f a i t h i n t h e f u t u r e
t h e r o y a l P r o f e s s o r s ’ s y m P o s i u m o n G l o b
a l s u s t a i n a b i l i t y
s w e d e n , 2 2 m a r c h 2 0 1 2
How Science can help in Meeting Environmental Challenges
P r o G r a m m e
t h e b e r n a d o t t e l i b r a r y , t h e r o y a l P a l a c
e i n s t o c k h o l m
Faith in the Future forty years ago stockholm hosted the united
nations conference on the
human environment, known as the stockholm conference. this was the
first major international meeting on environmental issues and
became an
important turning point in the development of environmental
politics.
much has happened since then.
an exciting perspective is to ask how science can help in meeting
complex environmental challenges. one way of approaching this
question is to invite distinguished scientists with different
expertise to a discussion about possible ways forward. that is the
aim of this symposium.
we are glad that all fourteen of the participants in the royal
Guest Professorship programme have accepted the invitation to this
symposium – it is the first time the royal Guest Professors have
come together and we look forward to listening to their views on
the environment today and in the future.
the symposium is part of the official national commemoration of the
first un conference on the environment, 1972 in stockholm, and has
been arranged together with the swedish scientific academies. they
all have a strong interest in – and great knowledge of – the
environmental area.
we have also invited outstanding representatives of the scientific
community, politics, business and non-governmental organisations.
let’s hope we won’t only hear about environmental problems but also
discuss ways to solve them.
science can provide solutions to problems. starting now, we must
make full use of the potential that research and development can
offer so that we think of the future not with despair but with hope
and faith.
it is my sincere hope that this symposium will be able to convey
such constructive messages, not only to the decision-makers at the
coming rio+20 conference, but also to every one of us who worry
about the future of our children and grandchildren.
i would like to thank all and everyone who made this symposium
possible,
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the king carl XVi Gustaf 0th anniversary fund for science,
technology and environment was founded in 199 to celebrate his
majesty’s 0th birthday. the four original founders were the royal
swedish academy of sciences (kVa), the royal swedish academy of
engineering sciences (iVa), the royal swedish academy of
agricultural sciences (ksla) and the confederation of swedish
enterprise (svenskt näringsliv, then sveriges
industriförbund).
the purpose was to promote research, technological development and
enterprise that would contribute to the sustainable use of natural
resources and the maintenance of biodiversity. the governing body
awards grants to 1–20 young researchers annually.
the foundation for strategic environmental research, mistra, and
the swedish foundation for international cooperation in research
and higher education, stint, also decided to contribute to
honouring his majesty on his birthday by funding one international
guest professor per year for five years. this programme was
prolonged for another five years and has subsequently received
financial support directly from the king carl XVi Gustaf 0th
anniversary fund.
the royal Guest Professorship has become a very important way to
promote high-quality research across the broad spectrum of the
environmental sciences, in both their social and their
natural-scientific aspects.
the purpose of the Professorship is to create links between our
centres of higher learning and distinguished foreign researchers
able to contribute to the renewal of swedish environmental
sciences. the Guest Professor should bring a unique addition of
competence to the swedish host institution and also be able to
contribute to the development of the research conducted
there.
‘environmental sciences’ is interpreted broadly to include research
in technology, in the natural and the social sciences and in the
humanities. the Guest Professor is expected to combine a high level
of scientific competence with a trans-disciplinary approach.
the holder of the Professorship is appointed by the governing body
of the 0th anniversary fund after a preparation process in a
working committee with external experts.
What better birthday gift than a fund of knowledge?
The idea behind the Royal Guest Professorship and the work of the
King Carl XVI Gustaf 50th Anniversary Fund.
m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n Nominations to the Royal Guest
Professorship can be made annually by Swedish universities. Each
university may nominate two candidates each year. For more
information see the Nomination Procedures, obtainable from the King
Carl XVI Gustaf 50th Anniversary Fund for Science, Technology and
Environment, Attn. Birgit Erngren Wohlin, Kungl. Slottet, 111 30
Stockholm, e-mail:
[email protected]
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royal melbourne institute of technoloGy (rmit), melbourne,
australia
Environmental Literacy in Science and Society: from Knowledge to
Decisions Professor roland w. scholZ, eth,
institute for enVironmental decisions (ied), Zürich,
switZerland
New Economy of Natural Resources for Sustainable Use Professor
Jason shoGren,
uniVeristy of wyominG, dePartment of economics and finance,
laramie, usa
Science and Policy: building Constructive Connections Professor
susan owens,
uniVeristy of cambridGe, dePartment of GeoGraPhy, cambridGe,
uk
Coffee break
Panel Dialogue
Professor susan baker, cardiff uniVeristy school of social
sciences, cardiff, uk:
Global Environmental Change and the Governance of Sustainable
Development:
a Social Science Perspective
Professor Garry brewer, yale school of manaGement, new haVen,
usa:
Environmental Management and Decision Support in Society for
Climate and Energy
Professor andrew warren, uniVersity colleGe london,
dePartment of GeoGraPhy, london, uk:
The Dry Lands: vulnerability to Climatic Change within Rapidly
Changing
Economic and Social Environment
france and institute scholar at iiasa in laXenburG, austria:
Deficits, energy and economic growth
Concluding Remarks kerstin niblaeus, chair of the symPosium
orGanisation committee
moderators:
Johan kuylenstierna, centre director, stockholm enVironment
institute & adJunct
Professor, stockholm uniVersity (Afternoon Session)
eVeninG: 19 . 0 0
Dinner at the Royal Palace
f a i t h i n t h e f u t u r e Programme
morninG session: 9 .00 –12.00
Theme I The present situation and the way forward:
perspectives on climate change, biodiversity depletion and
implications for human health.
