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Conference Welcome
iDEA 2020, the annual national conference for Doctors for the Environment Australia, is the leading Australian conference on Climate Change and Health and is being presented in partnership with the Climate Institute, ANU. This year we welcome our friends and colleagues from around Australia to a cross-disciplinary meeting focusing on climate change as an increasing health crisis.
On Saturday 4th April, ideas and challenges in climate change and health will be presented. We will start with Indigenous understanding of land and country, move into the Australian countryside to discuss agriculture and the natural environment, then back to the cities to talk about the built environment, security and migration.
Sunday will offer a strong solution focus, beginning with framing the problems, then considering solutions through a cross-disciplinary lens, including economic elements. We will examine narrative techniques for communicating the challenge, and finish with the policy and politics of climate change.
Purpose
iDEA2020 brings together medical practitioners, medical students, academics, researchers, and policy makers to discuss the challenge of climate change and its effects on human health.
Rationale for Attending
Join friends and colleagues from around Australia to discuss climate change and the environmental determinants of health. iDEA2020 brings together thinkers from a range of diverse disciplines and perspectives, and offers intelligent and useful framing of the challenges and their solutions.
iDEA 2020 is supported by
Speakers
A/Prof Katrina Anderson
ANU Medical School
A/Prof Katrina Anderson
ANU Medical School
Katrina Anderson is a general practitioner, academic and medical educator who cares passionately about patient centred holistic health care. She is an Associate Professor at the Australian National University Medical School and also Chair of the Canberra Region Medical Education Council and has been an educator of medical students, junior doctors and GP registrars for over 25 years.
As a GP Katrina works with refugees and asylum seekers and has a specific interest in how psychological and emotional experiences interface with the physical and how people manage stress and anxiety under a variety of different circumstances. She has training in a number of different psychological therapies that bring body and mind together to empower people to live full, rich and meaningful lives. Katrina tries to practise what she preaches and so her other passion, mountains and wilderness is crucial to her own wellbeing.
Carol Behne
CAHA, Sustainable Healthcare Coordinator
Carol Behne
CAHA, Sustainable Healthcare Coordinator
Carol manages the Climate and Health Alliances' Sustainable Healthcare program, which includes coordinating the Global Green and Healthy Hospital network in Australia and New Zealand.
She has previously worked as a speech pathologist, in Local council energy efficiency and solar programs, and in the green roof and wall industry. She holds a Master of Environmental Management.
Dr Sally Box
Federal Threatened Species Commissioner
Dr Sally Box
Federal Threatened Species Commissioner
The Threatened Species Commissioner champions the implementation of the Threatened Species Strategy and practical conservation actions to recover our most threatened plants and animals. Using the principles of science, action and partnership, the Commissioner works with conservation organisations, governments, community and the private sector to improve the trajectory of our threatened species.
Dr Box has a PhD in Plant Sciences and began her career in the Department of the Environment and Energy working on threatened species assessments. Since, she has worked with the community to design and deliver programs focused on threatened species conservation, including through her leadership of the Green Army.
Dr Box has also worked in partnership with scientists and landholders to deliver the Emissions Reduction Fund and most recently worked on the Paris Agreement in the Department’s international climate change area.
Dr Susie Burke PhD FAPS
Clinical Psychologist
Dr Susie Burke PhD FAPS
Clinical Psychologist
Dr Susie Burke is an environmental psychologist, therapist, climate activist and parent, with many years of experience working on climate change and disasters. A key interest is in the role that psychology plays in helping us understand the causes, impacts and solutions to climate change and other environmental threats, including natural disasters. For 17 years she was the senior psychologist at the Australian Psychological Society and developed numerous resources, training programs and workshops on these topics, including the Climate Change Empowerment Handbook, the Psychological First Aid Handbook, and other materials on coping with climate change, raising children for a climate altered world, and disaster preparedness and recovery. She is now working in private practice as a psychologist in Castlemaine, consulting to councils, groups and organisations, and running workshops and individual sessions to help people cope with and come to terms with climate change, including how to raise children in and for a climate altered world. Susie is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. She is raising bike riders, school strikers and fruit trees, and is very pleased that her council has just declared a Climate Emergency in the Shire.
Misha Coleman
Executive Director, Global Health Alliance Australia
Misha Coleman
Executive Director, Global Health Alliance Australia
Misha started work in climate policy in 1997 when she was at AusAID/DFAT and involved in developing a government position to take to the Kyoto negotiations - the outcome being a national disgrace (Australia negotiated an 8% INCREASE in emissions).
Misha finished her Masters degree in Environmental Law while leading the Australian Government’s agricultural science department at the Australian Embassy in Vietnam, and now leads the Global Health Alliance Australia - a peak body representing 47 global health organisations.
Most recently, she co-authored a report called “From Townsville to Tuvalu: the health impacts of climate change in the Asia-Pacific” and is now working on implementing the nine-point plan contained in the report.
