Oreskes – historian of (climate and environmental) science – speculated in a 2014 essay (with Erik Conway) (“The collapse of western civilization. A view from Future” Columbia University Press) how scientists in the far future (in 2393) could look at our collective failure to act against climate and ecological crises, and how our elites provoked the Great Collapse. During the seminar, Oreskes will look at the current dynamics in the US around climate science, helping us to gain insights how a science-based priority policy objective became a source of strong political interference, how science funding and wording were deliberately collapsed, how scientific missions, data series and careers were interrupted. She will allow us to get a climpse at the way Science is resisting, or preparing for the aftermaths. Her contribution is to be seen in line with the public lectures given the last 3 months at the ULB by Salomé Saqué (“Extrême-Droite, écocide et résistances!”) and Prof. Mark Bray (“Fascism and Anti-fashism in Trump’s US”).

Further information: here