Welcome Address kerstin niblaeus, chair of the symPosium
orGanisation committee
Choral Music
The Importance of Environmental Science for Future Solutions his
maJesty the kinG
The Science behind Projections of Forced Climate Change: Historical
Basis, open Questions and Implications for Policymakers
Professor emeritus robert charlson, uniVeristy of washinGton,
atmosPheric sciences, usa
Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Human Health Professor Paul alan
coX, institute for ethnomedicine, Jackson, wyominG, usa
Short break
Panel discussion
Professor lesley head, uniV. of wollonGonG , australian centre for
cultural
enVironmental research (ausccer), australia:
Climate; Water; Risk Assessments
diVision of atmosPheric sciences, helsinki, finland:
Meteorology: Atmospheric Aerosol Particles
Modelling Past Changes in Biodiversity, Ecosystems and
Climate
Lunch
1110
carl linnaeus wrote, “i do not know how the world could persist
gracefully if but a single animal species were to vanish from
it.”
species are vanishing at a terrifying rate at the moment and the
loss of biodiversity worries Professor Paul alan cox, expert in
ethnomedicine and deeply engaged in several transdisciplinary
projects – some of them in sweden.
“the link between human health and biodiversity – ‘environmental
health’ – started with linnaeus, who pioneered an interdisciplinary
approach to many of these important issues in sweden. such a broad
approach is still very valuable.”
cox cites one example of investigations requiring interdisciplinary
collaboration: the hypothesis that neurodegenerative diseases such
as alzheimer’s, als, and Parkinson disease are associated with
cyanobacterial blooms, blue-green algae such as occur in the
baltic. to explore the possibility that a cyanobacterial toxin
might trigger such diseases, experts from the department of botany
and amino acid chemists from the department of chemistry in
stockholm have joined with neurologists at karolinska institutet
and scientists at the department of Pharmaceutical biosciences,
uppsala university.
“swedish scientists are making key contributions to this
investigation which may lead to new cures for these most serious of
illnesses,” cox says.
despite the grave nature of the environmental problems, Paul alan
cox has one very good reason to be optimistic.
“every time i meet children and young students i get hope for the
future. once, for instance, at the convention on international
trade in endangered species in lausanne, switzerland, we
international delegates were caught in a difficult discussion on
the protection of african elephants. into the conference hall came
a group of local schoolchildren, singing a little song about saving
the elephants. this surprising interruption changed everything: we
stopped arguing and started a constructive dialogue.”
cox has great confidence in the next generation.
“human health and environmental health are linked. linnaeus knew
it, but our generation seems to have forgotten. i think our
children will do a far better job than we did to make the right
decisions.”
P a u l a l a n c o X eXecutiVe director, institute for
ethnomedicine,
Jackson hole wyominG, usa
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 1997/1998 at the swedish university of
agricultural sciences (slu)
ContaCt:
[email protected]
Future human health is a matter of biodiversity
P a u l a l a n c o X
adVice to decision-makers:
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r o b e r t J . c h a r l s o n Professor emeritus of atmosPheric
sciences and chemistry,
uniVersity of washinGton, seattle, usa
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 1999/2000 at stockholm university
ContaCt:
[email protected]
adVice to decision-makers:
“A low-carbon future needs to be a natural thought. Then it will
automatically affect
business plans as well as political decisions.”
when Professor bob charlson shows up in stockholm for the royal
environmental symposium he believes it will be his th visit to
sweden.
“in sweden you have a strong position in atmospheric chemistry and
other climate sciences, starting with svante arrhenius over a
hundred years ago, continuing with leaders like carl-Gustaf rossby
and bert bolin and now strong research groups in stockholm,
Göteborg and lund.“
bob charlson’ s own story starts in the 190s after finishing his
post-doc in cloud physics at imperial college in london. on his way
back to the states, travelling across the atlantic on the “r.m.s.
Queen elizabeth”, he remembers once standing by the ship’s rail,
looking out at the foggy sea and formulating his first research
question:
“i asked myself: why this haze? the visibility should be good out
here. is it due to humidity or the amount of small particles,
aerosols?”
to be able to answer this question, he developed a new
light-scattering instrument called an integrating nephelometer.
important breakthroughs came in the mid-1970s when he was involved
in measuring man-made aerosols, especially sulphates, in industrial
regions.
hence bob charlson was one of the first to realize that those
substances had a cooling effect on the climate. is it possible now,
decades of model improvements later, to get his opinion about the
cooling influence of aerosols compared to the warming effects of
greenhouse gases?
“on a global scale man-made aerosol counts only for a fraction of
the effect of greenhouse gases. it is also important to understand
that, just because they have an opposite effect on the climate,
they do not counteract each other at the same time and place in a
simple way.”
so it is not possible to add more aerosols in the atmosphere to
reduce the warming of our planet?