She was invited to discuss the health impacts of climate change with Federal MPs and Senators at the launch of the re-established Parliamentary Friends of Climate Action in October late last year, and she looks forward to hearing your views too!
Simon Corbell
Chief Advisor, Energy Estate
Simon Corbell
Chief Advisor, Energy Estate
Simon Corbell is the Chief Advisor to Energy Estate – a strategic consulting, transaction advisory and project development company. Simon has more than two decades of senior experience in public policy leadership, governance and implementation. He was previously Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for the Environment and Climate Change of the Australian Capital Territory from 2008-2016 and was most recently the Victorian Renewable Energy Advocate for the Victorian Government. His advocacy for a strong climate change policy for Canberra saw the ACT achieve national and international recognition as a best-practice jurisdiction, on track for 100% renewable energy by 2020.
He is widely recognised as a leader in the areas of renewable energy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, urban sustainability and public transport. Simon is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra, an Honorary Associate Professor at the ANU and is a Patron of the Smart Energy Council.
Dr Richard Denniss
Chief Economist, The Australia Institute
Dr Richard Denniss
Chief Economist, The Australia Institute
Richard Denniss is the Chief Economist and former Executive Director of The Australia Institute. He is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator, and a former Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.
Prior to working at The Australia Institute, Richard was the Strategy Adviser to the Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Bob Brown, was Chief of Staff to the then Leader of the Australian Democrats, Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, and held teaching and research jobs at Australian universities.
He is known for his ability to translate economics issues into everyday language. Richard has published extensively in academic journals, is a regular contributor to The Monthly and Quarterly Essay, as well as producing columns in The Canberra Times and The Australian Financial Review. His books include the best-selling
Affluenza (with Dr Clive Hamilton),
Econobabble, and recently
Curing Affluenza. In 2020 one of his projects is a national speaking tour of
Why Economics is Broken (and what we can do to fix it).
A/Prof Ben Edwards
Assoc Prof Child and Youth Development and Longitudinal Studies ANU
A/Prof Ben Edwards
Assoc Prof Child and Youth Development and Longitudinal Studies ANU
Associate Professor Ben Edwards is a Senior Fellow at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods where he is focused on policy relevant research on child and youth development and advising and supporting longitudinal studies (Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Youth, Ten to Men, and a new longitudinal of children in the Philippines). Internationally, he advised the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on the measurement of non-cognitive skills in longitudinal studies. Ben is Co-Editor of the Australian Journal of Social Issues.
He is an expert in longitudinal studies of child and youth development, linkage of administrative data to surveys and longitudinal studies of disadvantaged groups such as refugees.
Associate Professor Edwards has undertaken consultancies for the OECD, the Australian Government Departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Social Services, Education, the New South Wales Departments of Premier and Cabinet, Families and Community Services as well as the Benevolent Society and the Smith Family.
Jenny Edwards
Director, Light House Architecture and Science
Jenny Edwards
Director, Light House Architecture and Science
Jenny Edwards is the sole owner and Director of Light House Architecture and Science, a multi-award-winning practice that integrates science into the design process to deliver highly efficient, climate resilient homes in the Canberra region.
She is not an architect. Jenny has a Masters degree in science and is an ACT licensed Building Energy Efficiency Assessor. She has been doing theoretical energy efficiency testing of designs using thermal performance simulation software, and physical building-envelope testing of built projects, since 2009 (and is very proud of her thermal camera, blower door and now PM2.5 meters).
With over 100 projects in Canberra, Light House has demonstrated that there is growing demand for smaller, smarter, sustainable housing. Jenny and her team are also passionate about communicating the science and architecture of sustainable housing to a broad audience, and they regularly participate in educational and public awareness raising events.
In 2019, Jenny was awarded the Clem Cummings Medal by the ACT branch of the Institute of Architects in recognition of her contributions to architecture and the built environment. In 2015, she won the 'Outstanding in Industry' award from the ACT branch of the National Association of Women in Construction. In 2018 her personal home won the national HIA GreenSmart Sustainable Home of the Year award. Jenny is very big on walking the talk and advocating for evidence-based home design.
Cormac Farrell
Principal Environmental Consultant, Umwelt (Australia) Pty Ltd
Cormac Farrell
Principal Environmental Consultant, Umwelt (Australia) Pty Ltd
Cormac Farrell is a Principal Consultant with Umwelt with experience in Bushfire Management, Environmental Impact Assessment, Ecology and Landscape Management.
He has worked extensively throughout Australia on bushfire protection projects in NSW, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and Victoria. His project experience includes school bushfire shelters, developing detailed prescriptions to minimise the impact of hazard reduction treatments on listed species, and specialist studies on habitat utilisation for hazard reduced areas.
Cormac has specialist skills in the management of pollinator networks in both urban and rural landscapes, particularly in terms of incorporating flowering species into urban planting schemes to provide year-round forage for bees and other critical pollinators. These specialist set of skills has seen him take on an additional and unusual role – Head Beekeeper for the Australian Parliament.
