The historic, art deco Regent theatre in Murwillumbah is set to launch of a series of panel discussions focused on some of the biggest issues of our time, beginning with the biggest of all: climate change.
The Tweed Talks series at the Regent Theatre will allow locals to hear directly from experts in a variety of fields with inside knowledge of what is really going on behind the headlines.
The Tweed Talks series gets underway on Thursday March 24 with the topic, Where to From Paris? looking at what the next steps are to preventing catastrophic climate change.
The event will feature Dr Brendan Mackey, director of the Climate Change Response Program at Griffith University who spoke at the Paris conference, environmental economist Dr Caroline Sullivan and Dr Richard Hil, founder of the Ngara Institute which aims to challenge neo-conservative thinking on the subject.
Regent Theatre co-owner Ken Rippin said the idea for Tweed Talks came out of the popularity of other events at the theatre.
‘We have held a number of discussions around films we have presented and while they have been very popular they always seem to run out of time just when things start to get interesting,’ said Mr Rippin.
‘There is obviously a need out there in the community for people to get together, hear from people with inside knowledge and discuss issues which affect us all.
‘The theatre has been renovated specifically to be able to accommodate different types of events like this one and our goal is to contribute to the community in a positive way.’
The Tweed Talks series is envisioned as a bimonthly event with future topics for discussion set to include the legalisation of cannabis, the sexualisation of society, the future of aged care and the global displacement of refugees.
Dr Mackey said the agreement reached in Paris is only the beginning of the work which needs to be done if the world is to avoid a catastrophe.
‘The world community is not on course to limit global warming to well below two degrees C and current mitigation commitments leave too much of the heavy lifting to future generations,’ said Dr Mackey.
‘Given the world community’s aggregate Paris Agreement pledges to date fall short of what is needed, national targets must increase.
‘With ongoing impacts projected for the coming decades, the cost of inaction to managed assets alone should be sufficient to compel a step change in public and private sector responses.’
The inaugural Tweed Talk Where to From Paris? will be held at the Regent Theatre in Murwillumbah on Thursday March 24 starting at 7pm. Tickets are $15.
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