2017 Lund Conference on Earth System Governance

This week was pretty busy for me, largely because I was helping to volunteer at a three-day conference hosted by the Earth System Governance project here in Lund. Over 200 researchers from around the globe arrived in Lund to take part in the conference, and many presented about their research on various themes including climate change adaptation and mitigation, environmental justice, climate governance strategies, and sustainable development.

Vasna Ramasar, Conference Chair and Human Ecology Lecturer

I was able to sit in on multiple sessions and presentations in between my shifts, and I was amazed by the sheer diversity of the topics covered. I learned about Pakistani regional climate adaptation strategies, mapping conflict zones between indigenous and extractive development actors in Ecuador and Peru, how to unify the UN Sustainable Development Goals with strong climate policy, and much more.

Salvatore E. Pappalardo, PhD, presenting at the Earth System Governance Conference

Patrick Bond, professor of political economy at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, talking about the shortcomings of the Paris Agreement

One of the conference’s semi-plenary session kicking off talking about the UN Sustainable Devleopment Goals

Conference participants exchanging ideas over lunch

I could write separate posts on half a dozen of the talks I went to, but I’ll boil my thoughts on the conference down to three main takeaways:

1. Many of the presentations I went to stressed that now more than ever scientists and researchers need to be active in fighting for a better world. In a world where post-truth and anti-intellectual trains of thought quite literally hold power, there is a moral obligation for academics to stand up, speak out, and band together with the rest of society to fight for progress. This means linking arms with activists in the streets, setting ambitious research agendas with peers, and establishing relationships with internal champions in the halls of power to push for a systemic political-economic transition towards sustainability. We need to end the use of fossil fuels, team up with labor unions to put people to work in the green economy, and fight for environmental justice for the areas hardest hit by climate change and the impacts of fossil fuel and mining extraction over the decades.
2. People are starting to do this everywhere. Not necessarily as fast as it needs to happen, but we’re on our way. The Earth System Governance project has twelve research centers and over four hundred members on six continents, and that gives me hope that we can simultaneously work locally and organize globally to address the oncoming crises and build towards an alternative vision for the future.
3. I don’t yet know how I’m meant to contribute to the work being done in this burgeoning movement, but I’m confident that I’ll  be able to discern it as I go along … Jesuit education has taught me well!

Now that the conference is over, my first step is looking for ways to stay involved with the Earth System Governance project. I might have the opportunity to do an internship with the International Project Office based here in Lund, and I’m going to follow up with several of the researchers I met at the conference and see where it leads!

I’ll keep you posted!

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