How do we create human societies that live within their ecological limits?
AELA is inviting individuals, community groups, environmental NGOs, regulators, academics and others to our interactive workshop, to discuss the problems caused by unsustainable consumption and map out collective strategies for reducing consumption.
FOR A COPY OF THE FLYER AND PROGRAM PLEASE VISIT THIS WEBPAGE - http://www.earthlaws.org.au/current-projects/consumption/workshop_adelaide/
To book please go here: http://www.trybooking.com/KUBR
For more information about AELA's Ecological Limits Program, please click here - http://www.earthlaws.org.au/current-projects/ecological-limits/
This workshop is part of a national series of workshops and publications being coordinated by AELA in 2015 and 2016. Join us for a positive, informative day of discussion, strategy development, art and music!
For more information contact [email protected]
PROGRAM AND SPEAKERS
8.30-9.00am Registration, tea and coffee
9.10-9.20am Opening remarks and welcome – Dr Michelle Maloney, National Convenor, AELA
9.20-9.50am Framing the conversation – individual or collective responsibility? Dr Michelle Maloney, AELA
How do we address the complexity of consumption – environmental and social impacts, inequities of ‘global consumption classes’, corporate creation of consumption, population growth and individual vs collective responsibility?
9.50-10.20am How much is enough? How do we know our ecological limits?
The starting point is not us, it’s the natural world. What do our ecosystems and bio-regions need for ecological health? How do we reframe our efforts, so we consume only within the ecological limits of our biosphere?
Professor Brendan Mackey, Griffith University, ‘Making Room for Nature in the Anthropocene: How Much Does
Nature Need and What Are the Implications for Human Consumption?’
10.20-10.50am Morning Tea break – tea and coffee provided
10.50-11.50am So how did we get here? Understanding the causes of unsustainable consumption
This session examines how we created unsustainable consumption via ‘growth economics’, the history of consumerism and the range of approaches that challenge the dominant growth paradigm
Dr Sam Alexander, University of Melbourne, “Challenging Growth Economics: Degrowth & Voluntary Simplicity”
Dr Robert Crocker, University of South Australia, “The History and Origins of Consumerism”
11.50am-1pm Lunch break – tea and coffee provided, refreshments can be purchased nearby
1.00-2pm Stories of success – positive examples of reducing consumption
Vaughan Levitzke, Chief Executive, Green Industries SA & Zero Waste SA ‘Regulating to reduce consumption:
South Australia’s Plastic Bag and Container Deposit Legislation – lessons for other sectors”
Graham Davies, Sustainable Engineers Australia “Let’s Talk About Energy = Consumption: systems, embodied and renewable”
2.00-3.30pm How do we reduce consumption? Group Discussions
How do we create human societies that live within ecological limits and nurture the Earth upon which we depend?
Interactive discussion groups will enable participants to discuss their own initiatives and recommendations for ways forward. Topics will include: the role of planning and catchment management, challenging the consumer culture, civil society’s voluntary simplicity and transition initiatives, regulation and structural reform and activism and politics