Why does engaging with a local climate volunteering group matter? Anne Robertson, Professor of Ecology

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Anne Robertson, a professor of ecology at the University of Roehampton in London, speaks about why fieldwork is essential to understand what is happening to our rivers; how cutting back on screen time could help youth volunteering, extended droughts and flooding are proof of the climate change; why is it we don't know where our rivers are coming from and why have COPs lost their purpose and what can be done about that.

Water ecosystems are in the centre of her research and teaching, including freshwater biodiversity in groundwaters and the impact of climate change on disturbances of freshwater ecosystems.

Highlights of the podcast include:

6:30: state of our rivers globally

8:10: river contamination in Zambia: https://www.birdlife.org/news/2025/03/07/environmental-disaster-unfolds-in-zambia/

9:10: should industrialisation and pollution go necessarily hand in hand?

10:10: education, motivation and mobilisation to act on saving the environment

11:10: do we need another pandemic to reconnect with nature?

14:35: Rights of Nature: https://www.garn.org/rights-of-nature/

https://www.lawyersfornature.com/blog/rights-of-nature-in-the-uk-from-vision-to-viability

17:08: about the River Ouse, Sussex: https://loveourouse.org/

18:22: guardians of rivers and AI driven sensors for citizen science

https://sheffield.ac.uk/news/cloud-based-ai-helps-reduce-river-pollution

19:58: More than Human - exhibition in the Design Museum, London: https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/more-than-human

21:00: worldviews on nature and the rights of nature movement

24:58: about the state of our groundwaters

26:30: where is our water coming from

30:42: Thirst, in Search of Freshwater  - exhibition of the Wellcome Collection, London  https://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/thirst-in-search-of-freshwater

31:47: slowing down the water and setting fresh flowing rivers:

https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/nature-and-biodiversity/nature-restoration-regulation_en

35:12: overstepping planetary boundaries: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html

38:38: tension between the words of sustainable and development

39:30: C letter Rapid-Fire words:

• Climate scepticism
• Carbon sink
• Collaboration
• COP movement

45:36: teaching sustainability and the problem with siloed education

48:00: taking up volunteering opportunities 

54:00: reducing footprint, reducing consumption

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This was Gabor Sarlos, with Ready, Steady, Green!

podcasting: Ready, Steady, Green
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