By Mychealla RiceAug 9 2016.jpg)
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As part of our coverage of the ESOF conference taking place on our doorstep in Manchester, the AZo Team were luckily enough to attend the show and take part. You can read about what we got up to here.
We were able to attend some exciting discussions and debates about the environment, clean technology and sustainability.
Bringing Nature Back to the City
Kicking the day off, a panel of experts discussed the implications of the growing population and the solutions we can implement to manage the increasing demands.
With more than half the population living in cities, and this is set to increase dramatically by 2050, the demand on the environment is rapidly growing.
Raising citizen awareness to help combat the issues facing the environment was demonstrated to be a vital component and the panel explained that there is a severe lack of knowledge and understanding from the private sector. With allergies increasing by 15%, mostly in children and asthma being the most common, the panel stressed how important reducing waste, carbon emissions and protecting the environment are.
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Shutterstock|Dmi T
Urban agriculture proved to be an interesting and engaging topic with Dr Michael Hardman from the University of Salford explaining how introducing allotments and gardens to densely populated areas can have positive social impacts. The panel discussed how cities including Havana, Cuba, Detroit, USA and closer to home London and Brighton have introduced the concept and are already seeing the positive benefits. To see a full interview with Dr Michael Hardman about Urban Agriculture click here.
The lecture ended with the panel and audience having an open debate on whether the subject of a ‘Green City’ exists. Some believed it did not exist and it was a political term to insinuate that a city has made changes for the better, others believed there were examples of 'Green Cities' all around the world.
The Artic as a Hot Topic
The ‘Artic as a Hot Topic’ covered the ever more pressing issue of the rising temperatures and melting sea ice. Three industry fields experts addressed through their independent research why we can no longer overlook the topic of the melting artic.
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The artic is changing more than anywhere else in the world due to climate change. The melting sea ice caps are creating global interest from numerous countries looking to create shorter shipping routes and claiming the law of the sea.
The discussion lead on to the impact the melting ice caps are having on society, in particular the communities that live in the near-by surroundings. Last year in Alaska, twelve communities had to relocate due to the melting artic.
Fuelling a Greener Future
The final talk of the day for the AZo team covered the topic of Bio-economy and using renewable sources from the land and sea. The panel of experts briefly discussed the COP21 climate summit which took place in Paris last Decmeber where countries from all over the world pledged to keep temperature below 3.6F (2°C).
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Shutterstock| Christian Mueller
The panel discussed different ways the world can move towards a clean environment and the goal of 100% clean energy production and producing zero greenhouse gases.
The panel discussed how certain countries had already began working towards the goal and the tactics they had implemented. The panel highlighted how bio-economy could play a significant role in gravitating away from fossil fuels and towards the use of renewable sources of energy.
This piece is part of our coverage of ESOF 2016, for more information on the conference and talk we attended please see our over view article.
We are also in the process of conducting interviews with leading scientists from the conference. Watch this space!