Education revolution needed for sustainable future

Professor John Cole

Professor John Cole will ask USQ students what they will look back on as their ‘moon-step’ moment when presenting at the Combined Steel Rudd/McGregor Professorial Lecture tomorrow (Tuesday, 20 April).

A leading strategic thinker and advisor in sustainable development, Professor Cole is the founding Director of USQ’s Australian Centre for Sustainable Business and Development (ACSBD).

'My parent’s generation put a man on the moon and returned him safely to Earth, it was a moment that defined them and their achievement,' Professor Cole said.

'As a member of the ‘baby boomer’ generation, I number among those many millions who were born shortly after World War II and whose singular achievement as a generation might well be to leave our world worse off than the one we inherited from our forebears.'

In his speech titled ‘Saving the Future’, Professor Cole will propose that a revolution which puts sustainability front and centre is needed to turn around this unmitigated environmental catastrophe.

'If we are to save our future and that of generations to come, we will need more than new laptops in the classroom. With close to two thirds of the Earth’s ecosystems already seriously degraded and climate change and loss of biodiversity emerging threats to life as we know it, the 21st century will be lived in a very different way.

'Sooner rather than later, we will have to deal fundamentally with the discipline of living within the limits of the planet’s capacity to sustain life. The biggest question of our time is can we live sustainably and the biggest question facing universities is can we research and educate people on how to live sustainably?

'Today’s generations are faced with the biggest challenge of all – the challenge of sustaining human life on Earth in a way that is worth living. Five decades from now what will the USQ students of today point to as their ‘moon-step’ moment?'

Professor John Cole has a diverse 25-year background in industry and government and is well known nationally and overseas for his leadership in addressing the issues of sustainable development, particularly through business innovation and public-private sector collaboration.

Before accepting this appointment, Professor Cole was the founding head of the Queensland Government’s Office of Clean Energy, responsible for developing Queensland’s Renewable Energy Plan launched in 2009.

What: Combined Steele Rudd/McGregor Professorial Lecture
When: Tuesday, 20 April – 7.30pm, RSVP to Ros Smith Ph: 4631 2451
Where: Allison Dickson Lecture Theatre, Toowoomba campus
RSVP: Ros Smith  


Contact Details:
Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 2559 or 0400 025 429