Beyond EVE: Organisations

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 20:46:53 +0200

2010 marked the 200th anniversary of the Humboldt-Universität. Numerous events from October 2009 to December 2010 honored the ideas of its founding fathers. In dialogue with the city of Berlin, the alma mater celebrated science, research and teaching, and the relevance of Humboldt’s founding principles for the present day.

During its history, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has undergone many profound changes. The most recent reformation followed the Peaceful Revolution in East Germany in 1989. Many new outstanding professors were appointed from East and West, from Germany and from abroad.

As one of eleven German universities, the Humboldt-Universität was chosen “University of Excellence” in June 2012. It was successful in all three funding lines in the third round of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments and awarded for its future concept “Educating Enquiring Minds: Individuality – Openness – Guidance”. In an international comparison, Humboldt- Universität ranks among the top ten of German universities. Scientists here research socially relevant topics and challenges of the future and communicate these with the public. Humboldt-Universität invests all its energy in being a place of excellent research and teaching. It’s aim is to promote young talents and to positively influence society and the economy outside the university framework.

Sustainable Development Goals within Planetary Boundaries: Utopia or Panacea?

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 20:51:43 +0200

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals present a new social contract for the world in the quest to achieve ways of living and economic well-being that no longer undermines the biological and physical life-support systems that human development depends on. Currently, we are following a very dangerous path, facing potentially irreversible and disastrous impacts, due to rising global environmental changes we have yet to arrest. To achieve the 17 SDGs by 2030 is an enormous challenge for humanity; to do so in a systemic manner - thinking climate, biosphere integrity, food security and healthy diets, and land use together - requires a transformative solution.

The Planetary Boundaries offer a framework to consider sustainable development in a way that respects the ecological resilience of the Earth while re-thinking social and economic development based on ecosphere integrity.

Planetary boundaries define the scientific targets for a stable Earth system. Businesses, countries, and communities increasingly recognize that socio-economic development in the Anthropocene - when human pressures on Earth pose rising global risks - must occur within scientifically defined boundaries, establishing a safe-operating space on Earth.

SDGs within Planetary Boundaries suggest a pathway towards a world in 2050 in which a ‘good life for all’ – humanity and non-human species – is possible.

With: Prof. Johan Rockström, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Senckenberg Society for Nature Research

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 16:13:43 +0100

To understand the natural and anthropogenic dynamic of our planet and its living world and to shape it in view of a sustainable development requires an understanding of the biological and geological processes within the earth system. Concerning - the analysis of biodiversity, its continuous changes, and their role in the earth system, - satisfying the corresponding need for knowledge in science and society, - and the application and development of relevant, top-of-the-line research methods, Senckenberg is among the world leaders. By applying and transferring our research results, and with our scientific collections as “archives of life,” we contribute to finding responsible solutions for global future challenges. The diverse synergies of our institutions create added value for science and society. We consistently continue to develop both our research as well as our transfer and communication concepts. On this basis, as a dialog partner in societal, economic and political decision-making processes we make a fundamental contribution toward shaping a sustainable future for the earth-human system. We provide the biological and geoscientific basis for these processes, thereby creating an awareness of nature’s importance for mankind. We study the breathtaking diversity and the fascinating interconnections in the inanimate and living nature of our planet to gain a deeper understanding of their functions and an awareness of their importance for humanity, allowing us to develop strategies for aiding the reconciliation of human society and nature. The research objects gathered from the natural world are deposited in scientific archives and permanently preserved for future generations. These collections serve both as a research base and a valuable cultural heritage. We communicate our findings to the scientific community as well as society in a variety of ways, e.g., in internationally visible publications, teaching at universities, in research networks, exhibitions in our museums, and in scientific lectures and conferences. We work to ensure that these results find their way into practical applications. Moreover, we are strongly committed to supporting scientific and technical training and advanced education.

