Video Presentation Recording:
On Sunday, April 11th 2021, TSS hosted a presentation by one of Canada’s key biodiversity specialists, Dr. Risa Smith, who helped to clarify the possibilities for local and national science-based initiatives to address climate change. Nature-based solutions are now widely accepted around the world as essential tools for addressing both the Climate and Biodiversity crises.
Dr. Smith discussed nature-based solutions in policy and practice. She explained what to do and what to avoid when it comes to ‘working with nature’ to address climate change and she providde insights for determining when policies are appropriate or just plain ‘green-washing’.
Dr. Risa Smith is currently Chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas, Climate Change Specialist Group.
Over the past 25 years she has been instrumental in developing Canada’s positions at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Risa lives on Galiano Island and is a founding member and current Director of both the Galiano Conservancy Association and the Salish Sea Renewable Energy Coop.
David Denning, our host, is a Salt Spring-based science educator, naturalist, and climate activist. As an active member of the Salt Spring Community Energy Society, the TSS Education Committee and the Salt Spring Island Conservancy, he applies much of his energy toward community education about climate change, renewable energy, natural history, marine life, and citizen science to understand and protect natural environments.