72 Facts About Tim Flannery

Timothy Fridtjof Flannery was born on 28 January 1956 and is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist, conservationist, explorer, author, science communicator, activist and public scientist.

Tim Flannery was awarded Australian of the Year in 2007 for his work and advocacy on environmental issues.

Tim Flannery made notable contributions to the palaeontology of Australia and New Guinea during the 1980s, including reviewing the evolution and fossil records of Phalangeridae and Macropodidae.

In 1994, Tim Flannery published his first popular science book, The Future Eaters, on the natural history of Australasia.

Tim Flannery has since written more than 27 books on natural history and environmental topics, including Throwim Way Leg and Chasing Kangaroos, and has appeared on television and in the media.

An environmentalist and conservationist, Tim Flannery is a supporter of climate change mitigation, renewable energy transition, phasing out coal power and rewilding.

Tim Flannery was raised in a Catholic family along with his two sisters in the Melbourne suburb of Sandringham, close to Port Phillip Bay.

Tim Flannery described himself as a "solitary" child, spending time looking for fossils and learning to fish and scuba dive.

Tim Flannery said he first became aware of marine pollution and its effects on living organisms during this period.

Tim Flannery attended Catholic school, and later said that he did not enjoy it and became an atheist.

Tim Flannery was expelled in year 12 for suggesting a prominent abortion activist be invited to speak to counter the anti-abortionist views at the school, but was later allowed to return after an intervention from his father.

Tim Flannery then left Melbourne for Sydney, enjoying its subtropical climate and species diversity.

In 1984, Tim Flannery earned a PhD at the University of New South Wales in Palaeontology for his work on the evolution and fossils of macropods under palaeontologist Mike Archer.

Tim Flannery took 15 trips in total to New Guinea starting in 1981 and into the 1990s, working closely with local tribes to undertake fieldwork, which he later recounted in Throwin Way Leg.

Tim Flannery spent many years in Adelaide, including a spell as professor at the University of Adelaide, and 7 years as director of the South Australian Museum.

Tim Flannery was principal research scientist at the Australian Museum, during which time he worked to save the bandicoot population on North Head.

In 2007, Tim Flannery became professor in the Climate Risk Concentration of Research Excellence at Macquarie University.

Tim Flannery is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, and a Governor of WWF-Australia.

Tim Flannery was for a time director of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

Tim Flannery is a professorial fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne.

Tim Flannery met his first wife Paula Kendall while at La Trobe in the 1970s.

Tim Flannery has two children with Kendall; the couple separated in 1996.

Tim Flannery has a third child with his partner Kate Holder.

Tim Flannery moved to Victoria to be with her in 2014.

Tim Flannery has described himself as a non-political person, and a humanist, rather than atheist.

In 1980, Tim Flannery discovered an Allosaurid dinosaur fossil on the southern coast of Victoria, the first from the family known from Australia.

Tim Flannery identified at least 17 previously undescribed species during his 15 trips, includes the Dingiso, Sir David's long-beaked echidna and the Telefomin cuscus.

Tim Flannery found living specimens of the Bulmer's fruit bat, which were previous thought extinct.

In 2022, Tim Flannery was a co-author on new research on the origins of monotremes.

Tim Flannery subsequently began working on climate change more seriously and shifted to campaigning and publicly communicating about climate change from the 2000s.

When discussing this in 2009, Tim Flannery said that climate change science was a less established field earlier in his career and experts from multiple fields had shifted to respond to the issue, and said he feels publicly funded scientists are obliged to communicate their work and be vocal on important issues.

In 2015, the Jack P Blaney Award for Dialogue recognized Flannery for using dialogue and authentic engagement to build global consensus for action around climate change.

In 2002, Tim Flannery was appointed as chair of South Australia's Environmental Sustainability Board and was an advisor on climate change to South Australian Premier Mike Rann.

Tim Flannery was a member of the Queensland Climate Change Council established by the Queensland Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation Andrew McNamara.

Tim Flannery was chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council, an international group of business and other leaders that coordinated a business response to climate change and assisted the Danish government in the lead up to COP15.

Tim Flannery has frequently discussed the effects of climate change, particularly on Australia, and advocated for its mitigation.

In February 2011, it was announced that Tim Flannery had been appointed to head the Climate Commission established by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to explain climate change and the need for a carbon price to the public.

