Creating a future in harmony with Earth’s systems: Peter Schlosser

PETER SCHLOSSER: We have about one decade to cut the emissions from burning of fossil fuels into one half. That’s an enormous task. We have technology. We know that this technology works in principle. Now it has to be scaled up. And that has to be done on a very rapid scale. This is all based on choices we have made. And so for us, the biggest challenge is now to recognize that we have pushed the limits, and to make another set of choices that will get us out of the trajectory we are on, which is strictly non-sustainable.

00:35 - And that means we really have to understand – from a social science perspective, from a humanities perspective – what do people see as their future? And this engagement has to start at the very beginning of our process of identifying problems through to the discussion of what options do we have, to the point where we are sort of contemplating what kind of interventions and implementations can get us out of the situation. The work of the Global Futures Laboratory will be a holistic approach to understanding what the challenges are that we are facing. But at the same time, to also recognize that we have a lot of knowledge that offer opportunity to overcome these challenges. We cannot just tinker around the edges of changing academia. We have to make significant changes. .