Lecture: Professor Kathy Willis at the ZSL, "Biodiversity in a warmer world: Lessons from the past"

On the 8th of March 2011, Professor Kathy Willis was a speaker at the Zoological Society of London's Climate Change in Africa, a part of their Communicating Science series.

"Global warming has increasingly become a topic of concern for the scientific community and society as a whole. Climate change and its expected consequences for the planet conjure up images of glacial melting and polar bears sitting on ridiculously small icebergs. Yet scientific projections unequivocally indicate that Africa will be hit hardest by the impacts of climate change as compared with other continents. For Africans, climate change is expected to bring greater incidence of disease, reduced crop production, and increased occurrence of extreme weather that could worsen droughts and flooding. Other risks of climate change in Africa include rising sea levels, greater water stress and famine, loss of species, and increased conflicts and wars. This meeting will aim to review the different challenges posed by climate change in Africa (e.g. environmental, ecological, societal, economical). The current set of strategies in place to mitigate and adapt to the expected impacts will also be explored."

Talks and Speakers
Richard Washington - Oxford University
Wendy Foden - IUCN
Kathy Willis - Oxford University
Katherine Homewood - UCL