Diana's Science Festival Blog

9th September 2009

Day 5

Living with Environmental Change debate

One day left.

It seems that I only arrived yesterday but yet it is tomorrow that I will leave Guildford. Although the festival is approaching the end, my rhythm did not slow down yet and I attended talks from 9.15 am to 20.00 pm. The first one was ‘Stand pipes and hose pipe bans: Water scarcity in South East England – myth or science?’ I remember that when I was at school we were told about water pollution and water shortage problems and were taught the daily actions we should take to save water. Perhaps also because I come from Portugal I have the perception that it is very important to close the tap when brushing teeth and to take showers instead of baths. Living in the UK I almost forget that the problem of water scarcity still exists. This is what the speakers highlighted in this talk: the South East England, with a very high population density, may have to deal with severe droughts in the next years due to global warming. This has been noticed already as well as the opposite, floods. So it seems that the recent past has been hydrologically volatile with alternate floods and droughts and that global warming is likely to contribute to increase this volatility.

The talk referred to the need to take into account the carbon impact of using water at home and water footprint which is the embedded water in the products we consume. Proposals for water desalinisation and the building a water reservoir fed on rain to supply the most problematic regions during the summer were presented.

Because I have a secret passion by astronomy I spent the afternoon attending ‘The Universe from the bottom up’. I really enjoyed it but will keep from you the details of what a ‘pulsar’ is.

Coming from the debate: view from the bridge over the river Wey

In the evening I went to a pub in town. This was not because I was thirsty and wanted to have a drink, it was to participate in the debate ‘Living with environmental change’. Here several subjects related to climate change were raised: from flying to food miles, from population reduction to carbon rationing, from individual trading schemes to eco-houses. Scotland was mentioned as being on the forefront of renewable energy production in the UK. The debate ended with a statement from someone in the panel: “Although the UK is currently only responsible for 2% of world’s emissions, it was in the past responsible for large emissions while leading the industrial revolution. Hopefully the UK will lead the green revolution too”.

Diana

Day 6 - final day