The Lunar Society

7th Annual Lecture

THE EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. THE LUNAR SOCIETY IS UNABLE TO TAKE ANY MORE BOOKINGS

The Lunar Society’s 7th Annual Lecture will be given by Jonathon Porritt CBE on the 23rd March 2010. Founder Director of Forum for the Future, he is also an eminent writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development. He was formerly Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission (2000-2009) and Director of Friends of the Earth. He is also a member of the Board of the South West Regional Development Agency; Co-Director of the Prince of Wales’ Business and Environment Programme; a non-Executive Director of Wessex Water; and a Trustee of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy.

His lecture will cover sustainable development, climate change and renewable energy To have any chance of achieving the carbon reduction targets set, Jonathon believes we need both "full-on decoupling" (in other words, creating long-term economic value with a massively reduced throughput of energy and raw materials), and an economy based on well being not growth. The Lecture will be held at Thinktank, Birmingham arrival time 18.30.

Admittance is free.

Kindly sponsored by Thinktank, Birmingham City Council, Sustainability West Midlands and RegenWM

For members further details and to reserve a place follow this link to the booking form.

For non members, please book through Thinktank by clicking here or email info@lunarsociety.org.uk

The Future World

On 10th February 2010 Professor Mario Minichiello gave an exhilarating lecture on 'The Future World' at Birmingham City University. To follow Mario's online blog please click here.

Upcoming Events

April: change to previous information. A seminar is proposed for Thursday 22nd April titled Soho Foundry: Past, Present and Future. This will explore the current state of the Soho Foundry, Smethwick and its regenerative possibilities. Venue and timing tbc

May: Darwin House, Lichfield tour and talk. Proposed date Saturday 22nd May. Timing and arrangements tbc

June: Youth and the Criminal Justice System, proposed date 23rd June and speakers: ACC Davenport West Midlands Police and Paul Cavadino, former CEO NACRO. Venue and timing tbc

Confirmed details will be posted on the website soon and on line booking and booking form

2009 Annual Dinner with Ed Miliband MP

The Society held its 2009 Annual Dinner Winter at Birmingham's Council House, hosted by the Lord Mayor. The Dinner took place on 12th November 2009, where the after dinner speech was given by Ed Miliband MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. The Rt Hon Ed Milliband spoke on Climate Change and the forthcoming Copenhagen Summit. In his impromptu speech he spoke about the effects of Climate Change and reflected on anticipations for the Copenhagen talks due to take place in December 2009. Details of his speech given to Parliament on 9 November can be read here. You can also read his article he wrote in the Guardian on the Copenhagen Summit.

2009 AGM: Chair Marion Roberts sets vision for Society

Marion Roberts became Chair of the Society on 22nd July 2009. Her biography can be read here. Although there seems an unsure future for the region and its people at present in the current economic and social climate, Marion also sets out her vision for her 2-year tenure as Chair of the Society, which can be read here.

Richard Bowker, CEO, National Express, Dinner Discussion June 2009

On Monday 8th June 2009, Richard Bowker, the CEO of National Express (whose HQ is in Birmingham) led a dinner discussion on integrated public transport issues held at KPMG who kindly hosted the event and chaired by Lunar Society Vice Chairman Alan Wenban-Smith.

Richard has had a meteoric rise within the transport industry having started his career at London Underground followed by Virgin Rail and the Strategic Rail Authority. He spoke at the Dinner on the environmental and economic role of public transport in connecting communities, providing access to markets, creating social cohesion, offering value and reducing carbon emissions. You can download a summary of his talk and the discussion here.

Professor Ian Stewart: Annual Lecture 2009

Professor Ian Stewart, FRS gave the Society's 2009 Sixth Annual Lecture After Darwin's Watch on Monday, 23rd March 2009 at ThinkTank. Professor Ian Stewart spoke on the development of Darwin’s theory, as well as major discoveries since then and the latest ideas that are changing how today’s scientists think about evolution. The Birmingham Post article of the lecture can be read here

Sir David Arculus: Annual Dinner 2008

The Lunar Society's 2008 Annual Dinner on 18th November was in the Banqueting Suite of the Council House, Birmingham. Sir David Arculus spoke on the highly topical issue of regulation: Lifting the burden of regulation: Who regulates the regulators?

