and communities, and underpinned by excellence. We undertake research that is leading edge and provide solutions to real-world challenges.

Learn more about our enterprising research at unisa.edu.au/research

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Inspired, Partnered Excellence

Human Life on Mars Speakers: Carmel Johnston, Josh Richards Host: Robyn Williams

Sunday @ 1.00pm

Redefining resources and the right to repair Speakers: Kyle Wiens, Veena Sahajwalla, Nicholas Chileshe Host: Robyn Williams

Speakers: Karen O’Brien, Jon Dee, Erin Rhoads, Vanessa Morrish Host: Sonya Feldhoff

Monday @ 1.00pm

What’s God got to do with it?

Speakers: Prof Mohamad Abdalla, Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black, Philippa Rowland Host: Father Bob Maguire

Monday @ 3.00pm

Valuing Indigenous knowledge and language Speakers: Lewis Yerloburka O’Brien, Veronica Perrurle Dobson, Fiona Walsh, Zaachariaha Fielding Host: Miriam Corowa

Message from the Vice Chancellor

UniSA has a long history of focusing on the pressing social issues of our time, and we are very proud of our association with WOMADelaide which has played a ground-breaking role in bringing the world to Adelaide through music, culture and creativity.

We have much in common with WOMADelaide. We both connect people to a global community through education, innovation and inspiration. In fact, the University of South Australia is considered one of the world’s top international universities*.

WOMADelaide offers its audience a unique experience and we can add to that by our sponsorship of Planet Talks. By working together to uncover and explore new ideas we can make a lasting difference to the health of our environment.

This year WOMADelaide’s Planet Talks experts will include Sir Tim Smit, famous for his work on the Lost Gardens of Heligan and

the Eden Project, and panels of game-changers will discuss cultivating a sustainable relationship with the planet, extending the life of everything we use, and will debate the possibilities of living a life free of plastic.

As Australia’s University of Enterprise, UniSA’s world class research focuses on delivering innovative and sustainable solutions that respond to the pressing needs of our world today.

Professor David Lloyd Vice Chancellor and President University of South Australia *Times Higher Education’s Top 200 most international universities.

Whilst this film was originally created in collaboration with local South Australian manufacturer, SMR, to provide unbreakable plastic lenses for car mirrors, we’ve now found another original way to use this innovation. The film is set to create an enormous breakthrough in solar power.

Building on an existing partnership with Heliostat SA, Peter and his team at the FII are now designing and developing the next generation of heliostats to raise the efficiency of concentrated solar-energy generation.

Reflecting on renewable energy A reflective film that’s only nanometres deep has won its leading developer, Professor Peter Murphy from the Future Industries Institute (FII) at the University of South Australia, the prestigious Clunies Ross Award for Innovation in 2016.

What’s a heliostat, you ask. Where conventional solar systems soak up ambient sunlight passively, a concentrated solar system uses heliostats – mirrors, effectively – to track the sun and focus its energy onto thermal collectors or photo-voltaic cells, which converts it into electricity with unequalled efficiency. And that’s where our film comes in.

Applying the ultra-thin film technology to these mirror surfaces leads to far superior heliostats that attain high optical efficiency, while requiring less maintenance in the field.

In fact, they’re so good that Heliostat SA recently delivered and installed $1million worth of heliostats to Mitsubishi Hitachi in Japan.

And that is precisely the kind of result UniSA is seeking, according to the Director of the FII, Professor Emily Hilder: “We pride ourselves in creating new industries through collaboration, and then supporting these partnerships to embrace technological innovations to evolve new practice and create new products.” Who says there’s nothing new under the sun?

