Ep.5 – Interview 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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