Prof Sharon Friel
Professor of Health Equity, ANU
Prof Sharon Friel
Professor of Health Equity, ANU
Sharon Friel is Professor of Health Equity and Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Governance at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), Australian National University. She was Director of RegNet from 2014-2019.
Prof Friel is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia and co-Director of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity. She was the Head of the Scientific Secretariat (University College London) of the World Health Organisation Commission on Social Determinants of Health between 2005 and 2008. In 2014, her international peers voted her one of the world’s most influential female leaders in global health.
Sharon’s interests are in the political economy of health; governance, policy and regulatory processes related to the social determinants of health inequities, including trade and investment, food systems, urbanisation, climate change. Her 2019 book “Climate Change and the People’s Health” highlights the importance of addressing the global consumptagenic system.
Dr Robert Glasser
Visiting Fellow, Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Dr Robert Glasser
Visiting Fellow, Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Dr Robert Glasser is the former Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
He was appointed as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction in January 2016.
Prior to his UN service, from 2008, Dr. Glasser was the Secretary General of CARE International, a major non-governmental humanitarian organisation, active in over 80 countries. From 2003-2007, Dr Glasser was the Chief Executive of CARE Australia. Prior to joining CARE, he was Assistant Director General at the Australian Agency for International Development.
Dr John Hewson
Hon Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy
Dr John Hewson
Hon Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy
Dr Hewson has had several careers in academia, bureaucracy, business, politics, and the media. He is currently a Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU, and an Adjunct Professor at Curtin, UTS, Canberra and Griffith Universities, having been Professor and Head of the School of Economics at UNSW, and Professor of Management and Dean Macquarie Graduate School of Management at Macquarie University. He has worked for The Australian Treasury (Census and Statistics), the IMF, the Reserve Bank, the UN (UNESCAP), and the ADB, and often advises senior public servants.
In Business, he was a Founder of Macquarie Bank, Chairman ABN Amro Australia, and Chair/Director of a host of public and private companies, with current positions in insurance broking, renewable energy, and funds management and investment banking. He is Chair, Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia, Chair, BioEnergy Australia, and a Patron of the Smart Energy Council and the Ocean Nourishment Foundation.
Dr Hewson’s specific work on climate change and sustainability, ranges from the '93 Fightback policy promising a 20% cut in emissions by 2000, off a 1990 base, through his role as Member and Chairman of National Business Leader's Forum on Sustainable Development, and as Chair Asset Owners' Disclosure Project, as well as a businessman recognising the opportunities in a genuine response to the challenge of climate change by starting businesses in garbage recycling, energy efficient lightbulbs, bio-diesel plants, green data centres, converting sugar cane into electricity and ethanol, producing ultra pure graphite for lithium-ion batteries and heat storage, coal refining, base load solar, and many others. John was also a Member of the South Australian Government’s Expert Panel on the Transition to a Low Carbon Economy, and Patron of the Smart Energy Council, and Chair BioEnergy Australia and Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia.
Prof Mark Howden
Director, ANU Climate Change Institute
Prof Mark Howden
Director, ANU Climate Change Institute
Professor Mark Howden is Director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University. He is also an Honorary Professor at Melbourne University, a Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a member of the Australian National Climate Science Advisory Committee. He was on the US Federal Advisory Committee for the 3rd National Climate Assessment and contributes to several major national and international science and policy advisory bodies.
Mark has worked on climate variability, climate change, innovation and adoption issues for over 30 years in partnership with many industry, community and policy groups via both research and science-policy roles. Issues he has addressed include agriculture and food security, the natural resource base, ecosystems and biodiversity, energy, water and urban systems. Mark has over 420 publications of different types. He helped develop both the national and international greenhouse gas inventories that are a fundamental part of the Paris Agreement and has assessed sustainable ways to reduce emissions. He has been a major contributor to the IPCC since 1991, with roles in the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and now Sixth Assessment Reports, sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with other IPCC participants and Al Gore.
Dr Arnagretta Hunter
Staff Specialist, Canberra Hospital
Dr Arnagretta Hunter
Staff Specialist, Canberra Hospital
Dr Arnagretta Hunter is a physician and cardiologist. She understands medicine through our human biology, the social determinants of health and the broader environmental context. Before medicine she completed a BA(Hons) in political science at University of Melbourne and has both MBBS and MPH from University of Sydney with a particular interest in health policy. She trained at St Vincent’s Hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne, and worked as a cardiologist in Wagga Wagga for several years before moving to Canberra in 2014. She was a Clinical Senior Lecturer with UNSW Medical School and now teaches at ANUMS. She has also taught with the RACP programs in NSW and ACT.