SATURDAY 11 MARCH 2.00PM ~ SPEAKERS’ CORNER

“Smit’s vision of Eden is the eighth wonder of the world” Independent

Richard Fidler in conversation with Sir Tim Smit speaker: Sir Tim Smit host: Richard Fidler Former Archaeologist, music composer and producer, Sir Tim Smit is best known for his achievements in Cornwall in restoring the Lost Gardens of Heligan and co-creating the multi Award winning Eden Project – a cradle of life containing world-class horticulture and startling architecture. Eden has become one of the world’s most popular man-made eco-tourism destinations with more than 16 million people visiting it since 2000. And that’s only part of the Tim Smit story…

Richard Fidler Richard Fidler is a writer and broadcaster. For more than a decade he’s presented his national radio show Conversations with Richard Fidler, an in-depth, hour-long interview program on ABC Radio.

Conversations is the ABC’s most popular podcast, with over two million downloads per month.

Sir Tim Smit Sir Tim Smit is best known for his achievements in Cornwall, restoring the Lost Gardens of Heligan and as Executive Vice-Chairman, and Co-founder of the multi Award winning Eden Project. Opening to the public in 2000, Eden has seen over 16 million people visit its world-class horticulture and startling architecture.

SATURDAY 11 MARCH 4.00PM ~ SPEAKERS’ CORNER

Human Life on Mars speakers: Carmel Johnston, Josh Richards host: Robyn Williams Is colonising Mars the next giant leap for humanity or is it a waste time and money?

Do humans need to be a multi planet species to avoid extinction as argued by Elon Musk?

What have humans and the blue planet got to gain in the short term by practising and preparing to inhabit the Red Planet? Who better to ask than two of our favourite Martians, Australian Mars One candidate, Josh Richards and Carmel Johnston – Crew Commander of a year-long Mars Simulation mission.

Robyn Williams Three years after joining the ABC science unit in 1972, Robyn Williams began hosting the award-winning Science Show – one of the longest-running programs on Australian radio and a program he continues to host.

He holds a host of honorary doctorates, has written more than 10 books, has a star in the constellation Carina named after him and is the first journalist to be elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

Carmel Johnston Carmel Johnston recently finished serving as the Crew Commander of The University of Hawaii’s 365-day Mars simulation mission (Hi-SEAS 4) co-funded by NASA where she and five other people lived in complete isolation for an entire year to simulate a Mars mission. With a Masters of Science in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences from Montana State University, she was able to apply her passion for science and sustainable living to amongst other things grow vegetable for the crew.

Josh Richards Physicist, Explosives Engineer, Soldier, Comedian, Astronaut Candidate – one thing Josh Richards can never be accused of is being boring. Josh found his true calling in 2012 when he discovered the Mars One project. Selected from over 200,000 applicants, he’s currently one of 100 astronaut candidates short-listed to leave Earth forever to colonise Mars in 2027.

SUNDAY 12 MARCH 1.00PM ~ SPEAKERS’ CORNER

Redefining resources and the right to repair speakers: Kyle Wiens, Veena Sahajwalla, Nicholas Chileshe host: Robyn Williams We’re running out of resources but according to this panel, we’re going to be ok.

Can we compete with the convenience of the garbage dump and the latest iPhone? Are tech companies taking away our right to extend the life of products? Is a waste-free economy possible? iFixit founder Kyle Wiens, UNSW’s Scientia Professor of Materials Science, Veena Sahajwalla and UniSA’s reverse logistics expert Nicholas Chileshe know a thing or two about delaying entropy, so let’s ask them.

Robyn Williams Three years after joining the ABC science unit in 1972, Robyn Williams began hosting the award-winning Science Show – one of the longest-running programs on Australian radio and a program he continues to host.

He holds a host of honorary doctorates, has written more than 10 books, has a star in the constellation Carina named after him and is the first journalist to be elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

Kyle Wiens Wiens the co-founder and CEO of iFixit, an online repair community and parts retailer internationally renowned for their open source repair manuals and product tear downs. iFixit is “The free repair guide for everything, written by everyone”. Launched out of his Cal Poly college dorm room in 2003, iFixit has now empowered upwards of 15 million people to repair their broken stuff. Wiens has dedicated his life to defeating the second law of thermodynamics, a battle fought in the courtroom as often as in the workshop.

