The University of Sydney’s new deputy vice-chancellor, one of Australia’s foremost marine ecologists, says people must be systematic to save the environment.
Emma Johnston is telling me about singing Abba tunes to southern right whales and how their natural curiosity draws them closer and closer to the seal-like beasts making the strange, warbling sounds in the dark, freezing waters of Antarctica.
“There’s a healthy collaboration between Sydney University and UNSW,” she says. “About 10 per cent of research publications have co-authors from both universities and in some of the smaller disciplines it goes up to 100 per cent. “I love mussels,” Johnston says. “They are good because they are low on the food chain and you can eat as many as you like and grow some more.”We would not be eating the same dish if the mussels had grown in Sydney’s beautiful harbour, which is still suffering the consequences of decades, if not centuries, of reckless exploitation.
She and her husband, Sam Maresh, the country leader for multinational giant GE, live in Maroubra in a renovated terrace with a view of Johnston’s beloved Pacific Ocean. They have two children, Amelia and Antonin, and two cavoodles. She’s a scientist with a profound ability to engage and communicate with laypeople, politicians and the science community alike. She’s a politically engaged campaigner for an independent and robust research sector.
She says when workplaces hit a 30 per cent female representation, the culture changes for the better. Her parents were the first in each of their families to finish high school, let alone go to university. Before them were factory workers, chicken farmers, hat box makers, “that kind of thing”. Unsurprisingly, like her brother Ben, Johnston is a talented musician. She played the flute, even though she describes it as “a fluffy instrument”, which became a key to scholarships at various schools.
For Sydney-dwellers, the signs are easy to spot as the waters in and around the city “tropicalise”, with consequences for ecosystems in cooler and hotter regions.“If some mobile species, like fish, migrate down the coast, what happens when the rest of the ecosystem can’t come with them?” Johnston says.
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