Celsius | School of Communications

Celsius 2010

Celsius held a workshop on the theme, Sustainability - where science and society meet, at DCU on 29th January 2010. Contributors to the workshop looked at sustainability from environmental, sociological, scientific, philosophical and ethical perspectives. This was the fifth event in a series of annual seminars and colloquia on science in society at DCU.

The workshop aimed to explore understandings of a concept that is increasingly used as a keyword of public policy and institutional strategy. In particular, it looked at the social sustainability as a complement to the more usual notion of sustainability as minimising harm to the environment and minimising future hazards or risks.

A public panel discussion that was part of the day's programme focused on climate change and renewable energy. Prof John Sweeney, of NUI-Maynooth and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, argued that climate change deniers and sceptics were winning the communications battle and scientists in the field needed to improve their public debating skills. Dr Stephen Daniels, of the National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology at DCU, reviewed some of the scientific and technical challenges of developing renewable energy resources on a much larger scale. Prof Owen Lewis, chief executive of Sustainable Energy Ireland, emphasised what could be achieved, including mitigating climate change, by greater energy efficiency.

Earlier, Dr John Barry, associate director of the Institute for a Sustainable World at Queens University Belfast, spelled out the challenges of sustainability to academia, emphasising the need to go beyond the usual disciplinary boundaries. Dr D�nal O Math�na, a healthcare ethicist in the School of Nursing, DCU, examined various applications and understandings of the precautionary principle.

Dr Shane Colgan of the Environmental Protection Agency outlined the scope and purpose of the agency's research programme. Dr Fiachra O Brolch�in, who lectures in philosophy of science in the School of Communications, DCU, set out a 'capabilities approach' to GM crops under which greater social benefits would accrue from their use through reform of the intellectual property regime.

Ciara Aucoin, of VOICE of Irish Concern for the Environment, described the role of NGOs in mediating science to society. Dr Hilary Tovey, of Trinity College Dublin, suggested fundamental questions about ownership and use of natural resources may underlie resistance to wind farms.

To close the day's programme, Dr Massimiano Bucchi from University of Trento, Italy, argued that consensus may not be achievable on new technologies in complex, pluralist societies and Dr P�draig Murphy, from the Celsius group, outlined some findings on public engagement with nanotechnology and the possibilities of including publics in technology assessment.