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Challenges, responsibilities and opportunities in global change research
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A PARTNER WITHDr Sarah CornellWageningen, November 2014
Unity of knowledge? Global science for global changes
Understanding the whole Earth?We can’t – but
we must!
From Steffen et al. 2004, IGBP
A very partial timeline of global change science:Weart (2008), Liverman et al. (2002),
Cornell (2010), Uhrqvist 2014
The ‘Bretherton Diagram’ (NASA 1988) set out the observational, conceptual and computational modelling framework for 1-2 decades of global change research.
Spot the human..
.
The global change research programmes […] recognise that there is growing concern over the ever-increasing human modification of the global environment and the consequent implications for human well-being.
A new system of global environmental science is required. This is beginning to evolve from complementary approaches of the international global change research programmes and needs strengthening and further development.
It will draw strongly on the existing and expanding disciplinary base of global change science; integrate across disciplines, environment and development issues and the natural and social sciences; collaborate across national boundaries […] to build an efficient international system of global environmental science.
(Amsterdam Declaration, 2001)
Other literature: EURAB 2004, US National Academies COSEPUP 2004, ESF-COST RESCUE 2012…
M. Polanyi 1941, The growth of thought in society.Dugger 1988, An institutional analysis of corporate power
Demeritt 2001, The construction of global warming…
Science PolicyDecision
landscape
Climate Earth system knowledge, local gaps
Global agreement on targets
and metrics
Big science
Biodiversity Local knowledge, system gaps
Global agreement on targets
and metrics
Concerned coalitions
Biogeochemistry Gaps in local and system knowledge
Partial regional agreements,
emerging issue
Many different players
Chemical pollution Local knowledge, system gaps
Partial agreements, weak metrics
Big business
The international challenge – does global science really look at The World?
NOAA ESRL sites – climate and biogeochemistry, map from www.esrl.noaa.gov
Active sitesInactive (one-off) sites
IUCN/UNEP World Database of Protected Areas – protectedplanet.net
Who don’t we see/hear when we talk of ‘humanity’ and ‘the world’?
Fox-Keller 1986
Why not join… jellywatch.org, www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatchbbc,
Tea Bag Index www.decolab.org/tbi, mappiness.org.uk,
www.juegos.com/juego/climate-chaos
Intercultural challenges:Global science has new opportunities
and new responsibilities
Interdisciplinarity bridges ‘knowledge cultures’
Research methodsEvidence
JargonProse
ProspectsInternationality
Conference protocolsGender and power relations
Perceptions (ooh or yuk)
Unfamiliar worlds…
Nissani 1997 (‘Ten cheers’)
My own trajectory:chemistry environmental science
environmental economics ‘human dimensions’
Normal experience in global change science:… tensions of working across or between disciplines
… challenges of meeting changing policy needs
TimeframeLanguageDis/Comfort
Shotgun wedding approach
Pragmatic pick ´n mix
Building a shared understanding
Interdisciplinarities differ:
Hippocrab, pixdaus.com
Good ‘unities’ (knowledge integration) deepen and extend our knowledge.
Bad ones might work in some regards…Schellnhuber 1987 Earth system analysis: the scope of the challengeCornell 2010, in Bhaskar et al. Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change
Rigour Innovation
Reflexivity
So what do we do?
Precaution – Provisionality – Participation
Pausing to reflect
Preiser and Cilliers 2010, Romm 1998, Macnaghten et al. 2005, Doubleday 2007
• (Re)read• Listen• Question• Act
E.O. Wilson: “… If we dream,
press to discover, explain and dream again,
thereby plunging repeatedly into new terrain, the world will
somehow become clearer and we will grasp the true
strangeness of the universe.
And the strangeness will all prove to be connected
and make sense.”(Consilience, 1998)