Lecture: "Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will": from Paris to the EU without the denial", by Prof. Kevin Anderson

Professor Kevin Anderson, (Prof. University of Manchester, former Tyndall Centre director, UK) will give a lecture to our ICTA-UAB community. After the talk, there will be a brief debate between Kevin and our postdoctoral researchers Lewis King and Clara Esteve, who will react to Kevin’s lecture. There will also be time for discussion with the audience.

 

Lecture: “Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will": from Paris to the EU without the denial"

by Professor Kevin Anderson, University of Manchester & Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
 

Date: Tuesday October 15^th, 2024
Time: 3.00-4.30 pm
Location: Sala Montseny (Z/022 & Z/023) ICTA-UAB

There will be a post-talk debate with Lewis King and Clara Esteve.

The saccharine headlines of COP28 barely disguise the deliberate failure of national leaders, whether in politics, business or indeed journalism, to address the climate emergency. But peer a little deeper and the cossetted realm of academia is also revealed to be have been a crucial player in this endemic failure. From normalising deeply fraudulent technical futures to embedding neo-colonial norms in virtually all IPCC scenarios, our fingerprints are evident. Some of us have actively engaged in this systemic bias, whilst others have leant it legitimacy through our expedient silence. In 2024, wilful ignorance can no-longer be a defence.

Set against this damning indictment, Kevin Anderson will seek to lay bare the sheer quantitative scale of the gaping void between the rhetoric and the reality of our Paris Commitments. Unpicking the technical utopias and methodical avoidance of anything that would question existing power structures, Kevin will demonstrate that there are now no non-radical futures. The choice is between a profound but organised shake-up of structural norms and values or waiting a little longer for chaotic and violent social change.

Short Bio
Kevin is professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester and visiting professor at the University of Uppsala (Sweden). Formerly he held the position of Zennström professor (in Uppsala) and was director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (UK). Kevin engages widely with governments, industry and civil society, and remains research active with publications in Climate policy, Nature and Science. He has a decade’s industrial experience in the petrochemical industry, is a chartered engineer and fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Note: The title, “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will” is the claimed motto of Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci.

 

Twitter: @KevinClimate
Website: https://climateuncensored.com