Science for the Anthropocene - Learning to Fly

A science FOR and IN the Anthropocene needs a fundamental shift of orientation towards prioritizing the cultivation of situated, strategic, ethical wisdom, or ‘phronesis’ – or so we argue (and have argued in previous episodes) in this podcast. But what does this rather abstract and programmatic statement mean? What is phronesis, in practice? And where, or which institutions of science and higher education, are going to support that cultivation? In Episode 18, we discuss these key questions with Ioan Fazey, Professor of the Social Dimensions of Environment and Change at York University, UK and a teacher of shamanic practices. In particular we explore the potential – and, conversely, the current inadequacies – of seemingly the pre-eminent institution of ‘science’ in our current culture: the modern university. Identifying a crisis in the university across three over-lapping dimensions of increasing levels of abstraction – the ‘manifest’, the ‘conceptual’ and the ‘existential’ – we unpack the likely futures of science and the university, the prospects of the latter changing without major disruption, and how coming ‘back to our senses’ is going to be a key element of constructing better ways forward, including for and within science.

Amongst the many environmental challenges of the Anthropocene age, air quality is exemplary in numerous ways. Air pollution is the no.1 environmental public health issue globally, causing approximately 7 million early deaths annually, yet it remains curiously neglected.  As such it is something of an ‘invisible killer’, to quote the title of the book by Dr Gary Fuller, one of our guests in this episode, alongside Dr Suzanne Bartington, both of whom are UK Clean Air Champions. Part of the problem here is the sheer complexity of air quality issues: the number and diversity of pollutants and their chemical interactions; their geographical distribution, across scales and both outdoor and indoor, affecting diverse demographics and socio-economic inequalities; and the way in which almost every aspect of mundane everyday life likely has some impact on air quality. Join us for a wide-ranging discussion exploring what it is about the air specifically that shapes this relative neglect; how the politics and public response to air quality as an issue has undergone a complete reversal and sudden polarization in recent years; how it is better framed as a public health, rather than environmental, issue; and what we know about the effectiveness, and remaining gaps, in policy responses.

This podcast is about how we can and must transform science so that it becomes fit for purpose in tackling the complex, unprecedented and even existential challenges of the ‘Anthropocene’ – ‘science FOR the Anthropocene’, not just of or about it.  But what if we need to go one step further in our understanding of the relationship between science and our new planetary condition in order to rise to the challenge? What if science in many respects IS the Anthropocene, hence ‘science AS the Anthropocene’?  This is the bold and persuasive thesis of eminent historian of science, Professor Jürgen Renn, Director the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany, in his excellent recent book “The Evolution of Knowledge, Rethinking Science for the Anthropocene” (2020, Princeton UP).  In this rich volume, which is both sweeping in its argument and compendious in its historical detail, Renn sets out how human knowledge has evolved over history up to the present, with a specific form of knowledge – i.e. modern science – emerging along the way: first, as a relatively peripheral way of knowing but then, in recent centuries, taking off in self-propelling feedback loops with the transformation of society and planet in ways that have now placed it at the very heart of our current condition as a species. Join us to understand the ‘ergosphere’, the emergence of ‘epistemic evolution’, the need for a new ‘epistemic web’, and how all this hangs on issues of ‘knowledge economy’ (and what that seemingly familiar phrase does and does not mean).  

The relation between science and politics, knowledge and power, may sound like an arcane and abstract issue, a concern for eggheads and wonks. But, as events across many university campuses at the tail end of 2023 showed, it is very far being a dry and specialist issue. Rather how these two major elements of modern society are understood to be related – not least by society’s custodians of higher learning – directly shapes such central matters as the parameters of acceptable speech and action in public, and even what specifically is to be celebrated or condemned. Responding to the problems of the Anthropocene, which are the focus of this podcast, will also need careful navigation through the parallel and inseparable challenges of potential breakdowns in civilisation; and this will not be possible if science itself is a lead protagonist in the latter. Recorded in December 2023, in episode 15 we pick up these key issues for a Science for the Anthropocene (S4A); or rather, we pick them up again and specifically, in order to clarify and distinguish the argument underpinning this podcast – regarding the importance of rethinking the relations of science and politics, and the shift to strategic ethical wisdom (or ‘phronesis’) – from seemingly similar positions – regarding the conflation of knowledge and power – that have unsurprisingly received renewed and energised criticism following those recent events.  Science today, on the one hand, needs to engage much more concertedly with its political context and implications; but it must also, on the other, not negate the crucial and precious distinction between science and politics, on pain of destruction not only of itself, but also of truthful and civilized public spheres. How can both of these be true? And how can science, and the institutions of higher education, walk this tightrope to be part of the ‘solution’, not a major part of the problem?

