episode 20

20. Biodiversity and us

Did you know corals call out for the new spours to land on them?

Did you know ecologists predicted pandemics like COVID19 before most of us even heard of the word pandemic?
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Policy makers talk about the dual crises of climate change and nature – its loss, degradation and pollution.

We talked about climate change quite a bit on this podcast in terms of how we heat our homes, how / what we drive and daily updates from the Conference of Parties for the Climate Change Convention that took place in November 2021 in Glasgow.

We also talked about nature – how we produce our food, how we can reduce polluting our air and water.

But as we said in the last episode when talking about adapting to climate change – it is really silly to think about climate change and nature as if they are different issues.

In this episode we are joined by Kate Jones, who is a Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity at University College London. We talk about well ecology and biodiversity and the intricate links between the state of nature, the state of climate and human health and wellbeing, and the new centre she will be leading at UCL called People & Nature – creating a promising opportunity for many to work together for the benefit of all, bats and all.

*** The views we and our guests express in this podcast are our own. ***

reference list

Some early warnings of COVID19 pandemic – for lessons for future: 

https://thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist-covid-19/there-were-at-least-three-papers-in-2019-that-said-coronaviruses-might-be-a-real-problem-in-south-china-2

https://media.nature.com/original/magazine-assets/d41586-020-02341-1/d41586-020-02341-1.pdf