Violated Earth-Violent Earth

The workshop title refers to James Lovelock's 2007 book, "The Revenge of Gaia. Why the Earth Is Fighting Back And How We Can Still Save Humanity." With their wording, both Lovelock and the conveners foreground the human perception of the Earth system's reactions. For the human population, these manifest as a steady decline in living conditions with increasing catastrophic events. Despite their challenge to human civilization, such situations also present a challenge to human creativity and its ability to solve problems.

 Solutions are urgently needed. Identifying them can be difficult. Not least due to constraints resulting from complex interrelations, for example, the conflicting interests of feeding an increasing world population versus large-scale biofuel production. The workshop participants discussed strategies and solutions to transit into a more sustainable planetary future. They summarized their recommendations for action, which you can download from below.