She writes and speaks about health and climate change with work through the ANU Climate Change Institute and as ACT Chair for Doctors for the Environment Australia. She is a member of the Climate and Health Alliance, and is on the Friends Advisory Board for the National Rural Health Alliance. She is a 2019 Churchill Fellow, assessing the role of narrative in health and is a Visiting Fellow in 2020 at RegNet ANU.
Prof David Lindenmayer
Fenner School of Environment and Society
Prof David Lindenmayer
Fenner School of Environment and Society
Professor Lindenmayer is a world-leading expert in natural resource management, conservation science, and biodiversity conservation. His work on wildlife conservation has, for many years, led world research in this area. His areas of expertise include integrating farm production and environmental management, terrestrial ecology, wildlife and habitat management, environmental monitoring, fire management, zoology and forestry sciences.
David Lindenmayer currently runs 6 large-scale, long-term research programs in south-eastern Australia, primarily associated with developing ways to conserve biodiversity in farm land, wood production forests, plantations, and in reserves and national parks. He has maintained some of the largest, long-term environmental research programs in Australia, with some exceeding 35 years in duration.
David Lindenmayer has published more than 1230 scientific articles including over 765 peer-reviewed papers in international scientific journals and 47 books. He one of the world's most productive and highly-cited ecologists with a Google Scholar H-Index of 120. He was included in the 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, and 2014 Clarivate Highly Cited Lists (https://clarivate.com/hcr/2017-researchers-list/). In 2018 and 2019, David Lindenmayer was listed among the top 2000 Highly Cited Researchers (h>100) according to Google Scholar Citations public profiles across all disciplines (http://www.webometrics.info/en/node/58). In addition, in 2017 he was listed in the top 50 Australian scientists across all disciplines. David Lindenmayer is a member of an elite group of 0.5% of scientists globally that have published > 10 peer-reviewed scientific articles in international journals annually each year for the past decade.
Lindenmayer is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow (held from 2103-2018), a member of the Australian Academy of Science (elected 2008), Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (elected in 2019), and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2014. His conservation and biodiversity research has been recognised through numerous awards, including the Eureka Science Prize (twice), Whitley Award (seven times), the Serventy Medal for Ornithology, and the Australian Natural History Medallion. In 2018, he was awarded the prestigious Whittaker Medal from the Ecological Society of America.
Dr Siobhan McDonald
Lecturer, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU
Dr Siobhan McDonald
Lecturer, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU
Siobhan is a highly skilled engaged legal anthropologist who has over twenty years of experience working with Indigenous people in Australia and the Pacific on land, resource management, environment and development issues. Her commitment to the practice of engaged anthropology means that she produces research that contributes to high-impact policy and legal outcomes. She has contributed both research and policy outcomes in the following areas: land reform, gender and natural resource managment, climate change, disaster management, legal pluralism and the operation of customary institutions.
She is currently engaged in three major research projects: (1) issues related to gender and climate change in Oceania; (2) ethnographies of 'natural' disaster and particularly the concepts of 'vulnerability' and 'resilience; and, (3) how to adapt the family law system to better meet the needs of Indigenous, refugee and migrant families.
A/Prof Forbes McGain
Doctor at Western Health, Melbourne
A/Prof Forbes McGain
Doctor at Western Health, Melbourne
Forbes is an anaesthetist and intensive care physician at Western Health, Melbourne, Australia. He remains passionate about making seemingly small environmental, financial and social sustainability changes to how we practise medicine, and magnifying those changes through every nation’s hospitals.
Forbes is currently collaborating with colleagues at the University of Melbourne and friends within the Doctors for the Environment (DEA) examining ways to make hospitals more sustainable and being stewards for earth’s extraordinary biodiversity.
Dr Virginia Marshall
Inaugural Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellow, RegNet and Fenner ANU
Dr Virginia Marshall
Inaugural Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellow, RegNet and Fenner ANU
Virginia is the Inaugural Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellow with the Australian National University’s School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) and the Fenner School of Environment and Society. She is a practising lawyer and duty solicitor, a former associate & researcher with the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney and professional member of the NSW Law Society and Women Lawyers Association of NSW. Former Senior Legal Officer of the Australian Law Reform Commission and inquiry into ‘Family Violence & Commonwealth Laws: Improving Legal Frameworks’ (ALRC 117), Executive Officer of the NSWGovernment’s ‘Aboriginal Water Trust’ and criminal defence lawyer with NSW Legal Aid.
Virginia is the winner of the WEH Stanner Award for the best thesis by an Indigenous author, titled, ‘A web of Aboriginal water rights: Examining the competing Aboriginal claim for water property rights and interests in Australia’. She is in demand as a Keynote Speaker on Indigenous water law and governance, Indigenous traditional knowledge systems and the intersectionality of western intellectual property regimes and the Indigenous commercialisation of native foods and medicines.
A lifetime member of the Golden Key International Honour Society and Magistrate for the NSW Law Society’s ‘Mock Trial Competition’.