Climate change is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the only unprecedented ecological challenge we are facing in the 21st century.  Another key arena, intimately associated with the ongoing assault on global biodiversity, is that of toxicity and pollution. In episode 14, we discuss these key issues with Professor Alice Mah of Glasgow University by zeroing in on a key, but much overlooked, protagonist in the mass production and circulation of toxic chemicals and plastic pollution – the petrochemical industry. In her new book, Petrochemical Planet – Multiscalar Battles for Industrial Transformation (Duke UP, 2023), Mah illuminates the almost invisible centrality of petrochemicals in the materials of contemporary daily life and their deeply problematic shadow side: as a major (and still growing) source of toxicity, too often associated with concentrated exposures and environmental injustice; as a key ‘hard to abate’ industry regarding GHG emissions; as the producer of all the plastics now in circulation and littering the oceans and, increasingly, the bodies of all living creatures; and even as a major, but often problematic, protagonist in narratives and practices of apparent ‘solutions’, such as the circular economy. Join us as we explore the thorny challenges of reshaping an influential, deeply entrenched and science-dependent industry, its intimate relations with questions and movements of environmental justice and the role of citizen science in responding to these problems.

Do we only have 100 (or 60… or even just 30!) harvests left, as now many reports and media headlines have asserted? Our guest for Episode 13 of Learning to Fly, Professor Jess Davies, responded to this terrifying claim by deciding to knuckle down and see what scientific corroboration it has. As such, it is also a perfect example of the kind of high-impact interdisciplinary and myth-busting work she and her colleagues are now doing on numerous questions regarding the key issues of futures of food and agricultural systems. Join us for illuminating discussion not just about some key issues of the sustainability and resilience of our food systems – ranging from soil and its degradation, to urban farming –; but also about the key role for science (i.e. science FOR and in the Anthropocene) of removing obstructions to skilful practical responses to current problems, in terms of both plugging knowledge gaps and puncturing mistaken received wisdoms, and hence in deliberately and concertedly reaching out to publics, not just experts, in circulating its findings.

Poll after poll has shown for some years that a clear majority of the public are in favour of significant action on climate, and on other environmental crises, such as plastic pollution or biodiversity loss. Yet the politics of actual policy on these issues remains hotly contested and thus largely paralyzed, even in countries where outright denial of these problems is a fringe position. What we clearly need, in other words, is a climate majority, and an approach that will actually build this. In Episode 12, we turn directly to this key issue, in conversation with Rupert Read and Liam Kavanagh, who are leading a newly launched initiative specifically focused on this agenda, the Climate Majority Project. Discussing their novel and promising ‘theory of change’ – and hence how this initiative is different to others that have preceded it – as well as Rupert’s excellent and moving new book ‘Why Climate Breakdown Matters’, we explore a whole new vista on climate/environmental politics opened up by approaching these issues from a different angle, and one, moreover, that is strongly resonant with that explored in this podcast. This includes not only a clear-eyed acceptance of the basis of a Science FOR the Anthropocene, i.e. that we have already gone over the cliff’ with key mitigation milestones now behind us. But it also involves all that is further entailed by that unprecedented and painful shift in perspective, including a grappling with the key role of emotion, and especially grief, in productive response, including for science itself; and the opening up of crucial new arenas for scientific study, regarding what we learn from studying actual disaster responses or what future phoenix’-like civilisation(s) may look like.

Bees - their decline and even 'colony collapses' - are surely amongst the most high-profile and concerning of our current ecological crises, so it was only a matter of time before we got to discuss them on this podcast. And, in episode 11, we are joined by a singular global authority on the issue, Prof Dave Goulson. Dave is not just a leading expert on bees, their behaviours and the disastrous effects of neonicotinoid pesticides, but also among the most enthusiastic and compelling advocates for the wondrous world of insect life as a whole.  And he has much alarming news for us in his recent book ‘Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse’, which we discuss in detail. Specifically, we explore the current state of insect declines, their potential effects and predominant causes, including habitat loss and agricultural chemicals.  And, of course, we talk about what all this tells us about science and how it also needs to change to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.  But, given Dave’s prolific and successful career as a writer of popular science books (translated into numerous languages) and a stellar communicator, we also talk about the importance of this seeming ‘sideshow’ for science, as well as other dimensions of a ‘science for the Anthropocene’ that it enables, not least of which is emotional engagement with the challenges. Join the discussion about a key issue for our future; for, as Dave reminds us, without these wondrous ‘creepy crawlies’, its game over for most of life on Earth.

