Barney Foran

Degrees in Agriculture and Ecology / Research Fellow

Barney Foran covers the big picture sustainability issues of energy, greenhouse, human population, lifestyle, water, biodiversity and land use. Currently he focuses on future designs for Australia’s economy that will ensure moderate rates of economic productivity and energy security combined with the rapid transition to a low carbon economy.

He has degrees in agriculture and ecology which led to professional eras spanning rangeland ecology, agricultural systems, environmental science and long term analysis of Australia’s physical economy. He led research teams in CSIRO’s Resource Futures group which produced long term analyses of Australia’s physical economy focusing on human population, marine fisheries, land and water and a triple bottom line analysis of the Australian economy. His work on human population led to a number of high profile media appearances including the Four Corners program.

Barney now lives in North East Victoria and is a research fellow at the Institute for Land Water and Society at Charles Sturt University in Albury. As well as his nationally scaled work on energy and greenhouse he is a member of Indigo Shire’s environmental advisory committee, and also contributes to the work of local sustainability groups. Barney’s family are recent blow-ins to North East Victoria and live as typical tree changers involved in Landcare rehabilitation projects, planting forests, growing fruit and vegies and drinking coffee on the veranda.

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