The Ecology and Conservation Studies Society Free Public Lecture - Effects of pollutants from road traffic on natural habitats and risk to nature conservation sites.
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street
No booking required
Effects of pollutants from road traffic on natural habitats and risk to nature conservation sites.
Free public lecture part of the series Energy and Nature.
Much of our energy use involves the generation of “greenhouse gases” and the resulting climate change is harming nature, from the loss of sea ice for Polar Bears to the bleaching of coral in the tropics. As climate changes, species die out in places that become unsuitable and colonise newly available places, but not all are able to do this. These effects are predicted to be large, but our use of energy can also have more direct effects. Air pollution from fossil fuel use can harm sensitive plants, so changing vegetation composition and the habitat for other species. Strip mining of coal and oil shales can scar the landscape, and oil spills can harm sea life. Chernobyl and Fukushima led to large scale evacuation, but we cannot evacuate the wildlife. Sustainable energy requires substituting fossil fuels with sources more directly generated from the sun, such as wind, biomass, solar thermal and photovoltaics. It’s not enough to act locally whilst we trade with others who have not changed, so we need to account for the consequences of local consumption and trade, not just of production. Even then, sustainable energy sources can affect nature; do we want huge monocultures of biomass crops or equally large solar arrays?
Contact name:
Ecology and Conservation Studies Society