Virginia is Partner Investigator (PI) with an ARC Linkage Grant, ‘Garuwanga: Forming a Competent Authority to Protect Indigenous Knowledge’ ($244,000) to “govern and administer a legal framework in order to ensure consent of Indigenous communities is obtained for access to Aboriginal traditional knowledge and to establish a fair and equitable benefit-sharing mechanism for use of that knowledge”.
Dr Marshall is a Research Associate of the ANU Australian Studies Institute (AuSI) and a member of the AuSI Advisory Board.
Andrew Maynard
Founding Director, Austin Maynard Architects
Andrew Maynard
Founding Director, Austin Maynard Architects
Andrew Maynard is a Tasmanian now living and working in Fitzroy, Australia. Andrew Maynard Architects was established in 2002 after Andrew won the Asia Pacific Design Award's grand prize for his mobile work station, THE DESIGN POD.
Distinctive, exciting and radical, Andrew is also a founding board member of Nightingale Housing - a non-for-profit organisation creating ethical, socially sustainable and cost effective housing, whilst also revolutionising the developer-dominated housing market.
Andrew is an innovative and inspiring architect whose work has been published globally and exhibited worldwide - from New York, Budapest and Osaka; to Milan, Sao Paulo and Tokyo.
THE AGE newspaper says of Andrew: “His concepts include a man-eating robot, a bicycle made of plywood and “Poop House” - a structure made from human excrement. Images of the archetypal mad scientist spring to mind, but architect Andrew Maynard, like his designs, comes across as measured and eloquent.”
Russell Miles
Director, Climate Resilience and Development, DFAT
Russell Miles
Director, Climate Resilience and Development, DFAT
Russell Miles is Director of the Climate Resilience and Development Section, Sustainability and Climate Change Branch, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. For five years he has led the team responsible for UNFCCC negotiations on adaptation, loss and damage, climate finance, capacity building, and human rights issues. He is Australia’s representative on the UNFCCC Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, and co-chair of the UNFCCC Taskforce on Climate Displacement. He also leads on integrating climate action into the Australian Aid Program and guiding the Department’s work to implement Australia’s climate finance commitments.
Previously Russell worked for 16 years in the Australian Government’s Aid Program (AusAID) - as Director of NGO and Human Rights Policy and Engagement Section; and as a Policy and Program Manager in the Country Strategies section; the Indonesia Stability and Human Security Unit; the Vietnam Program; Governance Policy Team and Humanitarian Response Department. He was posted to Hanoi for three years as head of the governance team. Russell has also worked for four years in Oxfam America's Humanitarian Response Department with a focus on disaster response and risk reduction in Africa and South Asia.
He holds a Master’s Degree in Economics (International, Development and Environment). He recently undertook post graduate studies covering polar politics, climate science and policy interactions; and completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies including field work at Scott Base in Antarctica. Russell has significant work experience in Australia, the USA, Singapore, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Ethiopia, Sudan and the UK.
Professor Barbara Norman
Chair, Urban and Regional Planning, Uni of Canberra
Professor Barbara Norman
Chair, Urban and Regional Planning, Uni of Canberra
Professor Barbara Norman is the Foundation Chair of Urban and Regional Planning and Director of Canberra Urban and Regional Futures (CURF) at the University of Canberra. Professor Norman is an Honorary Professor at the University of Warwick, a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, and immediate past Chair of the ACT Climate Change Council. Barbara is a Life Fellow and past national president of the Planning Institute of Australia and a Life Honorary Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute (UK).
Barbara’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Town & Regional Planning, Masters of Environmental Law and a PhD on sustainable coastal planning. She also has a substantial professional background having worked at all levels of government and run her own practice. Her current research and teaching interests include sustainable cities and regions, coastal planning, climate change adaptation and urban governance. Barbara was a contributing author to IPCC 5 WG 2 report on Impacts 2014. She recently published
Sustainable Pathways for our Cities and Regions: Planning within Planetary Boundaries. Professor Norman advises the public and private sector in Australia and has strong international linkages within Asia, Europe and the United States. Barbara was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal for her contribution to the community through urban and regional planning.
Charlie Prell
Deputy Chair, Farmers for Climate Action
Charlie Prell
Deputy Chair, Farmers for Climate Action
Charlie Prell is a sheep farmer from Crookwell, an hour north of Canberra in the Southern Tablelands of NSW. He is one of four farmers under the Crookwell 2 windfarm. He has had 20 years of experience in renewables, focusing on wind farms. He is a strong public supporter of the benefits wind farms can bring to small regional communities. He is a passionate advocate for an inclusive “benefit sharing” model for wind farm developments, where the whole community benefits from a windfarm, not just the few who host the turbines. He worked as the NSW Regional Organiser for the Australian Wind Alliance from July 2014 until August 2019.
