Professorial Inaugural Lecture No. 3 - Recording

Many thanks indeed to Profs. Kate Arnold and Jon Ensor for delivering two fantastic lectures this week on their respective career paths and future plans. From the foraging habits of pub goers to self-tuning guitars, it provided a fascinating insight into the different routes that can be taken on the way to reaching a professorial academic post in our Department. 

If you were not able to join us, you can watch the recording of the Prof. Inaug. Lecture No. 3: Prof. Kate Arnold / Jon Ensor.

The next installment of the series will be held on Weds 8 May, 15:00-16:00 in ENV005, followed by refreshments in the Foyer. There we will hear from Profs. Sarah Bridle and Andy Dougill. If you need the calendar invite to be resent, do let Chloe know (environment-pa@york.ac.uk). 

DEG Seminar

Date / Time: Tuesday 16th April at 12:05

Location: Hybrid - in person (ENV/005) and Zoom.

Speaker: Dave Tickner

Title: A bad scientist’s view of how science can do more to help bend the curve of freshwater biodiversity loss

Open

Blurb

Dave trained as a geographer and began his career as a policy adviser in the UK environment ministry. He then completed a PhD in freshwater sciences from the University of Birmingham before joining the WWF. As their Chief Freshwater Advisor, he advises river and wetland conservation programmes in the UK and internationally, engages governments and companies on water-related issues, and leads research into global freshwater challenges and solutions. In his seminar, he ponders whether we know that scientists have found more species of fish living in our rivers and lakes than in the world’s oceans? Or that freshwater habitats are home to one third of all vertebrate species? Or that the global freshwater wildlife stock index has fallen more than twice as fast as the indices for land and ocean habitats? Reversing the freefall, or “bending the curve”, of global freshwater biodiversity while also managing rivers, lakes and aquifers for human benefit is one of the great environmental challenges. In this seminar, he will tell the story of efforts to develop and implement an Emergency Recovery Plan for freshwater biodiversity. He will also discuss how the science community can be more impactful in stimulating the changes needed to address the global biodiversity crisis.

Sustainability Education Conversation

Date / Time: Wednesday 17th April at 12:05

Location: Zoom

Speaker: Dr Andy Brookes

Title: Developing a sustainable mindset - our role as educators?

Blurb

Open

Contemporary society is facing multiple global crises yet it is failing to take sufficient and meaningful action to bring about substantive change. There is plenty of sustainability talk, but not enough action! An example of this collective failure is that global temperatures have continued to rise with 2023 being the hottest on record. In this session Andy Brookes will present some ideas about how we can reframe the sustainability problem and its underlying causes. This framework, a ‘sustainability transitions paradigm’, can also provide a useful lens for reflecting on our role and responsibility as higher educators.