Hello you this is the podcast version of Inside Science from the BBC first

broadcast on October the 1st 2015 I'm Adam Rutherford and more information can be

found at BBC.co. UK slash Radio 4.

Welcome to a special edition of BBC Inside Science recorded live here at the Royal Botanical

gardens at Kew.

We are in front of an audience as part of London's newest literary festival right on Q. Now,

Q Gardens have been at the forefront of research into plant biology since the

18th century, but the world has changed radically since then and the pace of change is increasing.

So the topics for today are how we are to address the challenges of global climate change

by using and understanding the ecosystems and biodiversity of plants.

We're looking at this from a range of scales, from the genes and genomes of plants to ecosystems

all the way to grand geoengineering schemes that may yet be needed as our options

for mitigating climate change shrink. So I have a panel of thinkers, writers, scientists

whose work concerns our relationship with the environment. We have

Evolutionary biologist Iliad Leach who leads the comparative plant and fungal

biology team here at Q. Aaron Davis, senior research leader also at Q, where his team looks at plant diversity for

provisioning us with food, medicines, beverages, and specifically coffee.

Oliver Morton, award-winning author and briefings editor at The Economist, Oliver's

latest book out now is called The Planet Remade, How Geoengineering Could Change the World.

And Professor Kathy Willis, who's the Director of Science at Q Gardens, and also Professor of

Biodiversity at Oxford University.

Kathy, can I just start with you?

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