He was part of the working group and then the steering committee that formed “Farmers for Climate Action”. He was previously co-chair and is currently deputy chair of Farmers for Climate Action. He is passionate about the health and well-being of small regional communities and in assisting these communities to meet the challenge of climate change. He also promotes the opportunities that meeting these challenges can bring to individual farmers and the small regional communities where they live.
Minister Shane Rattenbury
Member, ACT Legislative Assembly
Minister Shane Rattenbury
Member, ACT Legislative Assembly
Minister Shane Rattenbury is the ACT Greens member for Kurrajong in the ACT Legislative Assembly. He was first elected in 2008, when he became the first Speaker in any Parliament in the world representing a Green political party. He has been a Minister in the ACT Government since 2012, and is currently the Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety, Minister for Corrections, and Minister for Mental Health.
Dr Anna Seth
GP; Climate Resilience Network, Tasmania
Dr Anna Seth
GP; Climate Resilience Network, Tasmania
Dr Anna Seth is a GP, parent and Tasmanian DEA member with an interest in mental health. Inspired by the Open Space 'Climate Anxiety' discussions at iDEA 2019 in Hobart, she has worked with others to develop the Climate Resilience Network over the past 12 months. This initiative brings together likeminded colleagues from a wide range of disciplines, to develop the knowledge, connections and capacity to help our local community address the psychological impacts of climate and ecological disruption.
Prof Sotiris Vardoulakis
Professor of Global Environmental Health, ANU
Prof Sotiris Vardoulakis
Professor of Global Environmental Health, ANU
Sotiris Vardoulakis is Professor of Global Environmental Health at the ANU National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, which he joined in September 2019 from the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh where he was Director of Research and Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Occupational Health. Sotiris is founding co-chair of the International Consortium for Urban Environmental Health and Sustainability (Healthy-Polis) and Honorary Professor at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at University of Exeter Medical School. Previously he was Head of the Environmental Change Department at Public Health England and held academic positions at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Birmingham. He was one of the lead authors of the first UK Climate Change Risk Assessment and contributor to the National Adaptation Programme. He served as a member of the NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, UK) Public Health Advisory Committee on Air Pollution. Over the last 20 years, he has advised national and local governments and international organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the European Parliament, on the health effects of climate change and air pollution, and on environmental sustainability and urban health. Sotiris has been involved in numerous research projects, including field studies, environmental modelling, risk assessment and policy analysis in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. His main research interests include climate change and health, air pollution and health, sustainable cities, sustainable transport, exposure assessment, epidemiology, health impact assessment, and environmental public health communication and policy. He is specialty chief editor (Health and Cities) for Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.
Dr Dimity Williams
Biodiversity Convenor, DEA
Dr Dimity Williams
Biodiversity Convenor, DEA
Dimity Williams MBBS(Hons) FRACGP is a General Practitioner. She has been the Biodiversity Convenor for Doctors for the Environment Australia since 2013. She has overseen the development of DEA's Biodiversity Policy and communications on this topic and spoken in various forums about the ways in which the diversity and health of living things is essential for our wellbeing. Prior to this role she was on the National Management Committee and Victorian Secretary. Dimity is also a Co-Founder of the Kids in Nature Network which seeks to reconnect children to nature. Their signature event, Nature Play Week runs each April and highlights the many great things happening in the nature connection space for children.
Dr Ken Winkel
Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
Dr Ken Winkel
Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
Dr Ken Winkel is a medical academic within the School of Population and Global Health [MSP&GH] at the University of Melbourne and Honorary Fellow of the University's Medical History Museum. Concerned with the connection between Nature and Medicine, he was the Director of the Australian Venom Research Unit (AVRU) 1999-2015 and has now moved to the Centre for Health Policy. He is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine (ACTM) and a member of the Biodiversity Committee of the Doctors for the Environment Australia. He is an alumnus of the University of Melbourne (PhD in the Immunology Division, Walter and Elisa Hall Institute; WEHI), the University of Queensland (MBBS) (BMedSci in Malaria Immunology, Tropical Health Program, QIMR) and the Swiss Tropical Institute.
He co-developed of the award winning ‘Sharing Place, Learning Together’ Indigenous science education and engagement project with Maningrida School in Arnhem Land and co-curated the University’s
‘Venom: Fear, Fascination and Discovery’ exhibition. He currently co-ordinates the MSP&GH teaching into the MD course, leads the co-ordination of the University’s new ‘Our Planet, Our Health 1’ interdisciplinary One Health breadth subject and also teaches on ‘Medicine, Natural History and Design’ in the University’s School of Design [amongst other things]. In June 2005 he was awarded the Vita Lampada Medal for Excellence in Medical and Health Education, from the Royal Children's Hospital and Health Service District, Brisbane, Queensland. In July 2007 he was awarded the ACTM Medal for Distinguished Contribution to Tropical Medicine. As a medical student he investigated the diet of the enigmatic marsupial mole, infected mice with malaria, excavated ancient owl coprolites in exothermic caves and chased leishmania parasites in Brazil [amongst other things]. Nowadays, he is keen to promote a more biophilic medicine for the 21st century.
