Day 9 - William E. Rees: The Enigma of Climate Inaction – On the Human Nature of Policy Failure

ISC 2021 Summer School – Cognitive Challenges of Climate Change (https://sites.grenadine.uqam.ca/sites...)

Day 9
Talk by William E. Rees: The Enigma of Climate Inaction – On the Human Nature of Policy Failure
MC: Alexia Ostrolenk, Ph.D Candidate in Psychiatric Science (UdeM); Science Communicator (ComScicon-QC, BrainReach)

Abstract:
H. sapiens is a self-described intelligent species, yet seems committed to destroying its own habitat. Human-induced climate change, driven by carbon-dioxide and other GHG emissions, is one of several well-known threats to global civilization. Nevertheless, 34 climate conferences and half a dozen major international agreements in the past 50 years have failed to produce even a ripple in the curve of exponentially increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Climate change is accelerating. This presentation: 1) examines some of the evolutionary, behavioural and cognitive impediments to effective corrective action by governments and international agencies and; 2) advances some ideological, political and organizational changes that must be implemented at all levels of society to avoid global climate catastrophe.

References:
Rees, W.E. (2020) MegaCities at Risk: The Climate–Energy Conundrum, chapter in: Sorensen, A. andLabbé, D. (eds.) The International Handbook on Megacities and Megacity Regions. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (in press).
Rees, W.E. (2020) Ecological economics for humanity’s plague phase. Ecological Economics 169 (March 2020), athttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science...
Rees, W.E. (2019) End Game – The economy as eco-catastrophe and what needs to change. Real-World Economics Review (March 2019). athttp://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue...
Rees, W.E. (2019) Don’t call me a pessimist on climate change – I am a realist. The Tyee (11 Nov 2019) at https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/11/1...
Rees, W.E. (2019) Memo from a climate realist: The choice before us. The Tyee (12 Nov 2019) at https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/11/1...
Rees, W.E. (2019) Yes, the climate crisis may wipe out six billion people. The Tyee (18 September 2019) at https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/09/1...
Rees, W.E. (2010) What’s Blocking Sustainability? Human nature, cognition and denial. Sustainability: Science, Practice & Policy 6(2):13-25 at https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...

Bio:
William E. Rees is a human ecologist, ecological economist, former Director and Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. His research focuses on the biophysical requirements for sustainable development and on the cognitive, behavioural and socio-cultural barriers to change. Best known as originator and co-developer (with his Ph.D. students) of ‘ecological footprint analysis’, Prof Rees work is widely recognized internationally. His awards include a Blue Planet Prize (jointly with former student Dr Mathis Wackernagel), the Boulding Prize in Ecological Economics, the Herman Daly Award (US Society for Ecological Economics) and an Honorary Doctorate from Laval University. From 2014 to 2019, Dr Rees served as a full member of the Club of Rome.