“Our studies show that although Australia is currently one of the countries using most coal per capita, the country has great potential to half its green house gas emissions cost effectively.” – why political will is decisive and what the sun has to do with nuclear bombs.

Dr. Mark Diesendorf, Institute of Environmental Studies, The University of New South Wales & Director Sustainability Centre, Sydney, Australia

“When I heard that my PhD on the interaction of charged particles especially in the centre of the sun, was misused to help a team of American scientists to do nuclear bomb calculations and optimize nuclear bombs, I was personally shocked and recognized for the first time that it is not enough to perform extremely well within the system without taking responsibility for the potential misuses of one’s work,” Mark Diesendorf stated during an interview in a nice, small cafe in Sydney. This experience is one of the reasons why Mark was engaged very heavily in the social responsibility in science movement in Australia.
As mathematician and environmental scientist, he was always interested in exploring ways to improve the health of people and the environment. After a long career of taking care of various important issues, he today focuses his work on renewable energy. Together with leading advocacy groups and leading researchers, he tries to push the business case for renewable energy in the public debate. “Knowing what I know and remaining silent would be immoral,” Mark explains and continues: “We have to tell people the truth about energy innovations based on scientific knowledge and we should not allow the coal and nuclear industry interests to influence the public in the wrong and unsustainable directions.”

Enjoy reading selected thoughts and statements of the discussion with Mark Diesendorf in the quotations below. You may be able to read more about his diverse initiatives in our book “MyImpact”.

Dr. Mark Diesendorf’s selected quotations:
“I was involved in the social responsibility in science movement, specifically in a number of environmental, peace and health initiatives, for the last three decades. Currently my main area of activity is energy, teaching and research at the university, developing clean energy scenarios for Australia for the WWF, doing consulting work, and much more.”

"I find it very hard to balance between stopping the bad things and creating the good things. If you take, for example, energy production in Australia, you see that Australia is one of the biggest users of coal per capita in the world. So, we fight to stop each new proposal of building more coal-fired power stations in order to open up the pathways for renewable, clean energies."

“Our studies show that although Australia is currently one of the countries using most coal per capita, the country has great potential to half its green house gas emissions cost effectively. What’s missing most right now is the political will to actually do it.”

“Australia has large wind and biomass potential and especially huge potential to cut wastage of energy. However, the majority of government funding is going into so-called “clean coal”, a concept that does not really exist.”

“The savings we could achieve by realizing the energy efficiency potential would be enough to pay for the necessary investments in our renewable energies provided the right organisational and institutional structures are set up.”

“In countries where good data is available on nuclear power cost – UK, USA -, it can easily be demonstrated that even today nuclear power is not cost competitive. And this is without taking the fact into consideration that once nuclear power stations have to use low grade uranium, the CO2 emissions and other ecological effects will be almost as bad as when using fossil fuels.”

“I want to see a sustainable energy future for Australia and the rest of the world. As an environmental scientist who studied the problems, I have a responsibility to speak up. Having the knowledge it would be immoral to remain silent. I feel like I have a duty to communicate what I know.”

“My career was almost always about finding a good compromise between earning an income and at the same time being able to do what really mattered to me. This hasn’t always been possible, but most of the time I found good ways, e.g. when I worked for the mathematics and statistics division of CSIRO, I initiated and led a multi-disciplinary wind power research program that won international recognition.”

“For me it is important to shift to renewable energies and energy efficiency and, in the health area, to have public health programs that are not dangerous.”

“Probably I will be involved in the struggle for renewable energy until the end of my life, but it is worth it.”

Some background on Dr. Mark Diesendorf:
Born in Sydney to Austrian immigrants (father engineer, mother poet), Mark Diesendorf obtained an honors degree in physics and a PhD in applied mathematics at University of New South Wales in Sydney.
After this time he went for three years to the UK, working as space scientist and astrophysicist before working some time in France and the US. Upon returning home to Australia, he started to work for the Division of Mathematics & Statistics of one of the leading research organisations in Australia, the CSIRO, in Canberra.
Later Mark broadened into interdisciplinary fields, namely sustainable energy, urban transport, models of sustainability and practical processes by which government, business and other organizations can achieve ecologically sustainable and socially just development. From 1996 to 2001, he was Professor of Environmental Science and Foundation Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at University of Technology, Sydney.
Dr. Mark Diesendorf is currently Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Environmental Studies at The University of New South Wales and Director of the Sustainability Centre Pty Ltd. This work is devoted to various aspects of ecologically sustainable and socially just development.

Some background on the Sustainability Centre Pty Ltd:
Mark established the Sustainability Centre in 2001 to promote ecologically sustainable and socially just development, especially in Australia and China, and to facilitate cooperation between the two countries. The main products of the Sustainability Centre are:
• Applied Research and Consulting on various aspects of sustainable development. Its specialties are sustainable energy (i.e. efficient energy use and renewable sources of energy), sustainable urban transport, and the transformation of cities into Eco-cities.
• Short Training Courses on various aspects of sustainable development, with principal case studies drawn from the above specialties.
• China GreenLinks: facilitating business and government links in environmental protection between Australia and China.

If you would like to engage with the work of Dr. Mark Diesendorf or get to know more about the Sustainability Centre, please visit http://www.sustainabilitycentre.com.au/,
If you would like to read some of his energy studies, see his review article, “A Sustainable Energy Future for Australia”, at http://www.bml.csiro.au/susnetnl/netwl54E.pdf and please visit http://wwf.org.au/ourwork/climatechange/cleanerergyfuture,
or, for more specific opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.