Emerging Environments

In this episode, we connected with Toronto-based artist, community builder, and urban rewilder, Jode Roberts. For over fifteen years, Jode has been developing national programs and campaigns at the David Suzuki Foundation. As the leader of the organization's Rewilding Communities program, he has led the development of dozens of engaging initiatives like the Butterflyway Project, the Rewilding...

In this week’s episode we are speaking with Dr. Mike Wotton, a Research Scientist with the Canadian Forest Service. He is currently stationed at the University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design under the Institute of Forestry and Conservation. Dr. Wotton's research focuses on developing process-based models of fuel-moisture exchange, fire ignition,...

In this episode we are speaking with Professor Steve Cooke of the Department of Biology and the Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Science at Carleton University. Steve’s research group engages in both science and social science approaches to developing solutions to problems facing fish and other aquatic organisms. This work includes perspectives from integrative biology, freshwater...

Welcome back to another episode of Emerging Environments. In this episode, we are talking with wildlife veterinarian and conservationist, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. Dr. Gladys, as she is known, is the founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health, an award winning NGO that protects endangered gorillas and other wildlife in Uganda while promoting sustainable tourism using a One Health appr...

In this episode, we are speaking with Dolf DeJong, Chief Executive Officer of the Toronto Zoo. Dolf has had an exciting career at the intersection of conservation, public spaces and education. Dolf joined the Toronto Zoo in 2018 after acting as Vice President and General Manager of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre. At the Toronto Zoo, Dolf has focused on strengthening the zoo’s relatio...

Today we are speaking with Joseph Romm, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media. Joe holds a PhD in physics from MIT and has authored numerous articles and 10 books on climate change, clean energy, and communications. In the 1990s, he worked on climate solutions at the US Department of Energy, and helped to run the Office of Energ...

In this episode we are speaking with Adam Sobel, Professor of Applied Physics, Mathematics and Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. Adam is an atmospheric and climate scientist and his research focuses on tropical meteorology and extreme weather events, particularly hurricanes. Adam is also actively engaged in public outreach through media interviews, op-eds, podcasting and his...

In this episode we are chatting with plant community ecologist, Professor Jenny McCune of the University of Lethbridge. The goal of Jenny's research is to determine what factors drive the patterns and long-term dynamics of plant community diversity and composition within landscapes dominated by humans. Her research group uses field surveys of forests, grasslands, or savannahs to identify which...

Today we’re releasing a special episode in response to recent changes to environmental policy in Ontario. To understand these changes and their implications we had a conversation with Dr. Connie O’Connor, the Director of the Ontario Northern Boreal Program with Wildlife Conservation Society-Canada.  Before joining WCS-Canada, Connie completed her PhD at Carleton University under the supervision of...

Today, we are chatting with Dr. Nicholas Rivers, Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. His research focuses on the economics of Canadian environmental policy, particularly decarbonization policies. Nicholas actively engages in the public discourse on climate change mitigation in Canada and contributes his expertise to the policy research organizat...

In this first episode of season 5, we are speaking with Dr. Sarah Finkelstein, professor and Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto. Sarah’s research group seeks to better understand climates of the past and the drivers of climate and ecological change over the past 12,000 years. Studying paleoclimate involves collecting and analyzing geologic records and Sarah’s gr...

Today we’re speaking with Dr. Peter Stoett. Peter is Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at Ontario Tech University. His main research interests include international relations and law, global environmental politics, and human rights, and all of the nuanced intersections between these themes. Prior to joining Ontario Tech University, Peter was Director of the Loyola Sustainability...

In today's episode we’re speaking with Dr. Jessica Lee. Jessica is a British-Canadian-Taiwanese author and environmental historian, and winner of the 2019 RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Prize. She completed her doctorate at York University in environmental history and aesthetics, focusing on the history of Hampstead Heath, an urban park in London England. During her doctorate, she was a visiting s...

Welcome back to another episode of Emerging Environments. Today we are chatting with Jason Clark, the National Director of Climate Change Advocacy at the Insurance Bureau of Canada and the Chair of Climate Proof Canada, a national coalition of insurers, municipalities and not-for-profits that advocates for climate change adaptation measures to protect Canadians and their property from extreme weat...

Today on the podcast, we speak to Dr. Gwynne Dyer. Gwynne is a British-Canadian military historian, author, professor, journalist, broadcaster, and retired naval officer. Gwynne received his PhD in 1973 from King’s College London, and went on to create several popular television documentaries, including the miniseries “War”, which received an Academy Award nomination. Gwynne is now a syndicated co...

In this episode, we connect with Dr. Natalie Ban and PhD student, Jade Steel. Natalie Ban is a professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. Natalie’s research encompasses the broad field of marine ethnoecology. Specifically, her group focuses on coastal and marine conservation and fisheries and the social-ecological systems that connect them. Her group’s work int...

Today we are chatting with Dr. Hansi Singh, climate scientist and co-founder and CEO of Planette, a climate tech start-up. Hansi was formerly an Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria. During the pandemic she began working on a research project that evolved into Planette and she recently decided to leave academia and dedicate her time to growing her business. In our conversation with Ha...

In this episode, we are speaking with Andrea Olive, a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Her primary research and teaching interest is in environmental policy and politics, primarily with respect to wildlife conservation in the prairie regions of Canada and the US. She is the author o...

We are thrilled to have Dr. Faisal Moola as the first guest for our 4th season of the podcast. Faisal is an Associate Professor at the University of Guelph in the Department of Geography, Environment & Geomatics. As a professor, his research focuses on forest conservation and management, Ecology and ethnoecology of plants, environmental policy and Indigenous-led conservation, and he has been p...

Welcome back to the final episode of Season 3 of Emerging Environments. In this episode we continue exploring the power of story-telling with award-winning film producer and director, Caitlin Starowicz. Caitlin has over 10 years of experience in television and film, from comedy to drama to documentary. Her extensive documentary work spans broad environmental themes including conservation and clima...

On this episode we connected with Dr. Anne Toomey. Anne is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist with interests in how people connect to their natural environment and the role of scientific research in supporting that connection. Currently she holds the post of Assistant Professor at Pace University’s Department of Environmental Studies and Science, where she teaches courses on sustainabilit...

Joining us on the podcast today is Dr. Kane Stone, a research scientist in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kane completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne on the impacts of stratospheric ozone depletion on climate. He then moved to MIT as a post-doc in Susan Solomon’s Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Change group and...

We are delighted to share our interview with Dr. Steve Easterbrook, Professor of Computer Science and Director of the School for the Environment at the University of Toronto. Before coming to U of T, Steve was a faculty member at the University of Sussex and then a lead scientist at the NASA Independent Verification and Validation Facility. Karen first met Steve when I was a visiting graduate stud...

Today we welcome Dr. Hanna Morris. Hanna is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto with research interests in climate change media and communication, culture and politics, and transnational climate movements. Previously, Hanna was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also completed...

Christie Whelan is the National Manager of Species at Risk Recovery with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). She completed her Bachelor of Science in Biology at Queen’s University, and her Masters degree in Biology at Florida Atlantic University. Prior to her current role, she was a Science Advisor and Coordinator for the department of fisheries and oceans Canada (DFO). In these roles at...