EVENT DATE: December 10, 2014
TOPIC: Lessons from Lake Mud: Determining what is natural and what is not in the Alberta oil sands

New research by scientists at Queen’s University and Environment Canada shows that fifty years of Athabasca oil sands development have left a legacy of contaminants in lake ecosystems. Dr. Smol will explain the significance of these findings. He previously gave us a fascinating and insightful talk on climate change in the Arctic.

Dr. Smol is one of the world’s foremost experts on long-term changes to lakes and rivers, and has made profound contributions to identifying environmental change due to human and natural forces. He founded and co-directs the Paleo-ecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory (PEARL) at Queen’s University. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Geological Association of Canada. He has degrees from McGill, Brock and Queen’s.