Want to develop your subject knowledge? Join us for our half-termly academic lunchtime lecture. If you can’t make it ‘live’, sign up and get access to the recording which you can also share with your students.

This CPD will run as a 30 minute webinar followed by a 15 minute Q&A - 16 December 12.30 to 13.15 

What Lies Beneath? Sustainability, waste and the British landscape

Discover one of the UK’s most urgent and overlooked climate challenges in this engaging webinar.

Prof Kate Spencer (Queen Mary University of London) will share eye‑opening insights into how historic landfill sites (created before modern environmental safeguards) are not just a legacy issue but a live, growing climate‑risk.

Teachers will hear how over 1700 coastal sites are already identified as at risk, and what this means for biodiversity, human and ecosystem health, and widening social and economic inequalities.

With the issue recently spotlighted in the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) note ‘Legacy Waste’ (POST 2026), this session offers a timely, accessible way to bring real‑world climate impacts into the classroom.

Prof Spencer’s talk concludes with a Q&A, giving teachers the chance to explore the topic further and connect it directly to teaching and learning.

• 1,700 Historic coastal landfills across the UK at risk from flooding or erosion.
• 3,000 ha Contaminated land across the UK exposed to coastal change pressures.
• 100 m Many legacy sites sit close to protected wetlands, bathing waters, and other sensitive areas.
• 1 in 10 Estimated landfill sites that could erode by 2100 if no action is taken.

Stats from: https://www.ukcoastalandfillresilience.org/pages/why-are-we-doing-this-research

This is an output from the Resilience of Anthropocene Coasts and Communities (RACC) project, led by Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with the University of Glasgow and others, and funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).