Celebrate the birth of Charles Darwin with Tim Hollo and the Canberra Humanists at our annual Darwin Day Dinner. Dinner will be a hot carvery buffet with vegetarian and vegan options, including dessert and tea and coffee. Drinks are at your own expense.

Tim Hollo, executive director of the Green Institute, will speak on "Survival of those who fit together best"

As we emerge from the temporary crisis of the COVID pandemic, back into the long term crises of ecological, economic, social and democratic collapse, we need to think seriously about survival.

What approaches, what world views, will help us survive in the years and decades ahead?

The old school understanding of Darwinism as "survival of the fittest" helped shape the 20th century, driving an extraordinary acceleration of the philosophy of domination. The consequences of this approach are the crises we're coming face to face with now, from the climate crisis to economic inequality to looming war.

But the more we've learned about evolution in recent years, the more we've come to recognise that it is as much a cooperative process as a competitive one, with species and organisms and communities evolving together for their common benefit, occupying and forming niches that fit together to make up the wondrous, interdependent complexity of ecology.

In this talk, Tim Hollo will discuss how recognising ecology and evolution as the "survival of those who fit together best" can help us not just survive but thrive in the 21st century.

Tim Hollo is Executive Director of the Green Institute, the Greens candidate for the seat of Canberra, and a Visiting Fellow at RegNet, the ANU’s School of Regulation and Global Governance. A highly regarded musician and environmentalist, he has recorded 7 albums, performed around the globe including at Carnegie Hall in New York, and founded Green Music Australia - an organisation working to reduce the music industry's environmental impact and use its leadership to mobilise for change. As a passionate community activist, he established Canberra's vibrant Buy Nothing groups, has spearheaded campaigns to keep the city ad free, and has facilitated numerous community democracy projects. He was previously Communications Director for Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne, has been a campaigner and Board Member of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, and has written extensively for publications including The Guardian, ABC, The Griffith Review and Crikey. His book, "Living Democracy: An Ecological Manifesto for the End of the World As We Know It", is forthcoming with NewSouth Press in 2022.