Helen’s (additional) post at Gresham College as the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment involves delivering a programme of lectures, all of which are free to view online.
The 2025-26 lecture series is titled “Notes from a Large Planet: a citizen’s guide to the Earth”. It explores the interconnected systems that make our planet habitable. From the flow of energy and recycling of matter to the vital roles of oceans, air, land, ice, and life itself, the series offers a big-picture view of Earth as a living, dynamic system. Each lecture reveals how natural processes underpin our survival—and how our actions are altering them.
The major environmental challenge of our time is framed in terms of what happens in our atmosphere, and specifically what are called “greenhouse gases”. But what is an atmosphere, and how does it behave? Does the atmosphere vary across the world, and what enters and leaves it normally? This lecture will explore how humanity has taken some things from the air and put other things into it, what the effects have been, and what this means for our future.