SR Talks: The Role of Scientists on a Planet in Crisis
Spanish
Nos encontramos en una emergencia climática y ecológica. Nuestra acción – o inacción- ahora determinará las condiciones de vida no sólo para nosotros y nuestros hijos e hijas, sino para toda la vida en la Tierra durante milenios. ¿Cuál es el papel de quienes están mejor preparados/as para entender este momento histórico? ¿Cuál es el papel de la comunidad científica en un planeta en crisis? ¿Cuál es su papel como científico/a?
A lo largo de febrero y marzo de 2022, Rebelión Científica organiza una serie de charlas dedicadas a la emergencia climática y ecológica y lo que podemos hacer al respecto. Estas charlas tendrán lugar los miércoles, alternando entre las 9.00 y 19.30 GMT (10:00 y las 20:30 CET / 4h00 ou 14h30 EST). Cada sesión durará aproximadamente una hora y media e incluirá una introducción a la Rebelión Científica y a nuestras próximas acciones; una charla y una sesión de preguntas y respuestas con una/a investigador/a de renombre; y una oportunidad para conectar con otros participantes y debatir de la manera en que podemos actuar.
Habrá interpretación simultánea en español para que todas las personas que puedan desenvolverse en esos idiomas puedan acceder y participar. Por favor, envíenos un correo electrónico si tiene necesidades adicionales de accesibilidad.
French
Nous sommes en pleine crise climatique et écologique. Notre action – ou inaction – aujourd’hui sera déterminante, non seulement pour nous-mêmes et nos enfants, mais aussi pour toute forme de vie sur Terre, et ce, pour les millénaires à venir. Quel rôle pour celles et ceux qui sont les mieux placé·es pour comprendre la nature historique de ce moment ? Quel rôle pour les scientifiques sur une planète en crise ? Quel est votre rôle ?
En février et mars 2022, la Rébellion scientifique organise une série de conférences sur l’urgence écologique et climatique et sur ce que nous pouvons faire. Ces conférences se tiendront les mercredis, en alternance à 9h00 ou 19h30 GMT (10h00 ou 20h30 CET / 4h00 ou 14h30 EST). Chaque rencontre durera environ 1 heure 30 avec : une introduction sur la Rébellion Scientifique et nos actions à venir ; un exposé par un·e chercheur·se renommé·e ; et une discussion, au cours de laquelle vous pourrez rencontrer les autres participant·es et parler des différentes manières d‘agir.
Si vous souhaitez une interprétation (traduction) vers le français, contactez-nous. Il y aura une interprétation simultanée pour que vous puissiez suivre ces conférences en anglais ou en espagnol. Écrivez-nous si vous avez d’autres besoins en matière d‘accessibilité.
English
We are in a climate and ecological emergency. The actions we take – or not take – now will determine the conditions for life not only for us and our children, but for all life on Earth for millennia to come. What is the role of those who are best poised to understand this historic moment? What is the role of scientists on a planet in crisis? What is your role?
Throughout February and March 2022, Scientist Rebellion is organising a series of talks dedicated to the climate and ecological emergency and what we can do about it. These talks will take place on Wednesdays, alternating between 09:00 or 19:30 GMT (10h00 or 20h30 CET / 4h00 or 14h30 EST). Each session will last about 1.5 hours and involves an introduction to Scientist Rebellion and our upcoming actions; a talk by and a Q&A with a well-known researcher; and an opportunity to connect with fellow participants and discuss how to get active.
We aim to make the SR Talks accessible for people comfortable with English and Spanish through interpretation. Please email us if you have additional accessibility needs or if you would like interpretation (translation) into another language..