“no, this is hubris! what we need to do is to cut emissions and
start a serious discussion with people on how their lives will look
like in a low- carbon future. besides, if we continue to cause co2
to increase, we would have to continue to add more and more
aerosols to achieve enough cooling. it would be very hazy on a
global scale. is that what we want?”
“world society needs a clear understanding of the scientific facts
of forced climate change. there is no basis in the population at
large for sensing the urgency of the need for control of co2
emissions globally.”
What will our lives look like in a low-carbon future?
b o b c h a r l s o n
G a r r y b r e w e r Professor, yale school of manaGement, new
haVen, usa
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 1998/1999 at the Royal institute of
technology (Kth)
ContaCt:
[email protected]
eXPectations of the royal symPosium:
“It seems to be a very interesting interdisciplinary meeting – but
most of all I look forward to seeing all my friends and colleagues
in Stockholm.”
what do the challenGes for the next generation’s leaders look like?
in politics as well as in business, Professor Garry brewer from
yale’s school of management is certain about one thing.
“the environmental problems are more difficult to deal with than we
might have thought – we are handing the next generation a situation
that is far more urgent than it was for us.”
so, what is brewer’s advice? how are we supposed to tackle the
situation?
“i have always been interested in organizational issues connected
to interdisciplinary research, especially the involvement of
stakeholders and relations among and between experts and
decision-makers.”
nowadays everybody embraces initiatives that bridge different
academic disciplines, but in the 1970s Garry brewer was one of the
pioneers. now he is something of an expert at being ‘in between’
other experts.
“there are many factors that make environmental problem-solving
difficult. among these are scientists who choose to focus narrowly
on selected aspects of some wickedly complicated issues. even
different science specialists with the best of intentions often
find it difficult to understand one another. the communication
challenges become even greater
as scientific experts, decision-makers and the public at large
attempt to find a common language and common ground.”
brewer has developed many communication channels between groups of
people with different expertise. one of his most important ideas
came to him when he was working with nature conservationists in the
amazon.
“the people working in nature conservation know how to preserve
forests and other eco- systems, but they seldom know how to run a
successful organization. the skills for doing both things well are
basically different.”
Garry brewer’s idea was to combine professional education in
environmental science with business management. with support from
the Gordon and betty moore foundation, he developed a three-year
joint degree programme at yale in which students earn both an mba
and a master of environment science. this has become a success
story.
“the most recent version expands on this basic idea by forming a
brand-new partnership between yale’s environment school and the
school of management at the university of the andes in bogotá,
colombia. these students are equipped with the best environmental
and business tools we can give them at present!”
Let’s connect environmental problems and business leadership
G a r r y b r e w e r
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a n d r e w w a r r e n Professor emeritus of GeoGraPhy, uniVersity
colleGe london
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 2000/2001 at lund university
ContaCt:
[email protected]
eXPectations of the royal symPosium:
“I look forward to learning from the Royal Professors and the other
participants.“
the southern edGe of the sahara, the sahel, has been both much
wetter and much drier than it is today. five thousand years ago,
lake chad was a freshwater lake bigger than the caspian; some time
in the late Pleistocene, dunes were moving in northern nigeria.
changes, to the wet or the dry, will certainly come again, and may
be exacerbated by induced climatic change.
Professor andrew warren calls himself an “aeolian geomorphologist”,
and as such he has visited, and investigated, some of the dustiest
places on earth. he has studied dunes, wind erosion and dust, much
of the time in the sahel.
“i began with the now-vegetated dunes of central sudan, and this
brought me into contact with colleagues in lund. after working on
dunes elsewhere, and on one of the four main general background
papers for the nairobi un conference on desertification, i returned
to sahel in niger to study wind erosion, collaborating in that
study with social scientists.”
in the north of chad, the historic lake is now one of the driest
places on earth, and its dustiest. most of the dust comes from
deposits of diatomite during the wetter periods. while this dust is
hated in the sahel, since it irritates the throat and can carry
diseases, the harmattan wind, which carries the dust, brings
some
nutrients to its poor sandy fields and, it has been said, after an
excursion across the atlantic, becomes the main source of nutrients
to the amazon forests.
the fertilization of sahelian fields has been the subject of many
interesting research programmes for warren and colleagues.
“the sandy soils are the easiest to till with a hoe (there are very
few ploughs), but they are also the poorest. by trial and error,
sahelians have developed methods to make these fields productive.
agricultural strategies are intricately woven with social ones,
such as migration to work in the wetter south in the dry season and
return to the fields when labour is needed in the wet
months.”
the sahelians’ future is not all bleak. andrew warren believes that
new agronomic strategies will offer a step in the right
direction.
“if agricultural innovation is carefully adapted to local practice
it can succeed, and social and economic change may also help”, he
says. “one of these changes is the demographic drift to towns and
cities. if this leads to a rise in the price of food, as some
believe, farming may attract more investment.”
