Challenges, responsibilities and opportunities in global change research

1. 1
A PARTNER WITH
Dr Sarah Cornell
Wageningen, November 2014
Unity of knowledge?
Global science for global changes

2. Understanding the
whole Earth?
We can’t – but
we must!

3. From Steffen et al. 2004, IGBP

6. A very partial timeline of global change science:
Weart (2008), Liverman et al. (2002),
Cornell (2010), Uhrqvist 2014

7. 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..
.

8. 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…

9. M. Polanyi 1941, The growth of thought in society.
Dugger 1988, An institutional analysis of corporate power
Demeritt 2001, The construction of global warming…

10. Science Policy
Decision
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

11. The international challenge –
does global science really look at The World?
NOAA ESRL sites – climate and biogeochemistry,
map from www.esrl.noaa.gov
Active sites
Inactive (one-off) sites
IUCN/UNEP World Database of Protected Areas
– protectedplanet.net

13. Who don’t we see/hear when we
talk of ‘humanity’ and ‘the world’?
Fox-Keller 1986

14. 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

15. Interdisciplinarity bridges
‘knowledge cultures’
Research methods
Evidence
Jargon
Prose
Prospects
Internationality
Conference protocols
Gender and power relations
Perceptions (ooh or yuk)
 Unfamiliar worlds…
Nissani 1997 (‘Ten cheers’)
My own trajectory:
chemistry  environmental science 
environmental economics 
‘human dimensions’

16. Normal experience in global change science:
… tensions of working across or between disciplines
… challenges of meeting changing policy needs

17. Timeframe
Language
Dis/Comfort
Shotgun wedding approach
Pragmatic pick ´n mix
Building a shared understanding
Interdisciplinarities differ:

18. 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 challenge
Cornell 2010, in Bhaskar et al. Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change
Rigour Innovation
Reflexivity

19. 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

20. 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)