Humanity vs Technology: What Will Save Our Planet?

Date and time: Wednesday 18 October 2023, 2pm to 3pm
Format: 1 hour panel

Our planet is in the midst of a sixth, mass extinction event. This means humanity (yep, that’s us!) and how we live our lives, is killing of species at an unprecedented rate.

The industrial revolution and the rise of technology has led to an increasing dependence on fossil fuels and large-scale habitat destruction. This has meant, in just a few short centuries, we are close to having the same impact to our planet’s biodiversity as an asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Thousands of species are now extinct, gone forever. Two thousand species currently sit on the brink of imminent extinction. The UN predicts a million more could vanish within decades.

Over the past decades, the world has woken up to the impact we’ve had, and continue to have, our planet, and the wildlife we share it with.
As a global community, big, bold and desperate steps have been taken to stave off imminent extinction. Some of them have worked, but tragically others have been too little, too late.

Some will argue the solution lies in the future, looking to AI and yet-to-be-developed technologies. Others will say, we are keeping our eyes closed to traditional knowledge and techniques that have nurtured our planet for tens of thousands of years.

So, where to from here? Humanity vs. Technology – what will save our planet?

Guests: James Keeler, Camille Goldstone-Henry (Xylo Systems Australia), Christopher Ewing, Phoebe Meagher