Séminaire kwi – Cultural dimensions of climate change and the environment in North America

Climate change is an inherently global problem. However, climate change impacts as well as mitigation efforts are always perceived and dealt with locally and in a culture-specific way. Global warming interacts in multiple ways with North American ecological and social systems.
On the one hand, the U.S. and Canada belong to the world’s largest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases. On the other hand, the Arctic north of the continent as well as the Deep South is already heavily affected by a changing climate. Despite the US’s and recently also Canada’s rejection of international binding climate targets, on the local and regional level, some of the world’s most ambitious climate initiatives can be found in North America.
Striking about the symbolic representation of climate change in the USA is a relatively huge cultural variety.
While in Europe climate change deniers are largely marginalized and without influence on mainstream politics, American views on climate change and the environment become increasingly polarized according to political beliefs. And whereas the U.S. hosts some of the world’s leading climate science institutions, religious explanations of why global warming is or is not happening, repeatedly have found supporters in media and politics, too.
How can these contradictions be explained? The participants will deal with these questions in the course of the conference that focuses on the human dimensions and cultural representations of climate change and the environment in North America.

PROGRAM:

Thursday, 28 June 2012
1:00 pm Arrival and Registration

1:30 pm Welcome
Claus Leggewie, Carmen Meinert and Bernd Sommer (Institute for Advanced Study in the
Humanities, KWI)

2:00 pm Panel I: Ideas
Moderator: Carmen Meinert (KWI)
The ‘American Way of Life‘ and Views on Climate Change and the Environment

Roland Benedikter (Stanford University)
‘The weather has always been crazy here‘ – Dealing and not Dealing with Climate Change in
Canada‘s Subartic
Claudia Grill (Bielefeld School in History and Sociology)
The Role of Norms for U.S. foreign Climate Policy
Frederic Hanusch (KWI)

4:30 pm Coffee Break

5:00 pm Panel II: Past
Moderator: Franz Mauelshagen (KWI)
Environmental Historiography of Climate Change in North America
Richard Tucker (University of Michigan)
A ‘frigthening Phenomenon‘: New Orleans‘s first Hurricane Experience
Eleonora Rohland (KWI)
From Conservationists to Environmentalists: The American Environmental Movement in the 20th Century
Angela Mertig (Middle Tennessee State University)

7:30 pm End of Day 1

8:00 pm Conference Dinner

Friday, 29 June 2012
10:00 am Panel III: Present and Future (Part I)
Moderator: Bernd Sommer (KWI)
Climate Change Attitudes and the Role of social Practices
Karin Schürmann (KWI)
Who speaks for the Climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change (in the Context of the U.S. Presidental Election)
Maxwell T. Boykoff (Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Science, CIRES)

12:00 pm Lunch Buffet

1:00 pm Panel IV: Present and Future (Part II)
Moderator: Bernd Sommer (KWI)
The U.S. and International Climate Politics 
Jonas Meckling (Harvard University)
What next on Climate? Climate Action on the Regional, State and Local Level
Arne Jungjohann (Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America, tbc)

3:00 pm Conclusion and Good-Bye
Bernd Sommer and Carmen Meinert (KWI)

3:15 pm End of Conference

INFORMATIONS

Concept and Organization:
Bernd Sommer (bernd.sommer@kwi-nrw.de)

Place of Conference:
Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities
(KWI)
Goethestr. 31 (Gartensaal)
45128 Essen
phone: (+49) 201 7204-206
fax: (+49) 201 7204-111
online: www.kulturwissenschaften.de