Schedule
| 02 February 2022 19:30 GMT | Tim Lenton: “Positive tipping points to avoid climate tipping points” Spanish: “Puntos de inflexión positivos para evitar los puntos de inflexión climáticos” French: “Des points de bascule positifs pour échapper aux points de bascule climatiques” |
| 09 February 2022 09:00 GMT | David Spratt: “Faster than forecast: Communicating climate disruption” Spanish: “Más rápido de lo previsto: Comunicando la alteración del clima” French: “Plus rapide que prévu : comment communiquer autour du dérèglement climatique” |
| 16 February 2022 19:30 GMT | Esteban Servat: “A Transition away from Coal with something worse than Coal: The true Impacts of Gas & Fracking” Spanish: “Una transición hacia la eliminación del carbón con algo peor que el carbón: impactos reales del gas y del fracking” French: “Sortir du charbon, mais pour des carburants plus polluants : le véritable impact du gaz et de la fracturation” |
| 23 February 2022 19:30 GMT | Flavia Broffoni: “Contexo de colapso y sur global ¿Cuándo es el momento de actuar en consecuencia?” English: “Collapse and Global South: When is it time to act accordingly?” French: “Effondrement et Sud global : quand faut-il agir ?” |
| 02 March 2022 19:30 GMT | Jorge Riechmann: “1971/ 1972/ 1973: sobre la ‘revolución vernadskiana’ y bioeconómica que no tuvo lugar” English: “1971/ 1972/ 1973: on the Vernadskian theory and the bio-economic revolution that never happened” French: “1971/1972/1973 : la révolution vernadskienne et bio-économique qui n’a jamais eu lieu” |
| 09 March 2022 09:00 GMT | Barbara Magalhães Teixeira: “Building peaceful and sustainable societies – an impossible utopia?” French: “Construire des sociétés durables : une utopie irréalisable ?” Spanish: “Construir sociedades pacíficas y sostenibles – una utopía imposible?” |
| 16 March 2022 19:30 GMT | Kate Raworth and Andrew Fanning: Transformative action to live within the doughnut French: “Action transformatrice pour vivre dans les limites du ‘doughnut’ “ Spanish: “Acción transformadora para vivir dentro del donut” |
Speakers and Abstracts
Tim Lenton: “Positive tipping points to avoid climate tipping points”
Spanish: “Puntos de inflexión positivos para evitar los puntos de inflexión climáticos”
French: “Des points de bascule positifs pour échapper aux points de bascule climatiques”
02 February 2022 19:30 GMT, Recording (YouTube)
Talk in English with interpretation in Spanish and French.
Abstract: Tipping points in climate science normally refer to small changes in the Earth system that unleash much broader, typically damaging impacts that accelerate climate change. The best-known examples are rising sea levels due to disintegration of the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets, or the release of methane deposits from the thawing Siberian permafrost. They help to underline the urgency of climate action. Today most people understand we must reduce emissions – and very quickly. In this webinar, Tim will summarise recent evidence regarding climate tipping points, which supports declarations that we are in a ‘climate emergency’. He will also show his latest results identifying a human climate niche and projecting how it will move in the future. Then he will turn to identifying positive social tipping points that will need to be triggered to have any hope of limiting global warming to well below 2C.
Speaker: Tim Lenton is the Director of the Global Systems Institute and Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter. His reading of Jim Lovelock’s books on Gaia, when he was an undergraduate, ignited his passion for studying the Earth as a whole system, forming the foundations of his research to date. For his PhD, supervised by Andrew Watson, Tim studied what regulates the nutrient balance of the ocean and the oxygen content of the atmosphere. In his first job he built a simple coupled carbon cycle and climate model and led the development of the GENIE Earth system model. This led him to studying the coupled evolution of life and the planet and identifying tipping points in the Earth system – past, present, and future. Tim and his group at Exeter focus on understanding the Earth as a system, modelling evolution, ecology, and biogeochemistry, providing early warning of climate tipping points, and identifying positive tipping points towards sustainability. This integrated view of our living planet is captured in his books ‘Revolutions that made the Earth’ with Andrew Watson (OUP, 2011) and ‘Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction’ (OUP, 2016).
