A line in the sand

Petra Kooijman is one of the speakers at “A line in the sand. IPCC’s “Global Warming of 1.5 °C” and the public discourse of tipping points”, a roundtable discussion at Spui 25 (University of Amsterdam).

When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its report ‘Global Warming of 1.5 °C’ on October 8, it caused a flurry of media coverage and response. The report warned the world that we are headed for a series of increasingly disastrous tipping points, prompting Foreign Affairs to describe its message as ‘apocalyptic’. What are the effects of concepts such as ‘tipping points’ and the increasing severity and intensity of the discourse on climate change on the public, policy makers and ultimately, our future? In a roundtable discussion, speakers from different disciplines discuss the complexities of environmental communication, severity and reality in policymaking and advice.

Speakers

Imre Szeman is founder of the Petrocultures Research Group, authors of the book After Oil. Imre is professor of environmental communication at Waterloo University in Canada and has published dozens of books and articles on fossil fuels, critical theory, and environmental communication.

Joyeeta Gupta, current professor of environment and development in the Global South at the UVA, was professor of Climate Change Policy and Law at the VU, lead author in three IPCC reports, and current co-chair of UN Environment’s Global Environmental Outlook.

Jeff Diamanti (moderator) teaches Literary and Cultural Analysis at the UvA. His work tracks the relationship between fossil fuels and media. As Postdoctoral Fellow in Media and the Environment at McGill he co-convened the international colloquium on Climate Realism.

Petra van der Kooij is a PhD student in political philosophy and climate ethics. She works on climate justice, fair ecological limits and political inertia.

Rhodante Ahlers is Senior Researcher at Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen (Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations).