When: Tuesday 14 October, 4pm

Where: Main Seminar Room, 1st floor, David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ

Join us at 4pm on Tuesday 14 October for a discussion between several authors of Scientists on Survival: Personal Stories of Climate Action.

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In this impassioned anthology of essays, twenty four voices from Scientists for XR detail their personal responses to the planetary emergency and the path that led them to become activists. The book contributors are scientists from diverse disciplines, ranging from experts at renowned institutions to students just starting their careers.

Whether their inspiration comes from education or activism, family ties or the work environment, the scientists writing here record what drives them, what non-violent direct action looks like to them, what led them to become interested in the environmental crisis that threatens us all and what they see as the future of life on Earth. From biologists to mathematicians, physicists to biochemists, ecologists to zoologists, each one is on a path to communicate the story behind the irrefutable science that drives them.

Speakers:

Dr Viola Ross-Smith studied zoology here at Cambridge and became a seabird ecologist, before segueing into science communications via tackling misconceptions about gulls. She is Science Communications Manager at the British Trust for Ornithology, and copes with the impartiality of her day job by moonlighting as an activist outside hours.

Dr Pete Knapp is an air quality scientist turned filmmaker. His current film ‘Fires and Fascism’ shows wildfires extend beyond climate change, and involve big business, organised crime, and the rise of the far right. It shows how community activities, direct action, and protest may lead to a more hopeful future.

Issy Stephens is finishing her PhD at Birmingham. Her focus is the sustainability of materials, and on the side she does a lot of writing about the state of the battery industry, and loves to plan and go on adventures to places without flying.

Dr Tristram Wyatt did his PhD in zoology at Cambridge. Until retiring, he was associate professor at the departments of continuing education and zoology at Oxford University. He’s an award winning author now turned activist scientist (and occasional standup comedian).

Dr Abi Perrin is a research scientist turned climate and nature communicator and activist. Aiming to bring science to the spaces it most urgently needs to be understood and acted upon, Abi’s current focus is on creating trainings, workshops and resources for a range of audiences, alongside establishing community renewable energy projects.

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