Gecko presents a free guest speaker night at Gecko House at 6:30pm on the 4th Wednesday of (almost!) each month on topical environmental issues. A gold coin donation is requested per glass of wine and nibbles. For catering purposes, please RSVP speakers[at]gecko[dot]org[dot]au the day before the event to our Guest Speaker Coordinator.
Next Speaker:
Wednesday, 22nd February, 6.30pm – 8pm
George Lewis, Lifelong Bird-Watcher and Production Editor, Gold Coast Birdwatchers Magazine
Gecko will open the 2012 Guest Speaker Nights program with a brand new talk on the Birds of Currumbin Estuary from Lifelong Bird-Watcher and Production Editor of the Annual Gold Coast Birdwatchers’ Magazine George Lewis. Always a favourite with Gecko members and guests, George’s talks, accompanied by his high quality photographs, are very informative and help us to become better acquainted with many of our local bird species. Come along and brush-up on your bird identification skills!
View the flyer and media release soon to come…
Previous Speakers
26 November 2011
Kris Boody, Gold Coast City Council Catchment Liaison Officer
Kris Boody immersed us in the wonderful world of catchment management and habitat conservation and shared many interesting facts from his background in investigative environmental science. Kris also showed us some examples of how adaptive environmental management techniques have helped improve habitat conservation, policy, and on the ground designs.
View the flyer & media release
26th October 2011
Dr Joseph Reser, Adjunct Professor and Research Fellow, Griffith University Climate Change Response Program
October Guest Speaker focuses on climate change
By Rod Weir
Jo Reser is a Professor of Social and Environmental Psychology atGriffithUniversity. He has recently completed extensive research into what people feel and believe about climate change and environmental threats, and has experience with similar research into man made disaster scenarios such as nuclear disaster.
Gecko was lucky enough to have Jo join us as a guest speaker last month. His presentation covered extensive findings fromAustraliaand theUK. The findings from both countries were broadly the same, although theUKhas a slightly higher percentage of individuals who are concerned about the environment. The main finding is that a significant majority, around 70%, believe that climate change is occurring, and that evidence of this is all around us. This is in stark contrast to the position portrayed by the media, and to the position taken by political parties in both countries. Outright deniers were less than 10% of the total surveyed.
Even when ranked with a large number of other concerns, such as economic matters, climate change still ranks highly as a concern, and if the question is asked as to which concern is the most important that we address in the near future, climate change easily outranks all the others. One fascinating result from the survey is that men are significantly less likely than women to be concerned by climate change; as someone in the audience suggested, maybe watching too much sport on television!
28th September 2011
Louise Saunders, President of Bat Conservation & Rescue Queensland
Louise’s talk canvassed all the relevant issues faced by flying foxes today including their current large numbers in South East Queensland, the risks associated with disease, why culls would never work and why we need bats now more than ever before!
View the flyer & media release
24 August 2011
Roslyn Taplin, Professor of Environmental Management at Bond University,
Ros discussed recent Australian and international art exhibitions, and showed examples of climate change art in her talk, ‘Responding to Climate Change through the Visual Arts’
View the Flyer… & Media Release…
22 June 2011
George Lewis, Lifelong Birdwatcher and Production Editor for the Annual Gold Coast Birdwatchers’ Magazine
George showed us fantastic pictures of the birds of Currumbin Estuary, and told us where to spot them.
View the flyer & media release
27 April 2011
Dr Jason Byrne, Griffith University
Dr Byrne spoke about how we plan our cities and suburbs to adapt to climate change, focusing on two trends: increasing development density, known as urban consolidation, and transit-oriented development, or ‘TOD’, which aims to create compact, hi density and liveable urban areas within 10 minutes’ walk of rapid and frequent public transport.
View the Flyer & Media Release
Email Dr Byrne Jason[dot]Byrne[at]griffith[dot]edu[dot]au
