Extreme weather is more than just a disruption - it’s a threat to lives and livelihoods. From floods to droughts, these events can have devastating effects.

In this episode, we explore how climate change is pushing elephants to the brink with Vicky Boult from the University of Reading. We’ll dive into the growing conflict between elephants and humans, and how forecast-based conservation could be the key to helping both elephants and people.

Tune in for an eye-opening conversation!

In this episode Toryn is joined by Bethan Laughlin, a senior policy specialist at the Zoological Society of London, and Andy Stott, a Senior Science Adviser for the Convention on Biodiversity negotiations.

Tune in to this epsidoe to as we reflect on COP16 - the biodiversity cop held in Cali, Colombia and COP29 - the climate change cop held in Baku, Azerbaijan, while also looking forward to COP16 part 2 in Rome in just two weeks!

Do you trust David Attenborough? How about Great Thunberg?

In this episode Toryn is joined by Tara Bryer, a climate communication specialist and trust expert from Climate Outreach. Tune in to find out why David is king and how you too can be a trusted communicator.

If you enjoy the episode, please subscribe for more content in 2025 where we'll continue to look Beyond the Bear!

Here is Climate Outreach's Beyond 'trusted messengers' report.

Mangroves are biodiversity hotspots in disrepair. Healthy and functioning mangroves not only host a plethora of wildlife, but act as a powerful ally against global warming. They are also important for people, with 80% of global fishing catch dependent directly or indirectly on mangrove habitats.

To find out more about mangroves and the challenges facing their restoration, tune into this episode of Beyond the Bear with Laura Michie, an expert from the Mangrove Action Project.

This week a month’s worth of rainfall fell in a matter of hours, wreaking transport chaos and closing schools. We all know these extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense, but how is the climate emergency impacting our cultural heritage?

To find out, tune in to this episode of Beyond the Bear with Sarah Kline, a castle fanatic and PhD Researcher at the University of Edinburgh.

“Communities aren’t signing up to [peatland] restoration schemes because they’re not sure how best to serve themselves…”

To guide us through the dynamic and complex world of peatland restoration, we are joined by Dr. Lydia Cole from the University of St Andrews!

For more information, you can find The Conversation article Lydia wrote here and the Nature correspondence article here.

You can find the Peatland Restoration Guide for Crofting Communities here.

"We can't solve the climate crisis without protecting and restoring nature."

In this episode, I will be reflecting on COP28 with Melanie Coath, the RSPB’s Principle Policy Officer for Climate Change. But we won’t talk about the phase-out, sorry, phase-down of coal, or any of the other big headlines from the COP. Instead, we discuss the importance of tackling the nature and climate crises together and dissect some of the barriers to achieving this at COP.

We are actively searching for guests for the podcast, so please get in touch with us at beyondthebear@aol.com if you are interested or would like to recommend someone else, or a topic for a future episode.

Welcome to the inaugral episode of the BES Climate Change and Ecology monthly podcast!

In this episode, we will be talking about the slippiness of net-zero, responding to some of the UK Government’s recent announcements which have water-down crucial climate policies. But just how significant is this?

You can find the full article which inspired this episode here.