We see many new interesting agricultural strategies
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Cities have shown that they are capable of enabling change
c o l i n f u d G e Professor and Pro Vice-chancellor, colleGe of
desiGn
and social conteXt; and Vice President, royal melbourne institute
of technoloGy (rmit), melbourne, australia
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 2002/200 at the Royal institute of
technology (Kth) and Chalmers university of technology
ContaCt:
[email protected]
eXPectations of the royal symPosium:
“The generous invitation to this Symposium is a real opportunity
for all of us to contribute
to global environment futures together and potentially make a
difference.”
chanGe. we need chanGe. we hear this all the time: the lifestyles
of citizens in stockholm, london and melbourne and countless cities
across the globe are threatening a sustainable future. Professor
colin fudge has a background in architecture, urban design and city
and regional planning. he loves all three of these cities and has
spent his academic and professional life understanding how cities
in general can become more sustainable and more attractive to live
in. it is in the existing cities, the expanding cities and the new
cities that we must urgently adapt to climate change, reduce our
resource dependence and carbon emissions, promote healthy living
and come to terms with new economic and social conditions.
as one of the world’s most influential researchers and policy
advisors on sustainable urban futures, what does Professor fudge
say about sustainable urban development?
“first, we have to realize that the future is already here. the
recent iPcc and international energy authority reports demonstrate
that the anthroprocene period we have now entered puts pressure on
us all to move more urgently to solving the interrelationship
between humans, human activities and the limits of the
planet.”
“in the developed world we need to be examining our lifestyles
seriously and get on with adapting and retrofitting our
existing
cities. in the newly-developing world there are two large tasks,
adapting and expanding existing cities and building new cities and
infrastructure. in africa special support, thinking and action are
needed to help african countries cope with large scale urbanisation
whilst countering poverty, food, health and security
concerns.”
this massive agenda and change will take time. colin fudge
agrees:
“the thinking, creativity, innovation and strategic leadership and
governance required to overcome inertia and status-quo thinking
suggest the need for paradigm shifts and going beyond behavioural
change. we need to move faster on this.”
while negotiations at international and national levels are slow,
difficult and failing, cities or parts of cities and communities
have shown that they are capable of change. scaling up from small
innovations is one issue, rethinking economic ideas is
another.
colin fudge says we have to be optimistic and energized by these
challenges. “my own transition community breaks the problem down,
achieves small steps, assists with real change and is thinking all
the time about how to build capacity to scale up.”
c o l i n f u d G e
How do human and environmental systems interact?
r o l a n d w . s c h o l Z Professor and chair of natural and
social science interface, dePartment of enVironmental sciences,
swiss federal institute of technoloGy, eth Zurich
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 2001/2002 at the university of
Gothenburg and Chalmers university of technology
ContaCt:
[email protected]
lessons learnt:
“Riding 19 Alpine passes in a seven-day bike race I learned much
about what motivational, cognitive and physical skills are required
to feel in harmony with the environment.”
what do the maya PeoPle know about cancer treatment? and what can
we learn from them?
Professor roland scholz went to Guatemala to find out. in a unique
collaboration he has been able to relate the scientific conceptions
of cancer underlying our western treatments to the unrecorded
wisdom and traditions of the maya people who have treated tumours
and cancer for hundreds of years.
“this project started from a theoretical question. we were looking
at the immune system as a cognitive system and we wanted to better
understand how the mind and brain work with the function of the
immune system. the cognitive-spiritual aspects of maya medicine,
like their habits, attitudes and expectations when they establish a
therapeutic alliance; how they value and incorporate close family
relations in therapy and the way they target harmony with nature,
may provide valuable insight about mind-and-body
relationships.”
scholz stresses: “my methodology in the maya cancer project is
based upon mutual respect and collaboration on equal terms. it is
still early to draw any conclusions, but it looks very promising
that we can fruitfully relate our scientific knowledge to their
cultural and spiritual traditions.”
it is interesting that the maya elders are asking for further
transdisciplinary processes. all their cancer therapies include the
application of plant and herbal medicine. a severe problem the
mayas are facing is the loss of these plants due to clearing the
tropical forest.
“no-one knows how many species are extinct already. but one thing
is for sure: the maya people no longer find all the plants they
used in the past!”
scholz and his team have also initiated transdisciplinary processes
in other fields. the “Global transdisciplinary Process for
sustainable Phosphorus management” includes key actors throughout
the supply chain, from exploration via the mining and processing of
phosphorus for food and technical processes to recycling and to
assessing the negative aspects of current phosphorus use.
with insights from these and other projects scholz argues that
global problems and dynamics are now so complex and inter-linked
that we need a ‘system literacy’ never seen before.
“environmental and human systems have different rationales. this
calls for a new kind of science, a sustainability science which
investigates how human and environmental systems interact. and
transdisciplinarity is a key to this new science.”
r o l a n d s c h o l Z
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r o b e r t u . a y r e s emeritus Professor of economics and
Political science
and technoloGy manaGement at insead, fontainebleau, france. also,
institute scholar, international institute for adVanced systems
analysis (iiasa)
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 2004/2005 at Chalmers university of
technology
ContaCt:
[email protected]
eXPectations of the royal symPosium:
“I would like a discussion on economic growth and our use of
natural resources.“
Professor emeritus robert ayres is the physicist who learned
economics to be able to understand the world a little bit better.
he has managed to bridge between the two academic disciplines in
very productive ways and developed a new connection between
economic growth and our use of energy or natural resources.
when robert ayres comes to stockholm for the royal environment
symposium, he is clear about what he hopes for.
