Last updated September 9, 2020.
I care deeply about the threat of climate change: in 2014 I became the first Australian IPCC contributor to be arrested for climate disobedience (second from right, above; also see https://frontlineaction.org/ipcc-contributor-participates-in-blockade/#jp-carousel-3508). (Coal truck behind us). As a result I was refused a visa in time to attend a foundational conference hosted by the Rockefeller Centre in New York on planetary health, to which I had been invited. I was charged with damaging mine property because I blocked the road for 50 minutes. This charge, when introduced, was surely intended for people who maliciously damage mine property and thus place safety at risk. It has an appropriately high maximum jail term of 7 years. The official police notice of arrest that I recieved advised me that the coal mine - Whitehaven - would in addition seek damages from me of at least A$40,000. In the end this did not happen, no conviction was recorded, but I was placed on a 2 year good behaviour bond, that expired in 2017. However, overseas travel (not that I like to do it much, especially overseas) is likely to remain problematic for the rest of my life. For example, when I was invited to a workshop in Canada in 2018 for the book "Health in the Anthropocene: Living Well on a Finite Planet" a police check was required; but at least Canada let me in. See, if you want: Reflections on non violent civil disobedience to oppose Australia's coal export frenzy. Clearly, these police/corporate tactics were intended to intimidate me .. and they did.
My formal academic qualifications are in medical science, medicine (both from the University of Newcastle, NSW Australia,1984, 1987), tropical medicine and hygiene (Royal College Physicians, London UK 1990) and epidemiology (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 1997), capped in 2002 by a multidisciplinary PhD in epidemiology and population health from the Australian National University (ANU), for a thesis entitled "Inequality and Sustainability".
I have been recognised internationally for my activism for sustainable health and poverty reduction, including being named “one of a 100 doctors for the planet”, in 2009, by the French Environmental Health Association. In 2010 I was awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council "Future Fellow" research fellowship which supported independent research on the topic “Health and sustainability: Australia in a global context” between February 2011 and February 2015. In 2018 I received the Tony McMichael award for ecology, environment and public health, from the Public Health Association of Australia. I was also awarded the Borrie Prize, in 2002, by the Australian Population Association, for the best essay by a post graduate studnent that year, on population.
Between 1989 and 1992, while working as a general medical practitioner, I co-founded two development promoting non-governmental organisations called BODHI US and BODHI Australia, funded by the public in the US and Australia, today supporting projects in South Asia.
So far I have published about 250 articles, chapters and letters in scholarly journals and books, or as refereed conference papers or reports, often as first or sole author. These include in high impact journals, including Nature, Science, Lancet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and PLoS Medicine. I was senior editor of Health of People, Places and Planet: Reflections based on Tony McMichael’s four decades of contribution to epidemiological understanding (ANU Press, 2015).* For several years I was a co-editor of the journal EcoHealth. I also have an extensive history of blogging and the creative use of other forms of social media. I was also the de facto editor for the chapter "Ecosystems and Human Well-Being" for the conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, leading to books and reports now cited almost 30,000 times with that title. (Note, I did not coin the title! and was appointed de facto editor since, at that time, I had the most time, as I had the fewest other responsibilities).
In 2014 I co-founded a new international research collaboration, called Health-Earth. I am the founding co-chair.
I have worked at 4 Australian universities, including as Professor of Public Health at the University of Canberra, Australia, from 2012 to 2016. I am currently an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University (link).
My interest in global health was cemented in 1985, when I spent most of a year, while a medical student, in what was then generally called the Third World. I undertook "electives" in Nigeria and Nepal, while also completing short courses in tropical health and tropical epidemiology in Europe. In 1985 I also met His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for the first time, in Dharamsala. (Described here).
More information, including links to some of my publications, is at http://colindbutler.weebly.com/
* e-copies available for free
I care deeply about the threat of climate change: in 2014 I became the first Australian IPCC contributor to be arrested for climate disobedience (second from right, above; also see https://frontlineaction.org/ipcc-contributor-participates-in-blockade/#jp-carousel-3508). (Coal truck behind us). As a result I was refused a visa in time to attend a foundational conference hosted by the Rockefeller Centre in New York on planetary health, to which I had been invited. I was charged with damaging mine property because I blocked the road for 50 minutes. This charge, when introduced, was surely intended for people who maliciously damage mine property and thus place safety at risk. It has an appropriately high maximum jail term of 7 years. The official police notice of arrest that I recieved advised me that the coal mine - Whitehaven - would in addition seek damages from me of at least A$40,000. In the end this did not happen, no conviction was recorded, but I was placed on a 2 year good behaviour bond, that expired in 2017. However, overseas travel (not that I like to do it much, especially overseas) is likely to remain problematic for the rest of my life. For example, when I was invited to a workshop in Canada in 2018 for the book "Health in the Anthropocene: Living Well on a Finite Planet" a police check was required; but at least Canada let me in. See, if you want: Reflections on non violent civil disobedience to oppose Australia's coal export frenzy. Clearly, these police/corporate tactics were intended to intimidate me .. and they did.
My formal academic qualifications are in medical science, medicine (both from the University of Newcastle, NSW Australia,1984, 1987), tropical medicine and hygiene (Royal College Physicians, London UK 1990) and epidemiology (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 1997), capped in 2002 by a multidisciplinary PhD in epidemiology and population health from the Australian National University (ANU), for a thesis entitled "Inequality and Sustainability".
I have been recognised internationally for my activism for sustainable health and poverty reduction, including being named “one of a 100 doctors for the planet”, in 2009, by the French Environmental Health Association. In 2010 I was awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council "Future Fellow" research fellowship which supported independent research on the topic “Health and sustainability: Australia in a global context” between February 2011 and February 2015. In 2018 I received the Tony McMichael award for ecology, environment and public health, from the Public Health Association of Australia. I was also awarded the Borrie Prize, in 2002, by the Australian Population Association, for the best essay by a post graduate studnent that year, on population.
Between 1989 and 1992, while working as a general medical practitioner, I co-founded two development promoting non-governmental organisations called BODHI US and BODHI Australia, funded by the public in the US and Australia, today supporting projects in South Asia.
So far I have published about 250 articles, chapters and letters in scholarly journals and books, or as refereed conference papers or reports, often as first or sole author. These include in high impact journals, including Nature, Science, Lancet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and PLoS Medicine. I was senior editor of Health of People, Places and Planet: Reflections based on Tony McMichael’s four decades of contribution to epidemiological understanding (ANU Press, 2015).* For several years I was a co-editor of the journal EcoHealth. I also have an extensive history of blogging and the creative use of other forms of social media. I was also the de facto editor for the chapter "Ecosystems and Human Well-Being" for the conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, leading to books and reports now cited almost 30,000 times with that title. (Note, I did not coin the title! and was appointed de facto editor since, at that time, I had the most time, as I had the fewest other responsibilities).
In 2014 I co-founded a new international research collaboration, called Health-Earth. I am the founding co-chair.
I have worked at 4 Australian universities, including as Professor of Public Health at the University of Canberra, Australia, from 2012 to 2016. I am currently an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University (link).
My interest in global health was cemented in 1985, when I spent most of a year, while a medical student, in what was then generally called the Third World. I undertook "electives" in Nigeria and Nepal, while also completing short courses in tropical health and tropical epidemiology in Europe. In 1985 I also met His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for the first time, in Dharamsala. (Described here).
More information, including links to some of my publications, is at http://colindbutler.weebly.com/
* e-copies available for free