Timothy Fridtjof Flannery FAA (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist, conservationist, explorer, author, science communicator, activist, and public scientist.

He has since written many more books on natural history and environmental topics, including Throwim Way Leg and Chasing Kangaroos, and has appeared on television and in the media.

An environmentalist and conservationist, Flannery is a supporter of climate change mitigation, renewable energy transition, phasing out coal power, and rewilding.

He was expelled in year 12 for suggesting a prominent abortion activist be invited to speak to counter the anti-abortionist views at the school, but was later allowed to return after an intervention from his father.

[6][1] In 1984[6] or 1985,[1][2] after also tutoring in zoology at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of New South Wales for three years, he earned his PhD from UNSW Sydney.

[8] In 1984, Flannery earned a PhD at the University of New South Wales in Palaeontology for his work on the evolution and fossils of macropods under palaeontologist Mike Archer.

[20] He also identified at least 17 previously undescribed species[10][21] during his 15 trips,[9] includes the Dingiso,[22] Sir David's long-beaked echidna,[23] and the Telefomin cuscus.

[9] Flannery's prominence in raising awareness around the subject, and efforts to oppose climate change denial, have occasionally attracted hostility from the media.

[40] The commission was a panel of leading scientists and business experts whose mandate was to provide an "independent and reliable" source of information for all Australians.

Between 24 September and 6 October the new Climate Council had raised $1 million in funding from a public appeal, sufficient to keep the organisation operating for 12 months.

Flannery describes the evolution of the first wave of future-eaters: Sixty thousand or more years ago human technology was developing at what we would consider to be an imperceptible pace.

[47]In contrast with other hypotheses that climate variability and change had shaped the evolutionary history of Australia, he instead attributed the continent's nutrient-poor soil as a driver.

[22] It also advocates for modern societies of the Australasian region adapt to its unique ecological conditions, including managing the environment, consuming local rather than imported species, and limiting human population growth.

Redmond O'Hanlon, a Times Literary Supplement correspondent said that "Flannery tells his beautiful story in plain language, science popularising at its antipodean best".

[50] While reading scientific journals more widely during his tenure at South Australian Museum, Flannery became increasingly alarmed by anthropogenic climate change.

It also discussed contemporary greenhouse gas emissions and effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, impacts on large storms and species extinction.

[55] Released not long before An Inconvenient Truth, the book came at a time when climate change was becoming more prominent topic in public opinion and increased Flannery's profile.

[22] In 2015, Flannery published Atmosphere of Hope, which discussed climate change mitigation, carbon sequestration and technological solutions and acts as a follow-up to The Weather Makers.

[3] In August 2017 Flannery hosted an episode of ABC Catalyst investigating how carefully managed seaweed growth could contribute to combating climate change via the sequestration of atmospheric carbon to the ocean floor.

[63] In January 2018, Flannery appeared on the ABC's Science program exploring whether humans are becoming a new 'Mass Extinction Event',[64] in addition to outlining the '5 Things You Need to Know About Climate Change'.

[67][68] Awarding the prize, then Prime Minister John Howard said that the scientist "has encouraged Australians into new ways of thinking about our environmental history and future ecological challenges.

[35][69][70]In May 2004, Flannery said in light of the city's water crisis that "I think there is a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century's first ghost metropolis",[71] a warning reiterated in 2007.

He also quoted NASA's Professor James Hansen, "arguably the world authority on climate change" who said, "we have just a decade to avert a 25-metre rise of the sea".

Locally in Australia because of particular geological issues and because of the competition from cleaner and cheaper energy alternatives, I'm not 100 per cent sure clean coal is going to work out for our domestic market.

[81] He joined calls for the cessation or reduction of conventional coal-fired power generation in Australia in the medium term, at a time when it was the source of most of the nation's electricity.

[87][88] For the Cooper Basin, he proposed the establishment of a fully sustainable city where, "hundreds of thousands of people would live", utilising these geothermal energy reserves.

[93][94] When, in the concluding chapters of The Future Eaters (1994), Flannery discusses how to "utilise our few renewable resources in the least destructive way", he remarks that A far better situation for conservation in Australia would result from a policy which allows exploitation of all of our biotic heritage, provided that it all be done in a sustainable manner.

It's hard to imagine that the whaling would lead to a new decline in population [...][96]This raised concerns among some environmental groups such as Greenpeace,[97][98] fearing it could add fuel to the Japanese wish of continuing its annual cull.

He proposed if, in addition to the wolves that have been already re-introduced to Yellowstone National Park, ambush predators, such as jaguars and lions should be reintroduced as well, in order to bring the number of elk under control.

[5] As of 2018[update] he owned a house with a solar hot water system at Coba Point on the Hawkesbury River, 40 km (25 mi) north of Sydney, accessible only by boat;[116] after this living location was revealed by broadcaster Ray Hadley he received threats and was given police protection.