For the final episode of this season of Earth Shakers, your host, eco-campaigner and non-profit CEO Lizzie Carr sits down virtually with David Lindo, also known as The Urban Birder.

David is a broadcaster, writer, naturalist, photographer, urban tour leader and of course, a birder. David spends a large amount of his time promoting bird conservation and seeks to bring awareness and education to global citizens alike, encouraging everyone to step outside, wherever they are in the world to enjoy some urban birding and connect with nature. 

During the pandemic lockdown, record numbers of people around the UK have taken up birding, the RSPB has seen a 69% increase in its website traffic and we have recently seen the Big Garden Birdwatch, the largest citizen science project in the UK. Birding is suddenly cool and long time birder David Lindo is here to tell us more...

In this episode Lizzie and David discuss how he has made a career out of birding and conservation, dispelling the myths of the stereotypical ‘anorak’ birders, the challenges facing the bird populations and David passes on some tips for first time urban birders!

Resources David mentions in this episode:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/ 

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/ 

https://www.wwt.org.uk/ 

https://theurbanbirderworld.com/ 

http://theurbanbirder.com/

https://www.instagram.com/theurbanbirder/

This week Earth Shakers host, Lizzie Carr,  is in the hot seat while producer Stevie takes over host duties asking Lizzie about her world as you may not see it through the lens of her non-profit and social media channels.

Get to know Lizzie as she discusses the challenges that she has faced in the last year as a result of the pandemic; how she has shifted her business, her climate change campaigning, her community engagement on plastic, while also being pregnant, giving birth and managing health anxiety. We pack a LOT into this episode as Lizzie lets us letting you behind the scenes of her life as an intersectional campaigner, podcaster and of course, new mum.

For more information about Lizzie’s non-profit Planet Patrol head over to https://planetpatrol.co to see how you can get involved - from community clean-ups, fundraising, downloading their app to report litter and being part of their Global campaign to collect 1 million pieces of litter!

As a special bonus for this episode, Lizzie has asked 3 campaigners for their top tips especially for you for 2021, thinking about ways that you too can be an Earth Shaker!

Campaigners you hear from are:

Lungi Mchunu @lungisails

Ella Daish @Elladaish

Elie Gordon @elioutside

This episode was produced and hosted by @steviekentproductions.

Richard Thompson is one of the world’s leading experts on plastic pollution. In 2004, he published the first paper describing the long-term accumulation of microscopic fragments of plastic in the environment, naming them ‘microplastics’. He and his team have been at the forefront of microplastics research and have shown their global distribution, the potential for transfer from the gut to the circulatory system, and their role in the transport of chemical contaminants. 

In this fascinating episode, activism and science come together as Lizzie and Richard get to grips with some of the big questions around the way we produce, use and dispose of plastic; why there are huge benefits to using plastic and in manufacturing, some disadvantages of living plastic-free that would in fact have equally negative effects on the environment, the impact of the inevitable and current consumption of plastic via the food chain, and what should we expect when something says “biodegradable” in its marketing.

Resources:

2004 paper coining the term “microplastics”: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/304/5672/838 

2011 Paper on the Accumulation of microplastics globally: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es201811s 

Royal Society Publishing - Plastics Issue compiled by Richard Thompson: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/2009/364/1526 

Article mentioned by Richard published by SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies): https://www.sapea.info/topics/biodegradability-of-plastics/