Tom Oliver

Tom Oliver

Tom Oliver is a Professor in Ecology and Research Dean for Environment at the University of Reading. He regularly advises the UK Government and the European Commission on environmental topics.

Location Reading, United Kingdom

Activity

  • Thanks Richard. Yes, I agree with you on all this. On the identification of vicious versus virtuous cycles, I guess it would be a glib to say we identify the latter as the opposite of the former. But I think it's (unfortunately) true that in the world today there are more examples of the vicious cycles. Incidentally, I can't remember if it's cited omn the...

  • Thanks Richard for your honest reflection. I agree it can be hard not to be daunted at times, and we absolutely need realism about the severity of the 'polycrisis' exacerbated by environmental damage. However, I also think in-hand with realism there is an important role for optimism. I had a go at articulating this nuance in this article 'From Vicious to...

  • Sorry if I was unclear Richard. I was meaning microeconomic constraints here, so for example a household may really want to be environmentally friendly but just can't afford the additional price premium of more sustainable food. In that case, changing their mindset is not the constraint but rather enabling them to have the purchasing power to better reflect...

  • Thanks Julian. I certainly agree that these 'top down' command and control approaches to environmental protection will backfire without appropriate genuine public consultation. Wales is an important area of focus in this respect, also with the low profitability (but long cultural history) of sheep farming that risks displacement from afforestation. It's a...

  • Thanks Richard. Appreciate your points here. Though there is a practical issue with valuing nature too. Of the estimated 8 million species on earth, we have discovered and named around 1 million of them, so understanding what they do and putting an (appropriate) monetary value on it is challenging! On the cat, it certainly brings me instrumental value (as...

  • Thanks for spotting this Richard. We'll get that link amended.

  • I think this refers to Biodiversity Net Gain. Thanks for this introduction Samantha.

  • Thanks Rebecca. I agree- it's not a knowledge deficit we face that can be addressed by science and top-down governance alone. We need wider social change informed by good evidence. Citizen-science/participatory research is a very good way to do that.

  • Thanks Tuwilika, it's interesting (and worrying) to hear about these local issues in Namibia. I'm glad you see the value in systems thinking for helping to find ways to address the polycrisis. Best of luck in your work!

  • Thanks Julian. I agree Wales is progressive in its environmental and future generation policies. The conscious food systems is a UNDP programme and there are lots of events and increasingly training too. You can find more here: https://consciousfoodsystems.org/events/

  • Thanks for these insights. I guess with such large organisations like the civil service it's inevitable there are siloes. Can be quite problematic when the objectives from one department cause adverse impacts on others. In Defra they tried to address this with a 'systems research programme' to help understand tradeoffs and synergies between the objectives of...

  • Yes, important questions. How to set 'boundaries' in system analysis is a big topic. We know we need to take a big picture approach, but too big and you end up including the whole world in your model! As useful question is, is it complex enough to capture the most important and relevant pathways? You want the model to be as simple as possible, but not...

  • I really like this Tavis: "generally people are conditioned to only recognise a select few political-economic-cultural-ideological systems, none of which approach solving our current global polycrisis." Very insightful!

  • Thanks Tavis for the positive feedback. It was hard to know how to pitch the course (it's the first one I've done) and the learners are diverse, so it's really nice to know you find it worthwhile. I agree it only scratches the surface really, so I'm interested to explore how to take this kind of thing further in future.

  • So, the briefing pack was just about the climate risks, so a stronger steer there. The interventions were identified in workshops (with participants and facilitators). I sat in one set of these for Oxford, and the participants (citizens) were the main ones generating ideas. The facilitators mainly helped to ensure they covered the breadth of climate threats in...

  • Thanks Tavis, will look forward to reading that.

  • Great point Kirsi, I agree that a much deeper, more critical reflection on the systems in 'developed' countries is long overdue.

  • Thanks Tavis, I like the example of patching computer code!

  • Thanks Tavis. I certainly agree there are limits on a rights-based legal approach to nature protection. In one sense, giving personhood rights to rivers, mountains, forests etc. (e.g. see here http://harmonywithnatureun.org/rightsOfNature/) might seem progressive, but ultimately an atomistic approach where we treat each entity as a sovereign individual with...

  • Excellent reflections, thanks Alma!

  • Thanks for joining Cornelius!

  • Yes, I certainly agree we need to do more to help people have autonomy over climate adaptation. We just completed this project which you might be interested in: https://www.empower-project.org/ "Empowering citizen and community adaptation to systemic risks from climate change". Open access journal paper here: https://rdcu.be/de9tk

  • Fair points. I'm not rejecting these other levers outright, though I believe it's important that we don't think they are 'sufficient'. For example, biodiversity offsetting can't work by regulation alone, it does need a minimum level of care and responsibility towards nature from all actors. Early cases are showing that, however much the algorithm improves,...

  • Thanks Tavis. Important points. I'm an atheist/pantheist myself but I guess we need to work with the existing social structures somehow though, rather than assuming we can overcome/get past religion before making progress on sustainability? Definitely agree with your last point about distributed authority, I think a more genuine participatory democracy has to...

  • @SylviaDavies @AlisaVolkmann Thanks for these reflections. Sounds like you are on the right track. I admit sometimes it's not obvious what is the most sustainable/ethical option is. E.g. the electric car battery supply chain currently supports unsustainable lithium-cobalt abstraction involving child labour, but the benefits for reducing local air pollution for...

  • Yes, the discussion with Gus Speth is interesting here. He brought in an aspect that I personally haven't thought about/engaged with much. The importance in engaging different religious groups, overcoming polarity and engaging their leaders, as a necessary element on the path towards global sustainability.