David Spratt: “Faster than forecast: Communicating climate disruption”
Spanish: “Más rápido de lo previsto: Comunicando la alteración del clima”
French: “Plus rapide que prévu : comment communiquer autour du dérèglement climatique”
09 February 2022 09:00 GMT, Recording (YouTube)
Talk in English with interpretation in Spanish and French.
Abstract: Climate warming is accelerating. New data shows that vital systems including Greenland and West Antarctica are past tipping points, faster than forecast. This is different from the official story at Glasgow, and in IPCC reports. What are the most important climate stories to tell, and how might that be done?
Read more: What Lies Beneath: The underestimation of Existential climate risks; Degrees of Risk: Can the banking system survive climate warming of 3˚C?; Revisiting the climate collapse – The view from Nuuk in the year 2070
Speaker: David Spratt is a climate science communicator and Research Director for Australia’s Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration. He is the co-author of “Climate Code Red: The case for emergency action” which first codified the idea of the climate emergency and the climate threat as a “code red”.
Esteban Servat: “A Transition away from Coal with something worse than Coal: The true Impacts of Gas & Fracking”
Spanish: “Una transición hacia la eliminación del carbón con algo peor que el carbón: impactos reales del gas y del fracking”
French: “Sortir du charbon, mais pour des carburants plus polluants : le véritable impact du gaz et de la fracturation”
16 February 2022 19:30 GMT, Recording (YouTube)
Talk in English with interpretation in Spanish and French.
Abstract: Description of environmental and climate impacts of gas & fracking around the world, the role of gas in the future of world energy, the “shale revolution” and its consequences for the planet, methane emissions and the Global Methane Pledge, frontline struggles from the Global South and the role & responsibility from the Global North. Multinational fossil fuel companies as “the elephant in the room of the climate crisis”. Coming together of XR groups with other movements in actions of international solidarity tackling the supply chains of multinational fossil fuel companies.
Speaker: Esteban Servat is a biotechnologist, environmental activist and founder of Ecoleaks. Born in Argentina, he had to leave the country after denouncing fracking and mega-mining in Mendoza. He participates with the global movement Shale Must Fall.
Flavia Broffoni: “Contexo de colapso y sur global ¿Cuándo es el momento de actuar en consecuencia?”
English: “Collapse and Global South: When is it time to act accordingly?”
French: “Effondrement et Sud global : quand faut-il agir ?”
23 February 2022 19:30 GMT, Recording (YouTube)
Talk in Spanish with interpretation in English and French.
English
Abstract: Every geophysical indicator points towards the imminent arrival of ecosystemic and social critical points within our lifetimes. Ecological and climatic emergency is not a forecast: it is already here. The collapse of the industrial civilization is inevitable and governments are not taking any measures for generating community resilience. In the global south, droughts, fires, and floods deepen economic strategies tailored to provide the global north with commodities, while further deepening the effects of climate chaos. What does it entail to act coherently in the face of this diagnosis?
French
Résumé : Tous les indicateurs géophysiques montrent que nous atteindrons, de notre vivant, des étapes critiques aux plans écosystémique et social. L‘urgence climatique et écologique n‘est pas un pronostic, c‘est déjà une réalité. L‘effondrement de la civilisation industrielle est inévitable et les gouvernements ne font rien pour développer la résilience des communautés. Dans le Sud global, les sécheresses, les incendies, et les inondations renforcent les stratégies économiques visant à fournir des marchandises à l‘hémisphère Nord, ce qui renforce encore les effets du dérèglement climatique. Face à ce constat, que serait une action cohérente ?
Spanish
Resumen: Todos los indicadores geofíscos indican la inminente llegada de puntos críticos ecosistémicos y sociales en el lapso de nuestras vidas. La emergencia ecológica y climática ya no es un diagnóstico futuro: está aquí. El colapso de la civilización industrial es inevitable y los gobiernos no están tomando niguna medida para generar resiliencia comunitaria. En el sur global las sequías, incendios e inundaciones profundizan las estrategias económicas para abastecer al norte de commoditties, profundizando aún más los efectos del caos climático. ¿Qué implicaría actuar con coherencia frente a este diagnóstico?
