Three Workshops
In order to deepen this exploration of tipping points and irreversible change in relation to political action we have identified three specific challenges to be addressed:
First, we want to understand how the communication of global crisis (including tipping points) impacts upon individuals and societies. The construction of climate change discourse clearly involves more than a simple transmission of scientific truth to public discourse. It can also evoke, for example, ethical imperatives and religious apocalyptic overtones. To some it can justify radical lifestyle change; to others, one more reason to do nothing. Read more on Workshop 1: 'What is to be done?' Apocalyptic Rhetoric and Political Action
Second, we need a robust critique of governmental climate strategy, which increasingly views climate change predominantly as a security problem. Adapting to climate change means planning with uncertainties not only in the natural environment but also an increasingly unstable and volatile social environment (including uncertainties that span both, such as nuclear power). Complex ethical issues, such as the question of social justice in environmental planning strategies, thus require attention in our assessment of global tipping points. Read more on Workshop 2: 'What price security?' New Issues in the Ethics of Risk
Third, we must engage with the more philosophical and cultural question of how the future of the human is imagined in society. Which ideas and beliefs influence the way we view the long term role of Homo sapiens in the wider environment? Do tipping points point to the end of the human (bearing in mind that 'end' here can refer to finality but also to ultimate goal or purpose)? And if so how does this frame our ethical approach, from moral duty to future generations, to care for the environment? A variety of political and religious narratives has historically provided a range of answers. From viewing humans as stewards of creation on the one hand to viruses or parasites on the health of the earth system on the other. Read more on Workshop 3: 'A world without us?' Imagining the End of the Human
Each of these challenges opens up in different ways the nature of tipping points as political 'timescapes' (Barbara Adam, 1998). In the first workshop, a concern with the immediate political options is considered (what are we to do now?); in the second a concern with the near future (what can we plan for?) and in the third, the distant future (what is our destiny and responsibility?).
How to participate in a workshop