We hosted a webinar by Rod Oram on Wednesday May 17, 7pm.

Humanity’s greatest challenge is to meet its needs within the limits of the Living Earth. But currently both sides of that relationship are heading fast in the wrong direction.

Our population could grow by another 20 percent to some 10 billion people by 2050; and the way we use the Earth's resources is ever more rapidly diminishing the Earth's ability to support us and all other forms of life.

The quest for a healthy relationship between people and planet takes many forms such as degrowth and other changes in behaviour, economics, values, technology, and other drivers of human activity.

In this session, Rod examined the weaknesses of degrowth in particular; and offer some other ways humanity can re-establish its right relationship with the Living Earth.

Click to view the slides

Business journalist Rod Oram contributes weekly to Newsroom and Newstalk ZB. He is a public speaker on deep sustainability, business, economics, and innovation. Rod is a member of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, which brings together people from here and abroad who seek to contribute to global change from Aotearoa.

Rod’s climate journalism has been recognised in the Global 2022 Covering Climate Now Awards. He received an Honourable Mention in the commentary category, with the judges saying: “With humour, crisp writing, and thorough analysis, Oram guides the reader through the many players and agendas behind the climate pledges by corporations.”

In Citigroup’s annual global journalism awards, Rod was the winner in 2019 in the General Business category in the Australia and NZ region for his columns in Newsroom on Fonterra; and he was the NZ Journalist of the year.

In the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association Business Journalism Awards, Rod won the Business Commentary category in 2018 and 2020 for his Newsroom columns.

Rod was a founding trustee and the second chairman of Ākina Foundation, which helps social enterprises develop their business models in areas of sustainability. He remains actively involved with the foundation and the ventures it supports.

In 2016, Bridget Williams Books published Rod’s most recent book, Three Cities: Seeking Hope in the Anthropocene, details at bwb.co.nz/books/three-cities

In 2020, Rod contributed a chapter to 100% Pure Future: New Zealand Tourism Renewed, https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/100-pure-future/ another BWB Text.

In 2021, Rod contributed a chapter on land use, agriculture and food to Climate Aotearoa: What’s happening and what we can do about. This collection of essays was edited by Helen Clark, the former NZ Prime Minister and head of the United Nations Development Programme, and published by Allen & Unwin.