Arguments
Brisbane book launch of 'Climate Change Denial'
Posted on 5 May 2011 by John Cook
This week, I attended the very first book launch I've ever been to. And it happened to be for my own book! Thanks to the generous support of Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and the Global Change Institute, we launched Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand at my own University of Queensland. Launching our book was the Hon. Kate Jones MP, the Queensland Minister for Environment and Resource Management.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the Hon. Kate Jones MP, Haydn Washington, John Cook, Michael Keniger (Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor).
Amazingly enough (at least going by the faces of everyone I informed that day), the day of the launch was the first time I'd met my co-author Haydn face to face. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology like Skype, email and the good ol' telephone, we'd corresponded and collaborated on the book for the last year and a half but this was the first time we managed to be in the same place at the same time. So it was a great pleasure to hear Haydn speak about Climate Change Denial (the man is a good public speaker).
Kate Jones was a delight too. It was a great honour to have the Queensland Environment Minister launch our book. She was warm and friendly with self-deprecating wit (which was a relief to Haydn as he had a few comments about politicians' lack of climate action).
Another thank you must go to the folk at Global Change Institute. The idea of a Brisbane launch came from the Director, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg whose vigour and enthusiasm for communicating climate science is an inspiration.
Note - we'll be having a May 15 Sydney launch and May 16 Canberra launch of Climate Change Denial. Details of both events will be published shortly, all are welcome!
Except we already recorded the interview with Robyn Williams, just after the book launch (he had a mobile recording studio with him).
I just looked up airing time, the Science Show just aired 12pm on ABC Radio today and apparently airs again on Monday 7pm.UPDATE: just got an email from Robyn Williams, our interview airs on the Science Show on ABC Radio at 12pm Saturday 14 May.