  • Absolutely. I think this is why consensus-building approaches from social sciences are first needed set a vision for local landscape design. Sustainable (e.g. 'net zero') landscapes can't be successfully imposed in a top-down way. Of course, there is a big role for the natural sciences in understanding benefits from landscapes, but this needs to integrate with...

  • Maybe not SMART, but sounds pretty wise to me! Glad you enjoyed the course Henry, thanks so much for joining and interacting on it.

  • Good to think critically! It's a science-based course, though acknowledges there are additional insights from introspective approaches to gaining knowledge and experience that might be useful towards achieving sustainability.

  • Good point Rosina. You'll see this sentiment about integrating local knowledge and working in a bottom up way with communities echoed in the quotes by organisations such as the IPCC and Convention for Biological Diversity, cited later in the course.

  • There's an early book by Bill Sharpe, though I'm not sure if he is the originator

  • Lovely to hear this Mac, thanks : )

  • @RachelBusfield Absolutely. EVs may be part of the 'solution' but certainly worth asking deeper questions about our transport systems rather than jumping straight this as a silver bullet. There are many other innovations too (e.g. better public transport, vehicle sharing, remote working etc.)

  • Thanks Tom. Yes, indeed! It needs to inspire behaviour change. Sometimes action, but sometimes stopping doing certain things too I guess! This is a nice paper by Christine Wamsler et al. for how mindsets cascade up to influence system change in case of interest:
    Linking internal and external transformation for sustainability and climate action: Towards a...

  • Sorry Mark! I've been off for two weeks over Easter, but looking over comments now. Glad you found the course useful.

  • Hi Sara, thanks for these positive words. Would it be ok if we include this text as a testimonial on the FL website and our newsletter? "I can see a lot of use for these in my own work in community development and regeneration." It really gets at the heart of why the course was developed. On the latter point, this free toolkit is worth looking at...

  • Hi Sara, Yes I think that's right that the devolved governments are more agile (and arguably somewhat more progressive in their thinking). The Welsh government, for example, have developed some ground breaking legislation with their 'Well-being of Future Generations Act (2015), which has led to some very positive actions so far.

  • Hi Beatriz, If you copy the text on the transcript document you can use paste this into 'Google Translate'. One of the other learners, Colm Clancy, has kindly done this for the Bob Watson audio and sent it over. I've uploaded the translation here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cbh0jMxT815JBHJhOUTiNkRmgfKkHgem/view?usp=share_link Hope that helps, Tom

  • Also interesting to see how you haven't directly linked biodiversity loss to your own wellbeing (i.e. an instrumental link), but it stands on as it's own important endpoint (i.e. not just a means to an end but reflecting it's own intrinsic value- which is a perfectly sound perspective). Perhaps there should be two red boxes, on for 'me, my household and...

  • Thanks for this link Jill. The Council of Canadian Academies looks like a good model and I will certainly look into it further

  • Thanks Iain. Yes, early days. I spent 2 years on secondment with Defra from 2019 helping them to set up a 'systems research programme' https://www.gov.uk/government/news/science-research-programme-launched-to-inform-defra-policy-making. It was an interesting experience, and I have seen some impact on the way they work, but you are right that there is a long...

  • Thank you Ramandeep!

  • Thanks Jill for these very helpful reflections.

  • Thanks Joan. Yes I think it's a good point from Gus that harnessing motivation and leadership from faith communities could be very important for global sustainability.

  • Thanks for the link Richard. Yes, it's a pity more 'mainstream' modelling approaches (e.g. the integrated assessment models used by the IPCC to understand climate impacts on society) don't include feedbacks. I'm actually working on a project now with Bank of England and Defra on the implications of nature degradation for financial stability. I hope we can...

  • Thanks Colm! Not so easy add this onto the course pages now, but if you able to send me the file please then I can put it up on Google Drive and share the link with @BeatrizMerchánDíaz? My email is t.oliver@reading.ac.uk (or feel free to post a link yourself if easier). Cheers!

  • No problem Ruth. Yes, the GO-Science toolkit is a useful summary of methods. Quite accessible, and a good starting point to identify which methods to follow up with I find.

  • Thanks Angie. That's interesting to hear about your NGO experiences.

  • This is a great map Ben! Looks like you got to grips with the software very well!

  • @AngelaAlexander Certainly don't want to give the impression that technological innovation is not important. For example just to consider how we might maintain food supplies in the face of the climate crisis (with severe seasonal weather disruption and possible energy shortages)- new technologies will likely be key. The point is that many focus on the...

  • @BeatrizMerchánDíaz @BeatrizMerchánDíaz I would absolutely agree there are economic constraints on sustainable behaviour that we shouldn't ignore. If we look at how these could be addressed, e.g. welfare and labour policies, and consider the mindset of decisions-makers (e.g. highly right wing mindsets suggest that people are responsible for their own problems...

  • Great example, thanks Jill!

  • Interesting discussion! I would certainly accept the point that participatory processes need careful planning. There is research to show that they can, for example, not always result in equitable outcomes when some people have a 'louder voice', or when certain vulnerable groups are under-represented. There are some promising approaches though, such as...

  • Hi @BeatrizMerchánDíaz , I've looked into this for you and I gather transcripts are available in two places on the same Step as a video. There is a ‘view transcript’ button directly underneath the video (on the left) along with a PDF version found at the bottom of the Step under the heading ‘Downloads’. For the podcasts, a transcript can be found at the bottom...