Environmental Open Hour - Economic development and sustainability
For one hour we aim to gather people from various disciplines to discuss contemporary issues of environmental politics, the science behind them and their potential - consequences.
In this first session, we will be looking to explore the question of: To what extent are national aims of economic development and sustainability irreconcilable?
Discussion will be kicked-off by a quick presentation before we engage in an open and informed deliberation, involving members from a range of faculties and fields. Tea, coffee and cake will be available.
Important information
This event is only open to UoB staff and students. Please contact Ed Atkins if you are interested in attending.
Full details
In the shadow of the Brazilian general election, we shall meet to discuss the difficult relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability. Recent decades have witnessed nature become a significant facet of the quest for capital and accumulation. The appropriation of resources from local population have allowed for the growth of many nations, including the BRICS. When the River Yangtze was dammed in 1997, as part of the Three Gorges project, the President of China, Jiang Zemin pronounced the success as “major event in China’s efforts to achieve modernization.” The commons has been commodified, privatised and pillaged for the advance of national economies.
The atmosphere is increasingly being seen as a global commodity – due to increased expenditure on the trading of climate emissions, courts have witnessed a number of private claims to patent live organisms, and wilderness and animals have been appropriated into the international tourist industry. Vast areas of land and water have been grabbed by both private and state interests, looking to use for land to power their activities and progress.
This session shall seek to provide an all-encompassing examination of the following issues: the social consequences of the quest for development; the environmental problems posed by the continued growth of national economies; and the direction of causality between economic growth and CO2 emissions.
Other Environmental Open Hour events
Environmental Open Hour - Environmental degradation and conflict - 11 November, 3 pm
Environmental Open Hour - Women and climate change - 9 December, 3 pm