Glasgow Science Festival under Gaia
The Glasgow Science Festival is set to return to the city in June with a bigger programme of free events than ever under the theme of ‘Glasgow’s Looking Forward’!
Gaia and her Renewable Energy Miracles: For All, Forever:
This event on Saturday 3 June from 4pm to 5pm at Mackintosh Queen’s Cross looks forward to how Scotland will help the world achieve net-zero. Visitors can use ‘energy goggles’ to see the planet’s energy for themselves, hitch a ride on a sunbeam and take a once in a lifetime tour of Gaia’s energy system. A ticket to the show will also offer free access to ‘Gaia’, a stunning high-resolution six-metre-wide floating Earth created by artist Luke Jerram. Gaia will be on display at the Mackintosh Queen’s Cross from 13 May until 24 June.
“We are star dust harvesting sunlight” wrote the great cosmologist Carl Sagan. We live in a flux of solar energy that powers (almost) everything we know and are. The numbers can be boggling, but in this entertaining talk we’ll put on a pair of “energy goggles”, hitch a ride on a sunbeam and take a once in a lifetime tour of Gaia’s energy system. We will look forward to how Scotland and Glasgow will help achieve our 100% renewable, peaceful, energy futures.
Before we get too carried away with the awesome maths and physics, we’ve totally lost the plot when it comes to our relationship with energy. We’ve become immune to its magical powers of sublime transformation and ignorant of its true value. We waste it with zeal, and then complain its expensive, or we haven’t got enough. It is time to reconnect, to re-imagine and to fire up some new ideas to shape our future societies. We’ve about a decade left to quit fossil fuels to limit global heating to 2oC. Half the world’s 8 billion people don’t consume enough energy to live well. The other half consume too much. How then, will 11 billion of us from 2050 enjoy the high energy lifestyles we have become used to and at the same time avert dangerous climate change? Where will we get our energy from? How will energy change the way we live?
The talk by staff at the Open University will include some demonstrations, graphics and performance elements interspersed with some boring facts.
This event is free, but booking is required.
