SCIENCE & ACTION
for a rapidly changing world in crisis
RESOURCES
Most of us haven't had enough opportunity or support to deeply understand the Climate and Nature Emergencies and what we can do about them... and because of that I feel that sharing knowledge, resources, inspiration and ideas has an underestimated power. I've increasingly found myself creating briefings, factsheets, simple infographics, resource lists etc in response to themes or questions that come up frequently, so I'll be sharing those via this page.
Please use and distribute these resources freely (though it would be lovely if you could credit Dr Abi Perrin).
Please use and distribute these resources freely (though it would be lovely if you could credit Dr Abi Perrin).
RESOURCES BY ABI
INFOGRAPHICS
These graphics below (and more) are available via the folders at tinyurl.com/PerrinCliComms
MORE RESOURCES
These documents were created to support campaigns, activists and community groups.
RECOMMENDED SOURCES
I'll post information and refections on a range of topics via the blog sections.
For information about the crises:
For information about the crises:
- Scientists for XR have curated a selection of trusted resources on the state of and threats to Nature and a stable climate.
- Our World In Data: open access statistics and visualisations on climate, nature and much more.
- Planetary Health Check: information and visuals on the status of Earth's vital signs.
- Earthly Institute hosts informative writing and social media without the disinformation.
- Carbon Brief covers the latest developments in climate science and policy.
- DeSmog does investigative reporting and research in this area and has a very handy Climate Disinformation Database.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
In the recent past I was a full time lab-based scientist. I started out as a PhD student in 2010, focussing on the molecular biology of infectious diseases, with a particular focus on how malaria parasites invade, take over and destroy red blood cells. You can see some of my videos of that process in action here.
In 2020 I made a transition out of medical microbiology, aiming to apply the research skills I'd learned to an area more directly linked to the climate and nature emergencies and how we might address them. I moved to York to study cyanobacteria, the organisms that 'invented' photosynthesis as we know it. They play hugely important roles in global carbon cycling, aquatic ecosystems and healthy soils, and yet there's so much about their biology we still don't understand. My work was to create resources that would help unlock our understanding of their biology. Those resources, insights and methods are openly available via our preprint, lab website and data repository.
My final contribution to the field of research biology took the form of a co-written review article about how protists - an entire kingdom of life that includes malaria parasites and many photosynthetic microbes - are changing amidst the unfolding climate and nature emergency. Our closing message was that, much like the incredible life we study, the scientific community can - and must - evolve to meet the existential challenges of our age. You can read the full text in BMC Biology here.
