Inspiring Environmental Change:
"from the Classroom, to the Boardroom, to the Legislature"
Dr. Lynda McCarthy's work pushes the boundaries of environmental research to ensure all generations develop deep environmental literacy in the face of today’s climate change crisis.
Lynda’s research specializes in aquatic ecotoxicology and Great Lakes pollution and remediation. Her areas of interests include the continued development of a “miner’s canary” to assess the impact of stressors to organisms in the environment. This has included an early-warning system to detect threats to Canada’s drinking water supply and to assess the sustainability of land-applying municipal biosolids. Additionally, studying wetland rehabilitation, within an Indigenous and Western scientific knowledge framework, is a pivotal area of interest in the McCarthy lab.
Located within the Department of Chemistry and Biology at Toronto Metropolitan University, the McCarthy research team includes undergraduate, graduate, and international student researchers. After graduation, these students can go on to mentor future generations of Great Lakes scientists, engineers, and policy analysts, or advance to top-level roles responsible for implementing environmental and societal change.
"If I appear to see further than other mortals, perhaps it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants." – Isaac Newton
When research is based on a deeply-mined, and holistic, literature review and is built on the bed-rock foundations of existing data-based evidence from all expert viewpoints, new knowledge can be generated and society progresses.
1962: "Enough is enough!"
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring ignited an “environmental movement” alongside key vocal citizen scientists.
1970: First Earth Day "We have met the enemy, and he is us"
The USA embraces the tragedy of environmental degradation and forms the USEPA (external link) , which remains one of the most profoundly influential government environmental protection institutions in the world.
1971: Voting Public continued their environmental education
"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” The Lorax by Dr. Seuss