Sixth International Lecture with Karen O’Brien (07.06.2010)
7 June 2010
Prof. Dr. Karen O’Brien, The University of Oslo
The decade that matters: Human security in a changing climate
Lecture
In the lecture Karen O’Brien argued that climate change should not be `framed´ as an environmental problem only, but rather as a fundamental challenge for human security. She explained why climate change forces us to rethink our understanding of human security, and why human insecurity presents an unprecedented mandate and opportunity to address climate change. In her opinion, current approaches and paradigms for understanding climate change are partial and insufficient. She, therefore, stressed the need to develop a new science on climate change that integrates objective and subjective perspectives of change. O’Brien argued that `integral theory´ pays more attention to the way how beliefs, values and worldviews influence systems and peoples’ behaviours. She, thus, opened up an innovative agenda for climate change and human security research – one that focuses on creating human security.
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About Karen O’Brien
Karen O’Brien is a Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oslo and Chair of the `Global Environmental Change and Human Security´ (GECHS) project of the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP). She has been working on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation research for the past 20 years. O’Brien has published six books as well as numerous articles and was the lead author of the adaptation chapter of the IPCC’s 4th Assessment Report. Last year, she – together with R. Leichenko – received the 2008 AAG Meridian Book Award for outstanding scholarly work in Geography for their book `Environmental Change and Globalization: Double Exposures´.
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