Green

Two bird enthusiasts take us under their wing in this celebration of our feathered friends and our relationship with them.

Broadcaster, author and lifelong birder Jon Gower (Birdland) reminds us that birds are commonplace miracles that have inspired artists for centuries, from the symphonic song of the wren and the clack of a puffin’s beak to epic migrations and sunset murmurations. History and nature writer Adam Nicolson (Bird School) recently decided to redress his ignorance of bird life, observing nightingales, cuckoos, turtle doves, pheasants, robins and owls; where they nest, how they sing, how they mate and fight, what preys on them, what they are like as living things.

Our birds face climate threat and decline in biodiversity, and their call has in many ways fallen silent. Join Gower and Nicolson in conversation with presenter, actress and author Anni Llŷn, to find out more about the inhabitants of our skies and what can be done to restore their soundtrack.

From Ecuador and India to Canada, writer Robert Macfarlane explores the ancient idea that rivers are living beings; an idea that has taken on new relevance and urgency as we face a planet battling the effects of climate change. Sharing stories and insights from his new book Is a River Alive?, Macfarlane shifts our perspective, making us see that our fate is tied into that of our rivers.

Macfarlane, a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people and place. His bestselling books include Underland, Landmarks and The Wild Places, as well as a book-length prose-poem, Ness.

In collaboration with the artist Jackie Morris he co-created the internationally bestselling books of nature-poetry and art, The Lost Words and The Lost Spells. He is currently completing his third book with Morris: The Lost Birds.

In conversation with the writer and broadcaster, Horatio Clare.

How can we protect ourselves from the pollution, chemicals and toxins that pervade our environment? And how important is nature to our lives? Proponent of Ecological Medicine Dr Jenny Goodman, nature connections researcher and writer Durre Shahwar and Oxford Professor of Biodiversity Kathy Willis connect the health of our planet with our own well-being.

Goodman (Getting Healthy in Toxic Times) seeks to understand how environmental factors affect our health, from pollution to toxins to radiation. Shahwar is co-editor of Gathering, an anthology on nature and climate by women of colour. Her research has explored how marginalised communities form connections with nature. Professor Willis (Good Nature) has dedicated her research to proving the link between the amount of green space in our lives and our better health, mood and longevity. In conversation with author, conservationist and award-winning broadcaster, Professor Ben Garrod.

Explore the complexity of rivers and the way they’re integral to the landscapes they run through. Our experts – Simone Lowthe-Thomas of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park and author Robert Macfarlane – talk to the chair of the National Trust, René Olivieri, about how we get the balance right between sustainable approaches to environmental, agricultural and urban needs.

Craig aka Birdgirl, ornithologist, campaigner, founder of Black2Nature and author of We Have a Dream. Lowthe-Thomas works for the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority as Director of Nature Recovery and Climate Change. Macfarlane is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people and place. His books include Underland, Landmarks and The Lost Spells, co-created with artist Jackie Morris. Olivieri previously served as the chair of organisations including the RSPCA and the Wildlife Trust.

If you think the outlook is bleak, come and hear some much-needed new perspective on our prospects as Isabel Losada and Sumit Paul-Choudhury discuss their good vibes with Director of Positive News Martin Wright.

In The Joyful Environmentalist Losada gets right on with the solutions. Looking for every single way we can take care of the planet, she addresses how we live and work, travel, shop, eat, drink, dress, vote, play, volunteer, bank – everything. She advocates doing this wholeheartedly, energetically and joyfully, until we’re all fully equipped to be part of the pollution solution.

Astrophysicist-turned-journalist Sumit Paul-Choudhury’s The Bright Side is a deep dive into the power and science of optimism. Irrational though it might seem, optimism is central to the human psyche: without it we would never have survived the unpredictable and often hostile world we evolved into – and it may have lessons for us yet.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye, discussing the impact of the climate emergency on national parks.

Hay-on-Wye is located within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

Please wear appropriate footwear and outdoor gear.

Building homes – one and a half million of them – is at the top of the government’s agenda, and no NIMBYs, newts or bats will be allowed to get in the way. Nor will any planning rules, with the government set to rewrite them so that homes can be built on the Green Belt, which was instituted to stop urban sprawl.

But how can we solve the very real housing crisis without destroying the countryside?

Join architect, author and Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, wildlife TV presenter, conservationist, author and campaigner Chris Packham, and the founder of the Community Planning Alliance, Rosie Pearson, for a look at a common sense approach to tackling the country’s housing needs.

They talk to Sarah Lamptey, presenter, writer, DJ and founder of Showerbox, which brings free showers to enhance the lives of those facing homelessness in London.

Truth is a much-debated concept in our modern world, but according to Mike Berners-Lee (There is No Planet B) there’s nothing more important. The climate and sustainability expert delves into his new book A Climate of Truth, to spell out why, if humanity is to thrive in the decades ahead, the most critical step is to raise standards of honesty in our politics, our media and our businesses. By turning our attention to the principle of truth, he argues, we can all have much more impact on the issues we care about. The professor in the Institute for Social Futures at Lancaster University talks to journalist Rosie Boycott.

We’re entering a new era – and our old narratives around global affairs, politics, technology and the environment no longer capture the complexity of today’s realities. We urgently need positive new stories to inspire collective action and decision-making.

Join BSR (Business for Social Responsibility)’s Sustainable Futures Lab in this highly interactive and creative workshop, to explore new opportunities presented by ‘shocks’ across different domains, from wars to AI to climate upheavals, and weave these into positive new narratives around innovation, collaboration and a reimagined future.

The session will be hosted by Christine Diamente, who leads BSR’s Business Transformation team, Jacob Park, who leads BSR’s Sustainable Futures Lab, Charlene Collison, who leads BSR’s Collaborations, and Margot Brent, who leads BSR’s strategy practice.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. You’ll be joined by local experts who will give their insights into this treasured landscape.

Hay-on-Wye is located within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

The leading environmental experts examine the uncomfortable truths at the heart of the climate and nature crises, and reveal the system shifts needed to achieve real change, in conversation with the co-Executive Director of Greenpeace UK.

Climate researcher Dr Friederike Otto, author of Climate Injustice, has been described as “the scientist finding climate change’s smoking gun” (Wired). Her bracing investigation into extreme weather’s impact on the world’s most vulnerable reveals the failures of political and social infrastructures around the world and shines a light on the damage inflicted on real lives.

Leading environmentalist and Chair of Natural England Tony Juniper CBE (Just Earth) identifies the real problem – that inequality is the main obstacle blocking action. We can’t fight the climate and nature crises without addressing the ever-widening gaps between the rich and poor, the powerful and the weak.

We live in a manufactured world, and all of us are constantly in contact with multiple manufactured products. But how do all these things – from the clothes we wear to the smartphones we use – get to us?

Tim Minshall, head of the Institute for Manufacturing, traces the journeys of manufactured goods from mega-factory floors, engineering laboratories and seaports to distribution hubs, supermarkets and into our homes. And he takes a look at how manufacturing could offer a path to a truly sustainable future.

Minshall is the inaugural Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, and author of Your Life is Manufactured. He talks to Literary Editor of the Financial Times, Frederick Studemann.

How prepared for food shocks is the UK? A new national report launched in February 2025 sets out a challenge: the need to take food shocks more seriously and to improve civil food resilience. Join the report’s author and the crisis expert to hear about the future of our national and global food systems, the threats, and how we ensure everyone gets the food they need.

Lang (Feeding Britain) is Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University London’s Centre for Food Policy, and has consulted for the WHO. Professor Sir David Omand was the first UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator and, before that, Director of GCHQ. His book How to Survive a Crisis uses intelligence strategies to explore how to spot crises early.

Fashion and sustainability pioneer Kate Fletcher explores interrelationships between clothing and the natural world. She sees nature not as the scenery against which fashion stories unfold, but as the main event. For her, the connection of fashion and nature is the story.

A Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University and at Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway, Fletcher’s work on systems change, post-growth fashion, fashion localism and Earth Logic, both defines and challenges the field of fashion, textiles and sustainability. She is a co-founder of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion.

Join Fletcher for a visionary take on fashion, not as the mouthpiece of capitalism, but as the language of the Earth.

Charlie and David Blandford open the gates to their farm for a visit led by agronomist Jonathon Harrington and vet Barney Sampson. Brobury Farm lies alongside the River Wye, in the heart of Kilvert country, and produces top quality lamb and arable crops. Walk around the farm (a distance of up to a mile), watch working sheep-dogs, learn about sheep shearing and wool spinning, and taste lamb that has been produced on the farm.

With thanks to Charlie & David Blandford for welcoming us to their farm.

Please wear walking boots or wellies and waterproof clothing in case of inclement weather. These are visits to real working farms and are suitable for anyone interested in learning more about food and farming. Families are welcome but children must be supervised at all times.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park and Hay Heritage Group lead a walk through the beautiful ancient environment of Hay-on-Wye. Learn more about the historic buildings of the town and its surroundings.

Hay-on-Wye is located within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

A panel of experts assesses whether our current food system is fit for purpose, both now and in a changing world in which we may have to cope with a series of shocks and challenges.

