Facing the Future Interviews
Videos from an event held at Newcastle University, 5th November 2011

Event sponsored by Economic and Social Research Council
and Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability

Students taking part in our film-making workshop interview speakers at The Great Debate: Facing the Future, a day of active debate and documentary-making held as part of ESRC Festival of Social Science.

Just five days after global population was predicted by the UN to reach seven billion, the debate "Too Many People?" examined what problems we might face if world population reaches the predicted nine billion in forty years, engaging with the contrasting views that there are too many people and that people are the solution to environmental problems. With Patrick Hayes, political commentator, Spiked Online Sandy Irvine, Chair, Newcastle Green Party Roger Martin, Chair, Population Matters; and Ludi Simpson, Professor of Population Studies, Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research.

In an era when "technical fixes" are dismissed by many as inappropriate to solve problems, yet belief in social change is generally viewed as naive and unrealistic, the debate over how we approach the future could not be more pertinent. In the debate "Engineering the Future", Ian Abley, architect and director of audacity and Barry K Gills, Professor of Global Politics, Newcastle University scrutinized the idea that we can engineer our way to a better future and asked whether technology can continue to improve our quality of life.

Patrick Hayes on population

Roger Martin, Chair of Population Matters

Professor Barry K Gills on reclaiming progress

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