Did you know the link between carbon dioxide and global warming was first suggested in the 1850s? That Congress was first briefed on the issue in the 1950s? Alice Bell does. Join her on a rip-roaring ride through the characters, ideas, technologies and experiments which shaped the climate crisis we find ourselves in today.From the discovery of carbon dioxide to an emerging idea of “greenhouse gases” in the middle of the 19th century and, via scientific expeditions across oceans, into Space and secrets buried deeply in ancient, Arctic ice, the coining of the term “global warming” in the 1970s. As citizens of the 21st century, we’ve been left an almighty mess, but as Bell argues, we’re inherited tools for survival too.

Our speaker Alice Bell heads up climate policy at the Wellcome Trust. Previously, she co-ran the climate action charity Possible, worked as an academic and as a freelance writer and editor, specialising in the politics of science, technology and the environment. She is the author of Can We Save the Planet? (Thames and Hudson, 2020) and Our Biggest Experiment: a history of the climate crisis (Bloomsbury, 2021), which was shortlisted for the 2022 Wainwright Prize for writing on global conservation.