Cabot Institute for the Environment blog

It’s a short time since COP26 finished in Glasgow. Many colleagues from the University of Bristol were there to discuss their research and share knowledge with those who are making decisions about policies that impact everyone's futures. When we think about climate change, we often think about the health of the planet and the natural world, but the health of our planet is entwined to the health of the human population too. Here, Elizabeth Blackwell Institute Director, Rachael Gooberman-Hill, gives a timely update on our research looking at the intersection between climate and health. We’re already seeing local and global impacts of climate change on human health. The World Health Organization states that in the 20 years from 2030 to 2050 climate change will cause around 250,000 additional deaths per year, which is a timeframe that starts in just eight years from now. These, arguably preventable, deaths will relate to malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat. Health impacts of clim

  Image credit: Brigstow Institute What is the most extreme temperature you have experienced? Take your time and have a moment to think about it. What was happening that day? Where were you? Which of your senses feature in the memory? Do any emotions come back to you? While you’re thinking about it, I’ll tell you a little bit about the Temperature Life Stories project that I brought to COP26 on 1st November 2021. We all experience temperature differently. The hottest day I remember might be very different from the hottest day you remember. Where we have been, when we were there and our specific circumstances at a given moment all affect the physical temperatures we have lived through. We have lived different temperature life stories. Why does this matter? Even in the UK, in Glasgow where world leaders will be meeting for COP26, which we often think of as being cold and driech, some people will be at risk from extreme temperatures. Meanwhile, for some of us that have always lived in and

  Image credit: Eleanor Frajka-Williams, NOC. Our oceans are crucial in regulating global climate and are essential to life on Earth. The marine environment is being impacted severely by multiple and cumulative stressors, including pollution, ocean acidification, resource extraction, and climate change. Scientific understanding of marine systems today and in the future, and their sensitivity to these stressors, is essential if we are to manage our oceans, and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, these systems are complex – with a vast array of interacting physical, chemical, biological and sociological components – and operate on scales of microns to kilometres, and milliseconds to millennia. To address these challenges, modern marine science spans a wide range of multidisciplinary topics, including understanding the fundamental drivers of ocean circulation, ecosystem behaviour and its response to climate change, causes of and consequences of polar

What a year! Our Institute has accomplished so much, not just from the hard work of the Cabot Institute Team but also the wider Cabot academic community and beyond. We’d like to share with you some of our highlights of the year and say a big thank you to all of you who got involved and supported us along the way.  Cool collaborations  Rising Arts x Emma Blake Morsi  We collaborated with Rising Arts Agency and talented artist Emma Blake Morsi to create three pieces of art around Caboteer’s research on adaptation and resilience. Emma took that research and interpreted it in her own beautiful way to create some art which we put on billboards around the city in the Summer.  Emma Blake Morsi in front of one of the billboards she designed. Cabot Conversations  Adele Hulin and Amanda Woodman-Hardy worked with film company JonesMillbank and a bunch of talented artists, academics and thought leaders to create Cabot Conversations . This series of climate change conversations take place while

  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

Amanda Woodman-Hardy (third from left) with Cabot Institute volunteers In conversation with Amanda Woodman-Hardy, Communications and Engagement Officer at the Cabot Institute for the Environment. What is your role at Cabot Institute? Hi there! I'm responsible for all our communications and running our biggest events and public engagement activities. I’m in a job share with the lovely and wonderful Adele Hulin . How long have you been part of Cabot? I’ve been part of Cabot since the very beginning, 10 years ago! It’s been my baby for sure. I’ve watched the Institute grow, learn valuable lessons, and mature into a beautiful thing. I’d say we’re at the young adult stage now but thankfully past the awkward teenage stage where we were learning who we were and what our purpose was. Now we are moving forward with our awesome tagline - Many Minds, one mission – protecting our environment and identifying ways of living better with our changing planet. What is your background?

  Adele Hulin In conversation with Adele Hulin, Communications and Engagement Officer at the Cabot Institute for the Environment. What is your role at Cabot? I’m a Communications and Engagement Officer, so I create communications campaigns and organise events and public engagement to share the amazing and important research that takes place across the Cabot Institute and to draw attention to the importance of interdisciplinary research in addressing global environmental challenges.  My role involves connecting and collaborating with people in the University, the city, and wider networks to increase Cabot’s impact and raise the profile of the Institute and it's members (Caboteers!). I create content and find new ways to promote Cabot’s Institutes profile, interdisciplinary research, achievements, partnerships, and educational opportunities, and this year I am delighted to have worked with over ten artists to make the Institute's work more accessible to a wide audience.  It’s gre

  Jo Norris In conversation with Joanne Norris, PGR Coordinator at the Cabot Institute. What is your role at Cabot Institute ? I am the Postgraduate Research Coordinator for our Master’s by Research in Global Environmental Challenges . My role works with both current and prospective master’s students, but also involves communicating with academics and the Professional Services teams across the University’s Faculties. How long have you been part of Cabot? I joined Cabot in January 2019, just as the master’s had been approved and was beginning to be put together. It has been a busy but exciting couple of years since then! What is your background? I have a degree in English Literature and had never expected to find myself in an environmental research institute but am delighted that life has brought me here! I spent much of my working career in marketing agencies but left that world to find something more fulfilling. I had always believed that an environmental career wouldn’t b

  In conversation with Dr Taro Takahashi, Theme Leader, and Dr Vicky Jones, Development Associate at the Cabot Institute Dr Taro Takahashi and Dr Vicky Jones Why did you choose to become a theme leader at Cabot Institute?  T.T: While working for Cabot in my previous role (Director for the Cabot Master’s programme), I saw first-hand the breadth of food-related research across the university. This made me wonder — wouldn’t it be rewarding to work more with these talented colleagues and help develop a research community that can transform the agri-food landscape in Bristol and beyond? In your opinion, what is one of the biggest global challenges associated with your theme?  V.J: The biggest and very broad challenge is how to feed a growing population sustainably. We know that the food system is a major driver of climate change through changes in land use and production of greenhouse gases – as well as the depletion of freshwater resources and pollution of ecosystems. To meet the targ