19th Swiss Geoscience Meeting
Catastrophic floods and landslides triggered by violent storms, and unprecedented high temperatures facilitating ravaging wildfires are only a few of the tragic consequences that have affected our society over recent years. There is a causal relationship between such extreme events and the exponential growth of our society over the last decades profoundly altering the Earth’s climate. The sixth IPCC assessment report published in August 2021 describes how the Earth’s climate will continue to worsen if no action is taken in the coming years.
The rapid temperature increase and climate change are an outcome of the rapid growth and globalization of our society and extensive use of fossil fuels. Authoritative and rigorous analyses indicate that an immediate decarbonization driven by a strong divestment of fossil fuels is imperative. At the same time, to contain the risk of inflation and to ensure global economic and industrial growth, several governments have called for an increase in accessible fossil fuel energy production to meet the demand of the post-Covid recovery. These apparently conflicting aspects, present the essence of the complexity of this unique time where access to cheap energy is still a crucial issue for hundreds of millions of people in developing communities in a planet where food scarcity, natural resource decline and exponential growth of global population are just few of the big challenges our planet is facing.
The 2021 SGM plenary session on Friday November 19th entitled Climate, Resources and Environment: conflicts, synergies & compromises will discuss some of these crucial topics. During the symposium prominent national and international scientists, who have been actively working and contributed to the understanding of ‘System Earth’ as a whole, will share their views on aspects ranging from climate science, energy transition and impact on ecosystems and society.
The symposium will include a number of presentations, extensive discussion and open debate facilitated by Pascaline Minet, a well-known journalist who will help unravel these fascinating topics.
Date: Friday, November 19, 2021
Time: 1:45 - 6:00 pm
Location: Online