Humans of York: Lindsay Stringer
“It’s really timely to be talking about action on drought. Much of Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America and Africa are facing drought at the moment and with climate change, things look set to intensify even further.
“Everyone agrees that drought is a major issue, but at an international level the disagreement is about how best to address it. There are lots of options, but the debate is really focused around their legal status. They offer different levels of commitments and a different set of costs and benefits, so this is what the deadlock is really over.”
This week’s Human of York is Professor Lindsay C Stringer MBE, Associate Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity and Director of the York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI).
Her research, which has led to important international policy changes, aims to understand the relationships between people and the environment and has important implications for managing risks in relation to land use, climate change, biodiversity and livelihoods, particularly in the world’s dryland areas.
Professor Stringer is the chair or senior member of at least a dozen international bodies and was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for her work on environmental change and sustainable development in drylands. She has also served on two UN bodies, and was last year awarded an MBE for services to environmental development.
While her work focuses on change at a global scale, she stresses that the impacts of the changing climate affect those at every level of society.
“People are often particularly surprised about the wide range of people I interact with, from farmers in rural Africa to Heads of State,” Professor Stringer explains. “To me it makes sense to engage broadly though - everyone needs to be part of the conversation if we are to tackle environmental sustainability challenges in a timely and equitable way.
“Most of us here in Yorkshire were affected by a hosepipe ban over summer and autumn 2025. Climate change means that we are going to see increasing weather extremes, including droughts.
“Policy moves slowly and often ends up being driven by politics and personal agendas rather than keeping focused on the outcomes we need to achieve and the most appropriate, equitable process to reach those outcomes.
“If my research can help us to move past some of the policy sticking points and to start to think differently about how we can balance diverse needs and agendas to get to where we want to be, then it acts as a great motivator. I want my research to make a positive difference.”
Read more about the award-winning researchers shaping our future
Professor Lindsay Stringer, Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity and York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI), Humans of York, February 2026