We’re delighted to announce a diverse and exciting platform of speakers for our Sunday Open Day.
Sid Plant is a Queensland cattle and grain farmer from near Toowomba. He has been a state councillor of the Cattlemen’s Union and Queensland president of the Australian Poll Hereford Society, as well as active in landcare groups and an expert on farming in drought conditions and in a changing climate. Sid has studied climate science for the last 40 years and is a much sought after speaker. He now finds himself living and farming next to a giant open cast coal mine and will talk about the effects on his farming and his community.
Members of OraTaiao: New Zealand Climate and Health will talk about the health impacts of lignite mining, both within the Mataura Valley and wider, and will be available in the discussion workshops afterwards. OraTaiao (www.orataiao.org.nz) comprises 140+ senior doctors and other health professionals following the lead of the World Health Organization, World Medical Association and other leading medical bodies who have identified climate change as the world’s leading health issue – more than even cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, etc. OraTaiao doctors recognise their professional duties to act for their patients and communities include climate change, which is real, urgent and is harming people right now.
Speakers/contributors will include:
- Dr Dougal Thorburn, MB ChB Otago (2005). Dougal is an advanced trainee in Public Health Medicine based in Dunedin. Currently working in Public Health, experience includes primary care and hospital medicine, including time at Southland Hospital. He is of Tainui descent and has a strong interest in Environmental Health, the area of Public Health that encompasses the assessment and control of environmental factors that can potentially affect health. He is also a competitive runner, a gardener and a parent of two young girls.
- Mr Russell Tregonning, MB ChB Otago (1968), FRACS (1973), FNZOA (1978). Russell is a Wellington orthopaedic surgeon and clinical senior lecturer in orthopaedic surgery and Coordinator of Musculoskeletal Medicine in the Department of Surgery at the University of Otago Wellington School of Medicine. A Past President of the NZ Orthopaedic Association and Past chairman Wellington Branch International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), Russell is parent of two and grandparent of two, with interests in family, NZ back country-fly-fishing mountain-biking, tramping, environmental issues, sustainable transport (active and public), music and choral singing.
- Dr Rachel Eyre, MB ChB Sheffield (1991). Rachel is a Public Health Medicine Specialist with a background in rural health, health promotion, policy analysis and health services research. Experience includes hospital medicine in the UK and New Zealand, work as Branch Medical Adviser for ACC in Invercargill for 4 years, and leading a healthy communities project in Gore for 3 years. Having previously lived in Gore for ten years, she is currently working in Christchurch as a public health physician with the Canterbury DHB. She gardens and enjoys tramping or cycling in the great outdoors with her family; her husband John (ex-Mataura Paper Mill employee and St Peters Gore high school teacher), and their two active boys.
- Liz Springford, BA Otago (1982), MPP(merit) VUW (2006). Liz is an independent policy analyst from Wellington. Experience includes a decade with State Services Commission, a Master of Public Policy degree with school governance research, is now concerned with effective climate action, and a key founder of OraTaiao. She is a Southlander of many generations, growing up in Winton and now parent of three young people.
Dr Peter Barrett is Professor of Geology in the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington and was its Director from 1972 to 2007. Peter has led several projects to drill the Antarctic margin for understanding of ice sheet behaviour since its inception around 34 million years ago. The results are providing a useful guide to its likely behaviour in the face of projected future global warming. He has also represented NZ on the international Antarctic Committee on Environmental Protection (1998-2003), and in 2006 was awarded the President’s Medal for Outstanding Scientific Achievement in Antarctic Science by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. He has recently been instrumental in setting up the NZ Climate Change Research Institute at VUW. His current research interests include global temperature estimates on human, Ice Age and geological time scales.
Peter will talk on the current state of climate science – what is known and what is not.
Dr Shannon Page is a lecturer in the Environmental Management Department at Lincoln University. His research and teaching is focused on energy use, and how the environmental impacts of energy use can be reduced. The potential of carbon dioxide capture and storage to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been a particular interest. He is also undertaking research on topics including renewable electricity systems, transport fuel consumption, the promise of the hydrogen economy, and urban resilience to fuel constraints. Shannon is from Christchurch, and obtained his Physics degree and Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. from the University of Canterbury.
Shannon will talk on, “Can Carbon Capture and Storage make Coal Clean?”
Theme: Coraline by