Friday, October 13, 2023 | 12pm to 1pm
About this Event
This is a lecture given by Andrew Forrest, Executive Chairman of Fortescue, an integrated green technology, energy, and metals company.
Full abstract
In this talk, I will talk about the greatest greenwash (and disinformation) in the world: that global warming is the fault of the public. It is the fault of around one hundred business leaders globally, including leaders such as myself. It is the fault of policy makers, who have willfully or lazily failed to match policy settings to risk. Many of the risks posed by global warming are obvious – yet others remain poorly understood. As temperatures rise, humidity levels are also inching up, creating deadly conditions across the world. At 35C and high humidity levels, sweat becomes ineffective at cooling; body temperature rises and quickly leads to death in the absence of air conditioning. These conditions already exist in many parts of India, China, the United States and the Middle East and will place hundreds of millions of people at risk of death, leading to border chaos and uncontrollable migration, if the world fails to act now to replace fossil fuels with green energy. Another poorly understood aspect of rising humidity is the impact on extreme weather – Libya being a recent example – and the role of water vapour as a natural yet powerful greenhouse gas. Only business can solve this crisis, however the answer also lies in you (students and universities), because a radical, war-footing focus on green energy and innovation is the only way to keep warming to non-apocalyptic levels. We can do it. I enjoin you to listen to this presentation and reroute your energies into winning the war against fossil fuels, through science, engineering, finance, A.I. and any other means available.