GWF at Norwich Science Festival

The Norwich Science Festival is a celebration of the ground-breaking scientific research associated with the city, and is a partnership initiative involving many organizations from across the region, coordinated by The Forum, Norwich.

Global Water Futures has two involvements in this year’s festival. The first is an art exhibition titled “Painted Perspectives on the Past and Present”, contributed by Norwich artist Gennaidy Ivanov, Norwich scientist Trevor Davies and Professor John Pomeroy. The second is a talk on “Climate change and global freshwater supply” from Professor John Pomeroy.

The art exhibition combines imaginative art with science to put a unique painted perspective on dinosaur and human time-scales. This exhibition has been held from October 23 to 30, free for visitors. Read more about the art exhibit here.

In his talk “Climate change and global freshwater supply,” Professor John Pomeroy, Director of Global Water Futures, describes flood and drought prediction. He discusses how to better understand floods and droughts so that people are not displaced by them and ecosystems are not ruined. “85% of the human population live in arid areas. By 2030, half of the population will be living in areas of high water stress”, he emphasizes. He also mentions how mountains, which supply water for over half of humanity, recently had floods caused by unprecedented precipitation and led to deaths and damage all over the world. Due to global warming, the snout of Peyto Glacier has been melted by 6.5 meters in this year’s record hot summer. On the other hand, various lake water levels are considerably lower than projected which may lead to desertification. Professor Pomeroy sends a powerful message in his talk: “We have somehow, as a species, as a global civilization, failed to comprehend the dangers that are imminent from such types of changes.” 

You can watch the talk here.