As part of Sustainability Week at TWU, you're invited to a special lecture by Drs. Barbara J. Astle, Shane Durbach, and Laura A. Onyango on "Planetary Health: impacts from plastic pollution and the microbiome menace." 

Come hear about the emerging field of planetary health that encompasses many facets of planetary well-being, including human health, biodiversity and all that is needed to sustain God’s good earth.

Faculty perspectives

Barbara Astle will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience working in the field as she highlights the critical need for a planetary health approach at this moment in history.

Two faculty fellows under Trinity Western University’s Supporting Structures grant from Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford will then present their research on threats to planetary health.

• Shane Durbach will speak on his efforts to turn waste plastic into useful materials in view of the scourge of plastic pollution.
• Laura Onyango will discuss how her research seeks to provide healing for human mishandling of microbial resistance to antibiotics.
   

Student perspectives

This sustainability event will then be completed by the perspectives of the next generation of researchers.

• The student panel will be comprised of Lauren Mckenna, President of the Trinity Western Environmental Club, Una Chang, who helped complete a Planetary Health Report Card on behalf of the TWU School of Nursing, and Portia McCracken, the Faculty of Natural Sciences representative on the TWU Student Association.

This event is funded by a Supporting Structures grant from Scholarship and Christianity In Oxford. Event organizers include Trinity Western’s Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, Trinity Western's Environmental Club, and the Canadian Scientific and Christian Affiliation's Vancouver chapter.

This event is open to the public.
Refreshments will be served.

See the full list of Sustainability Week (April 3–6, 2023) events