About the Author

Dr Mark Stafford Smith is a desert ecologist and systems thinker, who has lived in Alice Springs and worked on desert research for the past 25 years, now resident in Canberra. He is the author of some 150 peer-reviewed publications on the ecology and management of outback Australia. He was an inaugural winner of the NT Research and Innovation Awards in 2005 for his contribution to desert knowledge. He sits on several national and international advisory groups related to climate change and desertification. Julian Cribb is a science communicator and writer. He is Adjunct Professor of Science Communication at the University of Technology Sydney and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. He is a former newspaper editor and director of National Awareness for CSIRO. He holds 32 awards for journalism.