A Mandurah climate change and environment guru is gearing up to present some of his impressive knowledge to the community with a two-part discussion on sustainability.
Hailing from the Peel region, special guest and presenter Aaron Tuckey studied an undergraduate degree in political science in Perth before heading overseas to pursue further studies.
He is currently completing postgraduate studies in sustainability science in Sweden while working as a researcher at the Climate Change Leadership Node and teaching assistant in sustainability at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Mr Tuckey said his love for the environment and wanting to preserve it, stemmed from a love for people.
“Sustainability is something that needs to be integrated into all aspects of society – it’s not something that exists in the back, it informs all other ways of doing so that everything can be sustainable,” he said.
“The desire for that comes from a love for humanity and appreciation of our uniqueness in terms of being able to develop everything we have as a civilisation so arts, music, culture.
“That’s what makes us humans special and I think it’s important to preserve a planet that allows human civilisation to continue to flourish.”
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Mr Tuckey also added that Australia is doing quite well in its own fight against climate change but on more of a personal level than at a government level.
“Most people consider Sweden to be doing quite a bit more though, Sweden itself, whilst a leader, does have its own issues with tackling climate change,” he said.
“They have a very de-carbonised energy system so they don’t produce a lot of carbon in the air whereas here, we use a lot of coal but they use a lot more hydro, nuclear and other renewable energy.
“Sweden has a lot of these actions happening at a government level but at an individual level, a lot of Australians are installing solar panels and we are on of the fastest uptakers of vegan cuisine so these are more individual actions that do make a difference towards climate change.”
Named ‘Welcome to the Anthropocene’, the interactive discussions about sustainability and climate science will run over two sessions.
I think it’s important to preserve a planet that allows human civilisation to continue to flourish.
- Aaron Tuckey
“This is the first time, in all of history, that humans are having such a big impact … humans are now affecting a lot of the earth’s system processes,” Mr Tuckey said.
“The ‘anthropocene’ is a term used to define the most recent geologic time period in which humans strongly influence our planet and many of its processes.
“The first [event] is more focused on what we’re doing now and how we got here while the second [event] is more about where are we going to from here, what the different options are and what should we try and do more of.”
Run by the City of Mandurah and the Peel Preservation Group, the talks will be held on February 13 and February 28 from 5pm.
For more information, or to reserve a place, visit the City of Mandurah website.