“the time has come when we really have to pay attention to the need
for a new way of looking at economic growth. i hope that this will
lead to a very interesting discussion. you know, what we really
need now is a good argument between economists and scientists from
the natural sciences.”
so, what’s the argument about? robert ayres’ current work on the
interface between peak oil, climate change and economics has led
him to quite a revolutionary idea.
“in principle, the whole neo-classical theory of economics is built
upon assumptions that simply are not valid”, ayres claims and
continues:
“the standard economic theory allows for economic growth without
energy, which is impossible. it therefore assumes that our
descendants will be a lot richer than we are, which has a dangerous
implication like: why invest in cleaning up now when our
grandchildren will be so much richer?”
robert ayres’ own main contribution to the theory of economic
growth is to include our use of energy, or useful energy to be more
exact. this is a concept he has borrowed from thermodynamics.
“most economists assume that only capital stock and labour supply
are ‘factors of production’, but that theory cannot explain growth.
useful energy (exergy) is essential to the economy because human
workers can’t work without being fed, and neither can machines. but
for the past two hundred years, economic growth has been possible
largely due to the declining effective cost of energy.”
but what about the future? robert ayres believes in energy
efficiency, recycling and new technology that improve our use of
energy. he says that increasing the efficiency with which energy is
converted to useful work in the economy will be an even more
important driver of growth in the future.
“in a way, we need to ‘de-materialize’ the economy, to stop linking
economic growth to the use of energy. consumers are interested in
the services the products provide, not the goods themselves.”
robert ayres summarizes: “seeing energy as a factor of production
means that there will not be any growth if we don’t invest in new,
non-carbon sources of energy and do it now – not in ten or twenty
years.”
I expect a good argument!
r o b e r t a y r e s
With a hammer in your hand, every problem you see is a nail
s u s a n b a k e r Professor of enVironmental social science,
cardiff
uniVersity, uk
ContaCt:
[email protected]
eXPectations of the royal symPosium:
“I think it would be very valuable if we could set up a group or a
Council of Royal Professors to address trans-disciplinary problems
in this area and create new synergies.”
Professor susan baker’s research is about the governance of
sustainable development in the context of global environmental
change.
she sees many barriers that need to be to overcome, emphasizing the
call for more knowledge of the social aspects of global
environmental change and especially the dynamics of the
relationship between the natural system and the social world.
susan baker wants to take the discussion forward on the concept of
resilience, a system’s ability to cope with change. she argues that
the world is far more complex than that:
“there are lots of social systems that are resilient but not
environmentally friendly, and resilient environments do not
necessarily promote social justice. our task is to find how best to
govern our future in ways that support both ecological resilience
and social equity in the context of sustainable development.
“there are no easy ways forward”, she continues, “but our first
step is to take a deep look at our relationship with nature. if we
open our minds we will become far more humble and thus more willing
to admit that we are making mistakes”.
Professor baker is concerned that the urgency of the problem of
global environmental change may see us act without thinking of the
long-
term consequences and their impact upon the promotion of
sustainable development. “what we don’t want”, she says “is to
create more problems for future generations”.
she also wants to think positively and practically about
‘sustainable development’.
“actually, i don’t know what sustainable development is”, she says,
“because like all broad-brush political concepts, its meaning is
formed in practice”.
to make sure we have the right set of tools to support that
practice, we need to start thinking differently. susan baker calls
for a new way of thinking:
“if you have a hammer in your hand, every problem you see is a
nail. when addressing global environment challenges this means that
we tend to do what we can do, rather than what we should do. if we
start thinking in new ways about what we should do, then we can
start to think about how to make that happen.”
“our governance ‘toolbox’ currently contains regulatory and market
instruments and uses participatory processes, and they function
differently on different spatial and temporal scales. we need to
start thinking about how to combine these tools to support our
sustainable future. how do we make a smart, multi-model governance
mix? what new tools do we need?”
s u s a n b a k e r
2120
We need a shift in conceptual and practical understanding
l e s l e y h e a d Professor of GeoGraPhy and director,
australian
centre for cultural enVironmental research (ausccer), uniVersity of
wollonGonG, australia
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 2005/2006 at Kristianstad
university
ContaCt:
[email protected]
adVice to decision-makers:
“To get traction on sustainability issues we need attitudes,
practices, technology and governance to work in the same direction
rather than against each other. The worst current
example is the link between economic growth and enhanced greenhouse
gas emissions. How can we decouple these two?”
“i haVe always been interested in the relationship between people
and the environment – today this issue seems to be more important
than ever.”
Professor lesley head is an influential australian cultural
geographer. in her research she is using different approaches to
the challenge of sustainable development, both conceptually and in
everyday life.
“we need a shift in how we view the human- nature relation. how can
we create a good life with less use of resources and decrease the
damage to the environment? the great challenge is to achieve
prosperity by other means than economic growth. ”
lesley head is convinced that we can learn much from indigenous
people and this is an important area of comparison between
australia and sweden. Perspectives of aboriginal as well as samian
people challenge the dominant mindsets. her research interest
started with aboriginal land use, connected to ethnobotany as well
as fire. she started her career using palaeoecology and archaeology
to study long-term changes in the australian landscape and the
interactions between prehistoric people with their
environments.
“not that we should all live like hunters and gatherers. but we
have to widen our
perspectives and reflect more on how we live together and with
nature.”
lesley head does not agree that we necessarily become less in touch
with nature when we leave the countryside and move to growing
cities.
