Explore Challenges
- 13 OCTOBER 2010: Plastic pollution in the oceans
- 1 DECEMBER 2010: Can the UK ever be sustainable?
- Natural disasters: how can we improve?
- Not In My Back Yard
- Digital Divide in the UK?
- Importing goods, exporting drought?
- The challenges and opportunities of an ageing society
- Engineering our climate
- The future shape of Capitalism
- Migration: skills and the job market
- Razing the Rainforest
- London under water
- Concreting the countryside
- Future of low carbon energy
- Africa in the 21st Century
low carbon energy, Bob Geldof, Prince Charles, rescources, rainforest, Thames Gateway, water, globalisation, Russia, NHS, public services, UK, India, Credit Crunch, government, Housing Expansion, 21st Century, population, COP15, access
Challenges of the 21st Century
13 OCTOBER 2010: Plastic pollution in the oceans
Speakers: David de Rothschild, Peter Davis, Dr Simon Boxall, Chaired by David Shukman
Our throw away society is polluting large areas of the world's oceans with plastics, threatening marine life and food chains.
How did it get there? What are the practical solutions? Is it time to re-evaluate waste as a resource?
1 DECEMBER 2010: Can the UK ever be sustainable?
SIR STUART ROSE
RT HON HILARY BENN MP
ANDY HOBSBAWM
Our way of life is placing an increasing burden on the planet, but how realistic are visions of a sustainable future? With the UK aspiring to achieve more with less, who will help turn theory into practice?
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Natural disasters: how can we improve?
May 2010
The earth is a hazardous place; natural disasters will continue to happen.
But how can we improve our response to them and ensure lessons learnt benefit vulnerable communities worldwide in the long-term?
BARBARASTOCKING Chief Executive Oxfam GB
CAMERONSINCLAIR Founder of Architecture for Humanity
MARTINBELL UNICEF UK Ambassador for Humnitarian Emergencies
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Not In My Back Yard
March 2010
With pressure on the UK’s ageing energy and transport infrastructures mounting, is it time to put projects of national importance ahead of local concerns? Or does this bypass our democratic right to object?
Dame Fiona Reynolds, Director General of The National Trust
Jim Steer, Director & Founder of Steer Davis Gleave
Antony Oliver, Editor of New Civil Engineering
Chaired by the guardian's Chief leader writer, Julian Glover.
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Digital Divide in the UK?
December 2009
Martha Lane Fox, government's Digital Inclusion Champion, author and broadcaster Professor Tanya Byron and BBC Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones discuss the digital divide in Britain and the risks and benefits of a digital society.
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Importing goods, exporting drought?
October 2009
George Alagiah chairs a discussion with Robin Farrington, WWF and Andy Wales, SAB Miller on the scale of global water consumption needed to produce what we use and consume and the dramatic impact it has around the world.
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The challenges and opportunities of an ageing society
June 2009
Our expert panel including Angela Eagle MP, George Magnus and Samira Ahmed discuss the changing nature of retirement; the importance of older people in the workforce; the increasing pressures on public services; and how Britain is adapting to an ageing society.
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Engineering our climate
May 2009
Geo-engineering is not a solution to climate change but can it be an effective means to delay its impact?
An international expert panel, including Professor David Keith, Dr Paul Johnston and Tom Clarke discuss whether we should be researching geoengineering seriously as Plan B?
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The future shape of Capitalism
March 2009
An expert panel, including Vince Cable MP, John Micklethwait and Evan Davis, discuss whether the current financial crisis and the downturn in the global economy will change the shape of capitalism as we know it today.
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Migration: skills and the job market
November 2008
Our expert panel including Sir Andrew Green, Philippe Legrain and Khalid Koser explore some of the issues and misconceptions around changing European workforce patterns in the 21st Century.
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Razing the Rainforest
October 2008
How can we best conserve the world's rainforests in the face of enormous challenges from palm oil, timber trade, green colonialism and biofuels?
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London under water
June 2008
What is the threat of flooding to London’s people and infrastructure? How will current defences cope with enhanced flood risk to the capital over the next 30 years?
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Concreting the countryside
May 2008
How should we accommodate the housing expansion in London and SE England? Should we be building on greenfield or brownfield land?
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Future of low carbon energy
March 2008
A discussion on how global investment can be encouraged to forward low carbon technologies.
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Africa in the 21st Century
November 2007
The 21st Century Challenges series was launched in 2007 with Sir Bob Geldof & Kofi Annan discussing the major challenges facing Africa in the 21st century
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