Edinburgh Science Festival celebrates Earth Day with Earth, Wind and Gaia

As Edinburgh Science Festival enters its final weekend this Friday there are a host of exciting events coinciding with Earth Day 2022 and highlighting the climate emergency.

Edinburgh Science Festival 2022 celebrates 50 years since James Lovelock’s revolutionary Gaia hypothesis was first published – drawing public attention to the interconnectedness of the delicate ecological cycles essential to sustaining life on Earth.

The theory ties directly into the theme that underpins the entirety of this year’s festival, Revolutions, so there is no better way to celebrate Earth Day than by experiencing some of the many events still on offer from Friday 22nd April as the Festival enters its final weekend.

One of this year’s major exhibitions taking proud place on the Mound, Consumed challenges our collective consumer habits and offers practical ways to live well without it costing us the Earth. One of the Festival’s Big Ideas discussions, Dictatorship, Revolution and Technology is a fascinating and socially urgent discussion on how explores the powers and pitfalls of modern communications technology for both regime and rebellion.

Even after the festival closes on Sunday 24th April, there are still several ways to experience offerings from this year. Running until 5 May on Portobello beach, audiences can celebrate the power of nature in Wild Scotland, a free, large-scale photography exhibition that showcases stories of how the remarkable people, flora and fauna of Scotland are adapting to our changing world in the face of the climate emergency.

Bioverse, merging the fascinating worlds of science and arts, takes over Summerhall until 9 June; featuring immersive installations and a series of films by artists, animators, filmmakers and scientists that explore our deeply intertwined relationship with the microbial world.