Tim Flannery

For the baseball player, see Tim Flannery (baseball).

Tim Flannery at the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists, 2007

Professor Timothy Fridtjof Flannery (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammologist, palaeontologist and global warming activist. Flannery was named Australian of the Year in 2007 and presently an adjunct professor at Macquarie University. His controversial views on shutting down conventional coal burning for electricity in the medium term are frequently cited in the media.

Scientist

In 1985, Flannery earned a doctorate at the University of New South Wales for his work on the evolution of macropods.

Flannery has held various academic positions throughout his career including Professor at the University of Adelaide, director of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum, Visiting Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University, and an adviser on environmental issues to the Australian Federal Parliament. He holds bachelor degrees in English and Earth Science, a doctorate in Palaeontology, and has contributed to over 90 scientific papers.

In 2007, he took up a role within the Climate Risk Concentration of Research Excellence at Macquarie University.

Mammalogist

Flannery's early research concerned the evolution of mammals in Australasia. As part of his doctoral studies, he described 29 new kangaroo species including 11 new genera and three new subfamilies. In 1990, Flannery published The Mammals Of New Guinea, the most comprehensive reference work on the subject. Through the 1990s, Flannery surveyed the mammals of Melanesia – discovering 16 new species – and took a leading role in conservation efforts there.

Flannery's work prompted Sir David Attenborough to describe him as being "in the league of the all-time great explorers like Dr David Livingstone".

Palaeontologist

In 1980, Flannery discovered dinosaur fossils on the southern coast of Victoria and in 1985 had a role in the groundbreaking discovery of Cretaceous mammal fossils in Australia. This latter find extended the Australian mammal fossil record back 80 million years. During the 1980s, Flannery described most of the known Pleistocene megafaunal species in New Guinea as well as the fossil record of the phalangerids, a family of possums.

Activist

Despite his scientific achievements, it's as an environmental activist that Flannery has achieved prominence. His advocacy on two issues in particular, population levels and carbon emissions, culminated in being named Australian of the Year at a time when the environment had reached the forefront of public debate in Australia.

Population and land use

In 1994, Flannery published The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People. The controversial bestseller covered the impact of humans on the natural environment in Australia and New Zealand. Flannery argued that firestick farming, carried out by Australian Aborigines over thousands of years, had drastically reshaped the continent's ecology. He further argued that European settlers had, in addition to introducing unsustainable agricultural practices, intensified bushfires by effectively ending the practice of firestick farming.

Both arguments are hotly contested. Still more controversially, Flannery recommended that ideally, Australia's population should be as few as 6 million (less than a third of its current level) and that European-imported livestock be phased out in favour of native species such as emus, kangaroos and crocodiles.

The Future Eaters enjoyed strong sales and critical acclaim. "Flannery tells his beautiful story in plain language," Redmond O'Hanlon, a Times Literary Supplement correspondent wrote of the book, describing it as "science popularising at its antipodean best." Fellow activist David Suzuki praised Flannery's "powerful insight into our current destructive path." Some experts disagreed with Flannery's thesis, however, noting that his broad-based approach, ranging across multiple disciplines, ignored counter-evidence and was overly simplistic.

The Future Eaters was made into a documentary series for ABC Television and the book was republished in late 2002.

Carbon emissions

In The Weather Makers: The History & Future Impact of Climate Change, Flannery outlines the science behind anthropogenic climate change. "With great scientific advances being made every month, this book is necessarily incomplete," Flannery writes, but "That should not, however, be used as an excuse for inaction. We know enough to act wisely."

Concepts outlined in the book include:

• That a failure to act on climate change may eventually force the creation of a global carbon dictatorship, which he calls the "Earth Commission for Thermostatic Control", to regulate carbon use across all industries and nations - a level of governmental intrusion that Flannery describes as "very undesirable"; and

• the establishment of "Geothermia" - a new city at the NSW-South Australia-Queensland border - to take advantage of the location's abundance of natural gas reserves and solar energy. Flannery argues that such a city could be completely energy self-sufficient, and would be a model for future city development worldwide. Of the city project, Flannery told The Bulletin that "I know it's radical but we have no choice".

The book won international acclaim. Bill Bryson concluded that "It would be hard to imagine a better or more important book." The Weather Makers was honoured in 2006 as 'Book of the Year' at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.

Flannery's work in raising the profile of environmental issues was key to his being named Australian of the Year in 2007. Awarding the prize, Prime Minister John Howard said that the scientist "has encouraged Australians into new ways of thinking about our environmental history and future ecological challenges."

That said, Howard – along with many others – remains unconvinced as to Flannery's proposed solutions. Flannery joined calls for the shutdown of conventional coal burning in Australia in the medium term, on which the country relies for most of its electricity. Flannery claims that conventional coal burning will lose its social license to operate, as has asbestos.

Though Flannery has the ear of South Australian Premier Mike Rann in his role as a climate change advisor, the scientist's anti-coal rhetoric is at odds with the positions of Steve Bracks and Peter Beattie of Victoria and Queensland respectively.

In contrast to much of the environment movement, Flannery is also supportive of nuclear power.

More recently, Flannery appears to have changed his view on nuclear power. In May 2007 he was reported to have told a business gathering in Sydney that while nuclear energy might have a role elsewhere in the world, Australia's abundance of renewable resources rule out the need for nuclear power.

Bibliography

• Tim Flannery (1990 - revised 1995) Mammals of New Guinea ISBN 0-8014-3149-2 (??)
• Tim Flannery (1994), The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People, ISBN 0-8021-3943-4 ISBN 0-7301-0422-2
• Tim Flannery (1995), Mammals of the South-West Pacific & Moluccan Islands, ISBN 0-7301-0417-6
• Tim Flannery (1998), Throwim Way Leg: An Adventure, ISBN 1-876485-19-1
• Tim Flannery (2001), The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and its Peoples, ISBN 0-8021-3888-8
• Tim Flannery & Peter Schouten (2001), A Gap in Nature, ISBN 1-876485-77-9
• Tim Flannery & Peter Schouten (2004), Astonishing Animals, ISBN 1-920885-21-8
• Tim Flannery (2005), Country: a continent, a scientist & a kangaroo, ISBN 1-920885-76-5
• Tim Flannery (2006), The Weather Makers: The History & Future Impact of Climate Change, ISBN 1-920885-84-6
• Tim Flannery (2007). Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature, ISBN 978-0802118523

In addition, Flannery has edited and introduced:

• The Birth of Melbourne, ISBN 1-877008-89-3
• The Birth of Sydney, ISBN 1-876485-45-0
• The Explorers, ISBN 1-876485-22-1
• Watkin Tench, 1788, ISBN 1-875847-27-8
• Terra Australis, Matthew Flinders' Great Adventures in the Circumnavigation of Australia, ISBN 1-876485-92-2
• John Morgan, The Life and Adventures of William Buckley, ISBN 1-877008-20-6
• John Nicol, Life and Adventures: 1776-1801, ISBN 1-875847-41-3
• Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World, ISBN 1-877008-57-5

External links

• The Weather Makers book website
• Tim Flannery lecture online, RMIT School of Applied Communication Public Lecture series
• National Australia Day Council - Australian of the Year 2007
• NSW Ministry for the Arts - NSW Premier's Literary Awards Winners
• Flannery interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos