The world’s water supplies are under threat, and the effects of overfishing and plastic pollution on our oceans and rivers are unmistakable. Glaciers are melting and droughts and floods are becoming an increasingly frequent aspect of life on earth. The water crisis requires urgent collective action and sustainable solutions.

The second session in our Four Elements series looks squarely at the situation and brings together a panel of expert writers and thinkers. Join us as they discuss a range of pressing concerns, from the challenges and losses posed by droughts and dried-up rivers, to the wonders of marine life between the tides and the measures needed to preserve them. Don’t miss this vital conversation about water and its fundamental role in life on earth.

Speakers

Alok Jha is a science correspondent for The Economist, writing on everything from cosmology to particle physics and stem cells to climate change. Before that, he was science correspondent for ITN and The Guardian, covering daily news and current affairs for more than a decade. He has also written and presented multiple TV and radio documentary series for the BBC. In 2018, he spent a year as a Wellcome fellow, developing new storytelling formats for complex topics. He has reported from all over the world, including live from Antarctica, and is also the author of three popular science books, including The Water Book (Headline, 2015).

Tobias Jones worked at the London Review of Books for several years before moving to Italy, where he was lecturer in English literature at Parma University. Tobias has written and presented television programmes for the Italian stations RAI 3, Ricchi d’Italia and Cervelli d’Italia which have received a great deal of praise both from the Italian press and the viewing public. He has also made documentaries for BBC Four and BBC Radio 3 and 4. He writes for various UK newspapers as well as the Italian political magazine Internazionale. He was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and he is the author of numerous successful books, including The Dark Heart of Italy, Utopian Dreams, A Place of Refuge and Ultra. His new book, The Po: An Elegy for Italy’s Longest River, was published by Head of Zeus in July 2022.

Adam Nicolson is the prize-winning author of many books on history, landscape, and great literature, including The Smell of Summer Grass and The Seabird’s Cry: The Lives and Loves of Puffins, Gannets and Other Ocean Voyagers. He is the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, the W. H. Heinemann Award, the Ondaatje Prize, the Wainwright Prize for nature writing and the Jeffries Prize. His latest is Life Between the Tides: In Search of Rockpools and Other Adventures Along the Shore, a ‘remarkable and powerful book’ (Edmund de Waal). He lives on a farm in Sussex.

Fourth speaker to be announced

Chaired by Rosie Boycott, Crossbench Peer, Food Campaigner, and co-founder of 5×15.

The Earth Convention

This is a critical time in the world’s response to climate change and the environment. The realities can no longer be ignored – from the Arctic to Australia, and our own changing weather patterns. If we are to tackle the issue every sector of society will have to play its part: energy, food, fashion, transport, finance. Why is it so hard for people to take steps towards solutions? Where does responsibility lie – with us, businesses or governments? What are the most effective things that we can do? And can we turn the pandemic into a defining moment in the fight against climate change?

To explore the issues 5×15 and Rathbones have teamed up to launch the Earth Convention – a series of online events bringing together world experts for online conversations, focusing on both the problems as well as the opportunities and the actions that we can all take. The Four Elements is the second series of Earth Convention panels. You can watch the previous series, from 2020-2021, with speakers including Christiana Figueres, Mike Berners Lee, Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, Dieter Helm and Lucy Siegle, online. The next events in our Four Elements series are Air and Fire.

About Rathbones

Responsible investing at Rathbone Investment Management. We see it as our responsibility to invest for everyone’s tomorrow. That means doing the right thing for our clients and for others too. Keeping the future in mind when we make decisions today. Looking beyond the short term for the most sustainable outcome. This is how we build enduring value for our clients, make a wider contribution to society and create a lasting legacy.

With thanks for your generous support for 5×15’s online series.