iDEA is the annual conference of Doctors for the Environment (DEA) – an organization focused on promoting good health through care of the environment. Formed in 2001, we are guided by our vision ‘Healthy Planet, Healthy People’. We are an organisation of doctors: interns, hospital doctors, general practitioners, surgeons, physicians, anaesthetists, psychiatrists, paediatricians, public health specialists, academics, students and scientists. We bring together an extraordinary level of leadership and expertise drawn from every branch of medicine, using compelling scientific evidence to demonstrate the important health benefits of clean air and water, biodiverse natural places, stable climates and sustainable health care systems.
iDEA 2020 centres around the intersection between climate change and health. iDEA2020 will attract 300-plus professionals in-person, plus additional groups in each satellite hub where the conference will be live-streamed – Adelaide, Perth, Hobart and Brisbane. We anticipate an audience of well over 500 doctors for this year’s event.
We are also delighted to invite you to the inaugural
Ideas Fair
– a gathering of professionals, businesses, NGOs, environmental organizations and companies like yours. Not just a trade fair, the Ideas Fair provides you with a place in which you get to create your own unique space and invite would-be customers in to your world to hear your story and experience your brand.
- Contact Amber Deveridge on 0413 642 145 for more information or a copy of the sponsorship prospectus.
FRIDAY
Eco-Anxiety Symposium 1:30pm – 4pm
Lying awake at night wondering how we’ll survive a few more degrees of warming? Grieving the damage to our natural world in recent fires? Going crazy for want of fresh air and somewhere green to play? Caring for terrified survivors of a dangerous climate-related event? This is the workshop for you!
We’ll hear how eco-anxiety affects us, and explore some practical ways to manage climate and environmental distress. The climate emergency is an invitation to think about who we want to be, and what our most important priorities are.
Lead: Susie Burke.
Speakers: Katrina Anderson, Ben Edwards, Anna Seth, Dimity Williams
Healthcare Sustainability Symposium 1:30pm – 4pm
The Australian healthcare industry is responsible for approximately 7% of Australia’s carbon footprint. There is an increasing awareness among staff in hospitals and healthcare facilities that our environmental impact should be reduced.
This workshop brings together doctors and health workers from around Australia to discuss healthcare’s environmental burden, and what has been and can be done to reduce it. It is a great opportunity to network and get new ideas which can then be promulgated to other healthcare locations.
Speakers: Forbes McGain, Simon Corbell, Carol Behne
SATURDAY– Mapping the problem
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7.30am – 8.00am
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Registration
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8.00am – 9.30am
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Session one - Indigenous
framing of health and climate change
Indigenous Australians have a unique understanding of the relationship between people
and Country. Representatives will share their perspective on the importance
of Country to health and how it will be affected by climate change.
Speaker: Virginia Marshall
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9.30am – 10.00am
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Morning tea
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10.00am – 11.30am
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Session two – Agriculture and
the natural environment
Speakers will
offer agriculture problems in climate change and health, and their
perspective on how protecting the natural environment can help ameliorate
climate change and improve health outcomes.
Speakers: Mark Howden, Ken Winkel, Charlie Pell, David Lindenmayer, Cormac Farrell, Sally Box
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11.30am – 1.00pm
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Session three – Cities and the
built environment
Architects, urban planners and policies developers will come together
to talk about the ways in which cities can both amplify and solve some of our
climate change problems.
Speakers: Barbara Norman, Jenny Edwards, Andrew Maynard, Sotiris Vardoulakis
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1.00pm – 2.00pm
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Lunch
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2.00pm – 3.30pm
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Session four – Security and
migration
Climate
change will increase global insecurity and is projected to result in hundreds
of millions of climate refugees in the coming decades. This session will
discuss the projected effects on security and migration, and how we can deal
with these.
Speakers: Robert Glasser, Misha Coleman, Russell Miles
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4.00pm
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Session five – Open spaces
Encourages fluid discussion of ideas that can come from the
conference or be brought to the conference by participants. An opportunity to
sit with friends and colleagues to discuss ideas from a stimulating first
day.
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SUNDAY– Policy, politics and how to achieve change
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8.00am – 9.00am
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Registration
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9.00am – 10.00am
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DEA members’ assembly
Breakfast and discussion with the DEA management committee and board
regarding the DEA direction and plans.
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10.00am – 12.30pm
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Session six – Consumptogenesis and economics
Consumption, capitalism, economic systems, growth, health and climate
change are all interconnected. In this session, world-leading author
Professor Sharon Friel provides a public health
perspective on climate change and health, coupled with ideas of economic
solutions.
Speakers: Sharon Friel, Richard Denniss, John Hewson
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12.30pm – 1.00pm
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Lunch
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1.00pm – 2.30pm
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Session seven - Narrative and
the art of climate change persuasion
Story-telling is tremendously powerful in health and in the political
discussion around climate change. Hear from climate scientists, writers and
communicators about the value of narrative and how it drives change.