Lea más: Flavia Broffoni: “Definir el concepto, controlar el debate“; Joaquín Sánchez Mariño: “Flavia Broffoni: El colapso de nuestra civilización es inevitable, pero podemos aprender a colapsar mejor“; Flavia Broffoni: “Ecocidio: ¿Qué es más justo: lo legal o lo legítimo?“
Speaker: Flavia Broffoni is a political scientist and activist. She specialises in political ecology, international relations, environmental management, participatory planning and regenerative development. She is co-founder of the peaceful civil disobedience movement Rebellion or Extinction. A speaker at TEDx Rio de la Plata, she is a member of the board of directors of the Amartya Civil Association. She was general director of Environmental Strategies at the Environmental Protection Agency of the City of Buenos Aires and manager of sustainability in multinational corporations. She was a member of the board of directors of the Foro de Ecología Política – Los Verdes. She worked as policy coordinator at Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina and was a member of WWF’s international delegation to several United Nations Conferences of the Parties. She facilitates training spaces on political ecology and ecological and climate emergencies.
Jorge Riechmann: “1971/ 1972/ 1973: sobre la ‘revolución vernadskiana’ y bioeconómica que no tuvo lugar”
English: “1971/ 1972/ 1973: on the Vernadskian theory and the bio-economic revolution that never happened”
French: “1971/1972/1973 : la révolution vernadskienne et bio-économique qui n’a jamais eu lieu”
02 March 2022 19:30 GMT, Zoom Registration
Talk in Spanish with interpretation in English and French.
English
Abstract: Challenged by the prospect of ecocide plus genocide that we face today, the following question often arises: how did we get here? How is it possible that our “knowledge societies” are rushing blindly into the abyss? In addition to the systemic dynamics at work (the day to day functioning of capitalism, the acceleration of social development, a tendency towards autonomy of techno science), I believe that special attention should be paid to how, between 1971 and 1973, a fatal historical trajectory for the next half-century was set in motion. Three milestones (Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen’s seminal work ‘The Entropy Law and the Economic Process’ in 1971; the first report to the Club of Rome, ‘The Limits to Growth’ in 1972 and the coup d’état in Chile in 1973), together with the debates and struggles associated with them, can help us to understand what happened during this time.
Read more: Riechmann, J., 2021. 1971-1972-1973 La fallida “revolución vernadskiana”(y bioeconómica) y nuestro ingreso en el delirio epistemológico. Papeles de relaciones ecosociales y cambio global, (155), pp.85-101. (in Spanish)
Speaker: Jorge Riechmann is a poet, mathematician, PhD in political science and professor of moral philosophy at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. His more or less specialized academic activity deals with post-capitalist transitions; civilizational collapse; ecosocialism; political ecology; “green” political philosophy; philosophy of sustainability and sociology of social movements (especially the environmental movement), among other topics.
Spanish
Resumen: Ante las perspectivas de ecocidio más genocidio que afrontamos, a menudo surge la pregunta: pero ¿cómo hemos podido llegar hasta aquí? ¿Cómo es posible que nuestras “sociedades del conocimiento” se precipiten ciegamente hacia el abismo? Además de las dinámicas sistémicas en curso (funcionamiento ordinario del capitalismo, aceleración social, tendencias de autonomización de la tecnociencia) creo que hay que prestar especial atención a cómo, entre los años 1971 y 1973, se orienta una fatal trayectoria histórica para el medio siglo siguiente. Tres hitos (la obra capital de Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen The Entropy Law and the Economic Process en 1971; el primer informe al Club de Roma The Limits to Growth en 1972; el golpe de Estado en Chile en 1973), junto con los debates y luchas asociados con ellos, nos servirán para entender lo que sucedió entonces.
