Alle berichten van Science Cafe Wageningen

Climate Change Policy & Ethics

Thursday September 19th

19:45 live music by Radiant Wood
20:15 speakers
Café Loburg

During the last century the global temperature has been rising at an unprecedented rate. Our current economy contributed to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions, and at the same time suffers from climate change effects, such as extreme weather events. Therefore, in 2015 many countries including the Netherlands signed the UN agreement in Paris to limit this global warming below 2° C above pre-industrial levels. The Dutch goal is to reduce CO2 emissions to almost zero by 2050. And yet, global energy-related CO2 emissions rose in 2018 to their historical highs according to the Global Energy and CO2 Status Report. How are the Netherlands, Europe and the globe planning to achieve their emission targets? Which policies are being put forward and what will be the role of the private sector, the government and citizens? And in which way are current moral convictions and political regulations prepared for these challenges?
In this Science cafe these questions will be addressed by two eminent speakers. Our first speaker Prof. Rik Leemans will update us on the main climate-change factors and the necessary emission reductions on how to minimise the climate change impact. Our second speaker Prof. Marcus Düwell will help us understand the climate change from an ethical perspective.

Prof. Rik Leemans heads the Environmental Systems Analysis group of Wageningen University. His research focuses on ecosystems and biodiversity and accentuates resilience, vulnerability and sustainability. He actively participates in the UN-Panels on Climate Change (IPCC) and biodiversity (IPBES), and in ICSU/ISSCs international interdisciplinary global-change research programmes, and is Editor-in-Chief of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.

Prof. Marcus Düwell holds a chair for Philosophical Ethics and is director of the Ethics Institute of Utrecht University. He is chair of the board of the Dutch Philosophy Institutes, Vice-President of the Helmuth Plessner-Society and Editor-in-Chief of Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. His research interests include foundational topics in moral and political philosophy (particular the ethics of human dignity and human rights), and philosophical anthropology, climate ethics and bioethics.

PREVIOUS SESSION: Framing

Thursday June 20th

19:45 live music by Groove Barrio Trio
20:15 speakers
Café Loburg

Today’s topic revolves around perception of facts, so how individuals, groups, and societies, organize, perceive, and communicate about reality. People build a series of mental “filters” through biological and cultural influences that they use to make sense of the world. The choices they make are influenced by their creation of a frame. Successful framing techniques can be used to reduce the ambiguity of intangible topics by contextualizing the information in such a way that recipients can connect to what they already know.
This Science Café elaborates amongst others on how images are used both pro and con novel technologies. Everyone has most probably seen the scary images with flames from the tap in the discussion about fracking, but did you realize that the same technology is used to harvest geothermal energy, for which very different images are used, and that is surely not perceived as scary? Some of the images are very persistent, and more knowledge does not always help.
The big question is if and how we can achieve responsible research and innovation, which role existing imaginaries play in this, and whether it is possible to create new – well informed – ones together with opponents and proponents. To address this topic in full width we have invited two excellent speakers that come from two ends of the perspective. Dr. Tamara Metze investigates the process of framing, and traveling of frames, whereas Ward van Beek makes use of the power of a good story.

Tamara Metze is an associate professor in the Public Administration and Policy group of Wageningen University. She did MSc’s in Political Science, and Science and Technology Studies, and obtained a PhD in Public Administration at the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests are the (im)possibility of democratic innovations, with special interest in visual framing, boundary work, traveling of facts and uncertainties, and so on.

Ward van Beek is partner in ItsaRep and Advisor Content & PR at World Food Center. He has been in Technology PR and communications since 1993. Before that he was responsible for marketing in the financial services industry. Ward strongly believes in the power of a good story; well told, to the right audience, at the right moment and the right place. His specialty is Technology PR, IT PR, Copywriting, Interactive PR amongst others.