51³Ô¹ÏÍø

Last weekend thousands of visitors enjoyed the annual 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Festival, with the Energy & Environment themed zone hosted by the Grantham Institute.

From air pollution in your neighbourhood, to ecosystems and energy sources, more than 17,000 visitors took time out to explore what science and research means to them at the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Festival last weekend.

In this video roundup of the Energy and Environment Zone at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Festival 2017, we ask "what does climate change mean to you?", and, crucially, "what is the solution?"

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is an annual event where visitors are invited to meet 51³Ô¹ÏÍø researchers who are working on some of the biggest climate challenges facing society.

One of ten themed areas, the Energy and Environment Zone featured activities, demonstrations, games and experiments that encouraged people to engage with ways they can help to create a cleaner, healthier lifestyle for their families, businesses and society.

Interactive exhibits included the future city of 'Wattown' (pictured above), an interactive model of energy supply and demand in a town of the near future, and EcoBuilder, an interactive ecosystem simulator game where plants and animal species play off against each other over generations of dinner-table-musical chairs ().

Ecotarian Naomi Pratt talks to visitors at the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Festival

The zone was hosted by the , one of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's six Global Challenge Institutes, where staff work to maximise the impact of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø research in climate change and the environment. This year, the zone featured activities created by 16 different groups, including teams from the  and 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Racing Green displaying solar powered vehihicles.

Six groups of Grantham Institute PhD students from the  presented their interdisciplinary Challenge Team outreach projects that form part of their programme work. In addition to the Energy and Environment Zone, this included an exhibition of fine art landscapes ruined by environmental change in the Contemplation Zone, and in the Food Zone a , and long-running project on sustainable eating, (pictured above).

A full list of contributors and their contact details can be found in this previous article.

Grantham Institute Communications Manager, Simon Levey, introduces the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Festival and the Food Zone in the video below, by City University London journalism Master's students Alexis Sogl and Laura Creese.

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