Held in Bren Hall 1414.
Resilience is the ability to adapt or respond successfully to external shocks. It has a strong personal as well as public dimension and will determine our ability to live and thrive in the face of climate change. Ideas about resilience have emerged from multiple traditions and are now framing today’s thinking and policies about sustainable futures in the face of growing risks and uncertainty.
In this talk, Jacqueline McGlade will look at how the calculus of risk and hazard has been absorbed into public policy and everyday life and contrast this with a world based on resilience. Drawing on personal experiences of living with the Maasai tribe in east Africa and the Inuit of Greenland – whose cultures and resilience derive from living in constantly changing environments – I will explore how mind-sets, economies and ecosystems can become (re)active and more resilient to an increasingly uncertain world.
Jacquie McGlade is a world renowned scientist who has pioneered research in the dynamics of ecosystems, citizen science and social and environmental informatics. She has led key research and policy programs and institutions around the world. She is currently Professor at University College London, UK and the Maasai Mara University, Kenya, where she is creating a center on resilience and space research. Prior to this she was Chief Scientist at UN Environment, where she worked on the development challenges posed by climate change, social inequity, economic growth and ecosystem degradation. She is a Fellow of Darwin College, University of Cambridge, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Society for Arts and Manufacturing, and a Knight of the Order of St James (Monaco). She is the recipient of many honors and prizes for her research and work, especially on citizen science, ecology, spatial data and earth observation. She has produced more than 200 publications and books as well as many award winning films and radio series.
As a member of the Maasai tribe she is deeply involved in community based activities and the Green Growth Development of the Rift Valley.
Also watch online at http://live.id.ucsb.edu/.