Steven Cork
Steven Cork is an ecologist and futurist. As an ecologist he spent 25 years in CSIRO researching the interactions between humans and the natural environment around the world. As a futurist he played a leading role in developing scenarios for the World’s social-ecological futures for the United Nations’ Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and has run similar projects with government and non-government groups around Australia. He has worked extensively as an advisor to governments on policy issues and as a government employee developing and implementing environmental policy. He now works privately as a futurist, strategist and ecological advisor as the Principal Consultant of EcoInsights and leads a project on the resilience of Australia in the private sustainability R&D organisation Australia21.
Dr Cork is also Director of Australia21. As an Associate of Interaction Consulting he facilitates workshops on strategic thinking for public servants. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University and was Deputy Chair of the committee that prepared the 2011 National State of the Environment Report.
Dr Cork has an impressive list of publications and extensive experience as a consultant on a wide range of policy issues. He also contributes actively to public debates on environmental issues in Australia. Dr Cork brings this combined expertise to his teaching, supervision, and research at the Crawford School, making a highly significant contribution.
Research Interest
Dr Cork has over twenty-five years' experience as an ecologist, including over two decades as a researcher at CSIRO, and twelve years' experience as a futurist.
Publications
Cork S. (2011). Ways forward in the population and environment debate. Parliament of Australia, Department of Parliamentary Services, Canberra, <http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/PEPU/PopulationEnvironDebate.pdf>
Pittock J., Cork S. & Maynard S. (2012) The state of the application of ecosystems services in Australia. Ecosystem Services 1, 111-20.
Raupach M. R., McMichael A. J., Alford K. J. S., Cork S., Finnigan J. J., Fulton E. A., Grigg N. J., Jones R. N., Leves F., Manderson L. & Walker B. H. (2013) Living scenarios for Australia as an adaptive system. Pp 1- 53 in M. R. Raupach, A. J. McMichael, J. J. Finnigan, L. Manderson and B. H. Walker (editors) “Negotiating Our Future: Living Scenarios for Australia to 2050”. Australian Academy of Science, Canberra
Cork S., Jones R. N., Butler C. D., Cocks D., Dunlop I. & Howe P. (2013) Towards scenarios for a sustainable and equitable future Australia. Pp 115-151 in M. R. Raupach, A. J. McMichael, J. J. Finnigan, L. Manderson and B. H. Walker (editors) “Negotiating Our Future: Living Scenarios for Australia to 2050”. Australian Academy of Science, Canberra.
Cork, S., Alford, K., Grigg, N., Finnegan, J., Fulton, B., and Raupach, M. (2014) Helping a nation think about its futures. Solutions, 4 (6), 9-14.
Ward, T., Cork, S., Dobbs, K., Harper, P., Harris, P., Hatton, T., Joy, R., Kanowski, P., Mackay, R., McKenzie, N., and Wienecke, B. (2014) Framing an independent, integrated and evidence-based evaluation of the state of Australia’s biophysical and human environments. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2014.891073
Alford K., Cork S., Finnigan J., Grigg N., Fulton B. & Raupauch M. (2014) The Challenges of living scenarios for Australia in 2050. Journal of Futures Studies 18, 115-26.
Costanza, R., Kubiszewski, I., Cork, S., Atkins, P., Bean, A., Diamond, A., Grigg, N., Korb, E., Logg-Scarvell, J., Navis, R. and Patrick, K. (2015) Scenarios for Australia in 2050: A synthesis and proposed survey.Journal of Futures Studies 49, 49-76
Pearson S., Lynch A. J. J., Plant R., Cork S., Taffs K., Dodson J., Maynard S., Gergis J., Gell P., Thackway R., Sealie L. & Donaldson J. (2015) Increasing the understanding and use of natural archives of ecosystem services, resilience and thresholds to improve policy, science and practice. Holocene 25, 366-78.