At the festival in Hay-on-Wye. Image: Hay Festival, Michael Alberry
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Three Sustainability Lectures Are on Nature’s Hay Schedule
Following our April 11 announcement about Wales’ Hay Festival putting its 2022 tickets on sale, Springer Nature is touting a “partnership to make science more accessible” with three “sustainability-related events” and ongoing support for the Hay’s John Maddox science lecture.
During the May 26 to June 5 series of events, Nature is supporting the lecture for a fourth time. The late Maddox (1925 to 2009) was Nature’s editor-in-chief for 22 years, and this year’s lecture is to be given by Devi Sridhar on May 29 at 1 p.m. BST.
Sridhar is the author of the forthcoming Preventable: The Politics of Pandemics and How To Stop the Next One, which releases on April 21 from Penguin Random House UK / Viking.
The lecture is to be introduced by Ritu Dhand, chief scientific officer at Springer Nature.
As the topic of sustainability continues to consume events and plans in so many venues and settings, the cooperative agreement with Hay and the scholarly and scientific publishing Springer Nature is to be included in Hay’s “Imagine” series of events—as Publishing Perspectives readers will recall, the Hay is a festival program that loves its sub-branding efforts.
Sustainability Talks at Hay
Devi Sridhar
In addition to the Sridhar lecture, there are three talks on themes of sustainability, looking at:
- Climate Crisis and Denial (Alice Bell and Peter Stott with Springer Nature’s Thea Sherer)
- Nature as a Human Right (Nick Hayes, Ellen Miles, Louisa Adjoa Parker, Daniel Raven-Ellison)
- Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History, from Cave Art to Conservation (Tim Birkhead)
In a prepared statement, Andy Fryers, who is the Hay’s director of sustainability this year, is quoted, saying, “It has never been more important for scientists and researchers to present their work, accessibly, to the general public and as a festival, we’ve seen an increased interest in sustainability-related topics in recent years.”
And Scherer at Springer Nature says, “We’re proud of our association with Hay Festival, and of supporting brilliant science communicators who can inspire people to take action on issues like climate change and biodiversity loss.
“We also greatly appreciate the opportunity to demonstrate the power of publishing when it comes to influencing positive change to visitors coming to Hay-on-Wye.”
In case you missed it, our initial programming announcement from the Hay Festival is here.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the Hay Festival is here, more on Peter Florence is here, and more on the world publishing industry’s book fairs, festivals, and other events is here. More from Publishing Perspectives on academic and scholarly publishing is here, and more on Springer Nature is here.
More from us on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here.