*This is part of a series called ‘Thinking About Cities’ which are parts of a book I am working on about urban green space that I’ve decided to cut out of the book manuscript.   Picture a large modern city. Undoubtedly, your mental image includes a lot of grey. Grey buildings. Grey roads. Maybe...

Continue reading

 To be clear, I am not a virologist, nor am I a public health expert. But I do know how to analyze patterns of evolutionary diversity. Research into the SARS-CoV-2 virus that has given rise to the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly enhanced our understanding of global disease dynamics, mRNA vaccines and public health responses to a global crisis. But the COVID-19 pandemic also has the potential to provide fundamental insights into basic ecological and evolutionary…

Continue reading

   Guest podcast by UTSC Biology students: Gillian Sauder and Nyx RaduBurrow-dwelling solitary bees determine their entry into winter diapause based solely based on temperature, this raises the question; are rising global temperatures delaying diapause in these bees? And how will these diapause delays impact their limited energy reserves and survival rates? Find out on the first and only episode of the hit podcast that one person described as "as educational and depressing as a…

Continue reading

Guest post by Nina Adamo, Masters of Environmental Science Candidate at the University of Toronto-ScarboroughWithin the surge of news coverage for the COVID-19 pandemic, you may have heard about the increase in the reporting of wildlife sightings in some urban areas across the globe, such as in this CBC article. With less people venturing outside of their homes in efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the media in multiple countries around the globe…

Continue reading

The world is awash in information. Never before have people had as much access to humanity’s collective knowledge as we do today. You want to know when the Normans conquered England? How many people use Weibo? Or what Machu Picchu would have looked like in its glory days? Simply pull out your phone and ask Siri.  This cornucopia of knowledge should mean that people are in the position to make the best decisions possible. From the…

Continue reading

Guest post by Marylouisse Feliciano, recent MEnvSc Graduate from the University of Toronto-ScarboroughCan health-related ecosystem services actually increase health inequality? What does the uneven distribution and varying quality of urban green spaces say about social justice in urban environments? Not all park spaces and green spaces are created equal. As urbanization marches forward, steps have to be taken to address inequalities and prevent this pattern from continuing.  Health, urbanization, and parks: what we know             Nature…

Continue reading

Guest post by Kate Davies, a recent MEnvSc Graduate from the University of Toronto-ScarboroughShe could feel the pull in her body. It was time. She had done this journey before, but even the first time it felt familiar. Like a memory that she was born with. She was called Bright because she was known by the others for her deeply golden tail feathers and her clear eyes. Bright was late leaving her winter home this…

Continue reading

Guest post by Connor Kendall, recent MEnvSc graduate from the University of Toronto-ScarboroughThe world is currently in the midst of the sixth mass extinction where global vertebrate populations have declined by 60% over the past 40 years and human pressures are impacting a vast 75% of the Earth’s surface1. If we continue along the path of business-as-usual, we will have a lot more to be concerned about than just living underwater in the next 30…

Continue reading

Guest post by Daniel Stuart, MEnvSc Candidate in the Department of Physical & Environmental Science at the University of Toronto-Scarborough During the final year of my undergraduate program the idea of hiking all 900-or-so kilometres of the Bruce Trail somehow lodged itself in my head. It was 2010 and I was twenty-one years old, immersed in the idealism of that age and on the doorstep of a career as an ecologist. At the time hiking…

Continue reading

I am a politics junkie. I am genuinely fascinated by politics and political systems, despite their irrational and often ineffective nature. Yet the world is awash with existential crises and solving them (or at least reducing the worst of their impacts) must come from the political systems that exist. So the question for biodiversity scientists is, how politically engaged do we need to be and how do we affect policy change regardless of the political…

Continue reading