McGill Podcasts » Environment: Recent Episodes
McGill University
Dr. Anthony Ricciardi talks about “biological invasions” and how they can cause extinctions, disrupt ecosystems, alter natural resources, threaten human health, and even pose national security problems. He further discusses how ecologists are planning “assisted colonization” for species to rescue species threatened by climate change.
The Oil Sands of Alberta present many environmental challenges. Stan Boutin focuses on how terrestrial ecosystems and their components can be conserved in this heavily industrialized landscape.
McGill Geography professor Lea Berrang-Ford is one of the principal researchers in the Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change project. By working closely with Indigenous peoples and their organizations in Uganda, Peru and Canada, the project aims to create a research program that will help strengthen Indigenous peoples’ health systems in light of a rapidly [...]
A former two-time Canadian National Debating Champion while pursuing his Honours BA and MA at McGill in the 1990s, Gerald Butts knows a thing or two about the power of words. But he also knows how to put words into action – especially when it comes to issues of sustainability.
Arctic regions are experiencing high degrees of environmental change, including thinning of arctic sea ice, increased deposition of airborne pollutants, as well as evidence of a longer growing season. Marianne Douglas uses examples from our research on lakes and ponds in the Canadian High Arctic to show some of the practical applications of paleolimnology in [...]
Canada’s western interior has one of the world’s most variable climates, with severe drought and torrential rainstorms experienced in recent years. The extreme climate events in this region have been some of the most costly natural disasters in Canada history. Climate models suggest that this hydroclimatic variability could be amplified by global warming — presenting [...]
Students in the McGill School of Environment are developing Geospatial Web 2.0 (Geoweb) technologies to help a group of citizens living near the Riviere Noire identify local water management issues and collect field data for watershed management.
Des étudiants de l’École d’environnement de l’Université McGill aident la Corporation de développement de la Rivière Noire, en Montérégie, a développé un outil visant à encourager les citoyens à participer à la surveillance environnementale de leur territoire.
Reverend Canon Sally Bingham gives a religious perspective on global warming and climate change. This lecture was presented by the Faculty of Religious Studies and the McGill School of Environment.
Warwick Vincent explains how global climate change will be increasingly accompanied by discontinuous shifts in aquatic ecosystem structue and function.
Almost mythical creatures, seahorses have the potential to capture the public imagination and inspire action for marine conservation.
Motor vehicle numbers have been increasing more rapidly than the human population globally, with profound resource use, environmental, and health and welfare impacts at the local, regional and global scales. The global motor vehicle fleet now stands at nearly one billion, with growth occurring most rapidly in the low-income countries. This talk by Prof. Madhav [...]
The sudden appearance and devastating human and environmental effects of diseases like SARS, Ebola, and AIDS underscore our need to understand the ecology of infectious diseases. Given that monkeys and apes often share parasites with humans, understanding the ecology of infectious diseases in non-human primates is of paramount importance. In this mini-Enviro lecture, Prof. Chapman [...]
Prof. Andrew Gonzalez presents examples of how ecosystems can become imbalanced and the resultant effects this can have on their structure and function.
Prof. Nigel Roulet discusses ways to alter the current prognosis for Earth’s climate by examining the relationships among greenhouse concentrations, population, consumption, energy, the economy, and human well-being.
People depend on the services provided by ecosystems, including food, freshwater, biodiversity, places for recreation and climate regulation. Dr. Elena Bennett’s talk focuses on how we can sustainably feed the growing global population without undermining ecosystems’ ability to provide other ecosystem services that we also want.
Driven by expanding human travel and trade, thousands of species of plants, animals and microbes are spreading into new regions faster and farther than at any other time in earth’s history, often wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem. In this lecture, Prof. Anthony Ricciardi gives an overview of what we know and don’t know about [...]
For the last 20 years, Colin and Lauren Chapman have conducted research to measure the extent to which human actions are having a negative effect on the forests and freshwater systems of the tropics, research which they summarize in this lecture for Classes Without Quizzes.
Food insecurity is a huge global problem. McGill Bioresource Engineering Professor Vijaya Raghavan is revolutionizing farming practices in rural India. By reducing crop loss, he is helping thousands of people.
Bruno Tremblay from McGill’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences examines the truth and fiction of melting arctic glacial ice.
In this installation of “The Cutting Edge”, chemistry professor Christopher Barrett describes an emerging new guiding principle for materials development at McGill, based on bio-mimicry and self-assembly as an inspiration and a toolbox.
Dr. Andrew D. Miall (Professor of Geology at the Geology Department, University of Toronto) presents six popular myths that complicate the development of good public policies, though they may make the arguments for protecting our environment stronger. This lecture was recorded as part of the Royal Society of Canada’s “The Cutting Edge” seminar series.
Justin Trudeau, son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre E. Trudeau, discusses the necessity of individual action and stresses the need for increased environmental awareness within the Canadian government.
What is a perfect storm? To an atmospheric scientist, it is a storm in which several factors come together to make it especially catastrophic. The 1998 Ice Storm was a perfect storm and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was another.
Biocarburants, changement climatique, coût croissant de l’énergie, crise alimentaire mondiale, tels sont les champs d’intérêt du Pr Don Smith, directeur du Département de sciences végétales, dont les équipes de recherche s’attaquent aux problèmes les plus pressant de la planète.
As part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, the McGill School of Environment hosts a debate on whether environmental models have sufficient predictive power to move politicians and the public to act.
Biofuels, climate change, rising energy costs, and the world food crisis – meet Plant Sciences Chair Don Smith, whose research teams are tackling the world’s most pressing problems.
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Professor Bruno Tremblay, one of Canada’s leading researchers on global warming, goes to the Canadian Arctic to measure sea ice melt and predicts an ice-free Arctic in summer.
Dr. Donald Smith is James McGill Professor and Chair of the Department of Plant Science. His research interests are in the area of plant ecophysiology.
Maude Barlow, co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, a group looking to stop the world commodification of water, and author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Fight for the Right to Water, discusses the water crisis in Canada and around the world.
Distinguished American environmentalist James Gustave Speth, Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale, presents the Beatty Memorial Lecture.