RUNDOWN:
17:15     Registration
17:30     Opening remarks and film screening
18:15     Panel discussion
18:50     Q&A
19:10     Closing remarks
19:15     End

ASHK member price: HKD60
Non-member price: HKD80

As part of Asia Society’s ongoing “Season of Australia”, Asia Society Hong Kong Center is proud to present a screening and discussion of Warning to the World: Australia’s Climate Disasters, a film examining Australia’s recent natural disasters and how they serve as a warning to the world on the devastating impact of climate change.

Following the screening, we will host a panel discussion featuring the award-winning journalists who made the film, including Ivan Watson, CNN Senior International Correspondent, Rebecca Wright, CNN Senior Field Producer, and Thomas Booth, photojournalist and editor for CNN International.

Ivan Watson is an award-winning senior international correspondent for CNN based at the network’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. His reporting has taken him across the region and beyond, from covering the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the spread of the coronavirus across Asia, the Hong Kong protests, the Sri Lanka Easter bombings, the Christchurch terrorist attack, the Lion Air plane crash, the Thai cave rescue and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Watson also spent the last three years investigating China’s mass detention of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. His reporting has taken him all around the world and in 2021 his series of special investigations was nominated for an Emmy Award. Watson is also passionate about environmental issues. He spearheaded long-form investigative pieces including 30-minute documentaries Borneo is Burning and Race to Save the Reef. Before moving to Hong Kong in 2014, Watson was based in Istanbul for 12 years and prior to CNN, he worked at NPR, where he spent eight years reporting extensively on major stories around the Middle East, Central Asia and West Africa. In 2020, his documentary Borneo is Burning was awarded Best Current Affairs Programme at the ContentAsia Awards. Other honours include the Royal Television Society’s Best News Coverage in 2013 for Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and two Emmy awards for coverage of the Haiti Earthquake in 2010. Watson attended Brown University, where he earned a BA in International Relations. He is fluent in Russian and French.

Rebecca Wright is an award-winning Senior Field Producer for CNN, based at the network’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong, where she is responsible for producing key stories from the region and beyond. She has worked in conflict zones including Ukraine and Israel, covered both the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics, and has produced three environmental documentaries, including an hour-long special on Australia for ‘The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.’ Wright has extensively covered the Myanmar civil war, the Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region, and the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh. Wright has won multiple awards for her work, including an Emmy, a DuPont and an RTS for coverage of Ukraine, a Gracie award for Afghanistan, an RTS award for Hong Kong protest coverage, and received 9 other Emmy nominations. In 2024 she was selected for the Oxford Climate Journalism Network, a remote six-month fellowship with the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford. Before joining CNN in 2012, Wright was a producer for the BBC in London for more than six years working across both television and radio. Wright studied English Literature at Newcastle University, then joined the BBC News trainee graduate scheme, which included a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism Studies at Cardiff University.

Thomas Booth is an award-winning photojournalist and editor for CNN International, based at the network’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. He covers breaking news and major news events in Asia and around the world. He also works on long-form feature programs and investigative documentaries. Booth joined CNN in 2005 as a Technical Director and Editor. He was born in the UK and raised in Hong Kong.

About Warning to the World: Australia’s Climate Disasters

CNN International Senior Correspondent Ivan Watson presents a sweeping look at the numerous natural disasters plaguing Australia, and how its changing climate could be a cautionary tale for countries across the globe. On Watson’s journey off the coast of Australia, he learns about the death and destruction being caused by human activity both on land and under the water. Apocalyptic forest fires, storms and floods exacerbated by climate change at an unprecedented scale are threatening communities and Australia’s most iconic species. In the Great Barrier Reef, a global record-breaking marine heat wave is causing the temperature of the water to rise, resulting in coral bleaching and dying. Watson speaks with the people trying to reverse the damage and prepare for the future. Warning to the World: Australia's Climate Disasters originally aired on CNN's The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.

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The views and opinions expressed are those of the speakers and participants and, unless expressly stated to the contrary, do not reflect the opinion, position or official policy of Asia Society Hong Kong, its members, or its committees. Asia Society Hong Kong does not endorse or approve and assumes no responsibility for the content of the information presented.