Veena Sahajwalla Veena is an ARC Laureate Fellow and founding Director of the Sustainable Materials Research & Technology (SMaRT) Centre at the University of New South Wales and former judge on ABC TV’s New Inventors Program.

She is one of the world’s leading innovators in the field of sustainable materials and an international awardwinning scientist and engineer and she is passionate about transforming waste produced by modern society into value added green materials.

Nicholas Chileshe Nicholas Chileshe is a Senior Lecturer in Construction & Project Management in the School of Natural and Built Environment at the University of South Australia.

Nicholas obtained his PhD in Construction Management from the Sheffield Hallam University in 2004. His current research interests include waste management and reverse logistics.

SUNDAY 12 MARCH 3.00PM ~ SPEAKERS’ CORNER

Do Something speakers: Karen O’Brien, Jon Dee, Erin Rhoads, Vanessa Morrish host: Sonya Feldhoff Just because you can’t do everything it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something.

Do we view climate change as a problem for Governments, scientists, environmentalists and economists to sort out or is our role as individuals more important?

Join Karen, Jon, Erin and Vanessa as they chat about their work focusing on the “I” in climate change, how people see themselves making changes and how we can empower everyone to “do something”.

Karen O’Brien Karen O´Brien is a Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research focuses on climate change adaptation and transformations to sustainability, and on the relationship between individual and collective change. She is on the Science Committee for Future Earth and is a co-founder of cCHANGE.no.

Jon Dee Jon Dee is the host of the weekly Sky News ‘Smart Money’ business sustainability TV program. His business efficiency guidebooks ‘Sustainable Growth’ and ‘Energy Cut’ have also shifted over 130,000 copies. As a philanthropist, he co-founded Planet Ark, National Tree Day, Do Something and the global initiative One Tree Per Child, with Olivia Newton-John. As the Global Director, he oversees the project in 8 countries.

Erin Rhoads Erin Rhoads is the curious lady behind Australia’s best known zero waste blog, The Rogue Ginger. She writes about her attempts to live a plastic free and zero waste life, sharing plastic free alternatives to shopping, cooking, makeup, fashion, cleaning and travel while trying to create no rubbish.

Sonya Feldhoff

Vanessa Morrish

With more than 25 years’ experience as journalist, newsreader, producer and presenter in Adelaide’s radio industry Sonya Feldhoff is one of Adelaide most-loved radio presenters. Sonya has presented Afternoons since 2012 and can be heard between 1pm–4pm weekdays.

Vanessa is the co-founder of Be An Unfucker – a movement dedicated to rethinking the way we talk about being ‘green’. For many, climate change and eco awareness seems too hard and overwhelming. So they do nothing. That’s why The Unfuckers start by asking people to change just one thing.

MONDAY 13 MARCH 1.00PM ~ SPEAKERS’ CORNER

What’s God got to do with it? speakers: Prof Mohamad Abdalla, Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black, Philippa Rowland host: Father Bob Maguire The Pope’s game changing encyclical— Laudato Si – stressed environmental stewardship and climate change action is consistent with Christian spiritual life. But the Green Faith movement is not just a Christian thing.

It’s a central pillar of all major religions.

This interfaith panel led by Australia’s favourite Catholic, Father Bob Maguire, will discuss how and why Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish faiths have made climate change and environmental responsibility a major part of contemporary religious life and practice.

Father Bob Maguire While the much-loved Melbourne Parish Priest has more recently become known for his media work as co-host of Sunday Night Safran on Triple J and SBS TV’s Safran vs God his passion for community is equally renowned. He has established many organizations encouraging action in the community over the years, including Open Family, Emerald Hill Mission, the Fr Bob Maguire Foundation and the Parish Without Borders, an interfaith movement.

Prof Mohamad Abdalla Professor Mohamad Abdalla, Director of the Centre for Islamic Thought and Education at the University of South Australia, is one of Australia’s most prominent and respected Australian Muslim leaders combining the roles of an academic scholar, public intellectual, religious leader and commentator. Professor Abdalla is an expert in Islamic civilisation and its interconnectedness with the Western civilisation, Islam in Australia, Islamic thought and Islamic ethics.

Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black Jonathan has been a Rabbi at the Leo Baeck Centre in Melbourne since 2003. Jonathan feels it is important to put ‘prayer into practice’ and is strongly committed to Environmental action. He co-founded the Jewish Ecological Coalition (JECO), is a Board member of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC), and is currently studying Social Change and Sustainability.

Philippa Rowland After a decade working on community solutions to climate change, Philippa joined Catholic Earthcare Australia in 2014. She volunteers with the Multifaith Association of SA, sits of the Executive of the Conservation Council of SA, was a community delegate at the COP21 Paris Climate talks and coordinated an Australian response to a global Interfaith Statement delivered to the UN General Assembly in New York on 18 April 2016.

MONDAY 13 MARCH 3.00PM ~ SPEAKERS’ CORNER

Valuing Indigenous knowledge and language speakers: Lewis Yerloburka O’Brien, Veronica Perrurle Dobson, Fiona Walsh, Zaachariaha Fielding host: Miriam Corowa 40,000 years of Indigenous Australians have maintained a sustainable relationship with the every corner of Australia’s diverse environment via a deep listening tradition that preserves language, heritage and culture.

In this panel respected Indigenous Elders, an Ethno-Ecologist and a young Indigenous rising star who sings in his country’s language will talk about this knowledge and how the future of Australian environmental conservation is linked to preserving and sustaining our indigenous cultures, heritage and languages.

Lewis Yerloburka O’Brien Kaurna Elder, Lewis Yerloburka O’Brien, AO, is Honorary Fellow of the University of South Australia where he researches wildfire mitigation and water sustainability, and in the intersection of Indigenous and Western knowledge. He has provided many decades of support to the indigenous and non-indigenous communities, in particular the maintenance and promotion of Kaurna language and culture through Kaurna Warra Pintyandi, The Kaurna Language Revival Program he helped establish.

Veronica Perrurle Dobson Arrernte elder, linguist, ecologist, 2015 NAIDOC Female Elder of the year, Veronica Perrurle Dobson has been described as Arrandic equivalent of a professor of environmental science. She has a life long commitment to preserving the Aboriginal language, culture and plant knowledge of Central Australia and is an inspiration and role model too many people both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, seeking her out for language and cultural education.

Fiona Walsh Dr Fiona Walsh has lived in desert Australia for 30 years.

As an Ethno-Ecologist she has supported Aboriginal people in their work on bush foods, burning and other aspects of environmental management. She is currently working with Charles Darwin University and has been employed by CSIRO, peak Aboriginal organisations and state government agencies.

Miriam Corowa

Zaachariaha Fielding

Miriam’s career in television began in 2000 and has involved working across the SBS and ABC networks covering Indigenous issues with the Indigenous Cultural Affairs Magazine (ICAM) programme and Message Stick, as well as hosting live broadcasts and covering television news – most recently as co-host of ABC News 24’s Weekend Breakfast show.

Zaachariaha Fielding is an Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara man from Mimili, remote SA. Nominated for the SA Young Achievers Award for bringing his culture into the public domain, sharing his languages is a strong impetus behind songs he creates in his duo Electric Fields. ‘Awareness of my languages should not only be about politics, negotiations, and road signs…I want my languages to be available for people to embrace’.

Well, actually, someone does: Dr Sharolyn Anderson, a senior lecturer at the University of South Australia’s School of Natural and Built Environments.

Let’s not deny the parklands also add a charm and amenity to our city, as well as a place to relax and play. So, how much is all that worth?

Dr Anderson and her team found an unprecedented way to calculate the true economic value of the Adelaide parklands, research funded by the University to further the research themes Scarce Resources and Healthy Futures.

