Museum of Natural History on Human Impact on the Environment

“We are committed to raising awareness of the immediate threats to global biodiversity and the climate crisis – this is an urgent issue that needs to be tackled now. During my own research in North Greenland, these high Arctic environments have been irreversibly transformed within the space of three decades, and the pace of change is undoubtedly accelerating." Professor Paul Smith, Director of the Museum of Natural History

Film from The Great Debate; Should We Engineer Our Way Out of Climate Change?

We must reduce emissions of carbon dioxide to avoid dangerous climate change, right? But can we? Is it too late? Should we focus our efforts on adapting to the coming change instead? Or should we engineer the earth system to avoid climate change? Join our panel of experts to debate these points and much more and to give your opinion on how the planet's changing climate should be managed.

Chair: Professor Gideon Henderson

Panellist: Professor Nick Eyre (Jackson Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Energy and Climate Policy)

Panellist: Felix Heilmann (former President of the Oxford Climate Society)

Panellist: Professor Friederike Otto (Acting Director of the ECI)

Panellist: Clare Shakya (Director of IIED’s Climate Change research group)

https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/embed/4b2b5fb5569897b2ed45

Let's Talk About Climate

From 14th September to 2nd November 2019 the Museum of Natural History ran a series of half day workshop for young people focussed on the climate change. As a group they reviewed the evidence first hand, talked to the experts and responded. Over six interactive workshops they learnt about the science of climate change, thought about the how to solve the problem, and discussed how to pass on their message to influence decisions made at individual, local and national levels.

Find out more

https://www.youtube.com/embed/HFSSYrc4_Gs

Dr Shane DuBay is a researcher at the University of Michigan and he is using the Museum’s birds to understand Britain’s polluted past. He uses a photometric called reflectance to measure how dark or light a bird’s belly feathers are and uses this to map pollution through time and space across the British and Irish Isles.

Here’s Dr Chris Stimpson, who uses the Museum’s collections to help identify small bones he has collected from ancient Vietnamese caves. His work, and our collections, help him work out the impact humans have had on animal ecosystems over thousands of years.

Operation Earth

In 2018 we ran a series of 'Operation Earth' live science shows for families exploring the stories and science of the environment, as well as current risks to it's health.

Find out more