Each year the Macaulay Development Trust, in partnership with The James Hutton Institute, hosts a world-renowned guest speaker for its annual TB Macaulay Lecture. This year we were honoured to welcome Johan Rockström who is internationally recognised for his work on global sustainability issues.
“The science is clear: the rising frequency and amplitude of extreme events is just one consequence of overshooting 1.5 °C warming, which is a real biophysical limit, and beyond which multiple tipping points in the earth system are not only likely to be triggered, but run a risk of causing tipping cascades”. -Professor Johan Rockström
After 11.000 years of a remarkably stable climate which has formed the support for civilisation to evolve comfortably; activities of the last 70 years have moved us into a period where human activity has started to significantly impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.
We face multiple global crises, afflicting built and natural environments, health and well-being, wealth and economic development, social stability and security - culminating in the risk of a polycrisis - a cluster of related global risks with compounding effects whose overall impact exceeds the sum of each part.
Johan's talk covers the latest scientific results of the health of the earth system, including the recent work of the Earth Commission and also update on the "Earth for All" scenario, analysing pathways towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals within planetary boundaries.
His talk reflects on where we stand shortly before the COP28, to be held in Dubai, and his thoughts on the corrective action he believes is needed in order to keep the entire system in its current inter-glacial state.
