Environmental Change – Cabot Institute for the Environment blog

#CabotNext10 Spotlight on Environmental Change

Posted on November 27, 2021April 6, 2023 by janet.crompton

Dr Alix Dietzel

In conversation with Dr Alix Dietzel, co-theme lead at the Cabot Institute

Why did you choose to become a theme leader at Cabot Institute?

It is important to me to have diverse voices within the Cabot Institute, which has typically been focused around the work of scientists. It has become increasingly clear that although the science around environmental change is definitive, policy makers are not taking radical enough action. Social scientists and those from the Arts faculty specialise in areas like justice, policy making, social change, creative engagement, and history of activism.

These areas are critical for tackling environmental change – and it is my mission to ensure their voices are heard. I have already invited three more people from these disciplines onto the steering group.

I am also keen to work with the city of Bristol – for the Cabot Institute to have a role to play in local environmental policy making, but also to elevate the voices of those most vulnerable to environmental change in our city. We hold a lot of power in the institute, and we need to use this for good, helping those with less power be heard and seen. Their lived experience is important to me, and I aim to ensure we pursue a just transition that is socially inclusive for all in the city of Bristol.

In your opinion, what is one of the biggest global challenges associated with your theme? (Feel free to name others if there is more than one)

Climate change, biodiversity, just transition.

As we are looking into the future, what longer term projects are there in your theme?

We have over 200 members working in various areas, but we all share a common goal – to influence policy makers to make the right decisions and protect vulnerable populations across the globe.

Across the portfolio of projects in your theme, what type of institutions are you working with? (For example, governments, NGO’s)

A mix – local and national governments, the MET office, NGOs, etc.

Please can you give some examples and state the relevant project.

I am currently working on research on a just transition in Bristol, working together with the Bristol Advisory Committee on Climate Change, the One City Boards, the Mayor, the Bristol City Council and community groups including Livable Neighborhoods and the Black and Green Ambassadors.

What disciplines are currently represented within your theme?

We are very diverse! A heavy STEM population but with many social scientists and artists beginning to come along as well.

In your opinion, why is it important to highlight interdisciplinary research both in general and here at Bristol?

Because we cannot solve complex environmental problems from one perspective alone – these are issues that will need insight from many different disciplines. In addition, we thrive when we work together, inspiring one another to leave our comfort zones and try something new.

Are there any projects which are currently underway in your theme which are interdisciplinary that you believe should be highlighted in this campaign?

Waves of change.

Is there anything else you would like to mention about your theme, interdisciplinary research and working as part of Cabot Institute?

We are keen to influence policy at the University, city level, and globally – so please come and speak to our experts if we can help!

For more information, visit Environmental Change.

The future of sustainable ocean science

Posted on May 24, 2019April 5, 2023 by janet.crompton

Westminster Central Hall

May 9^th ushered in the 9^th National Oceanography Centre (NOC) Association meeting, held among the crowds, statues, flags, and banners, at Central Hall in an unseasonably chilly and rainy Westminster. But it was the first such meeting where the University of Bristol was represented, and I was honoured to fly our own flag, for both University of Bristol and the Cabot Institute for the Environment.

NOC is – currently – a part of the Natural Environment Research Council (one of the UK Research Councils, under the umbrella of UKRI), but is undergoing a transformation in the very near future to an independent entity, and a charitable organisation in its own right aimed at the advancement of science. If you’ve heard of NOC, you’re likely aware of the NOC buildings in Southampton (and the sister institute in Liverpool). However, the NOC Association is a wider group of UK universities and research institutes with interests in marine science, and with a wider aim: to promote a two-way conversation between scientists and other stakeholders, from policy makers to the infrastructure organisations that facilitate – and build our national capability in – oceanographic research.

The meeting started with an introduction by the out-going chair of the NOC Association, Professor Peter Liss from the University of East Anglia, who is handing over the reins to Professor Gideon Henderson from Oxford University. The newly independent NOC Board will face the new challenges of changing scientific community, including the challenge of making the Association more visible and more diverse.

Professor Peter Liss, outgoing chair of the NOC Association,
giving the welcome talk

As well as the changes and challenges facing the whole scientific community, there are some exciting developments in the field of UK and international marine science in the next two years, which are likely to push the marine science agenda forward. In the UK, the Foreign Commonwealth Office International Ocean Strategy will be released in the next few months, and there is an imminent announcement of a new tranche of ecologically-linked UK Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for consultation. On the international stage, a new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change special report on the Oceans and Cryosphere is due to be released in September; the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) report on deep sea mining will be announced in the next few months; and the next United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC ) Conference of Parties (COP) climate change conference, scheduled for the end of this year in Chile, has been branded the “Blue COP”.

The afternoon was dedicated to a discussion of the upcoming UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, starting in 2021. With such a wealth of national and international agreements and announcements in next two years, the UN Decade will help to “galvanise and organise” the novel, scientific advice in the light of ever increasing and cumulative human impacts on the oceans.