(l-r) the Society's Hon Treasurer Richard Harris, Chairman Deirdre Kelly, the Lady Mayoress and the Lord Mayor, Lady Anne and Sir David Arculus. For more photographs of the event, & the text of Sir David's speech, see here, and the Birmingham Post review of it is here.

Birmingham's response to climate change: How radical should it be?

Chaired by Lunarman Sir Michael Lyons, the panelists on this Question Time-style debate on 14th October 2008 in Town Hall were the former Chancellor Nigel Lawson, Michael Meacher MP, former OECD Chief Economist David Henderson, IPN Director Julian Morris, Executive Director of the European Environmental AgencyProfessor Jacqueline McGlade & Professor Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre.

The Birmingham Post review of the debate can be read here. A transcript of the full debate can be downloaded here.

Deirdre Kelly: Review of the year at the 2008 AGM

Deirdre Kelly gave extracts from her Review of the Year at the 2008 AGM at the Council House, Birmingham on 23rd July. Her Review ends with these words: "It is an exciting time for the Society. We have achieved a great deal in the last year, and will build on what we’ve done — by presenting a lively programme of meetings and events, encouraging relationships with other organisations, and recruiting individual men and women from all walks of life, people who are eager to meet the intellectual challenge of how best to contribute to the common good now and in the future. We look forward to involving you more!" The full text of the Review can be read here.

David Urquhart: 2008 Boulton & Watt Commemoration

The Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt Revd David Urquhart gave the Society's 2008 Boulton & Watt Commemoration Lecture Reflections on 18 months in Birmingham at St Mary's Church, Handsworth, on 12th May. The text of his Lecture can be read here.

Sir Liam Donaldson: 2008 Annual Lecture

Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, gave the Society's 2008 Annual LectureThe Challenges for Medicine in the 21st Century to a capacity audience in the Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre at the University of Birmingham Medical School on 5th March. The Birmingham Post report of his Lecture can be read here. Owing to confidentiality issues, the full text of his speech is not available on-line. However, a summary can be read here.

Trevor Phillips: 2007 Annual Dinner speech

Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, ended his Annual Dinner speech Knowledge, Difference and Inequality: The Potential for Combustion with these words:
"Birmingham will face the demands of dealing with difference earlier and more fully than most. I entreat you to put your considerable skills - your professionalism, your intellect, your enthusiasm - to working out here, in the one of the nation's great laboratories of diversity, how we should confront this 21st century challenge. This is no longer a local issue. It is global. You here, in this room, with your ingenuity and your energy could in the years ahead, become a beacon to the world."
The full text of his speech can be read here.

Professor Parkinson: 2007 Boulton & Watt Commemoration Lecture

Professor Michael Parkinson gave the Society's annual Boulton & Watt Commemoration Lecture: Where is Birmingham going in the 21st century?, chaired by the Society's Vice Chairman, Alan Wenban-Smith on 31 October 2007. Acknowledging the "brilliant first act" of Birmingham's renaissance in the 1980s and 90s, Professor Parkinson put this in the context of comparatively more successful cities in the 21st century, both in the UK and in Europe. Alan Wenban-Smith's summary of his Lecture can be read here, where pdfs of Professor Parkinson's presentation can be downloaded.

AGM: New Chair Professor Deirdre Kelly sets vision for the Society

At the 2007 AGM, the incoming Chair Professor Deirdre Kelly, set her vision for her two-year tenure of office, saying. "The Lunar Society is a unique society. It has been hugely successful and has talented and accomplished members. It is an enviable brand. We are able, through our neutral position to facilitate discussion and debate on many leading edge issues and concerns and influence the outcome."
The full text of her speech can be read here.

John Armitt's 2007 Annual Lecture

The Society's Fourth Annual Lecture Engineering the Future delivered by John Armitt at Matthew Boulton College last March can be downloaded from here. John Armitt has since retired from his position as Chief Executive of Network Rail to take up the position of Chairman of the EPSRC. From 1 September, he will also lead the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) as its Chair.

David Miliband's 2006 Annual Dinner Speech

David Miliband's Speech One Planet Living: Towards a 3D Energy Revolution made at the Annual Dinner in the autumn can be read here or downloaded as a pdf from here. Members will recall that, in a departure from his prepared speech, the Minister pledged his Department's support for the Lunar Society's challenging target for the region to be carbon neutral by 2030.

David Miliband left DEFRA to become Secretary of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office with Gordon Brown's premiership.