Webinar “Post Lockdown Path for Climate & Biodiversity Action” hosted by WI & ESAI

A very thought provoking and stimulating webinar on the topic of “Post Lockdown Path For Climate & Biodiversity Action” was hosted this morning by DCU’s Water Institute as part of the Environmental Sciences Association of Ireland’s online summer webinar series. Moderated by Dr. Anne Morrissey and Dr. James Carton from DCU, the two invited speakers presented on two related themes about how us humans are managing biodiversity and the link to our health and climate change. John Gibbons, an environmental journalist with a blog at ThinkOrSwim.ie, spoke about the danger of unsustainable agriculture to our planet and how this is linked to climate change and the current Covid-19 pandemic, while Dr. Peter Stuart, a lecturer with IT Tralee, spoke about the reasons why pandemics such as SARS, MERS, and now Covid-19 occur, the link to One Health and what we need to do to prevent these pandemics occurring. Finally, the Chairperson of the ESAI, Dr. Liam Carton summarised the points of the speakers and said that while awareness is the first step, we now need to take action. These themes will be further addressed at the forthcoming Environ2020 conference taking place on line in October 2021. A recording of the presentation can be found here.