Feasta Seminar Series - Converging Crises, Policy Responses

This series of seminars is aimed primarily at policymakers, however Feasta members are most welcome. Attendance is free to members but as place numbers are limited must be booked by emailing the Feasta office. Feasta will make each seminar available on their website in QuickTime format after it takes place.

Date and Time: 12 noon, 1 Friday followed by 5 Thursdays in June and July
Venue: Irish Architectural Archive building, 45 Merrion Square, Dublin 2

The six seminars are as follows:

The Future's Not What it Used to Be, Friday 13th June
David Korowicz
view Introduction/launch by Richard Douthwaite and Minister Eamon Ryan (09:02, 9.5 MB QuickTime file)
view Lecture by David Korowitz (50:35, 43.9 MB QuickTime file)
Many of our civilisation's key resources have become more tightly coupled and are under increasing strain. We look at the systemic interactions of energy, greenhouse gasses, food, and the macroeconomy; and assess the risks of a critical breakdown of this global system. We outline how risk-management must be integrated into policy.

Planning for Food Security, Thursday 19th June
Bruce Darrell
Global food price inflation has been driven by declining yields, commodity markets, the rush to biofuels, increased production costs and greater consumption of meat. Many producing nations are restraining exports, reducing the availability of food on the global market. Achieving a secure food supply globally and nationally is a major task which demands a transformation of our food supply systems.

The Need For Benign Inflation, Thursday 26th June
Richard Douthwaite
An inflation is needed for two reasons. One is that, as energy prices rise in relation to labour, the cost of everything needs to change by differing amounts, and the only pleasant way this can happen is if all prices move up. The other reason is that the burden of debt being carried in Ireland has got out of step with incomes. Asset values are also out of line. An inflation would correct both relatively painlessly. But who would create the money which allowed the inflation to happen?

Dopamine and Kill Size: Understanding the inertia in our response to critical threats, Thursday 3rd July
Mark Rutledge
Our collective response to the threats posed by climate change and impending peak oil has been at best, marginal. In this talk we examine how the public perceives risk in a post-trust society and what we can learn in communicating the climate change message. We also look at the role of neuro-transmitters in understanding drivers of our short-term behaviour and how the evolutionary derived penchant to concentrate on the immediate, suppresses the thinking and forward looking role required in our personal lives all the way up to the stewardship of the planet.

Note: there will be no seminar on Thursday 10th of July

Reclaiming the Commons, Thursday 17th July
Emer O'Siochru
This talk will address destruction of 'the commons' - the vital but undefined resources that sustain life and civilisation that are under threat form the current system. It will offer ideas about how they can be redefined, given legal protection within the market economy, their proper owners identified and champions assigned to manage and conserve them for current and future generations. The commons include the atmosphere, the oceans, surface and ground waters, aspects of land, genetic information, plant and animal diversity, scientific knowledge and culture.

Global Governance for Climate Change, Thursday 24th July
John Jopling
The current system of inter-governmental negotiation, its inherent limitations, and moves towards designing and creating a better system.