TWBK

On – line lecture with prof. Ewa Bińczyk

13 November 2021Wojciech Bagiński

“Planetary Environmental Crisis and the Problem of Denialism”. Prof. Ewa Bińczyk on – line lecture, 2nd of February 2022.

One of the events connected with the World Wetlands Day 2022 was a meeting with prof. Ewa Bińczyk, who accepted the invitation of the Society to prepare and deliver a lecture on problems and threats posed by climate change. Prof. Ewa Bińczyk, PhD, works in the Department of Practical Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. She deals with contemporary environmental philosophy, philosophical assumptions of ecological degrowth economics, philosophy of science, science and technology studies and controversies in science. She is a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFiS PAN), PAN Forecast Committee, Council of Experts of the Polish Climate Coalition and Council of the Climate Education Foundation. She is the author of books:: Sociology of Knowledge in the Bible (Nomos 2003), A Picture that Captivate Us (Universitas 2007), Technoscience in a Risk Society (UMK 2012), and also The Epoch of Man. Rhetoric and Lethargy of the Anthropocene (PWN 2018).

Ewa Bińczyk is also co-author of Modeling Technoscience and Nanotechnology Assessment (Peter Lang 2014), co-editor of a selection of texts Studies in Science and Technology (UMK 2014) and Horizons of Constructivism. Inspirations, perspectives, future (UMK 2015). She was a scholarship holder of the Foundation for Polish Science (2005), the Fulbright Foundation (2006-2007), and a winner of the Polityka weekly’s “Stay with us” scholarship (2010). In the winter semester of 2016, she worked as a visiting scholar at Harvard University (Department of History of Science). In August 2021 she co-presented a seminar at the European Forum in Alpbach.

Abstract

The context of the lecture consists of a vast catalogue of problems commonly referred to as “the planetary environmental crisis.” The crisis is currently debated within climatology, environmental sciences and the so-called Earth system science, the emergence of which is called “the second Copernican revolution in science.” We will discuss the issues of crossing tipping points and planetary boundaries, the risk of destabilization of the hydrosphere, lithosphere and atmosphere, and the problem of the annihilation of the biosphere.

Next, we will focus on the most critical challenges of the epoch in which planetary environmental change occurs. These include climate policy and the extreme fetishization of the postulate of emission reduction, humanity’s attitude to irreversible environmental losses, as well as the complex causes of stagnation (marasmus) and denial.  

Furthermore, we will focus on the history of disinformation campaigns on global warming (the actions of the so-called merchants of doubts) and analyze new forms of denialism (deflection, division, climate fatalism/doomism, emergency plans). This will allow us to look for answers to two essential questions: 1) how to create the pro-environmental correction of thinking and acting in the 21st century, 2) how to effectively conduct climate education.

Literatura:

Angus, Ian. 2016. Facing the Anthropocene. Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System, Monthly Review Press.

Bińczyk, Ewa. 2018. Epoka człowieka. Retoryka i marazm antropocenu. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

Bińczyk, Ewa. 2018a. Utrata przyszłości w epoce antropocenu, „Stan Rzeczy” 1 (14): 109-134.

Bińczyk, Ewa. 2021. Pandemia i rozszczelnianie zdrowego rozsądku. Szansa na demontaż ‘business as usual’? W: P. Wielgosz, red. Ekonomie przyszłości. Warszawa: Biennale Warszawa, 27-35.

Bińczyk, Ewa. 2021a. Klimatyczne korygowanie gospodarek. Jonathan Symons na rzecz państwa z misją dekarbonizacji. W: E. Lechman, A. Marszk, P. Parszutowicz, M. Popowska, red. Ekonomia, kultura, wartości albo trzy oblicza roztropności. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Politechniki Gdańskiej, 213-226.

Bonneuil, Christophe, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz. 2016. The Shock of the Anthropocene: the Earth, History and Us. Przekład David Fernbach. London: Verso.

Clark, Nigel, Szerszynski, Bronislaw. 2021. Planetary Social Thought. The Anthropocene Challenge to the Social Sciences. Cambridge, Medford: Polity Press.

Clay, Jon, reż. 2021. Breaking Boundaries. The Science of Our Planet. USA: Silverback Films.

Crutzen, Paul J., Eugene F. Stoermer. 2000. The ‘Anthropocene’. „Global Change Newsletter” 41: 17-18.

Ellis, Erle. 2018. Anthropocene. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Hansen, James. 2009. Storms of My Grandchildren. The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophy and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity. New York: Bloomsbury Press.

Hamilton, Clive. 2016. The Anthropocene as Rupture. „The Anthropocene Review” 3(2): 93-106.

Hamilton, Clive, Christophe Bonneuil, François Gemenne, red. 2015. The Anthropocene and the Global Environmental Crisis. Rethinking Modernity in a New Epoch. London, New York: Routledge..

Hickel, Jason. 2020. What Does Degrowth Mean? A Few Points of Clarification. „Globalizations” 18 (7784): 1-7.

Hickel, Jason. 2021. Mniej znaczy lepiej. O tym, jak odejście od wzrostu gospodarczego ocali świat. Przekład Jerzy Paweł Listwan. Kraków: Karakter.

Hornborg, Alf. 2019. Nature, Society, and Justice in the Anthropocene. Unraveling the Money-Energy-Technology Complex. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.

IPBES. 2019. Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. E. S. Brondizio, J. Settele, S. Díaz, H.T. Ngo, eds. Bonn: IPBES.

Jackson, Tim. 2015. Dobrobyt bez wzrostu. Ekonomia dla planety o ograniczonych zasobach. Przekład Marcin Polakowski. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK.

Kolbert, Elizabeth. 2016. Szóste wymieranie. Historia nienaturalna. Przekład Tatiana Grzegorzewska, Piotr Grzegorzewski Warszawa: Wydawnictwo W.A.B.

Lynch, Amanda H., Siri Veland. 2018. Urgency in the Anthropocene. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Moore, Jason. W., red. 2021. Antropocen czy kapitałocen? Natura, historia i kryzys kapitalizmu. Przekład Krzysztof Hoffman, Patryk Szaj, Weronika Szwebs. Poznań: WBPiCAK, UAM.

Oreskes, Naomi, Erik M. Conway. 2017. Upadek cywilizacji zachodniej. Przekład Ewa Bińczyk, Jakub Gużyński, Krzysztof Tarkowski. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

Raworth, Kate. 2021. Ekonomia obwarzanka. Siedem sposobów myślenia o ekonomii XXI wieku. Przekład Aleksandra Paszkowska. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej.

Rignot, Eric, Jérémie Mouginot, Berndt Scheuchl et al. 2019. Four Decades of Antarctic Ice Sheet Mass Balance from 1979-2017. „PNAS” 116 (4): 1095-1103.

Ripple, William J. et al. 2021. World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency 2021. „Bioscience”, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab079, opublikowano 28 lipca (dostęp 29.08.2021).

Rockström, Johan et al. 2009. A Safe Operating Space for Humanity. „Nature” 46 (wrzesień): 472-475.

Symons, Jonathan. 2019. Ecomodernism. Technology, Politics and Climate Crisis. Cambridge. Medford MA: Polity Press.

Victor, Peter. 2019. Managing without Growth. Slower by Design, not Disaster. Cheltenham, UK, Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar, wyd. drugie poprawione i uzupełnione.

Weizsäcker, Ernst Ulrich von, Anders Wijkman. 2018. Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism and the Destruction of the Planet. New York: Springer.

Poprzedni wpis Następny wpis