Jeremy Rifkin. Photo by Hardeep Bharj

If Jeremy Rifkin isn’t a big picture thinker, I can’t think who is.

His lecture on the third industrial revolution encompassed the full sweep of human history, stopping in on macroeconomics, ecology, thermodynamics and education policy, with asides on the origins of monotheism, and a conclusion demanding no less than a transformation of global consciousness.

Will McDowall, Research Associate, UCL Energy Institute reports on the event.

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Back in 2000 the world committed to eight Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) to galvanize efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest by 2015. Although significant progress has been made, reaching all the goals continues to be challenging. As 2015 approaches, Mike Rowson (UCL Centre for International Health and Development) led an engaging UCL Institute for Global Health debate on 21 July to explore what we’ve learned from the MDGs and what the next chapter in development should look like.

From left: Lucy Scott (Overseas Development Institute), Karen Newman (Population and Sustainability Network) and Dr Meera Tiwari (University of East London). Credit: Sarah Ball

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Can climate transitions trigger potentially hazardous geological responses such as tsunamis, landslides, earthquakes and volcanic activity? It would appear so.

UCL alumna Mel Green reports from Professor Bill McGuire’s Lunch Hour Lecture, 3 March, on the hard facts of climate change and the possible link to catastrophic geological events.
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Who decides what should be regarded as heritage? Dorina Dobnig, an MSc Sustainable Heritage student, discusses a guest lecture given by Peter Davis (Professor of Museology at the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies at the University of Newcastle) on the concept of the ecomuseum.

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