My background is in Earth Sciences and I have been increasingly concerned about the state of the planet.
I am available for talks and discussions on environmental issues having campaigned for Friends of the Earth and volunteered for The Woodland Trust and The River Stewardship Company.
Here is my experience:
Environmental Qualifications:
BA Hons Degree in Earth Sciences – University of Oxford (1987-1990)
PhD in Evolutionary Biology – University of Cambridge (1991-1995)
Environmental Work:
Campaigning for Friends of the Earth (1998-2003)
Working for the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (1998-2001 – running a nationwide club for children)
Working for the Lane End Farm Trust (2016-2017 – supporting those with learning disabilities to access the countryside and to do activities such as organic vegetable growing)
Volunteering for the River Stewardship Company (2018)
Volunteering for the Woodland Trust (2019)
Campaigning for Friends of the Earth (2021)
Media Experience:
TV:
Series Consultant for CBBC Series – Dinosaur Detectives – commissioned by Steve Hocking, ex-Blue Peter Editor – I conceived the idea and wrote the content for the 13 episodes which aired in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa in 2000
Live TV Work:
Blue Peter and BBC Breakfast
Other TV Work:
The Time The Place (ITV) and Tomorrow’s World (BBC)
Radio:
Mental health advisor for BBC Radio Sheffield
(I did a series of programmes for the Toby Foster and Paulette Edwards Shows)
Talks:
Dr Dunk and the Dino Diggers Down Under – about an expedition with the Australian Army, looking for dinosaur remains in the outback.
The Evolution of the First Multi-celled Animals on Earth – about an expedition to the world famous Burgess Shale site, high in the Canadian Rocky Mountains
Volcanoes of New Zealand – about an expedition to the North Island
Looking for Gold – about an expedition to the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Canada
Personal Commitment to Green Living:
Buying loose fruit and veg at supermarkets and taking my own cloth bags, avoiding products with excess packaging, using refill shops
Recycling paper, card, plastic, polystyrene, glass, cans and metals
‘Mending and making do’ with clothes – darning socks, trousers and shirts, and buying some second hand
Washing clothes with an eco egg that saves using harmful chemicals, on a 30 degree wash and dry the clothes naturally
Composting vegetable and fruit peelings, food-soiled cardboard
Conserving water – purchasing water butts to collect rainwater, adding a ‘hippo’ to the toilet cistern, adding flow reducers to showers and taps
Using the Ecosia search engine which results in the planting of trees
Using rechargeable batteries for all electric devices and never using single use batteries
Purchasing 16 solar panels that provide twice the electricity that I use in a year
Installing extra thick loft insulation
Installing cavity wall insulation
Installing draught excluders
Fitting low energy lightbulbs
Driving a fully electric car – no harmful emissions and powered by renewable energy
Tree planting for the Woodland Trust
Litter picking – the streets and woods around my home and for the River Stewardship Company
Conservation work – maintaining fish passes for the River Stewardship Company and creating bug habitats, growing wildflowers, putting up bird boxes and feeding and watering birds and hedgehogs in the garden. Creating a hedgehog house and putting up a bat box.
Installing an air source heat pump.
Eating a plant-based diet.
Pledging to abstain from flying
My carbon footprint has been calculated at about 2 tonnes per year, which has been offset to zero, using ‘Climate Hero’