How have plants adapted over centuries or millennia to survive and recover from human interference? David Moreno-Mateos and his team are analysing tree species in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest to find out, and to help inform and improve future restoration practice.
News
Why ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves are a Trojan horse to hide humanity’s destruction of nature
In a thought-provoking feature for The Conversation, Dr Rich Grenyer, Associate Professor in Biodiversity and Biogeography, examines the ethical and ecological concerns surrounding de-extinction, arguing that the allure of reviving species like dire wolves risks diverting attention from the ongoing human-driven destruction of the natural world.
Why Africa's heatwaves are a forgotten impact of climate change
Recent summers have demonstrated dramatically that heatwaves are not only deadly, but they are already being influenced by human-induced climate change. In this guest post for Carbon Brief, Luke Harrington and Friederike Otto explain why extreme heat events in sub-Saharan Africa are not routinely monitored, meaning that heat-related deaths are chronically underreported - putting even more people in danger.
IN THE MEDIA
Al Gore joins GOTO Climate Action Summit
Al Gore, the Former US Vice President, was the keynote speaker at the Oxford MBA Global Opportunities and Threats (GOTO) programme Climate Summit. In 2020 GOTO was co-led by Aoife Brophy Haney, lecturer in Innovation and Enterprise at the Smith School, and focused on the theme of climate action. The keynote lecture recording and transcript are available online.
IN THE MEDIA
Dr Raghav Pant Highly Commended in the 2020 Vice-Chancellor Innovation Awards
Congratulations to Dr Raghav Pant (Senior Research Associate, Environmental Change Institute) who has been Highly Commended in the Early Career category of the Vice-Chancellor Innovation Awards 2020 for his work on 'New modelling tools to help governments and decisions makers minimise the risks from infrastructure failures'
NEWS
EU makes world's biggest 'green recovery' pledge - but will it hit the mark?
After 90 hours of intense negotiations, European Union leaders reached a COVID-19 recovery deal that included devoting nearly 550 billion euros to green projects over the next seven years - the largest single climate pledge ever made. With comment from Brian O'Callaghan, researcher at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. [Reuters]
IN THE MEDIA
Eyes in the sky: Investors reach for new tools to gauge climate change risk
A growing network of asset managers, academics, start-up entrepreneurs and campaigners are working to harness an armada of recently deployed satellites to better predict the economic impact of global warming. At the forefront of this work, the Spatial Finance initiative - led by Ben Caldecott - explores the integration of geospatial analysis into financial decisions for information markets, financial products, and risk management. [Reuters]
IN THE MEDIA
Treat the System, Not the Symptoms: Covid-19 lessons for the Climate Crisis
The business response to Covid-19 can teach us vital lessons about the climate emergency, say Aoife Brophy Haney (Smith School and Said Business School) and Peter Drobac (Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship) in the Independent. Three features of business responses offer critical insights for ways to accelerate the response to the climate crisis: people, place and partnership.
IN THE MEDIA
Immediate action needed to stem the flow of plastic into the ocean, finds report
A new analysis by The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ, in collaboration with the University of Oxford, the University of Leeds, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Common Seas, found that the annual flow of plastic into the ocean could nearly triple by 2040. The release of this report coincides with the publication of 'Evaluating Scenarios Toward Zero Plastic Pollution', in the journal Science and co-authored by Richard Bailey (Professor of Environmental Systems).
NEWS
Dr Emma Howard awarded the Royal Meteorological Society's prestigious Malcolm Walker prize
Dr Emma Howard, recent doctoral graduate from the African Climate team in SoGE and member of the UMFULA research project, has been awarded the Royal Meteorological Society's prestigious Malcolm Walker prize.
NEWS
Pioneering food systems teaching programme steps into the virtual sphere
In response to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, the Interdisciplinary Food Systems Teaching and Learning (IFSTAL) programme held its first online summer school to resounding success at the end of June 2020. IFSTAL is coordinated by the Food Systems Transformation Group within the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford.
NEWS
Reducing the carbon footprint of academic travel post COVID-19
Prior to the global pandemic, researchers identified an uncomfortable truth: the very meetings and events meant to support the fight against climate change were themselves causing vast greenhouse gas emissions through international air travel. Building on learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of Oxford researchers have identified new measures, published this week in the journal Nature, that may reduce the carbon footprint of conference travel by up to 90%.
NEWS