Tim Flannery told ABC News that the organisation stated that it had the same goals as the former Climate Commission, to provide independent information on the science of climate change.

In 1994, Tim Flannery published The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People, which became a bestseller.

The third and final wave Tim Flannery describes is European colonisation at the end of the 18th century.

Tim Flannery describes the evolution of the first wave of future-eaters:.

Tim Flannery proposed that Aboriginal Australians had shaped the continent's ecosystems through their fire-stick farming and unique practices.

Tim Flannery provided guidance on mitigation, such as reducing emissions and increasing solar and wind power.

Tim Flannery recounted his scientific fieldwork and experiences with local tribal people in New Guinea in Throwim Way Leg.

Tim Flannery later released an account of his work in Australia in Chasing Kangaroos.

In 2010's Here on Earth, Tim Flannery criticises elements of Darwinism while endorsing James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis.

In 2015, Tim Flannery published Atmosphere of Hope, which discussed climate change mitigation, carbon sequestration and technological solutions and acts as a follow-up to The Weather Makers.

Tim Flannery published another work about climate change in 2020, The Climate Cure, which calls for the Australian government to address the issue and argues its response to the COVID-19 pandemic could be used as a model for this.

Tim Flannery has appeared in several series for ABC Television, including several travel documentary collaborations with comedian John Doyle.

Tim Flannery appeared in the 2021 documentary film Burning, about the Black Summer bushfires.

Tim Flannery has long spoken out about the impacts of climate change in Australia and internationally.

In May 2004, Tim Flannery said in light of the city's water crisis that "I think there is a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century's first ghost metropolis", a warning reiterated in 2007.

Tim Flannery quoted NASA's Professor James Hansen, "arguably the world authority on climate change" who said, "we have just a decade to avert a 25-metre rise of the sea".

In May 2008, Tim Flannery suggested that sulphur could be dispersed into the atmosphere to help block the sun leading to global dimming, in order to counteract the effects of global warming.

Tim Flannery has advocated for a renewable energy transition in Australia.

Tim Flannery joined calls for the cessation or reduction of conventional coal-fired power generation in Australia in the medium term, at a time when it was the source of most of the nation's electricity.

Tim Flannery's view is that conventional coal burning will lose its social license to operate, comparing it to asbestos.

In 2006 Tim Flannery was in support of nuclear power as a possible solution for reducing Australia's carbon emissions; however, in 2007 changed his position against it.

Tim Flannery does feel that Australia should and will have to supply its uranium to those other countries that do not have access to renewables like Australia does.

In September 2005 Tim Flannery said, "There are hot rocks in South Australia that potentially have enough embedded energy in them to run Australia's economy for the best part of a century".

Tim Flannery expected to raise at least $11.5m on the Australian Stock Exchange.

When, in the concluding chapters of The Future Eaters, Tim Flannery discusses how to "utilise our few renewable resources in the least destructive way", he remarks that.

In late 2007, Tim Flannery suggested that the Japanese whaling involving the relatively common minke whale may be sustainable:.

In contrast to his stance on the minke whale quota, Tim Flannery has expressed relief over the dumping of the quota of the rarer humpback whale, and further was worried how whales were slaughtered, wishing them to be "killed as humanely as possible".

Tim Flannery suggested that krill and other small crustaceans, the primary food source for many large whales and an essential part of the marine food chain, were of greater concern than the Japanese whaling.

Tim Flannery suggested the Tasmanian devil could be allowed to re-settle the mainland Australia from its Tasmanian refuge area.

Tim Flannery proposed if, in addition to the wolves that have been already re-introduced to Yellowstone National Park, ambush predators, such as jaguars and lions should be reintroduced as well, in order to bring the number of elk under control.

Tim Flannery advocated for human population planning in Australia in the 1990s.

Tim Flannery has been a patron of Sustainable Population Australia since 2000.

Tim Flannery said in 2007 that he had stopped discussing population issues, as he said he did not think curbing population growth was a solution to climate change.

In 2009, Tim Flannery called for an inquiry into population growth in Australia, to better elucidate the potential environmental impacts of the country's growing population.

In 2009, Tim Flannery joined the project "Soldiers of Peace", a move against all wars and for a global peace.