Addressing climate-change impacts is often more about ethics than economics, and universities have an especially important role to play in helping humans ensure the planet’s sustainability, according to Stanford University environmental researchers participating in a symposium on climate and public policy at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Francisco.
Stanford scientists Stephen Schneider, the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, and Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies, are among several speakers who will address the AAAS symposium, "The Science and Ethics of a Culture of Sustainability," at 9:15 a.m. Monday, Feb. 19.
"Nations with 20 percent of the world’s population—the developed countries, such as the United States and Japan—have generated 80 percent of the carbon dioxide contributing to rapid climate change," Schneider said. "Yet a ton of carbon emitted in Beijing does the same thing as a ton of carbon produced in Boston or Brussels. If we are to have a sustainable planet, everyone must be engaged in reducing emissions."
While acknowledging that economists "are essential to the debate," Schneider said that traditional cost-benefit analyses and the focus on goods and services are inadequate to address climate-change impacts.
"Cost-benefit analyses alone, which often focus only on markets, cannot address global inequities around carbon generation and mitigation," said Schneider, co-director of Stanford’s Center for Environmental Science and Policy and a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment. "To make reasoned and equitable decisions, policymakers need to look not just at the market impacts, but at other factors such as loss of human lives and biodiversity, and quality of life."
Time for action
Ehrlich agreed, noting that policymakers need to understand "and exploit" human behavior to "close the gap between the sorts of behaviors recommended by scientists, based on extensive climate research, and the actual conduct of society. It is clearly a time for action."
President of the Stanford Center for Conservation Biology, Ehrlich recently proposed the creation of a global Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB), a follow-up to the United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and similar climate-change efforts but with a specific focus on human behavior.
"[MAHB] was named to emphasize that it is human behavior toward one another and toward the planetary systems that sustain us that requires assessment and modification," Ehrlich said. In 2006, he participated in a pilot MAHB project led by the Woods Institute that focused on climate change in California, with special emphasis on the ethical dimensions of climate policy discussions in the state. Ehrlich will discuss that project during his Feb. 19 AAAS lecture, "Ethics, the Stanford Pilot MAHB and the Role of Universities in Solving the Human Predicament."
According to Ehrlich, universities must play a critical role in developing "a more coherent approach to the functioning and evolution of societies." As an example, he cited the Natural Capital Project, a "new and unprecedented partnership" involving Stanford, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund, which, he said, "aspires to provide maps of nature’s services, assess their values in economic and other terms, and—for the first time on any significant scale— incorporate those values into resource decisions."
21st-century challenge
While such interdisciplinary efforts represent progress in transforming the academic landscape, Ehrlich cautioned that much more needs to be done, from increasing university outreach to recognizing contributions made by people not in tenure-line positions but who nonetheless contribute significantly to outreach, teaching and research.
"I hope that one day soon the leaders of some university will recognize the challenge and dramatically reorganize their institution into the first true 21st-century university," he said. "If members of American university faculties persist in largely ignoring the need to transform the system of higher education, they will not be in much of a position to help the human predicament."
Other scheduled speakers at the AAAS symposium are Jane Lubchenco of Oregon State University, Elliott Norse of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute, Richard Norgaard of the University of California-Berkeley, J. Ronald Engle of the University of Chicago and Mary Evelyn Tucker of Yale University. Paul Reitan of the University of Buffalo will moderate the session.
Kathy Neal is communications manager of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.
By Kathy Neal
CONTACT:
Kathy Neal, Woods Institute for the Environment: (650) 724-0480, kneal@stanford.edu
COMMENT:
Paul Ehrlich, Department of Biological Sciences: (650) 723-3171, pre@stanford.edu
Stephen Schneider, Department of Biological Sciences: (650) 725-9978, shs@stanford.edu
EDITORS NOTE:
Professors Paul Ehrlich and Stephen Schneider will participate in the symposium, "The Science and Ethics of a Culture of Sustainability," at 9:15 a.m. (Pacific Time) Monday, Feb. 19, at the AAAS annual meeting at the Hilton San Francisco, Continental Ballroom 8, 333 O’Farrell Street. Kathy Neal is communications manager of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford.
RELEVANT WEB URLS:
WOODS INSTITUTE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
http://environment.stanford.edu
STEPHEN SCHNEIDER WEB PAGE
http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu
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