Prestigious lecture by IIED chair now available worldwide

Last December, IIED chair Dr Tara Shine gave a televised talk about climate change as part of the Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution. The lecture is now available for global audiences.

News, 08 February 2021
Dr Tara Shine conducts an experiment for her televised lecture

IIED chair Dr Tara Shine conducts an experiment as part of her 'Up in the air' lecture for the prestigious science series by the Royal Institution (Image: Royal Institution)

IIED chair and environmental scientist Dr Tara Shine delivered a Christmas Lecture in last year’s prestigious science series by the Royal Institution. The talk 'Up in the air' is now available from the Royal Institution website for global audiences.

The 2020 theme for the UK’s flagship science lectures was ‘Planet Earth: A user’s guide’. Three expert scientists, from different fields, revealed their own guide to understanding the planet and explained how to live more sustainably from three different perspectives: earth, oceans and the air.

Helen Czerski, physicist and oceanographer from University College London, and Chris Jackson, geologist and professor at Imperial College London, also delivered their lectures over the preceding days. Jackson was the first Black scientist to give a Royal Institution Christmas Lecture.

In her lecture, the IIED chair addressed the issue of the Earth’s atmosphere and examined what elements can be found in the air that we breathe to survive. She looked at carbon emissions and the human influence on the atmosphere and its impact on our ecosystems.

The lectures are also available to audiences in the UK via the BBC iPlayer.  

An experienced policy adviser and climate negotiator, Shine has 20 years’ experience working with governments, multilateral agencies and civil society. She is also director and co-founder of Change by Degrees, a social enterprise that delivers sustainability advice.

She was named as chair of IIED’s board of trustees in December 2019, and succeeded former Costa Rica vice-president Rebeca Grynspan last September.

The Christmas Lectures were started in 1825 by one of the world's most influential scientists, Michael Faraday. It was a time when organised education for young people was scarce and established an exciting new way of presenting science. He presented 19 series himself.

Among the world-famous scientists who have given the lectures are Nobel Prize winners William and Lawrence Bragg, Sir David Attenborough, Carl Sagan and Dame Nancy Rothwell.