GECHS

In the Copenhagen Science Congress on Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions, a major session will be organized by J. Timmons Roberts from the College of William and Mary, USA, and Coleen Vogel from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Two types of contributions are sought for two sub-sessions: The first sub-session welcomes broad characterizations of the inequities involved in adapting to climate change, such as how vulnerability and adaptation interact with national poverty, regional imbalances in adaptive capacity, adaptation in the context of national colonial histories, and the ethics of imposing the adaptation burden in an already unequal world. This sub-session will ideally also reflect upon opportunities and barriers that might either enhance or frustrate sustainable development and resilience building efforts. The second sub-session invites contributions that discuss proposals and practice for funding climate adaptation. Several different models have been proposed to include equity issues in their frameworks for who should pay for and who should receive climate aid, including a nation’s emissions responsibility and capability to pay. This scientific conference in March will lead up to the COP-15 in Copenhagen in late 2009, and will provide a synthesis of existing and emerging scientific knowledge relevant for designing and implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies in response to climate change. Abstracts can only be submitted online, no later than 1 September 2008. For more information, see the conference website.

The Symposium on “Cultural Dimensions of Climate Change” is part of the XVI International Conference of the Society for Human Ecology, “Integrative Thinking forComplex Futures: Creating Resilience in Human-Nature Systems.” The conference will take place 10 - 13 September 2008, at Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington State, USA.

The basic assumption underpinning this symposium is that all personal and societal change happens within frameworks of interpretation, valuation and choice by subjects who see themselves as actual or potential agents. As such, the symposium seeks to explore the cultural dimensions of individual and social factors that may lead to mitigation to and adaptation to climate change. Reflection on schemas of interpretation and valuation that enable or constrain our capacities for action gain a particularly important role when we consider our ethical responsibilities toward present and future generations of fellow human and non-human inhabitants of this planet. For further information on the Symposium see the conference website.

GECHS chair Karen O’Brien at the University of Oslo and Thomas Heyd at the University of Victoria are organizing a session for the upcoming Copenhagen science congress on Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions, which will be held from 10-12 March 2009. The session falls under the broader theme of Mobilising the Populace: Human Dimensions of Climate Change. The session welcomes papers and posters that address climate change from the perspectives of individual and societal values, cultures, and worldviews. A wide range of issues, including psychological, ethical, and anthropological perspectives on climate change, are critical to understanding the behavioral and systemic responses that can potentially contribute to both mitigation and adaptation. The session will identify contributions from the social sciences and the humanities that enhance understanding of the factors that influence vulnerability and resilience, and that broaden discussions and debates about global risks, challenges, and decisions related to climate change. The scientific conference in March will lead up to the COP-15 in Copenhagen in late 2009, and the findings will be supplementary to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Deadline for submission of abstracts is the 1 September 2008, and guidelines for submission of abstracts are available on the conference website.

A conference on climate change in South Asia will be organized at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, April 16-17 2009. Climate change presents significant challenges for South Asia. Although the effects of climate change on social and environmental systems are likely to be highly uneven (even between communities within South Asia), impoverished regions and populations may bear the brunt of these changes. Therefore, addressing climate change within the South Asian context will require new types of social institutions, cooperative responses and new forms of governance. Papers are invited that address climate change issues within any country or region of South Asia. Preference will be given in paper selection to those that connect their topic to one or more of the broad conference themes of governance, equity, and social justice. For more information, see the conference website. Abstracts of 250 words or less should be sent to the conference organizers before September 15, 2008.

The International Ocean Institute, USA and the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, are hosting a Coastal Cities Summit on November 17-20 2008, to address the complex challenges that coastal city leaders face as populations increase, resources are depleted, and the impacts of climate change are felt.  The Coastal Cities Summit intends to bring together 600-700 coastal city leaders, managers and academics to discuss environmental, social, economic, and public policy challenges and viable solutions. The 3 ½ day conference will focus on three themes: Climate Change, Risk and Vulnerability, and Sustainable Development.  The planners are soliciting speakers on areas that are particularly relevant to coastal cities: freshwater, pollution, energy, infrastructure, and port security.  All sessions are intended to give a long-needed voice to those who are on the front lines taking leadership on climate change, providing implementation and response plans and continuing to focus on protecting citizens from possible extreme events and human-induced degradation. Full details are available at the conference website.