This is the fifth event in the programme FRONT LINES, BACK YARDS
Monthly online events exploring the local front lines of our multiple crises and drawing on the innovative forms of social and cultural mapping emerging from the backyards created during lockdown.
From Australia to California, Siberia to the Arctic, wildfires have incredible consequences and are a major global environmental issue. Following the widespread devastation in 2020, this event will look at the global reach of wildfires, paying particular attention to their relationship with climate change but also with cultural practice and the impacts they have on ethnic peoples.
This programme chaired by Bob Gilbert brings together a scientist and an artist who will work to present the scale of the problem through contrasting and complementary perspectives, and to also offer some positive pointers for a way ahead:
Dr Thomas E L Smith will begin with an overview of the global situation on bush fires and some of the scientific research being done to map the problem using satellite imagery. He will explore the science of pyrogeography and what it can tell us about environmental change and wildfires. Thomas will discuss his experience of mapping wildfires and chasing them in the field. Case studies include deforestation fires in Southeast Asia, savanna fires in northern Australia, boreal forest and tundra fires in the Arctic, as well as heathland fires in the UK.
Judy Ling Wong will then explore the significance of cultural perspectives about bushfires to our evolving relationship to the environment in the age of climate change. She will also talk about how her personal sensibilities as an artist have shaped her incorporation of ways of being relating to fire, land, nature and people, especially with the devastating experiences of bushfires.
• Tom is a geographer and environmental scientist, specialising in interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the role of biomass burning (wildfires) in the Earth system. Tom enjoys highly collaborative research focusing on greenhouse gas and reactive emissions from wildland fires in savannas, tropical peatlands, UK moorlands, and the Arctic. He is particularly interested in complex interactions between agricultural practices, land degradation, fire emissions characteristics and their associated impacts. Dr Thomas Smith is Assistant Professor in Environmental Geography and a member of the Environmental Economics and Policy Cluster, a part of the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was recently a contributor to an edition of 'Costing the Earth' on Radio 4, speaking on the subject of wildfires.
• Judy Ling Wong, painter, poet and environmentalist, is best known as the Honorary President of Black Environment Network (BEN). Judy is a major voice on policy towards social inclusion, contributing through key national committees and campaigns. She was a Co-Founder of the National Park City Foundation and instrumental in conceptualizing London National Park City. She was awarded an OBE for pioneering multicultural environmental participation in 2000, and a CBE for services to heritage in 2007.
• Bob Gilbert has been a stand-up comedian, community worker, head of a residential field studies centre and Director of Sustainability at a London local authority and has been a long-standing campaigner for inner city conservation and the protection and improvement of urban open spaces. Bob’s books include ‘The Green London Way’, (1991 and 2012) and ‘Ghost Trees’ (2018). His column on urban wildlife has been running continuously in a north London paper for over 20 years. His new book, provisionally entitled ‘The Missing Musk’, will be published by Sceptre in 2022.
Livingmaps Network is an independent not for profit organisation, we receive no core funding. Our main income comes from live events which we have been unable to organise this year. We are asking for donations of £3 – £5 from people who wish to attend our online events to help us cover our running costs. We greatly appreciate your support.
WHEN: February 17th 2021, 18:30 (GMT)