Just back from an adventure at Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Dr. Nikhil Advani wanted to share his thoughts on climate change adaptation.
Like many scientists, Dr. Advani is on the lookout for new ways to communicate and deliver his science to a broad audience. Dr. Advani found podcasts as one innovative avenue to share his science when he appeared on the podcast America Adapts to discuss his work on adaptation at the World Wildlife Fund where he is the senior program officer for adaptation. It’s a forum he encourages other scientists to utilize.
“I never really listened to podcasts until I recorded this one, now I’m hooked,” he said of the experience.
The World Wildlife Fund has a presence all over the world and is a leader in adaptation planning. Some of the species they are currently working on include: African elephants, Asian elephants, snow leopards and mountain gorillas. Dr. Advani explains that each of these species has undergone a vulnerability assessment; a key climate planning tool that details the vulnerability of that species.
Dr. Advani and podcast host Doug Parsons, even discuss the challenges and opportunities of working with such charismatic megafauna. Nikhil determines, definitely, that pandas will not become an invasive species in a warming world. Good to know. Other topics covered include crowdsourcing as a way to to empower local communities to help gather critical information to be used in future adaptation planning.
Podcasting has quickly become a popular platform to discuss ideas in depth. A podcast encourages a more robust conversation where you can really dig into a topic. Unlike a webinar or even a journal article, a podcast provides a give and take environment to learn more about an issue. Dr. Advani noted that so much information was covered in his conversation on America Adapts that he now directs people straight to his podcast when they want to learn more about what WWF is doing on climate change adaptation.