Ep.5 – Butterflies, bees, and climate change with Peter Soroye (Conservation Biologist)

In this episode, I speak with U of Ottawa PhD candidate Peter Soroye about living in Northern Ontario, the great outdoors and how the bees and the butterflies can tell us a lot about climate change! Join Julie’s World for additional content! Go to https://www.patreon.com/juliesworld

Timestamps:

• Peter’s educational background (01:01)
• The Northern Ontario connection (02:20)
• Peter’s background with nature (03:24)
• Growing up in nature influenced Peter’s career choice (04:28)
• Moving to Ottawa from a rural community (05:53)
• The Ontario Rangers (06:57)
• How Peter’s family instilled a strong work ethic (08:50)
• Adolescent rebellion (09:52)
• The enjoyment of grad school (11:45)
• Peter’s educational path and future (12:58)
• What is ‘macroecology’? (13:55)
• Peter’s research focus (15:51)
• Invertebrate research, and catching butterflies (16:32)
• Monitoring the butterfly population (17:51)
• What can butterflies tell us about climate change? (20:39)
• Monarch butterflies (22:13)
• Monarch migration and climate change (23:47)
• Red flags based on current data (24:23)
• What’s going on with the bees? (25:56)
• The decline of bumblebees (28:07)
• How to make your property more welcoming to bees (30:09)
• How to bypass bylaw issues by creating gardens (31:46)
• The other pollinators that Peter studies (32:32)
• Moths are often overlooked (33:00)
• Moths and global change research (33:49)
• What tools are used to predict the rise of extinction? (35:08)
• When do scientists ring the alarm bells? (37:33)
• Do scientists get heard by policy-makers? (39:28)
• Bee messaging has been very successful (40:54)
• Peter is the “cool guy” among friends (41:47)
• Peter’s passion for photography (42:37)
• Learning about birds during quarantine (43:50)
• Morale during a pandemic (44:36)
• Peter’s passion for music (46:10)
• Old school vs new school rap (55:21)
• Creating rap tracks (49:33)
• Quick chat about basketball (50:50)
• Travel for research and conferences (52:19)
• Calling Ottawa, “home”. (53:49)
• Final remarks (54:18)

Peter Soroye’s website: https://www.petersoroye.com/ Peter Soroye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeterSoroye

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