The Pint of Science Festival is back! The 2016 UK Pint of Science Festival will take place 23-25 May in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, Glasgow, Manchester, Southampton, Teesside, York, Edinburgh, Hull, Leeds, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Portsmouth and Sheffield. The Pint of Science festival aims to deliver interesting and relevant talks on the latest science research in an accessible format to the public – all in the pub! We want to provide a platform which allows people to discuss research with the people who carry it out – no prior knowledge of the subject is required. It is run mainly by volunteers and was established by a community of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers in 2012. The main festival takes place annually over three days in the month of May simultaneously in pubs across the world.
This year, two King’s Water researchers will be delivering an interdisciplinary evening on political and environmental aspects of dams. The evening’s water element will be emphasised by the event’s location…a floating restaurant. Join geographers Naho Mirumachi and Emma Tebbs to hear about “Dam(n) Problems!” on the Battersea Barge Monday 23 May.
Emma Tebbs will present on “Assessing Threats to Lake Turkana – from Space!” From space, Lake Turkana appears as a jade jewel in the desert. The lake supports unique biological diversity, and is threatened by the Gibe III hydropower dam, which will permanently alter the lake’s ecology and hydrology. Satellite imagery can provide us with a unique perspective for monitoring changes in the lake’s water quality. Satellite observations have shown that the lake is at its most productive following the annual flooding of the Omo River. The Gibe III dam will dampen these flood events and therefore poses a great risk to fisheries on which local communities depend.
Slightly closer to Earth, Naho Mirumachi will move “Beyond Winners and Losers”. Whether it’s the Gibe III dam in Ethiopia or the Three Gorges dam in China, dams have both benefits and negative impacts to both humans and ecosystems. This talk will discuss the socio-economic and political implications of dam building, placing the local impacts in a global and regional context of agricultural development, energy trade and economic growth. Rather than discussing dams simply as a matter of positive/negative impacts, Naho Mirumachi will discuss how we can better learn lessons of dam development.
For more details and to buy tickets, visit the Pint of Science UK Festival at http://pintofscience.co.uk/event/damn-problems.