Environment & Animal Welfare: British Science Festival

Discover the latest studies and approach as humanity battles with its biggest threat, climate change. Meet the scientists preparing humanity for the uncertainties of a changing world. You’ll hear experts talking science from the smallest insects to the largest global events.

Opinions on fracking are torn, with communities clashing with oil and gas companies as energy production and environmentalism rumble once more. Join the West Midlands Prestige Lecture: Fracking event on 8 September to hear the raging debate that threatens to split more than just the ground apart.

Find out what makes a happy chicken, and how to shop with animal welfare in mind at the Is free-range egg production all it’s cracked up to be? on 9 September. Caged or free-range? All will be revealed as experts peck through the evidence.

With a growing global demand for food and an agricultural landscape changing with climate change, future food production is in fresh doubt. The Is The World Running Out Of Food And What Can We Do About it? event on 10 September will explore the tensions between land preservation and satisfying the needs of an ever ravenous world.

As cities continue to expand, our air quality suffers, putting a generation’s health at risk. Join children’s doctor and air pollution expert, Rossa Brugha, at the Charles Lyell Award Lecture on 8 September, as he shares his fears on urban pollution and offers a few choice tips to beat the smog until the scientists and politicians clear the air for us.


This year’s Great EDF Energy Experiment: The Big Bumblebee Discovery will reveal the results of this innovative nationwide experiment that asked budding young naturalists to record bumblebee numbers and diversity, while empowering audiences to be an amazing citizen scientist. You’ll be buzzing to be part of this exciting event on 7 September.

For the 1.4 billion residents of Asian drylands, climate change affects wellbeing with immediacy and uncertainty. This year’s Margaret Mead Award Lecture – Climate Hazards in a globalised world: Chinese, drought, bread and the Arab Spring on 9 September will expose the audience to the greater consequences, hazards and threats of climate change in our globalised world.

As glaciers recede and ice shelves collapse, the race to discover a melting Antarctica’s impact on humanity intensifies. The changing face of Antarctica event on 8 September will reveal the latest techniques in the rush to study the great continent before it is too late.

It is not just scientists that reveal indicators of environmental wellbeing, sometimes the smallest beings can give the biggest signs. The water fleas save the world event on 9 September will reveal how scientists monitor these miniature insects for answers to the environment’s biggest questions.

This year’s Halstead Lecture: Exploring global tectonics from your armchair on 10 September will treat you to a novel way of exploring large-scale tectonic features from the comfort of your home. Get the latest tips in using Google Earth to navigate vast mountain belts, belts of lateral plate motion and continental rifts – at the click of a button.

The Festival will take place from 6-11 September in Birmingham, and provides an opportunity to meet researchers face-to-face and discuss the latest science, technology and engineering.