The changing climate poses serious dangers to human and non-human well-being, although perhaps the most urgent danger is one we hear very little about: the rise of climatism.

It seems that many of the social, political and ecological phenomena facing the world today – from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the management of wildfires – too easily become climatized, explained with reference to ‘a change in the climate’.

With complex political and ethical challenges so narrowly framed, arresting climate change is framed as the supreme political challenge of our time and everything else becomes subservient to this one goal.

This talk is based around my 2023 book ‘Climate Change Isn’t Everything’, which distils 25 years of research leadership and experience since founded the Tyndall Centre in the year 2000.

It describes how climatism has taken hold in recent years, becoming so pervasive and embedded in public life that it is increasingly hard to identify without being written off as a climate denier.

I challenge the dangerously myopic view of climatism that reduces the condition of the world to the fate of global temperature to the detriment of paying serious attention to issues as varied as biodiversity loss, poverty, inequality, AI and diplomacy. We must not live as though climate alone determines our present and our future.

Mike Hulme is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Cambridge and Professorial Fellow at Pembroke College. From 2000 to 2007, he was the Founding Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary research center based at the University of East Anglia (UEA). In 2007, he led the preparation of climate scenarios and reports for the UK Government and received a personalized certificate from the Nobel Peace Prize committee in recognition of his ‘significant contribution’ to the work of the United Nations’ IPCC. 

He is best known as the author of Why We Disagree About Climate Change, published in 2009 by Cambridge University Press, which was named by The Economist as one of their four Books of the Year for science and technology in December 2009. He is also the author of Weathered: Cultures of Climate (2017), Can Science Fix Climate Change? A Case Against Climate Engineering (2014), and Reducing the Future to Climate: a Story of Climate Determinism and Reductionism (2011).

Contexte du séminaire

Face aux nombreux défis auxquels notre société est confrontée, nombre de scientifiques du climat et de l’environnement ressentent le besoin de développer un cadre de réflexion collectif sur l’éthique et la responsabilité de leur engagement public. Réfléchir aux multiples facettes de cet engagement demande de tenir compte des différentes dimensions des liens sciences-société. 

Si de nombreux chercheurs s’engagent publiquement, de forts questionnements s’expriment dans le monde de la recherche. Nombreux sont ceux qui s’interrogent sur les modalités de l’engagement public, son opportunité et son principe même. 

C’est dans ce cadre qu’un groupe de réflexion s’est auto-constitué depuis 2020 pour animer cette réflexion au sein de l’IPSL, en proposant un espace d’échanges libres et ouverts, sans vocation normative, indépendant de la direction de l’Institut mais encouragé par celui-ci.

Plus d’informations

https://www.ipsl.fr/sciences-societe/groupe-de-reflexion-ethique-ipsl/

Sur place
IPSL – Sorbonne Université
Campus Pierre et Marie Curie
Amphi Charpak
4, place Jussieu 75005 Paris

L’amphi Charpak se trouve au niveau Saint Bernard (ou rez-de-chaussée) du campus Jussieu. Depuis le parvis du campus, aller à la tour 22, descendre d’un étage (niveau SB ou RC). L’amphi se situe entre les tours 22 et 23 sur le côté de la voirie interne. L’accès à l’amphi Charpak se fait par la porte 2233-SB-02 (il s’agit de la porte d’accès au hall d’accueil).

En visio
https://cnrs.zoom.us/j/99828212125?pwd=ljRLkBCpVKpcXemiqkINboEaGOplkT.1