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>> Environmental science to me is gaining an understanding of nature so that we can hope
to sort of live in the environment we live in, in a sustainable and long-term way.
I just -- I love understanding.
I love knowing how things work and how the ocean here is interconnected
with the shoreline, how people are involved in that.
The whole system.
I think the infinite complexity of it is just fascinating.
This is where we analyse sediment that we take out of lakes.
So, basically, mud.
Really, really old mud.
I feel like a time traveller.
I can walk one metre from here to here, and I'll step back in time tens of thousands of years.
>> For me, environmental science is really about how do we save the world?
That's how we do it.
We get the science and we use it to do good things.
My research is about how do we understand the new business models
to help us put environmental science into practice.
For example, we can revolutionise the way solar industry is working
because you can print solar cells.
And what that means is we can print this and put it on basically anything you want to.
>> We make very colourful solutions and make into devices like this, which are flexible.
>> This we can put anywhere, so it's really fascinating stuff.
>> Environmental science is a mating of all these different sciences.
It's ecology.
It's physics.
It's maths.
It's computational biology.
I think students are really motivated by having science that's really applied
and that can be used now for things that see are really important.
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Well, I like data and models, but the great thing is that I can use them in a way
that is really constructive and that answers problems now.
>> When we were in the field, we took some images with a thermal camera,
and we actually discovered that koalas, during hot weather, they'll move into trees
that have really cool tree trunks.
So by hugging these cool tree trunks, they can stay cool even when it's really hot.
>> Extreme temperatures, heat waves, impact everything.
They impact people, they impact plants, they impact the soils.
Now, climate change is described as a wicked problem, and that means we have
to include all the different disciplines.
My research provides lots of examples of high impact events,
and what I do is use those examples when I'm teaching
to show how climate change impacts real people, the natural systems.
Science is the key, the foundation, to understanding these environmental problems.
If we want to solve them, it's actually a people problem.
We need to engage with industry.
We need to engage with policymakers if we want to solve these wicked problems.
>> Every environmental problem has so many faces.
Environmental science is intensely collaborative.
That's where the real fun and the challenge is of getting all these different people in a room
who are experts in their own specialties and now have to work together on really big problems.
>> Well, I started my PhD a week ago in the area of urban climates.
I'm here to meet one of the people here, Claire.
>> This roof has won national landscape architectural awards for its design.
So we have architects, people from councils, the general public come and visit,
and they can see what a green roof can do for them and understand the benefits.
>> I work in the industry in green roof for more than five years in Beijing.
When I go back to the industry, I can improve the industry in China.
>> Environmental science is one of the few careers that you can have
which actually gives back something to communities, to places, and our planet.
So environmental science in a changing climate is something we can do
to make the future a better place.
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