Lea más: Riechmann, J., 2021. 1971-1972-1973 La fallida “revolución vernadskiana”(y bioeconómica) y nuestro ingreso en el delirio epistemológico. Papeles de relaciones ecosociales y cambio global, (155), pp.85-101.
Ponente: Jorge Riechmann es poeta, matemático, doctor en ciencias políticas y profesor titular de filosofía moral en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Su actividad académica más o menos especializada versa sobre transiciones poscapitalistas; colapso civilizatorio; ecosocialismo; ecología política; filosofía política “verde”; filosofía de la sustentabilidad y sociología de los movimientos sociales (especialmente el movimiento ecologista), entre otros temas.
Barbara Magalhães Teixeira: “Building peaceful and sustainable societies – an impossible utopia?”
French: “Construire des sociétés durables : une utopie irréalisable ?”
Spanish: “Construir sociedades pacíficas y sostenibles – una utopía imposible?”
09 March 2022 09:00 am GMT, Zoom Registration
Talk in English with interpretation in Spanish.
Abstract: What would a completely peaceful and sustainable global society look like? Under the current global economic system, the intensification of resource extraction and dependency on fossil fuels and rare earth minerals are not only violent towards the environment but also towards the people. The extraction of fossil fuels and valuable minerals and gems are connected to the onset, occurrence, intensity and duration of armed conflict is well established. More recently, the advance of climate change and ecological breakdown have also been shown to pose various implications that could lead to violence and armed conflict in a scenario of scarcity and climate variability. In this context, how can we think about building peace? Building on feminist and decolonial approaches to liberating both people and the environment, the aim of this talk is to discuss how dismantling extractive structures and negating structural violence, like poverty, inequality, or environmental injustice needs to be at the heart of movements working towards peaceful and sustainable societies. I invite you all to discuss the idealistic or utopian critique of organizing or working towards building alternative worlds, and to creatively discuss the role of scientists in imagining sustainable and peaceful futures.
Speaker: Barbara Magalhães Teixeira is a PhD Candidate in Peace and Conflict Studies at the Department of Political Science, at Lund University, Sweden. Her research looks at the relationship between the environment and peace, and focuses on the possibilities of building sustainable and peaceful society. It touches on issues such as extractive industries, economic growth and development, land reform and redistribution, peace processes and negotiations. Besides her academic work, Barbara is also interested in critical pedagogy methods and the role of researchers and academia in questions of environmental and social justice and on building peace.
Kate Raworth and Andrew Fanning: Transformative action to live within the Doughnut
French: “Action transformatrice pour vivre dans les limites du ‘doughnut’ “
Spanish: “Acción transformadora para vivir dentro del donut”
16 March 2022 19:30 GMT, Zoom Registration
Abstract: If humanity’s 21st century challenge is to create a world that meets the needs of all within the means of the living planet, right now we are far from achieving it. Kate and Andrew will present the core concepts and tools of Doughnut Economics, and share examples from change-makers worldwide –in education, communities, cities, and government -who are working to turn these ideas into transformative action.
Speakers: Prof. Kate Raworth (sounds like ‘Ray-worth’) is a renegade economist focused on making economics fit for 21st century realities. She is the creator of the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries, and co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab. Her internationally best-selling book Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist has been translated into over 20 languages and has been widely influential with diverse audiences, from the UN General Assembly to Pope Francis to Extinction Rebellion.
Dr. Andrew Fanning is Data Analysis & Research Lead at Doughnut Economics Action Lab, and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Sustainability Research Institute. He was previously the recipient of a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship funded by the European Commission for the project ‘Living Well: Provisioning Systems for Sustainable Resource Use and Human Well-Being’ hosted at the Sustainability Research Institute. Andrew’s research in the field of ecological economics explores how to move towards a world where people can achieve their aspirations while ensuring the burdens of economic activity are both ecologically safe and socially just.