How can China, the authoritarian technological superpower par excellence, have anything to teach us about an increasingly common rallying cry regarding climate action and responses to the Anthropocene, namely ‘just transition’? In Episode 10, we explore precisely this question and the fascinating and counter-intuitive answer that we do indeed have much to learn from studying China; in fact, that is essential that we do so. For this crucial discussion, we are joined by Linda Westman and Ping Huang, who help us dig beneath the headlines regarding this enormous, diverse, hugely dynamic and contradictory country which is globally so important regarding environmental challenges. Join us to hear about the broad array of issues – for climate and biodiversity action, for understanding of ‘justice’ per se, and for science and how we study and support ‘just transition’ – opened up by really investigating Chinese environmental action without presuming frameworks of understanding from the West.

What is meant by the increasingly common phrase ‘more-than-human’? In Episode 9, we dive into this question, which is potentially so important for a science for the Anthropocene, by talking about… the humble chicken.  We are joined for this discussion by the brilliant Catherine Oliver, a ‘beyond-human’ geographer and lecturer in climate change and society. Now bred in their billions (and modified) for eggs and meat, a closer look at chickens proves exceptionally revealing in terms of what they reflect back to us, good and bad, about human society, with which they have co-evolved for some 10,000 years. In fact, the chicken turns out to be a remarkably different creature to the banal farmyard fowl we may imagine: on the one hand, magical birds primarily prized for their plumage, only converted into a common food comparatively recently, and now, post-Covid, with a growing movement of reconnection with them as pets; on the other, no longer ‘chickens’ at all but a new and engineered species, hence a standout symbol of the Anthropocene itself. Our wide-ranging conversation also brings in the multiple challenges of our current relations with chickens and birdlife, including the avian flu currently devastating bird populations; the environmental, social and ethical costs of our current mega-breeding of chickens; the ‘plantationocene’; multi-species urban ecologies; and much more…

In Episode 8, we stick again with the subjective side of the crises of the Anthropocene, but turning to a more explicitly sociological approach. How do the ways in which we relate to the world shape the problems of climate change and the environment? Pretty fundamentally, according to our guest, the award-winning social theorist, Hartmut Rosa. Indeed, for Rosa, this question of ‘our relations to the world’ is the key to understanding how we now find ourselves in such a mess… and is richly suggestive of what we need to do – in society more generally, and in scientific research – to get through and beyond it. Specifically, we need to recognize that what we are really seeking is the experience of ‘resonance’, with the world, with others and with ourselves. Building on this insight as basis for a reformulated conception of what the ‘good life’ really is, Rosa maps out his paradigm-shifting ‘sociology of resonance’, as in his 2019 landmark book. Join us in another wide-ranging and exciting discussion of how we can learn to see the predicament of the Anthropocene differently, and possibly more productively, including: the fundamental nature of the epidemic of acceleration and alienation in contemporary social life; the pivotal role of self-efficacy as against a sense of powerlessness, including regarding new technologies; the contradictory form of our normal relations to ‘nature’; the uncontrollability of the world; and much more…

In Episode 7 we are keeping with the theme of the mind and climate change, but turning directly to the insights available from the mind sciences: neuroscience and psychology. Discussing these issues, we are in the excellent company of Kris de Meyer, who is a neuroscientist and Director of University College London’s Climate Action Unit. In this role, Kris has led numerous important collaborations with policymakers and stakeholders, including the exceptional programme of the Net Zero Innovation Project which funds and supports collaborations between UK local authorities and universities. Combining insights from these mind sciences with careful attention to how programmes of climate science communication and policy action are actually run, and hence to many of the stand-out problems they habitually run into, Kris and colleagues have developed whole programmes leading the way in getting those working on climate to take seriously what we know about the limitations and capacities of the most fundamental instrument of all, our minds. Join us in another wide-ranging and fascinating discussion of these key lessons from and for the mind sciences as we face the challenges of the Anthropocene, including: the complex and potentially self-defeating use of appeals to fear; the ways in which polarized views are formed; the structures and career incentives of science; and much more…

In Episode 6 we welcome our first external guest, Jamie Bristow, to discuss an issue that sits at the heart of the ‘Science for the Anthropocene’ initiative: mindfulness and the ‘inner’ dimensions of sustainable transition. Specifically, we discuss the landmark report released in May 2022 by Jamie and co-authors, Rosie Bell and Professor Christine Wamsler, on ‘Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out’ (which can be easily accessed on the Mindfulness Initiative’s website). We discuss what ‘mindfulness’ is (and is not), what taking it seriously opens up regarding more promising ways to do climate action, its deep compatibility (despite more superficial incommensurability) with scientific enquiry and a new agenda for science and how we do it in responding to the problems of the Anthropocene.