“again, it is a matter of broadening our perspectives. urban life
is still underpinned by ecological systems and processes. for urban
people issues like food, water and green areas are of great
importance; nature is more than ‘some green things far away’. but
our relationship to nature looks different in different cultures
and we need to learn more about how it works.”
so, what can be done?
“well, we in the west have long used a model where we see people as
separated from nature. this leads to boundaries and separation of
protected areas and other ‘patches of nature’. this model does not
work very well, since human activities now pervade nearly all earth
surface processes. we need to develop thinking in which humans are
integrated with the rest of nature, but which is also able to
systematically analyze human differences and power. Protected
areas, production areas and urban areas must all be understood as
important components of the landscape.”
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J a s o n s h o G r e n stroock Professor of natural resource
conserVation
& manaGement, uniVersity of wyominG, usa
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 2007 /2008 at umeå university
ContaCt:
[email protected]
“Keep breaking down the barriers between different
disciplines.”
how do climate chanGe and other environment problems affect our
economies? and vice versa: how does our economic behaviour, like
consumption, affect the environment?
Professor Jason shogren is interested in this dynamics and it has
taken him all the way to the nobel Peace Prize – at least he was
part of the united nations team on climate change, working with two
thousand other scientists and the former Vice president al
Gore.
“science needs to explore the feedback loops in both directions.
People affect nature; nature affects people. in thinking about
climate risks, for instance, we need to understand better how
mitigation and adaptation choices are interlinked; how our choices
affect the climate risks and costs of protecting humans and natural
systems. by explicitly identifying and examining feedback loops
between these systems, we can make good policy better by supplying
more environmental protection at less cost.”
risk assessment in natural resources is one of shogren’s areas of
expertise. in various projects over the past twenty years he has
investigated how societies choose to manage their stock of
biological diversity, to design cost-effective strategies to reduce
risks from climate change, and to value ecosystem services
typically not
bought and sold in the marketplace.
“basically, we have three different views on the problem. if you
ask mainstream economists they will worry about the markets.
environmental economists will be worried about missing markets and
then there are non- economists who don’t even consider the role of
markets in environmental problems.”
Jason shogren argues that we need more knowledge about the
feedbacks in the economic-ecologic world we live in, to be able to
address future challenges properly.
“there are still lots of barriers between academic disciplines that
need to be broken down. economists must talk to environmental
scientists, and i do look forward to the royal environment
symposium as one attempt in this direction.”
and what about the future?
“i hope that we in the western world can provide technologies and
methods and share them with the developing world. then they might
be able to achieve more prosperity while maintaining environmental
protection.”
Understanding ecosystems and economic systems is the same
J a s o n s h o G r e n
adVice to decision-makers:
“There are different ways of being precautionary – the most
important is that we cannot afford to just accept the risks
inherent in future climate change.“
How precautionary do we need to be?
k e i t h b e V e n Professor of hydroloGy and fluid dynamics,
lancaster uniVersity, uk
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 2006/2007 at uppsala university
ContaCt:
[email protected]
“the Question of how climate change is affecting our societies is
now a political issue; it is not in the hands of scientists. now it
is up to our decision-makers to take action.”
Professor keith beven is frank. he has spent his career
understanding hydrological systems, with special interest in
modelling and investigating the uncertainties associated with
environmental problems. his experience suggests that the
uncertainties associated with climate models may mean that the
risks of climate change are being underestimated. the fact that
future projects are uncertain, he argues, should not stop us from
acting.
“the models we use today are better than just a few years ago. in
the future we will be able to do even better predictions. but this
will take time and it is not clear that we can afford to wait. my
concern is that the present models are under-predicting the rate of
change, which means we would be facing a more serious situation
than we have thought so far. so, basically, i think the
uncertainties are not an excuse for doing nothing because that
would be accepting risks to a possibly dangerous degree.”
beven thinks that one important political decision is to ensure we
are robust to change and improve our defence systems. one example
is a project run by the environment agency of england and wales,
the thames estuary 2100 Plan. it advocates a flexible
adaptive approach to future change and has specifically evaluated
the need for a new thames barrier to protect Greater london against
future flooding.
“in this case, being precautionary is perhaps just more obvious. so
much of london’s infrastructure is at risk and the houses of
Parliament are located just by the river. the politicians just need
to look out of the windows to be aware of the risk!”
so finally, is keith beven optimistic or pessimistic about the
future?
“when it comes to international agreements i am pessimistic, but
this means that being precautionary at national level is even more
important. i am more optimistic that politicians might be persuaded
that investment in more new technologies to mitigate the effects of
change would be worthwhile.”
