Wave and tidal power have a poetic energy as well as a production one, say writers Alec Finlay and Laura Watts, with links to the old lore and language of the sea as well as to an imagined future – in discussion with Orkney energy and environmental adviser Dr Gareth Davies. In association with ASLE – the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
Opening presentation by Year of Young People Ambassadors Lucy Leech and Hope Laing, then Dr Mike Bell of Heriot-Watt University introduces four researchers working on sustainable practice for the fishing industry – Kate Rydzkowski and Matthew Coleman of Orkney Sustainable Fisheries, Hannah Fennell and Cara Duncan of Orkney Fisheries Association.  Followed by a seafood lunch from Orkney Fishermen’s Society. Tickets (talks and lunch) £10.
Traditional marine industries like fishing and shipping are being joined by growth sectors like seaweed and shellfish farming. Dr Kate Johnson and Dr Sandy Kerr of Heriot-Watt University are joined by Prof. Bill Sanderson who describes plans to redevelop oysters in the Dornoch Firth by using them for natural cleaning of distillery water.
Carbon dioxide from the air is stored by natural processes in the sea, in shells and seaweed. Life in the sea can help to keep a balance in the atmosphere above – as Dr Joanne Porter and Dr David Woolf (ICIT), Prof. John Baxter (SNH) and Mary Spencer Jones (Natural History Museum) explain.
The Grimond Lecture Tree plantations, windfarms, conservation, rewilding, land ownership, farming’s post-Brexit future – all these areas are generating conflict and, says Prof. Roger Crofts, it’s no wonder after so many policy mistakes of the past. Can we think afresh to solve problems? He highlights successes and failures, challenges and solutions.
What’s happening now with energy from wind, wave and tide, and what might the future hold? Tidal turbines in island causeways, electrically-powered ships, hydrogen shipments from the Flow? Ian Johnstone, Mark Hull and other speakers from Orkney Renewable Energy Forum look at present and future prospects. In collaboration with ASLE - the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
Singer/storyteller Claire Hewitt and folk musician Sheena Wellington join forces with the St Andrews New Music Ensemble, featuring soloists Catherine Hooper and Judy Brown, to explore how music reflects the changing relationship between Scottish coastal communities and the animals sharing their precious resources. Tickets £10.
Mike Gore, Sue Stocklmayer and Mark Ellison are here from Canberra to celebrate 20 years of presenting at the Science Festival with a look at some of their favourite demonstrations. The show will have an occasional Australian flavour and will be surprising, challenging and entertaining for an audience from 8 to 80!
The winners in a competition bringing together writing and the environment. Dr David Higgins of the University of Leeds looks afresh at the failure of the scientist Victor Frankenstein to take responsibility for his creation, in relation to modern debates about how humanity is shaping the Earth. Rosanne van der Voet from Amsterdam looks at the potential of storytelling to confront today’s threats to the oceans. Dion Andre Dobrzynski from Orkney follows the invisible odyssey of a plastic microfibre, adrift among the plankton. In collaboration with ASLE - the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
[one_fourth last="no"][/one_fourth]Howie Firth is joined by young Uzbek television presenters Savlat Rashidov and Sharofat Makhmudova to tell the story of Ulugh Beg of Uzbekistan, grandson of the conquering nomadic leader Tamerlane, who built the finest observatory of the age and turned Samarkand into a cultural city of learning. The observatory’s meridian line was so precise that it gives a measure of continental drift. In collaboration with the National Association of Electronic Mass Media in Uzbekistan and with the support of EventScotland Â
A science festival has a radical role in developing a creative climate for a region. Here is the story of how it began, and how Orkney was involved from an early stage in the concept.
