The Centre for Psycho-Social Studies

in association with

UWE Institute for Sustainability, Health and the Environment

presents a second one-day public conference on Climate Change

 

13 November 2010, 9.30 am to 5.00 pm

Seeing Futures: Integrating Scientific Views on Changing Climates

Homo Sapiens is responsible for the sixth great species extinction in our planet’s history, now taking place.  In our lack of sapience, we tend to act as if unable to grasp that we are part of an interdependent, sensitive and fabulous system.  As we deplete that system, we impoverish and threaten ourselves.  Climate change both epitomises and dominates this picture.  Our footprint, whether measured in carbon or in what we crush, is far too heavy.

Climate science is a complicated interdisciplinary venture, and is certainly imperfect, but the broad picture and choices seem clear enough, particularly in the above context.  All good scientists are sceptics, but how much more proof do we need of what is happening?  The block to ecologically informed living is a complex of ideological, political, economic and psychological factors, blending lethally into our very success as a species.  

A survival plan for this century and beyond must combine the best knowledge available on the climate and other systems in which we are operating so destructively, the fullest possible understanding of the factors inhibiting necessary change, and a determined effort to find new visions and pathways to sustainability.  The aim of the conference is to contribute to this multi-layered task.

Speakers

Dr Stephan Harrison - Associate Professor of Quaternary Science, University of Exeter.

Climate Science – Certainty, Uncertainty and Risk

Dr Tim Chatterton - Senior Research Fellow in Air Quality at UWE, currently on Social Science Policy Fellowship with the Department of Energy and Climate Change. 

Climate Change – Science, Media, Policy and The Public

Dr Clive Hamilton - Professor of Public Ethics, Australia National University; author of Growth Fetish, The Freedom Paradox and Requiem for a Species. 

Climate Knowledge Under Siege – the Many Forms of Denial  (by audio-visual link from Canberra)

Sandra White - Ecopsychologist, environmental writer, bereavement counsellor, founder member: Transition Hertford. 

Beyond Sacrifice – Reaching Towards the Ecological Self

 

Fee: (to include lunch, coffee and tea): £70 before 30 July, thereafter £80

A limited number of bursaries are available (students/unwaged): Apply in writing.

To Book a place:          

  • Register online (please use this option if possible)
  • By post: Nigel Williams, University of the West of England, Centre for Psycho-Social Studies, Room 3L7, Frenchay Campus, Bristol BS16 1QY.
  • Telephone enquires: 0117 3281311 (Voicemail)

A full programme and directions will be sent in October to all who have booked