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Our Power, Our Planet
April 22nd is Earth Day, a day dedicated to celebrating year-round environmental protection movements. This year’s theme is “Our Power, Our Planet” highlighting the impact of collective climate action.
For 2025, Earth Day Canada encourages centering action around Biodiversity citing a strong desire among Canadians for access to information on this topic and its crucial role in supporting food security and climate resilience. Read on for examples of how UBC faculty and students use diverse research outputs to share important tools and developments in solving a global emergency.
Interdisciplinary Solutions to Complex Problems
Thinking Climate Change is a series of five interviews conducted by Katherine Bowers, Director of UBC’s Centre for European Studies and current CENES department head, during her time as a British Academy Visiting Fellow at the University of St. Andrews. At less than 30-minutes long, each podcast episode offers bite-sized looks into interdisciplinary approaches to climate change with topics ranging from Earth Science, Paleoecology, Art History, Geochemistry, Paleoclimatology, and Social Anthropology.
In The Extinction Paradox, UBC Geography professor and 2018 Wall Scholar, Jessica Dempsey, provides a snapshot of her research surrounding biodiversity loss despite the continual creation of environmental laws and policies. In this three-minute video, Dr. Dempsey uses the woodland caribou as an example of the power governments have on environmental protection.
Undergraduate students at UBC are also significant contributors to open climate research, creating interactive educational resources like Secret Seaweed. Created by Biology 320 student, Emma Hu, this game allows people of all ages to learn more about the variety of seaweeds and seagrasses that inhabit the Pacific Northwest, while also understanding more about their importance within local ecosystems and our own lives.
Explore more student works in the UBC SEEDS Sustainability Program collection to inform and inspire your Earth Day activities.
Join the Paper Pledge for the Planet cIRcle Campaign
Are you a UBC faculty member, researcher, or postdoctoral student publishing climate change research? Learn how you can join the global campaign, Paper Pledge for the Planet, by making your research openly available in cIRcle.
Visit our Submissions page for deposit instructions for all UBC community members or contact us.
Further Reading
UBC Earth Day Stories. UBC News, April 2021. Highlights the work UBC researchers are doing to restore ecosystems.
UBC Biodiversity Days. UBC Botanical Gardens, 2025. Month-long events happening in May at the UBC Botanical Garden.
2025 Events. UBC Sustainability. List of sustainability-themed events hosted both on and off-campus.