Chaired by Louise Cullen, BBCNI Agriculture and Environment Correspondent, photographic artist Richard Mosse will be joined in discussion by Simon Gray, Head of Peatland Recovery of Ulster Wildlife and Billy Hunter, Senior Marine Chemist at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute Northern Ireland. The panel will bring their diverse approaches, with international and national expertise, to a discussion centred on how art, science and public engagement together can raise our collective understanding and consciousness around climate change.

The event will include brief presentations, moderated discussion and opportunity for audience questions.

Chair: Louise Cullen - BBCNI Agriculture and Environment Correspondent

Louise Cullen is the BBCNI Agriculture and Environment Correspondent and has been in journalism for more than 20 years, working across BBC TV, radio and digital outlets.  Since taking on the role ahead of COP26 in Glasgow, Louise has immersed herself in a world of climate challenges, solutions and occasional hope.

Panelist: Billy Hunter - Senior Marine Chemist at AFBI

Billy is a biogeochemist with research interests understanding the effects of environmental change on the transport and storage of carbon in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Billy has expertise in the use of stable isotopes to track the movement of carbon from the soil to the deep sea floor which has included scientific diving and environmental field work across Europe and Asia. 

Panelist: Richard Mosse - Photographic Artist

Richard Mosse (b.1980) is an Irish artist currently based in New York. Documenting some of the most significant humanitarian and environmental crises of our time, his work has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, Barbican Art Gallery in London, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale with the six-screen video installation The Enclave in 2013. 

Broken Spectre is Richard Mosse’s most ambitious project to date focussing on the devastation in the Amazon rainforest and the climate change it triggers. In an attempt to render the scale and urgency of the Amazon’s extensive, impending collapse, Richard Mosse’s most impactful work to date employs a dazzling array of photographic techniques.

Panelist: Simon Gray - Head of Peatland Recovery at Ulster Wildlife

Simon Gray is Head of Peatland Recovery at Ulster Wildlife and has been involved in peatland restoration for the past six years. He has worked with landowners and practitioners across the island of Ireland to develop the skills and knowledge needed to repair our damaged peatland habitats. He now leads a team of committed staff at Ulster Wildlife to map, assess, and restore our precious peatlands across Northern Ireland. 

Peatlands, marine habitats and temperate rainforests can help bring nature back, tackle climate change and deliver numerous societal benefits, if they are protected, restored and enhanced. In the same way that the Amazon Rainforest is enigmatic of South America, peatlands or bogs are inextricably linked to Ireland with over 16% of our island covered in peat soils.