Michael Bradley will give an illustrated presentation entitled Forests in the Anthropocene Era to the Sunshine Coast Natural History Society at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3 at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt. Guests welcome.
Anthropogenic climate change is putting unique pressures on forested ecosystems worldwide, as they have to cope with the effects of rising levels of carbon dioxide and increasing human population.
These conditions are creating new and usually destructive pressures.
Forests are essential to protecting our environment, as they, along with oceans, protect us from the full climate impact of our greenhouse gas emissions, by absorbing approximately half of them. How long can they continue to do this?
This presentation will explore the pressures currently facing the world’s forests and the global carbon balance of which they form a crucial component. The role of our coastal temperate and Canadian boreal forests will be covered. It will introduce the idea that humans and their impacts have become so significant that they can be considered to represent a new geological age, the Anthropocene.
Bradley has been responsible for the technology and sustainability activities of a major B.C. pulp and paper producer for more than two decades. In 2000, he was a founding member of the Joint Solutions Process, the partnership between environmental groups and industry, which ultimately led to the ground-breaking Great Bear Rainforest agreement.
Currently he is a participant in the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, a multi-stakeholder process trying to apply a similar solutions based approach to sustainable forestry across the Canadian Boreal Forest. He was a member of a panel convened by the provincial government to recommend an approach for the province in dealing with climate change.