According to Dr Anderson, “With our holistic approach, we valued the Adelaide parklands at two million dollars, per hectare, per year. Extending that, based on previous research, we now know the ecosystem services provided by nature worldwide are valued at more than double the world’s Gross Domestic Product.”

The key was to evaluate the ecosystem services – or, in other words – the worth of the work provided by the trees and green spaces that surround the Adelaide CBD.

How much do we owe Adelaide’s parklands?

A nurseryman knows the price of a tree; a real estate agent knows the price of land.

But who’d have a clue what Adelaide’s parklands are worth?

For a start, there is the increasingly vital role of carbon sequestration. The parklands are often called the lungs of the city and with good reason: because trees breathe in reverse to us, they inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, capturing and storing the harmful gases emitted by mankind and our industrialisation, and which contribute to global warming.

But trees do so much more: they provide flood mitigation, shade, food, water retention and erosion control.

Recognising that nature provides benefits to humanity that are worth more than double the global market economy, we need new institutions to monitor, value, support and protect the world’s functioning ecosystems.

ZERO-WASTE LIFE A series of short, sharp and HACKS practical sustainability

workshops curated by “The Adelaide Sustainability Centre” in the WOShop and UniSA Tbar hub.

DAILY DROP IN

• Make your own beeswax wrap • Make your own produce bag • Self-guided Tree Tour 1–2PM

• Guided Tree Tour

2 Guides, 20 people per group

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

NOON–1PM

NOON–1PM

NOON–1PM

• Plastic Free Shopping • Success Sowing Seed

• Bottle Bricks with Martin Freeney • Make your own Body Scrub

• Plastic Free Shopping • Darn a Sock

1–2PM

1–2PM

1–2PM

• Bottle Bricks with Martin Freeney • Make your own Produce Bag

• Darn a Sock • What to do with your Home Harvest

• Composting • Seed Saving

2–3PM

2–3PM

2–3PM

• Patch a Hole • Success Sowing Seed

• Composting • Make your own Cleaning Products and Toothpaste

• Plastic Free Shopping • Make your own Produce Bag

3–4PM

• Seed Saving • Make your own Cleaning

3–4PM

• Bottle Bricks with Martin Freeney • Make your own Body Scrub 4–5PM

• What to do with your Home Harvest • Make your own Cleaning Products

• Make your own Produce Bag • Success Sowing Seed

3–4PM

Products and Toothpaste

4–5PM

4–5PM

• Seed Saving • Make your own Body Scrub

• Composting • Patch a Hole

Our desire for whatever is newer, bigger and better drives manufacturing, along with the majority of our greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and waste.

Staggeringly, the mass of the global urban waste is currently estimated at seven to 10 billion tonnes annually, and this figure is set to double over the next 20 years.

Consumerism & sustainability: re-use, recycle, repair The truly inconvenient – and largely unrecognised – truth is our consumerist and throw-away obsession is the biggest ‘engine’ powering climate change.

In his new book, Somebody Else’s Problem: Consumerism, Sustainability and Design, Dr Robert Crocker, the Deputy Director of the China Australia Centre for Sustainable Urban Development, at the University of South Australia, says, “There are ways of dealing with waste, including: changing how we design, make and use our goods; how we dispose of them; and what we do with the waste.”

Buying more products, and keeping them for less time, means using up more resources, energy and water, and producing more greenhouse gases. For example, in 2010 of the 1.5 million iPhones sold in the first day, 75% were sold to those who already owned a working phone.

According to Dr Crocker, we don’t just need to change the way we make and do things: we need to change the way we – as a society – think about economics, design, industry and consumption.

From the linear economy that only drives one way like a conveyor belt towards waste, we need to develop a circular economy, placing the emphasis on re-use, recycling, repair and re-purposing.

One project Dr Crocker is currently working on is how to create alternative, low-carbon shops for eco-precincts, that sell local produce to locals at a reasonable price without the waste, packaging and transportation involved with most supermarket wares.

When you answer to no one, you can question everything.

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Our independence means we can tackle the difficult stories.

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