Breathing Earth

Humans are causing CO2 to build up in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and destroying forests. But this build-up is not as fast as it should be, because vegetation and oceans remove some CO2. This free service from the natural world varies from year-to-year with changing weather patterns. The Met Office makes predictions of these as part of monitoring the CO2 rise. In this talk, we will understand why the rise needs to stop altogether within 20 years if want to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

When I started my PhD it seemed that 'rewilding' was old news, but rewilding has now become a hot topic of debate, touching the lives of people across the country. One of the main questions in Britain, and especially England, is how rewilding can or should fit with and alongside people. Do humans need to stand aside so that ecosystems can recover? Or is the inclusion of people the only way of finding meaningful and lasting solutions to the environmental problems that we face?

Reducing our use of fossil fuels won’t be enough to prevent climate change; we also need to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Planting the right tree in the right place can provide the best solution to this challenge while generating many other benefits such as wildlife habitat and places for people to enjoy nature. However, planting the wrong trees in the wrong place can actually make things worse than not planting them at all! How do we get this right?