Speakers: Arnagretta Hunter, Siobhan McDonald
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2.30pm – 2.45pm
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Afternoon tea
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2:45pm – 4.00pm
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Session eight – Health and the
politics of climate change
Politics is key in dealing with climate
change and ameliorating its health effects. Hear from those involved in
climate change politics and campaigns at a local, state and federal level.
Shane Rattenbury, Misha Coleman, politician panel discussion
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4.00pm – 5.00pm
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Closing session
Wrapping up the conference
Panel Discussion
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Sugar Glider at Mulligans Flat, image courtesy Visit Canberra
Friday Night
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Medical Student Event
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- Free event for medical students only
- Network and relax with like-minded fellow medical students before we start the serious stuff on Saturday.
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Jerrabomberra Wetland Walk
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- Located on the Molonglo river floodplain close to the Canberra city centre, Jerrabomberra Nature Reserve is a wetland habitat of national and international importance, offering a refuge for migrating birds from the northern hemisphere and inland Australia.
- See some of the 200+ species that can be found in the wetlands on a beer+birding tour, and then refresh with a cold beverage from the adjacent Capital Brewing microbrewery.
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Mulligan’s Flat nature walk 6-8 pm Friday
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- Mulligan’s Flat is a protected area of intact endangered box gum woodland containing a 485 hectare sanctuary protected by feral predator-proof fence. Inside the sanctuary, species vulnerable to predation thrive, such as the Eastern Bettong, in its first mainland population for more than a century. Twilight tours at the sanctuary offer the opportunity to observe these and other rarely-seen animals such as sugar gliders and Eastern Quolls, in their natural habitats. Tours include expert guides.
- Note that the walk is just less than 4km in total and takes 2-2.5 hours; bring wet weather gear in case of rain and sturdy walking shoes.
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Saturday Night
Network with like-minded colleagues and enjoy an evening of music, refreshments and a special live theatre surprise.
Venue: Badger & Co., Kambri Precinct ANU
Sunday
Walk around Lake Burley Griffin Central Loop (5km)
7 – 8am
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An opportunity to exercise and network with fellow DEA members, while enjoying Canberra’s pleasant environment. Free.
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DEA Members Assembly
9-10am
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KAMBRI ANU
Breakfast
DEA Members only
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Register Now!
Registration Rates
| Full registration - DEA member |
$450 |
$495 |
Your full conference registration includes the conference program, catering and access to the Ideas Fair
You will need to log in to register as a DEA member.
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| Full registration - DEA non member |
$525 |
$570 |
Your full conference registration includes the conference program and access to the
Ideas Fair
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| Full registration - medical student |
$50 |
$95 |
Limited number of tickets available.
Your full conference registration includes the conference program and access to the
Ideas Fair.
This category is available to full time medical students only. You will need to
provide your student number.
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| Full registration - student non-medical |
$125 |
$170 |
Limited number of tickets available.
Your full conference registration includes the conference program and access to the
Ideas Fair
This category is available to full time students (non-medical) only. You will need
to provide your student number.
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| Day registration - DEA member |
$250 |
$295 |
Your day conference registration includes the conference program, catering and
access to the Ideas Fair for one day only.
You will need to log in to register as a DEA member.
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| Day registration - DEA non member |
$300 |
$345 |
Your day conference registration includes the conference program, catering and
access to the Ideas Fair for one day only.
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| Day registration - medical student |
$30 |
$75 |
Limited number of tickets available.
Your day conference registration includes the conference program, catering and
access to the Ideas Fair for one day only.
This category is available to full time medical students only. You will need to
provide your student number.
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| Day registration student non-medical |
$70 |
$115 |
Limited number of tickets available.
Your day conference registration includes the conference program, catering and
access to the Ideas Fair for one day only.
This category is available to full time students (non-medical) only. You will need
to provide your student number.
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| Mulligans Flat Walk |
$50 |
$50 |
Includes transport
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| Jerrabomberra Wetlands Walk |
$55 |
$55 |
Includes transport
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| Friday Symposium |
$40 |
$40 |
Symposium 1 - Eco-anxiety
Symposium 2 - Healthcare sustainability
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| Saturday social event |
$60 |
$60 |
Saturday night social event
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| Registration category |
Early-bird (until 31st January 2020) |
Standard |
Inclusions |
Image courtesy Visit Canberra
iDEA 2020 will be held at the Australian National University campus in Canberra. Situated within the CBD, ANU is close to a wide variety of accommodation, restaurant and entertainment options, plus close to some of Canberra’s beautiful open spaces, like Lake Burley Griffin and the Australian Botanic Gardens.
For more information on getting to Canberra, plus all the great things you can do during your stay, go to
www.visitcanberra.com.au.
Accommodation will be available at a range of nearby hotels.