Our site is using cookies to record anonymous visitor statistics and enhance your user experience.   OK | Find out more

Natural Environment Research Council Home
Skip to content

Does Liverpool live beyond its means?

18 May 2004

Living Beyond Our Means - a debate on the way we live.

We devour our planet's resources like there is no tomorrow. We burn, we belch, we pollute. Yet life goes on, and most of us worry more about paying bills than a world bereft of a quarter of its animals and plants.

Environmental scientists advocate sustainable development as the answer to these problems. But what is Liverpool's contribution to this discussion?

BBC environment correspondent, Alex Kirby, chairs an evening debate in Liverpool on Thursday 20 May.

"As a Liverpudlian I'm thrilled that the Natural Environment Research Council has decided to hold this seminal debate, and to hold it in Liverpool."

"My own city has reinvented itself as a cultural icon for a continent. We now need to find the same imagination and breadth of vision as the city itself if we are to have any hope for a planet that can support future generations," he added.

Scientists give us the facts but do we use them or do we bury our heads in the sand? With the release of this summer's blockbuster 'The Day After Tomorrow' on May 28 this timely debate will focus our thoughts on an environmentally friendly approach to living and working.

"We believe the scientists: we simply do not connect their findings to our lives, our families, ourselves even," says Alex.

On the panel are:

  • Daniel Osborn from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology talks about how sustainable development should be encouraged.

  • John Barrett from Stockholm Environment Institute talks about the measurement of this resource loss and the work he did with Liverpool City Council.

  • Christine Darbyshire, Liverpool City Council's Regeneration and Policy Department's team leader, talks about Liverpool City Council's response to these issues

  • Kendra Okonski from the International Policy Network will outline a different approach to these issues.

The event, which takes the 'Question Time' format, is being held in the Lecture Theatre at the Merseyside Maritime Museum and starts at 6.30. To register contact: nerc@vistaevents.co.uk or Tel: 02085 427622

Further information

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Notes

1. Interviews with contributors can be arranged through the NERC Press Office.

2. NERC is one of the UK's research councils. It uses a budget of about £300m a year to fund and carry out impartial scientific research in the sciences of the environment. It is addressing some of the key questions facing mankind such as global warming, renewable energy and sustainable economic development.

NERC also has a duty to be accountable to the main funders of science - the tax payers. It is committed to making its work and achievements in environmental science accessible to wide audiences. NERC wants to engage people in debate and dialogue about environmental issues that concern them.

Press release: 16/04

Press links

 

Recent press news