This event will discuss the emergence of global climate change. Human activities have altered many important biogeochemical cycles and changed land-use on a global scale. These global changes have led to harmful algae blooms, loss of biodiversity, and to the current climate crisis. Many of these global changes have accelerated since the 1950, which has been proposed as the start of the new geological time period called the Anthropocene. This talk will cover some of these global scale changes and implications for environmental well-being.
Jesse Vermaire is an Associate Professor with the Institute for Environmental and Interdisciplinary Sciences and cross-appointed with the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University. He is a limnologist and a paleolimnologist interested in the impacts of human activities on freshwater resources. Jesse and his research team are active in the areas of human impacts on near-shore habitat in lake ecosystems, microplastic pollution of freshwater, and the environmental impact, recovery, and resilience of aquatic ecosystems.