Gala Awards
The Environment Institute Annual Gala Dinner and Merit Award Presentation
This year's gala dinner will be held at 7.30pm on Tuesday 20th October, 2009 at Hotel Realm in Canberra. We are very excited to announce as our key note speaker for the evening, Chris Darwin - great great grandson of Charles Darwin.
Chris Darwin
Photo by Gary Medlicott |
When Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859, he changed the way people thought about life on Earth. His great great grandson, Chris, who now lives in Australia, is now focusing his own efforts and resources on something he thinks his famous ancestor would have approved of - saving species from extinction.
Charles Darwin was part of a British scientific expedition that sailed the world, aboard the HMS Beagle, examining plants and animals. What he witnessed on this journey - particularly on the Galapagos Islands off South America - convinced him that life had evolved over millions of years via natural selection.
His theory caused a scientific revolution and religious outrage, but before he died in 1882, he wrote: "I feel no remorse from having committed any great sin, but have often and often regretted that I have not done more direct good to my fellow creatures." Chris Darwin says those words inspired him to use his inheritance to fulfil his great great grandfather's last wish.
Recently he finished a year's voluntary work with the Australian Bush Heritage Fund during which he donated a significant sum to help the fund buy a 65,000-hectare property, now called the Charles Darwin Reserve, which will help preserve plant species in a part of the world Chris calls a "hotspot" for biodiversity.
He believes the Earth is going through a periodic "mass extinction spasm" that will lead to the disappearance of more than 65 per cent of species.
But an interest in preserving nature is not the only similarity between Chris and his famous ancestor - both found the Blue Mountains to be the most beautiful part of Australia. In 1836, when the Beagle visited Sydney, Darwin journeyed to Wentworth Falls, where a walk to the edge of the cliffs still carries his name.
What he witnessed, he later wrote, was a "view exceedingly well worth the visit. A sound of pouring water reached us, the cause of which was soon explained by one of the more stupendous scenes I ever beheld, bursting unexpectedly upon us. Suddenly we found ourselves standing on the brink of a tremendous precipice."
Chris found the same place "unbelievably beautiful" and worked as a rock climbing guide in Katoomba for 10 years until 2001. "It was the best job I'd ever done," he said.
Chris Darwin is an engaging and articulate speaker. We hope you can join us for this most interesting of events.
Registration for the Dinner is $180 for EIANZ members and $195 for non members.
To register click here.