“this has to include measures to protect some of the developing
countries that are most at risk. these issues have been recently
overtaken by the various financial crises of the last few years,
but they will not go away. we can, of course, choose to be
risk-accepting and not to invest to be more robust with respect to
future change – but at least that decision should be made on the
basis of reasoned argument relative to other demands on
resources.”
k e i t h b e V e n
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s u s a n o w e n s Professor of enVironment and Policy, and head
of
dePartment of GeoGraPhy, uniVersity of cambridGe, uk
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 2008 /2009 at stockholm Resilience
Centre at stockholm university, and the Royal institute of
technology (Kth)
ContaCt:
[email protected]
eXPectations of the royal symPosium:
“It will be wonderful to meet all the other Royal Professors. I
like the idea of focusing the discussion on climate and
biodiversity and letting the participants
apply their particular areas of expertise to those issues.”
as the ParticiPants Gather in the bernadotte library for the 2012
royal environment symposium, the presence of Professor susan owens
adds yet another dimension to the event.
the symposium is not only an opportunity for trans-disciplinary
discussions between guests from science, business, politics and
nGos, but their interactions can themselves be an important subject
for research. for susan owens is investigating the relationships
between scientists and decision-makers.
she emphasizes the importance of understanding and discussing what
we want science to do for us.
“what is the proper role of science in a modern democracy?” she
asks, and continues:
“in future, i hope we can develop a better capacity to recognize
science as a social activity and find ways to articulate what we
want.”
during her year in sweden, at the stockholm resilience centre at
stockholm university and the environmental strategies Group at kth,
she was able to dig deeper into the complex relations between
knowledge and policy. she was surprised at how little is actually
understood about these critical interactions, and how often they
are misrepresented.
for instance, it is often said that decision- makers fail to act on
scientific advice because they find it difficult to understand
uncertainties and to evaluate the risks connected with, for
example, environmental problems or new technologies. susan owens
does not agree.
“it’s far more complicated than that”, she says with emphasis.
“when politicians do not act, this is about much more than
uncertainty. if they hesitate, it is because they have many
considerations to take into account. the most difficult issues are
nearly always political and ethical as well as scientific. this is
something scientists must understand.”
owens wants to move on from the simple linear-rational model, which
sees scientific knowledge as being ‘transferred into policy’, to
more complex understanding. we have to ask, ‘how does science
influence policy?’ and also ‘how do political cultures affect what
counts as authoritative knowledge?’ in complex controversies, she
argues, science, politics and policy-making are often extremely
difficult to tease apart.
“we have a great deal to learn about the factors involved in
science-policy interactions. what is really going on here? this is
one of the most important questions to address if we aspire to a
sustainable future.”
What do we have science for?
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From history we can learn about the future
s h i n y a s u G i t a senior research scientist, institute of
ecoloGy,
tallinn uniVersity, tallinn, estonia
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 2010 /2011 at linnaeus university in
sweden
ContaCt:
[email protected]
adVice to decision-makers:
“I think it is very important that we develop our ability to listen
We must listen more
carefully to people from different fields.
as a little boy in Japan, shinya sugita was fascinated by history.
he was also interested in plants and wildlife. now he is combining
the two, by investigating what ecosystems looked like long ago, and
how they adapted to climate changes.
shinya sugita is the current royal Professor and especially glad to
be in sweden, since it was here the geo-historian lennart von Post
started this branch of research a hundred years ago.
“actually, what von Post was doing – collecting pollen from
sediments – is also the method we are using today. but we
understand better now how to interpret pollen records using
mathematical models.”
sugita has developed a sophisticated new model that provides
relevant information of the past changes in vegetation and land use
from pollen records. he also hopes to help make future projections
of the climate impacts on our ecosystems using environmental
history.
“basically, it is a very simple model. we collect fossil pollen
from sediments; each plant produces pollen that differs in shape
and size, and thus in its dispersal distance among species. in
addition the amount of pollen produced varies a lot from species to
species. we needed models to link the amounts of pollen in
sediments to the number of individual plants or plant cover, using
all these factors.”
so far so good, but how can sugita know that his model works?
“we are using information from today. by collecting pollens from
sediments close to the surface, we find pollen grains that are just
a few years old. with the model we can predict the landscape they
come from and compare to what it looks like today.”
although this seems quite straightforward and shinya sugita claims
that it is a very simple model, he finds it difficult to explain to
others how it works.
“traditional palaeoecologists and botanists are not so familiar
with mathematical models, and mathematicians are not very good at
environmental issues – so we end up in different academic fields
and get stuck there.”
he does not have a simple recipe for solving this problem, but
emphasizes the importance of meeting other scientists from the
natural sciences, the humanities and the social sciences.
according to shinya sugita, environmental science and history have
many similarities.
“everything is connected! to understand the complexity, we need
knowledge from many areas. the symposium at the royal Palace will
be an important opportunity to listen to each other.”
s h i n y a s u G i t a
What is going on in the atmosphere?
m a r k k u k u l m a l a Professor of aerosol and enVironmental
Physics, uniVersity of helsinki, finland
Royal Guest PRofessoRshiP: 2009 /2010 at stockholm university and
lund university
ContaCt:
[email protected]
adVice to decision-makers:
“To obtain a sustainable world we need continuous, comprehensive
measurements and good interlinks between policy and science.”
eVery day we hear about increasing greenhouse gas emissions and
many of us are worried about how they will affect our future.
markku kulmala is an expert in the field. as a physicist he has
been able to further our knowledge and understanding of the
atmosphere, especially by studying small atmospheric particles –
aerosols – and their interactions with greenhouse gases.
forest ecosystems produce lots of aerosol particles. Volatile
organic compounds such as ‘monoterpenes’ are produced as
by-products of photosynthesis. actually by studying reactions both
inside plants and in the atmosphere, markku kulmala can get a view
of how atmospheric aerosols will behave in the future. he sees many
knowledge gaps still to fill.