Campaigner Minette Batters, academic Tim Lang, food grower Claire Ratinon and farmer James Rebanks tell us what we should be worrying about when it comes to food, and what solutions to problems of sustainability, social justice, public health and food security look like.

Batters is former president of the National Farmers’ Union, and was the first woman to hold the post. Lang is Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University London's Centre for Food Policy, and author of Atlas of Food. Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer, author of Unearthed: On Race and Roots and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong. Rebanks is a farmer based in the Lake District, author of The Shepherd's Life.

For over a century, the Guardian’s ‘Country Diary’ has published the nation’s most celebrated writers of natural history as they capture the essence of the British countryside. Four nature lovers discuss Under the Changing Skies, which collates the finest contributions from recent years.

Patrick Barkham is natural history writer for the Guardian and author of The Butterfly Isles, Coastlines and Wild Green Wonders. Nicola Chester writes on belonging, protest, access and connection to nature. Her memoir is On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging. Paul Evans is a nature writer and senior lecturer in the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. Broadcaster Martha Kearney is also a keen apiarist who filmed her beekeeping year for The Wonder of Bees on BBC Four.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. You’ll be joined by local experts who will give their insights into this treasured landscape

Hay-on-Wye is located within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

David Reid’s book Running the Risk is a guide to understanding life’s biggest risks – from shark attacks to nuclear disaster – and how we build a safer future. From the seemingly mundane act of crossing the road to the complex web of global connections, risk permeates our daily existence – but doesn’t have to blight it.

Hey is responsible for leading the World Risk Poll, Impact and establishing a Global Safety Evidence Centre for the Lloyds Register Foundation. The World Risk Poll and Resilience Index is the first and only global study of worry about, and harm from, risks to people’s safety. These unique data are collected and made freely available by the Foundation as a public good.

David Reid is Director of Global Advocacy at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, while Nancy Hey is the Foundation’s Director of Evidence & Insight. In conversation with Hay Festival Sustainability Director Andy Fryers, they consider the effects of risk and explore how we can redefine our understanding of resilience.

Two environmental researchers find themselves confronting the same nexus of grief for beloved ancestors and grief at climate breakdown. They discuss their books with natural history writer Patrick Barkham.

Marianne Brown’s The Shetland Way tells how travelling to her father’s funeral leads her to investigate a huge wind farm project in a tight-knit Shetland community, and how her questioning is tied up with grief. Alice Mah’s Red Pockets recounts how she returns to her ancestors’ village in China only to find she has debts to pay because their graves haven’t been swept for decades. She starts seeing a deep connection with her research on pollution, which intensifies her own experience of climate grief.

Raised in Edinburgh, Brown spent many years working as a journalist in Southeast Asia and later in Britain as the editor of an environmental magazine. Alice Mah is a Chinese Canadian-British writer and Professor of Urban and Environmental Studies at the University of Glasgow.

Join broadcaster and author Kate Humble (Humble by Nature, Thinking on My Feet) and a guide from Inntravel (specialists in self-guided walking, cycling and rail holidays) on a walk exploring the border between England and Wales, which wraps itself tightly around Hay-on-Wye. Chat to Kate – who styles herself ‘happier outdoors than in’ – about her love of the countryside, and why going for a daily walk is as essential as that first cup of tea, to make her feel good for the rest of the day.

Dive into the hidden history of man-made remains found in the Welsh Uplands, in this event perfect for enthusiasts of history, archaeology and landscape.

Historian Richard Hayman acts as our guide to everything from Neolithic chambered tombs to the World Heritage landscapes of Blaenavon and the North Wales slate industry, illuminating the fascinating, under-appreciated and hidden history and archaeology of the Welsh mountains.

Hayman is an independent historian and archaeologist who writes about the cultural history of buildings and places in Britain. Between 2000 and 2014 he contributed to the Uplands Archaeology Initiative, organised by RCAHM Wales, during which time he explored and recorded unknown archaeological sites in every upland region of Wales.

Dale Vince, nicknamed ‘Labour’s Green Knight’, is a green industrialist dedicated to championing environmental sustainability. Since founding the world’s first green energy company, Ecotricity, he has been on a mission to change the face of the industry by leading the move away from fossil fuels towards renewables.

Using business as a tool for environmentalism, Vince is helping to lead the eco revolution. He runs Forest Green Rovers FC, dubbed the world’s greenest football team by FIFA; creates diamonds out of atmospheric carbon; builds windmills for export around the world; has launched a range of vegan burgers; and last year launched the world’s first electric airline. He also made the world’s first electric supercar and built the UK’s first national network of EV charging stations.

