Papplewick Pumping Station Annual Lecture 2018

Julian Kirby

The Centre for Advanced Studies was delighted to welcome Julian Kirby, Lead Plastics-Free Campaigner with Friends of the Earth, to the University last Wednesday evening for the Papplewick Pumping Station Annual Lecture 2018. Sold out in advance, the topic for the evening was ‘How can we tackle our plastic pollution crisis?’ – which attracted a large and enthusiastic audience of students, staff and members of the public.

The event began with a short talk by Tom Stanton, current holder of the Papplewick Water Education Trust Scholarship, whose research has demonstrated that microplastic particles are present in rivers from source to sea. Julian continued to explore the theme – highlighting all the ways in which we are facing a plastic pollution crisis, but also what we can do about it and how we can change our world for the better. This was followed by a lively Q&A session, with a panel comprising our two speakers, as well as Serena Brown from the University’s #wasteNott campaign. There were so many questions and contributions that we ran out of time, but it was great to see such an engaged and passionate audience debate one of the key environmental challenges of our time. Thanks to all who contributed and those who were with us on the night.