The University of Sydney Professors Dale Dominey-Howes and Tony Capon will address the curious crowd upstairs at the Hotel Canobolas on Thursday from 6pm.

Dr Dominey-Howes will examine how people process natural disasters and what constitutes a disaster.

He said part of the definition is distinguishing between a natural hazard and a disaster, the latter inciting an out-of-normal response from government and emergency services, the former eliciting minimal concern by the masses.

"Everything we label as a 'disaster' are disasters because they have a negative effect on people, on our assets, on the things we care about," he said.

Dr Dominey-Howes said when they don't, we label them a natural process.

"A disaster is actually a social constructed concept for when all our plans fail," he said.

During his talk, The End Of The World As We Know It?, Dr Dominey-Howes will remind audiences of what he considers the top five disasters, which include the Boxing Day earthquake which occurred in Indonesia in 2004 and the 2011 earthquake off the coast of Japan.

He will discuss the impact of climate change on disasters and offer advice on how we avoid future catastrophe.

Joining him to present, Dr Tony Capon will discuss how advances in human health have come at a cost to the planet.

During his talk, Planetary Health: What is it and does it matter? Dr Capon will provide insight into how vaccines, drug treatments and surgical procedures have lead to the exploitation of natural systems.

Dr Capon will argue that pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change are affecting the health of our rivers, oceans and ecosystems

His talk will explore the relationships between the health of the natural world and the health of the human population, while suggesting ways to rectify the problem.

This is the third Raising the Bar event for Orange with both previous events booking out.

Each free lecture features two experts from the University of Sydney. The School of Rural Health has partnered with Raising the Bar to bring the events to regional areas.

To book visit: www.rtbevent.com/orange-dubbo