Opening Plenary Session

On October 24th, during the opening plenary of the Radboud Conference on Earth System Governance, the following keynote presenters will delve into the conference theme: “Bridging Sciences and Societies for Sustainability Transformations”, highlighting the need for sustainability transformations and showing how fundamental such transformations need to be.

Melanie Challenger – The Who, How, When, and Why of including the voices of other species in human decision-making processes

Today, it is widely accepted among scientists and non-scientists that many nonhuman animals are intelligent, sentient, communicative, and agentive. And yet there is no provision to include their voices as subjects of justice within human decision-making contexts. The need for more inclusive forms of deliberation will become ever more necessary as the interests of humans and nonhumans come into conflict, and in a changing world and environment. But how, when and why should we consider other species in our legal and political spheres? The commonest approaches today are in the Rights of Nature movements, which attempt to represent other beings in aggregate or to safeguard whole landscapes, and in projects like Animals in the Room, which regard the other animals in our midst as individuals capable of communicating their interests. The question for human societies is not can the other beings around us express their interests, but can we listen?

Matthias Schmelzer – Contesting the growthocene: From capitalist realism to ecological reduction

Economic growth isn’t working, and it cannot be made to work. This keynote argues that the ideology of growth conceals the rising inequalities and ecological destructions associated with capitalism, and points to desirable alternatives to it. Contemporary society is held captive by the hegemony of growth. Even proposals for ecological modernization, Green New Deals or post-capitalism base their utopian hopes on the development of productive forces, on redistributing the fruits of economic growth and technological progress. Yet growing evidence shows that continued economic growth cannot be made compatible with sustaining life and is not necessary for a good life for all. Building on a vibrant field of research, the lecture presents analysis of capitalist realism around the growth paradigm, introduces the most important critiques of economic growth, and discusses ways of transforming economy and society beyond growth. Proposals for degrowth, it argues, offer a way to step off the treadmill of an alienating, expansionist, and hierarchical system and create new avenues for sustainability beyond growth.

Marjan Minnesma

Urgent action is much more needed and is also possible. Science and society can be more aligned and help each other in pushing government and business. Concrete examples show how we start with concrete and scalable projects, and show that the energy transition should not deteriorate biodiversity, but that climate and biodiversity should both be taken into account when implementing solutions.

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