Eleni Myrivili is the United Nation’s first-ever global chief heat officer. An anthropologist by training, Myrivili understands how heat waves discriminate against older, less-wealthy and under-served demographics. Before being named to her UN post in 2022, Myrivili was Athens’ heat officer, where she coordinated the capital’s response to heat waves and helped renovate an ancient Roman aqueduct to bring water into the city.

Further reading:

• What will it take to save our cities from a scorching future
• Earth’s 10 hottest years on record are the last 10
• Extreme heat is deadlier than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined
• Heat inequality ‘causing thousands of unreported deaths in poor countries’
• The heat crisis is a housing crisis
• Ancient civilizations countered extreme heat. Here’s what cities borrow from history
• Toronto's getting hotter. Experts say a chief heat officer could help the city adapt
• Architects turning to India’s lattice-building designs to keep buildings cool without air conditioning
• How India’s lattice buildings cool without air conditioning
• Athen’s answer to a water supply crunch: an ancient aqueduct

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Featured in this episode:

Martina Albert is a technician with the National Tree Seed Centre, based in Fredericton, N. B. The NTSC’s library holds more than 13,000 seed collections, with the purpose of protecting them from invasive pests, disease and climate change. Albert works on the Centre’s Indigenous Seed Collection Program, working with First Nations communities to collect and preserve tree seeds for generations to come.

Blaine Peason is the CEO of Seedark, a climate tech venture that is working to modernize the global supply chain of seeds. Its app, Squirrel, connects growers and reforestation experts with seed collectors, while digitally tracking where seeds are coming from. Pearson has more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, focusing on harmonizing the application of technology with environmental protection, and is currently part of the RBC Women in Cleantech Accelerator.

Faisal Moola is an associate professor in the department of geography, environment and geomatics at the University of Guelph. Moola oversees research on the ecology and ethnoecology of cultural keystone species with Indigenous Peoples here in Canada and around the world.

Jim Robb is the general manager of the Friends of the Rouge Watershed. The organization partners with communities and volunteers to protect and restore ecosystems, with a focus on Rouge National Urban Park. Robb helps organize nature walks, community planting events and educational programming to inspire the next generation of ecological stewards.

D’Amour Walker is the assistant project coordinator at Friends of the Rouge Watershed, where she ensures trees, shrubs and plants are in healthy condition as part of the reforestation and ecosystem restoration efforts.

Further reading:

• Saving nature: WWF study highlights the best places for ecological restoration in Canada
• Wanted: tree seeds. National seed centre in Fredericton collecting samples
• Indigenous Seed Collection Program begins cross-country journey in Fredericton
• We need native seeds in order to respond to climate change, but there aren’t enough
• Why Indigenous peoples are raising the alarm on carbon trading at UN climate summit
• Grasslands store tons of carbon — and there’s a movement to protect them
• Biodiversity or bust? Here’s what happened at COP16
• What you need to know about nature-based solutions to climate change

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Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Featured in this episode:

Dr. Scott Weese is a veterinary internal medicine specialist, chief of infection control and director of the Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College. Weese is a member of the Global Leaders Group on antimicrobial resistance and has helped craft antimicrobial use guidelines for veterinarians in Canada.

Further reading:

• The global threat of antibiotic resistance
• At the UN, world leaders are negotiating the biggest health issue you’ve never heard of
• Three million child deaths linked to drug resistance, study shows
• Do I need that antibiotic?
• Veterinary medicine is key to overcoming antimicrobial resistance
• The link between pets, people and antimicrobial resistance
• Canada introduces new guidelines to tackle antimicrobial resistance

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.