Last year a number of thinkers launched “The Ecomodernist Manifesto” (www.ecomodernism.org). Ecomodernism argues that traditional environmentalism has advocated that human societies need to be reintegrated into natural systems. Instead, ecomodernism proposes that “decoupling” from natural systems, by encouraging urbanisation and using technologies such as nuclear power and plant genetic engineering, is a better way to feed and support billions of people in cities while still leaving more room for nature elsewhere. These ideas have been controversial!

Author Mark Lynas (an original signatory of the ecomodernist manifesto) will talk on this topic, with commentaries by Paul Jepson, Connie McDermott and Richard Grenyer, and a dissussion chaired by Yadvinder Malhi.