Talks Offered
John Davies is offering a talk Measuring My Carbon Footprint. It is suitable I think as an introduction for a new group or for a general meeting; contact John via the link if you want to take this further.
Members in London can catch Climate Reality's Truth in Ten in Hampton on 13 November 2025: book via Eventbrite here.
Talks Delivered
These are recordings and presentations. Talks by u3a members may be re-usable - contact the author if you would like help with this. If you do re-use, please credit the original author.
| Date | Title | Description | Author Note to editors: use a contact page to message authors. |
| 13 October 2025, zoom to u3a London Region | Powerpoint: Plastics and Environment PDF: Follow up to Q&A | Plastics, microplastics, and nanoplastics, and what we can do about them. (Spoiler: not much. The genie is out of the bottle.) There is a recording of this talk on the u3a London Region Talks page. Sources used in preparing the talk are listed in the scrapbook page Plastics. I will extend this list as new material comes along. | John Baxter |
| 29 August 2025, zoom to Climate Matters Group. | Powerpoint: 6 Reasons to do Nothing About Climate Change | Denial: it isn't happening / it's not anthropogenic (and anyway CO2 is a plant food, not a pollutant) / the scientists don't all agree / only 1% is from UK / it's impossible to fix (or too expensive) / doomism: it's too late to fix it now. There is a recording of this talk on the Climate Matters Monthly Meetings page. | John Baxter |
| 1 May 2025, to Barnet u3a. | Population and Environment | There are over 8bn people on Earth today, up from 6bn in 2000. Is this unprecedented level of growth sustainable? In this talk, Martin Earl discusses how over-population and over-consumption are affecting our world and the consequences for future generations. A campaigner on population issues for many years, Martin looks at the projections for global population growth to the end of the century, and considers the effects this will have on climate change and biodiversity loss. He advocates the ethical solutions that we can all get behind – access to family planning and good quality education for all. | Martin Earl Population Matters |
| 3 June 2025, Zoom to Bournemouth u3a. | PowerPoint: Sustainability 2.1 | The Sustainable Development Goals, world population, food, GDP, Planetary Boundaries, and the role of the individual. | John Baxter |
| Barnet u3a Study Day on Sustainability. | PDF: Steps to a Sustainable World | Handout. | John Baxter |
| 2024, to Tunbridge Wells u3a | PowerPoint: Sustainable Living. Note that this is a big file. | Presentation from the Tunbridge Wells u3a Sustainable Living group. The talk will need editing before re-use to remove TW-specific content. | Su Westlake, Christina Rendell. |
| 8 Aug 2024 | Slides: Agriculture and Climate Change | Ian Hawker | |
| 16 May 2024, Zoom to Croydon u3a Climate Group. | PowerPoint: Recycling and the Circular Economy | John Baxter | |
| 19 Mar 2024 | Recording: Using AI to fight climate change; Slides | How AI can and is already being used. | Ian Hawker |
| 18 Jan 2024, Zoom to Croydon u3a Climate Group. | PowerPoint: The Grid | A Subject Adviser struggles to understand the UK electricity industry. | John Baxter |
| 15 Dec 2023 | Recording: Climate change and the Ocean; Slides | Ian Hawker | |
| 16 Nov 2023, Zoom to Croydon u3a Climate and Science Groups. | PowerPoint: The Colours of Hydrogen | Hydrogen in a net-zero energy economy. | John Baxter |
| 19 Sept 2023 | Recording: Climate modelling; Slides | Predicting the effects of climate change. | Ian Hawker |
| 26 June 2023 | Recording: Climate Change Adaptation; Slides | Actions the world needs to take to adapt to climate change. | Ian Hawker |
| 2 May 2023 | Recording: Geo-engineering; Slides | Ian Hawker | |
| 26 April 2023, joint presentation with Warwick students. | Launch of Intergenerational Dialogue | Brenda Ainsley | |
| 1 March 2023 | A narrow path from the brink | An insight from physicist, climate change activist and petroleum and renewables engineer. | Erik Dalhuijsen |
| January 2023 | Recording: Climate Change & Biodiversity; Slides | Highlights from COP15. | Ian Hawker |
| November 2022 | Recording: Climate Change & Tipping Point; Slides | The importance of tipping points. | Ian Hawker |
| June 2022 | Recording: What will it really take to deal with the Climate Emergency; Slides | There is no Planet B. | Mike Berners-Lee (external speaker) |
| May 2022 | Recording: How to reduce your carbon footprint and your energy bills; Slides | A panel discussion: a) improving insulation, b) installing a heat pump, c) fitting solar panels, and d) buying an e-bike | a) Kate Bailey 02.30, b) Nick Ward 15.00, c) John Ainsley 28.00, d) Clive Teague 41.50 |