Nature, what is it good for?

An ever expanding human population is putting more and more pressure on natural ecosystems that provide us with a range of benefits from cute animals to clean water and even medicines. To protect these important ecosystems for future generations we need to balance competing demands on land. In this talk, Arnout will demonstrate how exploring alternative futures through models can help in understanding human threats to ecosystems and make policies more robust for the future.

Where does water for beer come from? For many brews, a river or underground aquifer. But for a growing number of communities, historic water stress and climate change-related droughts mean that traditional water sources are unreliable. Thanks to dewdrops on spider webs and leaf-drinking scenes from movies like 'Avatar', though, we know there are other ways.
In this talk, you'll hear about how nets on top of a mountain are bringing fresh water to Moroccan communities through fog-capture, while similar tech is equipping vodka-making in California.