Environment

James Deutsch directs the Africa Program of the New York based Wildlife Conservation Society, with 1,100 staff implementing conservation work in 20 African countries. James studied philosophy at Harvard and biological anthropology and zoology at Cambridge King's College before holding a research fellowship at Churchill College and a lectureship in conservation biology at Imperial College, London. In Africa he has researched rhinos, kob antelope, and cichlid fishes and taught high school and field courses. Before coming to the Wildlife Conservation Society four years ago he ran the UK's national fundraising charity for AIDS. Speakers in this video are Jill Fredston, Professor Bill Adams and Professor William Sutherland.

Professor Bill Sutherland wrote The Conservation Handbook and the snappily titled From Individual Behaviour to Population Biology. He is interested in finding means of providing free conservation books to developing countries and enabling practicing conservationists to learn from each other. In September he came to Cambridge from the University of East Anglia to become the new Miriam Rothschild Professor in Conservation Biology at the Department of Zoology.

Professor Bill Adams works on relations between society and nature, particularly on rural development and conservation. Much of his work focuses on Africa. His work on the history and development of nature conservation, particularly about sustainability, is shaped by a primary interest in the power of social constructions of nature to affect the way the environment is understood, transformed and managed. His most recent book is Against Extinction The Story of Conservation.

Currently Co-Director of the Alaska Mountain Safety Center, Inc. Jill Fredston is one of North America's leading avalanche specialists, as well as being an accomplished rower and explorer. Her book Rowing to Latitude Journey along the Arctic's Edge won the 2002 National Outdoor Book Award for Literature. Her most recent book Snowstruck In the Grip of Avalanches was published in November 2005. Her talk entitled A View from Water Level will discuss what makes a place wild as well as the shifting baselines of wilderness and touch on her most recent work studying polar bears, shrinking habitats, adaptation of species and reconciling science and policy.

Drivers may face limits on the carbon they emit from their cars, which could affect the number of journeys they can make, said The Right Honourable David Miliband MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, at a free public lecture at the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Law. An option would see drivers buying and selling their carbon allowances, if the Government succeeds in persuading the EU to extend the emissions trading scheme to the roads. Motorists who emit too much carbon would have to buy pollution permits from greener drivers. Miliband's lecture The Transition Economy - a future beyond oil. was the Dr S. T. Lee Public Policy Lecture at the Faculty of Law. He was introduced by the University's Vice-Chancellor Professor Alison Richard. Aged 41, Mr Miliband is seen as one of the brightest of his generation of Labour MPs. He worked for Mr Blair's policy unit when the Labour Party was still in opposition and became head of Downing Street's policy unit after the 1997 election. The S. T. Lee lectures were established in 2003 thanks to a benefaction from Seng Tee Lee, the business executive, philanthropist and Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. Each lecture considers aspects of scientific, medical or technological research and developments that are likely to have significant implications for public policy over the next decade. This was the third lecture in the series. Previous lectures have been given by Professor Sir David King, Chief Scientific Adviser to the government, and the Nobel laureate, Sir John Sulston.

There is much discussion of the dangers of climate change, but what is the scientific basis for the predictions? This talk will review the science behind the headlines. Dr Emily Shuckburgh is a Fellow in mathematics at Darwin College and a Natural Environment Research Council Fellow based at the British Antarctic Survey. She is involved with the media, regularly contributing to discussions of climate change and other environmental issues. (Photograph courtesy of Howard Guest.)