Over the last two decades ‘climate emergency’ has grown from a little-known term to a mainstream public issue. In Australia, the term gained traction following the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfire crisis. The disaster prompted many local governments, industries, organisations, peak bodies and academic collectives to ‘declare’ a climate emergency and call for immediate action on climate change. We note, however, that there has not been a declaration of a climate emergency from geographers in Australia. As a discipline whose members are firmly embedded in research, teaching and advocacy about climate change, and have a strong sense of environmental and social justice, we found this surprising. It is self-evident that climate change matters to geographers. So is a declaration from the discipline necessary?

The objective of this one-day online symposium is to start a conversation. We acknowledge that geography is a diverse discipline and that those trained as geographers do not just exist within the academy, but are students, teachers, researchers, administrators, policy makers, planners, environmental scientists and many other roles. We reflect on who geographers in Australia are, and ask – what are our responsibilities to declare a climate emergency and to speak out and act on issues of climate change?

This workshop aims to begin developing the framework for a climate emergency declaration or manifesto to be endorsed by geographers in Australia and the societies that represent them. We encourage HDRs, ECRs, geography teachers, and others outside of the traditional academy to participate, alongside casual and tenured academics, support staff, masters and undergraduate students; i.e. anyone trained in, researching and/or teaching geography in Australia.

The first half of the workshop will be a panel session where panellists explore and respond to the question of a climate and biodiversity emergency declaration from geographers.  The second half will be more interactive, with broader discussions where participants get together in ‘huddles’ to expand on the themes and questions raised by the panel. The outcomes of the workshop are open, but we do hope that we end up with a scope of principles, values or action plan to move the issue forward. We hope you can join us.

Agenda

SESSION 1  9:30am - 11:30am
- Acknowledgement of Country
- Welcome from ACCESS
- Panel session: 'Geographers declare?'

Panellists:
*Richie Howitt (Professor, Macquarie University)
*Lauren Rickards (Associate Professor, RMIT University)
*Fiona Miller (Associate Professor, Macquarie University)
*Tim Wall (BSc Honours Student, University of Wollongong)
*Blanche Verlie (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Sydney)
*Madeleine Bretag (Secondary School HSIE Teacher, Trangie Central School)

BREAK 11:30am - 12:30pm

SESSION 2  12:30pm - 2:30pm
- Zoom 'huddle' discussions
- Recap and actions

The workshop will be recorded and released in part as a podcast. We encourage those who want to but cannot attend to register.

For questions about the symposium please contact Susannah Clement and Carrie Wilkinson by emailing geographersdeclareau@gmail.com 

Please respond to the following questions to express your interest in attending the 'Geographers declare (a climate emergency)?' symposium:

Topic: Geographers declare (a climate and biodiversity emergency)?
Time: Oct 13, 2020 09:30 AM Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android:
https://uow-au.zoom.us/j/84541485846?pwd=Qnh2VDJIZFdCWERJZXlib2cyZlFiUT09

Meeting ID: 845 4148 5846
Password: 187814

Please ensure that your microphone is muted during Session 1 (the panel session) – the audience will have the opportunity to ask panellists questions through Zoom chat and Slido. Session 2 will involve small group workshopping – we encourage everyone to participate and turn your video on! :-)

We suggest you download the relevant Zoom plugin for your device to enable full functionality: https://zoom.us/download#client_4meeting