He has been awarded an OBE for services to the environment and was appointed UN Ambassador for Climate Change in 2019. His book Manifesto shares the tools for changing the world.

In conversation with broadcaster, journalist and TV presenter, Bidisha.

Agronomist Jonathon Harrington and vet Barney Sampson lead a tour of Trevithel Court, David and Catherine James’ traditional mixed farm with orchards supplying apples for Bulmers, Westons and other cider producers in Herefordshire and Wales. Walk among the apple trees and learn about cider production; look inside a beehive and learn how bees make honey and store it for the winter, and why they are so essential for pollination. You can sample some of the cider and honey produced on the farm. See the quality beef cattle fed with the grass and arable crops grown on the farm and the machinery used for crop production and harvesting. Trevithel Court is run by David James in partnership with his son Will James, the fourth generation of the family to farm here.

With thanks to David & Catherine James and family for welcoming us to their farm.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a walk through the beautiful historic environment of Hay-on-Wye.

Hay-on-Wye is located within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

Approach the natural world with awe, as environmental justice researcher Joycelyn Longdon merges ancient wisdom with modern technology. Talking to travel and adventure writer Dan Richards, she inspires us to view climate action as a shared goal rather than an individual burden.

Longdon, an AI and bioacoustics researcher at the University of Cambridge, examines rage, imagination, innovation, theory, healing and care in Natural Connection. The book celebrates the histories and extraordinary acts of ordinary people who have paved the way for today’s environmental movement, bringing together stories and wisdom from marginalised people and celebrating the power of community.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first female ascent of Mount Everest, join Everest summiteers Jo Bradshaw, Tori James (first Welsh woman) and Rebecca Stephens (first British woman), alongside adventurer researcher Jenny Hall and historian Kate Nicholson on a slightly less challenging walk.

From Hay we’ll climb to atmospheric Mouse Castle Wood, home to ancient oaks and site of an unfinished motte-and-bailey earthwork, consisting of a rock boss with an artificially scarped vertical side. The castle was held by the de Clanowe family in the 14th century. We’ll return across undulating fields to Hay.

The future is uncertain. The future is full of danger. The future is a risk. But there is hope in the future too, for us and the generations after us. Social geographer Danny Dorling and climate activist Rob Hopkins discuss how we should navigate life now to mitigate the effects of the crises we are facing, from the cost of living to climate change, and how we should rethink the future.

Dorling is author of The Next Crisis, in which he unpacks the data on what people really think about when they consider the future. He is the 1971 Professor of Geography, and advises the government and the Office for National Statistics.

Hopkins is co-founder of the international Transition Network movement, which aims to reimagine and rebuild the world. His forthcoming book How to Fall in Love with the Future looks at how we change the world.

We are living through a Long Emergency: a near-continuous train of pandemics, heatwaves, droughts, resource wars and other climate-driven disasters. Two great thinkers at the intersection between politics and everyday life share their thoughts on possible bulwarks against despair.

Adam Greenfield is Senior Urban Fellow at the LSE Cities centre of the London School of Economics. In Lifehouse, he asks what might happen if the tactics and networks of care and local power that spring up in response to climate disasters were brought together in a single, coherent way of life. Danny Sriskandarajah is CEO of progressive thinktank the New Economics Foundation. In Power to the People he presents a blueprint for how we can make a difference through greater community engagement, and how we can deliver a society that works for the many and not the few.

Five innovative garden designers bring their unique vision to mitigating the effects of climate change, encouraging biodiversity and boosting well-being.

Tayshan Hayden-Smith created the Grenfell Garden of Peace following the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. Harry Holding is an environmentally conscious landscape and garden designer who won the RHS People’s Choice Award 2023 and RHS Feature Garden 2024. Eelco Hooftman is a landscape architect who has taught at the School of Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. Anna Liu is an architect with over 15 years’ experience in art and landscape in Taiwan, Japan, China, USA and UK. Ann-Marie Powell is a broadcaster and designs gardens for private clients, companies and charities.

Hayden-Smith, Holding, Hooftman, Liu and Powell have created ‘The Community Garden’, ‘The Food and Medicine Garden’, ‘The Botanic Garden’, ‘The Garden Square’ and ‘The Family Garden’ respectively for the British Library’s new exhibition Unearthed: The Power of Gardening.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a gentle walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. The National Park is also home to a UNESCO geopark. During this walk, the Park’s Geopark Officer will offer a journey through deep time, exploring the geology of the hills.

Hay-on-Wye is located within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.