5th international Lecture in Development Geography

Alfred-Philipson-Hörsaal des Geographischen Instituts der Universität Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 166, 53115 Bonn
Montag, 8. Juni 2009, 18.15 Uhr c.t.

Prof. Dr. Neil Adger, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, Norwich UK

"The unlikely transformation of societies in response to climate change"

Abstract:
Climate change is upon us. The scale of transformations of both the carbon economy and of social-ecological systems exposed to risk is becoming clear. The lecture focuses on how systems adapt to risk and argue that in adapting to climate change the structures of capitalism and the state’s objectives of protection of territory directly influence the ability to adapt.

Neil Adger examines evidence that suggests that some response strategies to climate variability and change, in focussing on one parameter of risk and adjusting to it, have the potential to undermine long-term resilience of social-ecological systems. He examines a range of response strategies and examines whether these enhance or erode the characteristics of a resilient system.

Neil Adger is Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. Neil has led the research programme on adaptation in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and he served as an author in reports of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC). Neil is a member of the Resilience Alliance, a network of ecologists and social scientists dedicated to research on resilience for sustainable development.