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A PARTNER WITHDr Sarah CornellWageningen, November 2014

Unity of knowledge? Global science for global changes

Understanding the whole Earth?We can’t – but

we must!

From Steffen et al. 2004, IGBP

A very partial timeline of global change science:Weart (2008), Liverman et al. (2002),

Cornell (2010), Uhrqvist 2014

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..

.

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…

M. Polanyi 1941, The growth of thought in society.Dugger 1988, An institutional analysis of corporate power

Demeritt 2001, The construction of global warming…

Science PolicyDecision

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

The international challenge – does global science really look at The World?

NOAA ESRL sites – climate and biogeochemistry, map from www.esrl.noaa.gov

Active sitesInactive (one-off) sites

IUCN/UNEP World Database of Protected Areas – protectedplanet.net

Who don’t we see/hear when we talk of ‘humanity’ and ‘the world’?

Fox-Keller 1986

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

Interdisciplinarity bridges ‘knowledge cultures’

Research methodsEvidence

JargonProse

ProspectsInternationality

Conference protocolsGender and power relations

Perceptions (ooh or yuk)

Unfamiliar worlds…

Nissani 1997 (‘Ten cheers’)

My own trajectory:chemistry environmental science

environmental economics ‘human dimensions’

Normal experience in global change science:… tensions of working across or between disciplines

… challenges of meeting changing policy needs

TimeframeLanguageDis/Comfort

Shotgun wedding approach

Pragmatic pick ´n mix

Building a shared understanding

Interdisciplinarities differ:

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 challengeCornell 2010, in Bhaskar et al. Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change

Rigour Innovation

Reflexivity

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

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)