In Episode 5 we welcome Professor Rebecca Willis to discuss an aspect of science for the Anthropocene, and broader action for the Anthropocene, that is increasingly pressing for society as a whole: the role of democracy in effective governance of these issues, and the flipside of the current crisis of democratic government as against an ascendant authoritarianism the world over. Drawing on her excellent book ‘Too Hot to Handle: The Democratic Challenge of Climate Change’ (Bristol UP: 2020), we discuss the need for not just more, but better, democracy if we are to meet the challenge of climate emergency, focusing specifically on the potential contribution of various forms of deliberative democracy. Tune in for an insightful discussion ranging across the full set of relationships between power and knowledge: from the role of knowledge and science in climate government and in democracy per se, to insights regarding the need for a different relationship between science and politics, to reflection on how critical social science on these issues can itself best contribute to these issues.

(Pt 2 of 2) In Episode 4 we welcome Professor Nick Graham to discuss the crucial ecosystem of coral reefs. Over the last 30 years, coral reefs have emerged as one of the front lines of ecosystems beset by the changing planet that characterises the Anthropocene.  And while catastrophic coral bleaching events due to ocean warming make the headlines, these uniquely biodiverse marine environments have been confronting a variety of anthropogenic pressures for some time. Drawing on Nick’s 25 years of highly-cited, cutting-edge research, the discussion investigates: the stark challenges to existing science of coral reefs; the need for new approaches that are pragmatic, systemic and engaging with the social sciences; the profound conceptual questions and exciting theoretical programmes opened up by these predicaments, as well as the ethical and practical challenges of juggling uncertainty; and various emerging insights that offer grounds for cautious hope.

In Episode 4 we welcome Professor Nick Graham to discuss the crucial ecosystem of coral reefs. Over the last 30 years, coral reefs have emerged as one of the front lines of ecosystems beset by the changing planet that characterises the Anthropocene.  And while catastrophic coral bleaching events due to ocean warming make the headlines, these uniquely biodiverse marine environments have been confronting a variety of anthropogenic pressures for some time. Drawing on Nick’s 25 years of highly-cited, cutting-edge research, the discussion investigates: the stark challenges to existing science of coral reefs; the need for new approaches that are pragmatic, systemic and engaging with the social sciences; the profound conceptual questions and exciting theoretical programmes opened up by these predicaments, as well as the ethical and practical challenges of juggling uncertainty; and various emerging insights that offer grounds for cautious hope.

In Episode 3 we welcome our first guests on the podcast from the natural sciences – Professor Phil Haygarth, Professor Paul Withers, Dr Kirsty Forber and Dr Shane Rothwell – to discuss the key challenge for our food system of phosphorus. Phosphorus is an essential building block of life, and so an essential nutrient in our food and agriculture.  In the last 80 years or so, massive growth of mineral phosphorus in farming has been key to the boom in food production. But too much phosphorus flowing through the rural and natural environment also has profoundly negative environmental impacts, not least for water, on which human and non-human life also utterly depends. And the leaching of phosphorus into rivers, lakes and increasingly oceans sets up a one-way pipeline that is fast depleting this essential but finite resource. With this fantastic panel, we discuss these serious challenges, what is, is not and could be done about them, and all the challenges to the very institutions of contemporary science this brings to light.

Our first guests on the podcast are Lancaster University professors Nigel Clark and Bronislaw Szerszynski, discussing their fantastic new book 'Planetary Social Thought - The Anthropocene Challenge to the Social Sciences' (Polity, 2021). In a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion, we cover: the 'socialization' of the Anthropocene and the converse movement of 'geologizing' social science; a new basis to bring natural and social science together and into new conversation; how taking the planet seriously rewrites familiar narratives of (Western) modernity, colonization and, indeed, contemporary decolonization; the basis of the capacity of human reinvention in the planet's multiplicity and its capacity for transformation; and, of course, the adequacy (or not) of social science for the age of the Anthropocene; and much more... 

Welcome to 'Learning to Fly' - the podcast for 'Science for the Anthropocene' (S4A) at Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) at Lancaster University, UK.

In this first episode, David Tyfield, Professor of Sustainable Transitions and Political Economy and leader of the S4A research theme at LEC, sets the scene for future episodes, by offering an initial overview to the idea of a 'Science for the Anthropocene', and the argument for its importance and urgency.  This hinges on the imperative of a turn towards 'phronesis', or situated practical wisdom, as the paramount goal and form of skilful judgement that science needs to be actively cultivating if it is to rise to the unprecedented challenges posed by the Anthropocene.  David explores phronesis in several dimensions, and the relevance of all of these to a reorganization and expansion of what science is and what science is actually done. 

In future episodes, David will be in conversation with leading thinkers, from across the world and across the sciences, both natural and social, to explore specific aspects of 'Science for the Anthropocene'.