Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop is the Executive Director of World Preservation Foundation. He worked until mid-2010 as Principal Scientist with the Queensland Government Department of Environment and Resources Management Remote Sensing Centre, where he witnessed 4% of the world's deforestation for over 20 years. Following 37 years with federal and state government, Gerard is now engaged in communicating environmental issues such as deforestation, land degradation and biodiversity loss, and is full of optimism that together humanity and our natural environment have a bright future.In this episode we discuss:• Gerard’s background work monitoring deforestation.• Australia’s disastrous land clearing rates, and what’s really driving this.• Queensland deforestation and its impact on the Great Barrier Reef.• Key planetary boundaries, including those we have already overstepped.• The contribution of animal agriculture to climate change.• Gerard’s work with NGO Beyond Zero Emissions.• His involvement in the upcoming documentary and associated book Eating Our Way To Extinction.This one covers some really vital issues and the consequences of not addressing these concerns soon are quite dire.