17 June 2019
Vienna, Austria
Public Lecture: From the Cradle of Humanity to Sustainable Future for All
The lecture, organized jointly by IIASA and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, addressed the earth’s next grand transformation, the digital Anthropocene. Digitalization is symbolic of the enormous transformations taking place to the very fabric of our societies, work, culture, behaviors and lifestyles. The question is whether the direction of change can be steered by humans intentionally through the creation of a collective and common vision of a sustainable future for all and by a new social contract for humanity as symbolized in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The lecture was opened jointly by Georg Brasseur, Division President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Albert van Jaarsveld, Director General and CEO of IIASA and was moderated by Christian Köberl, Director General and CEO of the Natural History Museum Vienna, Chair of the Austrian IIASA Committee and Austrian NMO representative on the IIASA Council.
From the Cradle of Humanity to Sustainable Future for All
The Holocene was a period of warm and exceedingly calm climate after the Ice Age, leading to the Neolithic Revolution. Next was the Industrial Revolution that brought explosive development including more than a hundredfold increase in economic output along with an unprecedented scale of natural resource exploitation and major interferences in the Earth system. This is the predicament of the Anthropocene.
We are now on the brink of the next grand transformation, but the direction of change is uncertain. Digitalization is symbolic of the enormous transformations taking place to the very fabric of our societies, work, culture, behaviors and lifestyles. The question is whether the direction of change can be steered by humans intentionally through the creation of a collective and common vision of a sustainable future for all and by a new social contract for humanity as symbolized in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
For now, the development is toward futures that must be avoided and redirected toward sustainability for all that leaves no one behind. The hope must be that in the digital Anthropocene, humans also start to transform themselves, enhancing cognitive and physical capabilities while protecting the planet, foremost through science, technology and innovation, in other words through knowledge – a human characteristic that is truly renewable.
Contacts for Logistics
- Tom Danaher, External Relations Officer, External Relations, Communications, and Library Department, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
- T: +43 2236 807214
- DI Dr. Viktor Bruckman, NMO Secretary, Austrian IIASA Committee
- Austrian Academy of Sciences
- T: +43 1 51581 3200
About IIASA/ÖAW Public Lectures
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences established a joint public lecture series in 2012. Since then they have hosted a number of events focused on scientific topics of mutual interest, aimed at a broad academic audience, decision makers and the public, previous lectures include Dame Anne Glover, Jeffrey Sachs, Simon Levin and Carlo Rubbia.
PUBLICATIONS
Zimm C & Nakicenovic N (2019). What are the implications of the Paris Agreement for inequality? Climate Policy: 1-10. DOI:10.1080/14693062.2019.1581048.
Byers E , Parkinson S, Balkovic J , Burek P , Ebi K, Gidden M, Grey D, Greve P, et al. (2018). Global climate and development hotspots assessment: Asia under pressure. In: 5th Asian Energy Modelling Workshop, 10-12 September 2018, Singapore.
TWI2050 - The World in 2050 (2018). Transformations to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Report prepared by The World in 2050 initiative. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Laxenburg, Austria. ISBN 978-3-7045-0154-7 DOI:10.22022/TNT/07-2018.15347.
Odintsova A, Gvishiani A, Nakicenovic N , Rybkina A, Busch S, & Nikolova J (2018). The world's largest oil and gas hydrocarbon deposits: ROSA database and GIS project development. Russian Journal of Earth Sciences 18 (3): es3002. DOI:10.2205/2018ES000621.