GECHS

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.

Podcasts and presentations are out for the conference RESILIENCE 2008: Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation in Turbulent Times. GECHS chair Karen O’Brien gave the presentation Rethinking social contracts: building resilience in a changing climate. View her presentation on podcast here. This International Science and Policy Conference was organized in Stockholm, Sweden, 14-18 April, and approached society and nature as interdependent social-ecological systems, which are complex adaptive systems. Furthermore, the focus was on cross scale and dynamic interactions that represent new challenges for governance and management in relation to social-ecological systems and ecosystem services. 9 overall themes helped to shed light on the issues, and the overview can be found on the conference website.