Conversations About The Environment includes the following 5 carefully-edited Ideas Roadshow Conversations featuring leading experts. This collection includes a detailed preface highlighting the connections between the different books. Each book is broken into chapters with a detailed introduction and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:
1.Solar Impact: Climate and the Sun - A Conversation with Joanna Haigh, Professor Emerita of Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College London and Co-Director of the Grantham Institute until her retirement in 2019. After inspiring details about how she got into her field of study and how we can encourage more girls to get more interested in science, the conversation examines her research of the influence of the sun and solar variability on our climate, how energy emitted by the sun in the form of heat, light and ultraviolet radiation warms the earth and drives our climate, how data from satellites and modelling the processes helps us distinguish the warming effects of greenhouse gases from those of natural variations in solar energy, and more.
2.Saving the World at Business School (Part 1) - A Conversation with Andy Hoffman, Holcim Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and School of Environment and Sustainability. Topics of this wide-ranging conversation include the notions of "environmental sustainability" and "big business" which sometimes seem as incompatible as oil and water and ways to make a synthesis a reality by seriously reconsidering the way we currently conduct public policy and even some deep aspects of our current societal values.
3.Saving the World At Business School (Part 2) is an extensive follow-up conversation discussing Andy Hoffman's research and scholarly insights which are extremely relevant to today's society. Andy Hoffman is passionately committed to encouraging fellow academics to play a much stronger role in communicating knowledge, facts and information to the regular public and politicians which has culminated into his two new books The Engaged Scholar and Management As A Calling.
4.Coral Reefs: Science and Survival - A Conversation with Charles Sheppard, Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick. Charles Sheppard has worked extensively for a wide range of UN, governmental and aid agencies in tropical marine and coastal development issues. This conversation explores how Prof. Sheppard is trying to find a way through political shortsightedness, corporate greed and societal indifference to use his experience to make the planet a better place.
5.Ocean Enlightenment - A Conversation with Edie Widder, Founder, CEO and Senior Scientist at Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA). After an inspiring story about how Edie Widder became a seagoing marine biologist and deep-sea diver, this conversation covers topics such as bioluminescence which is a fascinating scientific phenomenon that provides us with a deeper understanding of fundamental biological processes and the development of new programs designed to equip a new generation with the tools they need to deal with the environmental devastation we're facing.
Howard Burton is the founder and host of all Ideas Roadshow Conversations and was the Founding Executive Director of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He holds a PhD in theoretical physics and an MA in philosophy.
