Tower and Town, December 2021

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Climate Change And Sustainable Future: Special Interest Day

u3a in Kennet held a Special Interest Day with generous support from Marlborough College on 20th September 2021. The topic of climate change was the main focus being an issue of wide application to all age groups and one of increasing global concern.

The day was the first to be organised within the Bath and Wiltshire u3a Network and members from the other u3a’s were invited along with more than 40 students from the College studying subjects such as physics and geography. 121 u3a members registered to attend the event with nearly half coming from a wide range of u3a’s beyond Kennet; Bath, Bradford on Avon, Cirencester, Devizes, Gloucester, Malvern, Newbury, North Wiltshire, Pewsey, Salisbury, Sarum, Trowbridge, Warminster, Westbury and West Wiltshire.

The chosen date was in close proximity to the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 26), 31st October to 12th November 2021 in Glasgow thereby enhancing the topicality of the subject.

The event was held in the Memorial Hall at the College and attendees were welcomed by the Master, Louise Moelwyn-Hughes and u3a in Kennet Chairman, David Hammond.

The speakers were:

• Penny Tranter from the Meteorological Office, who discussed the realities of climate change setting the context for the remainder of the Day. She explained that climate events (floods, droughts) are becoming more frequent and many researchers have attributed them to human action.
• Chris Warrick from the Culham Science Centre described the potential to generate carbon free electricity from nuclear fusion. He outlined the challenges of replicating on earth the fusion process created by the sun noting that it does not create long lived nuclear waste and has little or no environmental impact. He emphasised that ‘all the science is done, it just a matter of engineering’.
  
• Professor Peter Edwards from Oxford University talked about the Circular Carbon Economy starting with an outline of possible approaches to decarbonisation such as carbon capture, reducing the global population and the use of renewable energy sources and increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel. Citing numerous technical papers and research he examined several techniques including the decarbonisation of fossil fuels and the development of a catalyst heated by microwaves to produce enough fuel from atmospheric CO2 to fly a Jumbo jet across the Atlantic once a week without increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
• Dr Katherine Steentjes from Cardiff University explored society’s perceptions of climate change and support for low carbon lifestyles. She said that without change in global lifestyles, the global warming level will reach 5 degrees C despite the COP 21 agreement (Paris 2015) to a limit of 1.5 degrees. Consequently fundamental changes in attitudes are required affecting all aspects of daily life.

Feedback from the event was very positive with delegates rating it at 3.8 out of a possible 4.0 in a survey returned by nearly half the attendees. Comments included “Outstanding”; “Brilliant – a subject which is so important to us all … the information was very enlightening”; “an outstanding presentation from a speaker thoroughly on top of this complex subject”.

Jill Turner, Vice Chair, u3a in Kennet