date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 15:45:00 +0100 from: Nick Brooks subject: Re: BBL tomorrow - UNDERSTANDING OUR CONTEXT, part III to: S Cornell , I'd like to encourage people to engage with these discussions. Here are my suggestions as to how to break down this particular session into particular questions: 1. How can those of us concerned with climate change persuade others of the need to invest in alternative sources of energy? Is this sort of advocacy role appropriate for institutions such as UEA? (There is a suite of issues here ranging through energy technology, political considerations and vested interests, what constitutes dangerous climate change and the sensitivity of the climate system, whether we can and should "stabilise" the climate in the short term - longer term stabilisation being impossible without large-scale planetary engineering and so on) 2. To what extent are the aspirations of economic growth, increased consumption (the latter necessary to drive the former) and increased affluence compatible with climate stabilisation and sustainability? 3. How inevitable is the process of economic globalisation and does it necessarily mean increased consumption and use of resources? 4. What are the key levers for influencing national and international policies on climate and sustainability? 5. To what extent are climate stabilisation and sustainable contingent of top-down social engineering (a corollary to this is to what extent social engineering is already occurring to serve the interests of those pursuing economic growth and economic globalisation?). 6. How can the gap in wealth, living standards, access to public services and vulnerability to environmental and economic change between North and South be bridged? Should we attempt to bridge this gap? What are the implications of bridging this gap for and economic growth in the wealthy industrialised nations? We won't answer these in 90 minutes, but a discussion might generate some ideas for pursuing these themes in a manner appropriate to our objectives and interests as researchers. We could set up an email discussion list for pursuing these threads at a more leisurely pace. If people think this is a good idea I will speak to Laura (who manages the Tyndall lists) about it. Nick -- Dr Nick Brooks Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ Tel: +44 1603 593904 Fax: +44 1603 593901 Email: nick.brooks@uea.ac.uk http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/welcome.htm (personal site) http://www.tyndall.ac.uk (Tyndall Centre site) http://www.uea.ac.uk/sahara (Saharan Studies Programme) -- On 13/10/03 2:58 pm, "S Cornell" wrote: > Dear all, > We continue to look at our roles and stances in climate change research > and sustainability, and tomorrow's discussion will be: > 3. How should we address competing issues of lifestyle, energy/food > security, globalisation, economic growth targets, and social > engineering? > There has to be something for everyone in this discussion! I will be > chairing the debate, but you are the experts, so bring your lunch, and > join in with your ideas. As usual, our Brown Bag will be in the ZICER > library from 12:30 - 2 pm. > > Sarah >