Blogs and Podcasts

There’s a magic about whales and dolphins. Catching sight of them, even just for a second, feels like glimpsing a different world. Like seabirds, cetaceans bridge the gap between life on land and life below the waves, reminding us of the rich biodiversity beneath the water’s surface.

A month has passed since the world’s leaders met in Glasgow for COP26. There were high hopes that global leaders would grasp the opportunity to produce a clear route map to keep global warming below 1.5°C by the end of the Century. The reality is that the global leaders, and their negotiators, did leave Scotland without resolving some fundamentals and left the world on a course towards at least 2.4°C.

Today we’re hosting the Marine Matters podcast from the COP26 Global Day of Action in Glasgow. We join the ‘biodiversity block’, to chat to others who have ventured into Glasgow on this VERY windy, rainy Saturday to raise their voices for wildlife and to hear a bit more about why prioritizing nature is so important in combatting climate crisis.

Seabird islands are fascinating places. Their unique ecology means you never know what to expect, as the composition of plants and animals on the island can change dramatically from year to year. Growing up in North Berwick, a town in southeast Scotland, the small island of Craigleith has always loomed just off the shore, so close and yet inaccessible to me. The public are not generally allowed to venture onto this mysterious island, so when the chance for me to carry out my Honours project there materialised, I couldn’t resist.