“we need to know more about the very complicated feedback systems.
and to do so we need comprehensive, continuous measurements and
smarter models.”
one important feedback loop is the connection between greenhouse
gases and aerosols. aerosols, as opposed to greenhouse gases like
co2, have a cooling effect on the climate. using present
measurement networks, however, we can only study a limited number
of atmospheric
compounds. kulmala sees the necessity of developing new
comprehensive measurement stations that can measure greenhouse
gases and aerosols at the same time, and also trace gases, soil
properties etc. since the world-leading scientists in this field
are working in sweden and finland, it is natural to start
here.
“we are now developing a new infrastructure here in scandinavia.
with data from these new stations we can build better models and,
hopefully, increase our understanding of the mechanisms behind the
feedback loops in the atmosphere.”
having said that, markku kulmala seems to be both optimistic and
pessimistic about the future.
“actually, i’m quite optimistic about the research. i think we will
be able to understand these complicated mechanisms much better in
the next –10 years. this has important implications for the
development of technical solutions, of course,. but as to social
side of this issue, i am more pessimistic. how do we change our
lifestyle for a more sustainable future? i think we need to improve
the social sciences to tackle this extremely difficult and vital
issue.”
m a r k k u k u l m a l a
292
mistra
the swedish foundation for strategic environmental research –
mistra – supports research of strategic importance for a good
living environment and sustainable development. it seeks to promote
the development of strong research environments. opportunities to
achieve industrial applications are to be pursued to the full.
mistra invests in interdisciplinary research of the highest quality
which, in collaboration with end -users, will contribute to the
sustainable development of society.
www.mistra.org
stint
the swedish foundation for international cooperation in research
and higher education, stint, was set up in 199 by an act of the
swedish Parliament. its mission is to promote internationalization
of swedish higher education and research. stint offers a range of
funding and scholarship programmes in support of strategic
internationalization at higher-education institutions. it is also
an actor with competence and knowledge relating to international
academic collaboration.
www.stint.se
E-mail
[email protected] http://www.stint.se
marcus wallenberGs stiftelse för internationellt VetenskaPliGt
samarbete
the foundation was established on 0 march 197 by a donation from
skandinaviska enskilda banken to honour dr. tech. marcus wallenberg
(199–192), when he resigned as chairman of the bank’s board of
directors. the purpose of the foundation is to support
international scientific symposia in sweden.
www.wallenberg.com
riksbankens Jubileumsfond
riksbankens Jubileumsfond (rJ) is an independent foundation whose
aim is to promote and support scientific research in the humanities
and social sciences. the rJ supports qualified research by
providing grants to individual researchers or academic groups based
in sweden. the foundation rJ approves grants for qualified
applications which have been directly submitted to it by individual
researchers, as well as undertaking activities aimed at promoting
research in sweden, to strengthen the position of swedish academics
internationally.
www.rj.se
formas
formas – the swedish research council for environment, agricultural
sciences and spatial Planning – is a government agency promoting
excellence in basic and applied research related to sustainable
development.
www.formas.se
the governing body of the king carl XVi Gustaf 0th anniversary fund
for science, technology and environment wishes to convey its thanks
to the financiers and organisers of the faith in the future
symposium and also to express its support for and commitment to the
royal Guest Professorship in general.
The Organisers
the kinG carl XVi Gustaf 50th anniVersary fund for science,
technoloGy and enVironment
the purpose of the king carl XVi Gustaf 50th anniversary fund for
science, technology and environment is to promote research,
technological development and enterprise that will contribute to
sustainable use of natural resources and the maintenance of
biodiversity. more information, p.7.
the royal swedish academy of sciences
the royal swedish academy of sciences, founded in 179, is an
independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the
sciences and strengthen their influence in society. the academy
takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and
mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas
between various disciplines.
www.kva.se
the royal swedish academy of enGineerinG sciences
the royal swedish academy of engineering sciences, iVa, is an
independent arena for the exchange of knowledge. by initiating and
stimulating contacts between experts from different disciplines and
countries – the academy promotes cross – fertilisation between
industry, academia, public administration and various interest
groups. bringing people together to take part in lectures,
conferences, research exchanges and other projects serves to
generate new ideas and knowledge.
www.iva.se
the royal swedish academy of aGriculture and forestry
the role of the royal swedish academy of agriculture and forestry
is, with the support of science and practical experience, to
promote agriculture and forestry and related activities, for the
benefit of society. the academy is an active forum for science and
practical experience and also an independent and critical review
organization.
www.ksla.se
www.svensktnaringsliv.se
0
isbn: 978-91-7190-180-4
Production Mind the Gap – Science Communication teXt Eva Krutmeijer
desiGn Futerra Sustainability Communications
Printed by a Climate Neutral Company, Edita Västerås 2012 ©
Kungliga Hovstaterna 2012
the aim of this symposium at the royal Palace in stockholm is to
discuss the complex environmental issues of climate and
biodiversity and give a holistic, comprehensive view with a focus
on possible solutions, needs and possibilities for a future
sustainable society.
the discussion will draw on the collected competence and different
specialities of the fourteen distinguished professors who have held
the one-year professorship of his majesty the king carl XVi Gustaf
since 1997. the professors are all presented in this booklet.