Alan Evans, Head of the International and Strategic
Partnerships Office and a Marine Science Policy Adviser, giving a presentation
on the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development

The UN Decade is aligned strongly with the key global goals for sustainable development and has two overarching aims: to generate ocean science, and to generate policy and communication mechanisms and strategies. The emphasis is being placed on “science for solutions”, bringing in social scientists and building societal benefits: making the oceans cleaner, safer, healthier and – of course – all in a sustainable way.

Research and development priorities include mapping the seafloor; developing sustainable and workable ocean observing systems; understanding ecosystems; management and dissemination of open access data; multi-hazard warning systems (from tsunamis to harmful algal blooms); modelling the ocean as a compartment of the Earth system; and pushing for a robust education and policy strategy to improve “ocean literacy”.

Whilst these are exciting areas for development, the scheme is still in its very early stages, and there’s a lot to do in the next two years. As the discussion progressed, it was clear that there is a need for more “joined-up” thinking regarding international collaboration. There are so many international marine science-based organisations such that collaboration can be “messy” and needs to be more constructive: we need to be talking on behalf of each other. On a national level, there is a need to build a clear UK profile, with a clear strategy, that can be projected internationally. The NOC Association is a good place to start, and Bristol and the Cabot Institute for the Environment can play their parts.

Lastly, a decade is a long time. If the efforts are to be sustained throughout, and be sustainable beyond The Decade, we need to make sure that there is engagement with Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and mid-career researchers, as well as robust buy-in from all stakeholders. Whilst there are several national-scale organisations with fantastic programs to promote ECRs, such as the Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS) fellowship scheme and the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) doctoral training program, this needs to be extended to ambitious international ECR networking schemes. Together with the future generation of researchers, we can use the momentum of the UN Decade make marine research sustainable, energised and diverse.

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This blog is written by Dr Kate Hendry, a reader in Geochemistry in the University of Bristol School of Earth Sciences and a committee member for the Cabot Institute for the Environment Environmental Change Theme. She is the UoB/Cabot representative on the NOC Association, a member of the Marine Facilities Advisory Board (MFAB), and a co-chair of a regional Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) working group.

A dirty relationship

Posted on May 17, 2013April 20, 2023 by janet.crompton

I went to see Cabot Institute Artist in Residence Neville Gabie’s Archiving Oil installation in the Basement Stores of Geology last night (16 May 2013). It’s pretty cool to be down in the depths of the Wills Memorial Building at the University of Bristol and I can safely assure you I saw no ghosts. I started off by going into a lift and as the doors opened into the basement, there was an eerie darkness with a bright light emanating from a creepy corner. A man dressed in white was in front of me and he was pouring a sticky black substance into buckets. A distinctly thick, gloopy and dirty sound filled my ears. I promise you it wasn’t a ghost but the image in front of me was quite harrowing.

We use oil in everything we do and here was oil in its bare nakedness – black, shiny, thick, dirty. I stopped and stared for a while, mesmerised by the horribleness of the clean white background being splatted with this dirty substance. When you see oil like this, you know deep down that there is something quite sinister about it. I moved on to the next area, walking past rows of wooden drawers filled with items including fossils, meteorites, and geological rock formations. These things had been dug out of the ground and were possibly millions of years old…just like oil.

Around the corner was a group of people on hand to tell you about the exhibition including the organisers Neville Gabie (Cabot Institute Artist in Residence), Merle Patchett (Cultural Geographer at the Cabot Institute, University of Bristol) and Claudia Hildebrandt (Curator of the Geology Basement Stores). I was given a torch and ushered into a dark storage area with wooden shelves towering above me. In every nook and cranny was an interesting oily artefact with a story to tell. The accompanying brochure put a personal touch to these stories especially when you find out each artefact and story comes from a Cabot Institute researcher whose goal is to do research to tackle the challenges of uncertain environmental change.

Uncertain environmental change has in large part been caused by oil. Cities have grown, populations have risen, people want and need ‘stuff’ made from oil like cars, mobile phones, medicine, beauty products, clothing, toys, packaging etc etc…Oil was once embedded in bedrock and it is now deeply embedded in our lives.

My favourite bit of this dark storage area was a row of bottles of oil from different places in the world. All different colours and interestingly all different smells, some potent, some sweet. The smell of the Arabian oil – a strong diesel type smell – brought back memories of my childhood when I would greet my dad at the door when he came home from work. He would smell of this oil as he worked as a mechanic and it was the thick gloopy Arabian stuff that could have been used for car and lorry engines that my dad would work on day in and day out. However much I dislike oil and what it has done to the planet, I cannot deny the fact that I came from someone who had his hands covered in oil and therefore oil is as much a part of my history as it is anyone elses.

And this I realised is what the exhibition aims to do. It aims to show us that our lives are all affected by oil and in so many different ways. We may like to think we are ‘green’ and doing the right thing but actually we have a deeply embedded dirty relationship with oil that is unlikely to go away anytime soon…

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If you missed out on this experience and you want to understand your connection with oil, Neville will be holding the exhibition again as the ‘Oil Common Room’ with a few new art pieces added. This will be held during BIG Green Week over two evenings in June.

Images from the exhibition on Flickr.

This article was written by Amanda Woodman-Hardy, Cabot Institute

Follow me on Twitter @cabotinstitute @Enviro_Mand