Having eschewed climate change and greenery to a large extent in recent years, the Edinburgh Science Festival has clearly found the lure of Paris too much for them and this year devotes a whole strand to energy and climate issues. Here's what they have to say about it.
We are merely the caretakers of our extraordinary planet; it does not belong to us but its future health depends directly on our current actions. Since the industrial revolution our demands for energy, largely from fossil fuels, have increased continuously, however our ideas about what is plentiful are now altering and we have to deal with the concept of changing our approach to energy while simultaneously dealing with the consequences of our past actions.
In December 2015 the 21st Conference of the Parties on Climate Change will meet in Paris, bringing together the nations of the world with the objective of producing a binding universal agreement on limiting climate change. Looking ahead to this landmark event, we’ll be presenting a series of Energy and Environment events exploring and debating everything from controversial new sources of energy, like shale gas fracking (p.42), to the truth about the future of North Sea Oil (p.52). We’ll also be taking a light-hearted look at energy from unusual sources in a fun packed interactive evening: Unexpected Energy (p.39).
This urgent programme will culminate in an unmissable event The Road to Paris featuring Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in discussion with an influential panel (p.56).
The influential panel consists of Scottish Minister for Environment & Climate Change Aileen Macleod, Hadley Centre boss Stephen Belcher and Corinne Le Quéré from the Tyndall Centre.
Other interesting events for BH readers include a lecture on Scientism from philosopher Mary Midgeley, a discussion with James Lovelock, and bonkers geoscientist Bill McGuire talking about global catastrophes. There are also a couple of "let's give the floor to the greens" events, one about something called "natural capital" and the other about our future energy supply.