WOMADelaide has announced the full program for its innovative Planet Talks program. The festival is to be held in Adelaide 8-11 March 2013.

The Planet Talks is a series of environmentally-focused discussions and panels – a legacy of the WOMAD Earth Station event staged in 2011 and now a part of WOMADelaide. The Talks will focus on the core fundamentals of Food Security & Sustainability, Activism & Change and Population Growth.

The highlight of The Planet Talks will be a ‘one on one’ discussion on Population & Consumption between host of the ABC’s The Science Show, Robyn Williams and esteemed American author and biologist, Paul Ehrlich.

Biologist and Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University, Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book The Population Bomb, reignited the population debate and brought the issue into mainstream debates in the 1960s. Ehrlich is still considered to be one of the world’s most powerful voices warning about the impact of spiraling population growth on the limited resources of the planet, even 45 years after the book’s original publication.

WOMADelaide will hold seven Planet Talks sessions throughout the festival weekend.

From the Saturday until the Monday of the festival, each day will see two sessions held in Speakers Corner in Botanic Park. Saturday will cover ‘Taking Care of our Own Patch’ and ‘Food Security& Sustainability’, Sunday;‘Can Government Rise to the Challenge of Climate Change?’ and ‘Activism & Slacktivism’ and Monday ‘Population & Consumption’ and ‘The Elephant in the Room: The Limits to Growth.’

The Planet Talks speaker program also includes Environment Institute members Professor Corey Bradshaw and Professor Randy Stringer.

The full list of speakers and the program can be found on the WOMADelaide website – http://www.womadelaide.com.au/

WOMADelaide are offering discounted tickets to Environment Institute members. These can be accessed online and by using the code planet talks.

While in Australia, Professor Ehrlich will also be giving a presentation in Canberra in late March. More details will be made available on the Environment Institute website soon.