The Bonn Challenge

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 16:05:56 +0100

The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030. It was launched in 2011 by the Government of Germany and IUCN, and later endorsed and extended by the New York Declaration on Forests at the 2014 UN Climate Summit. Underlying the Bonn Challenge is the forest landscape restoration (FLR) approach, which aims to restore ecological integrity at the same time as improving human well-being through multifunctional landscapes. The restoration of 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands in biomes around the world – in line with the FLR approach – will create approximately USD 84 billion per year in net benefits that could bring direct additional income opportunities for rural communities. About 90 per cent of this value is potentially tradable, meaning that it encompasses market-related benefits. Achieving the 350 million hectare goal will generate about USD170 billion per year in net benefits from watershed protection, improved crop yields and forest products, and could sequester up to 1.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually. The Bonn Challenge is not a new global commitment but rather a practical means of realizing many existing international commitments, including the CBD Aichi Target 15, the UNFCCC REDD+ goal, and the Rio+20 land degradation neutrality goal. It is an implementation vehicle for national priorities such as water and food security and rural development while contributing to the achievement of international climate change, biodiversity and land degradation commitments.

COVID-19, rural poverty, and inequality in forest regions

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 22:29:24 +0100

The Seminar will focus on more effectively understanding and addressing the impact of COVID-19 on rural poverty and inequality, within the context of forest-based livelihoods. The objective of the Seminar is to increase understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts, and is conditioned by, poverty and inequality, particularly within the context of forest-based livelihoods. Participants will have increased awareness of organizational tools and resources available, and enhanced capacity to analyze the socio-economic and environmental implications of COVID-19, to prepare appropriate policy responses. - Coordinators: David Conte, Senior Strategy and Planning Officer, Rural Poverty Reduction Programme, FAO; and Andrew Taber, Senior Forestry Officer, Social Forestry, FAO - Co-coordinator: Thais Linhares-Juvenal, Senior Forestry Officer, Forest Governance and Economics, FAO - Co-organizer: Sophie Grouwels, Forestry Officer, Forest and Farm Facility, FAO 16 September 2020 (tbc): English and Spanish

Gene Editing for the Climate: Biological Solutions for Curbing Greenhouse Emissions

Information Technology & Innovation foundation ITIF — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 12:12:02 +0100

Public investments in research and development that aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions to date have focused heavily on physics and chemistry. It’s time for biology to play a much bigger role. Recent breakthroughs in gene editing are unlocking vast opportunities to mitigate climate change. They range from enhancing the efficiency of photosynthesis to reducing methane emissions from cows to optimizing crops for biofuel production, and much more. A broad, coordinated effort across the U.S. government, in close collaboration with agriculture, industry, international partners, and the public should move these solutions forward.

Join ITIF for a presentation of a new report on gene-edited solutions for climate change and a panel discussion on the implications of these technologies.

Speakers

David M. Hart

Senior Fellow, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Moderator

Val Giddings

Senior Fellow, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Presenter

Robert Rozansky

Former Senior Policy Analyst, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Presenter

Pamela Ronald

Professor, Dept. of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center, UC Davis, Panelist

Scott Knight

Head of Genome Editing and Yield, Disease & Quality Research, Bayer Crop Science, Panelist

The role of urban forests and green spaces in improving community resilience

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 22:37:00 +0100

The role of urban forests and green spaces in improving community resilience and reducing the harmful impact of COVID-19 The webinar will focus on how the natural capital of a city has an important influence on the wellbeing of urban dwellers. This will be examined by experts from different sectors that will attempt to give a balanced view of how to optimize urban forestry management for health outcomes. The webinar will aim to inform city administrators and decision-makers about the contribution that urban forests and green spaces can provide in preventing and facing the spread, morbidity and mortality from COVID-19, as well as in responding to its implications. Potential partners with whom joint actions will be taken towards COVID-related and other health policy responses at country, regional and global levels will be identified. - Coordinator: Simone Borelli, Forestry Officer, Agroforestry and Urban and Periurban Forestry, FAO - Co-organizing institutions: Sapienza University; University of Sheffield; World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre, University of Exeter; City of Singapore; the Galician Landscape School 10 or 17 September 2020 (tbc), 14:00 CEST: English

GEO BON Open Science Conference

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 22:26:47 +0100

The GEO BON Open Science Conference and All Hands Meeting 2020 will be a milestone event that will bring together all those involved and interested in the development of Biodiversity Observation Networks and Essential Biodiversity Variables, as well as their potential to support global biodiversity monitoring and conservation post 2020 Repeated, long-term observations are crucial to detect and attribute changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services, for identifying policy options and assessing their effectiveness. For the past ten years, GEO BON and its members have been developing the Biodiversity Observation Networks that underlie the acquisition and mobilization of biodiversity observations, as well as Essential Biodiversity Variables that help assess the status and trends of biodiversity across all levels of its organization, from genes to ecosystems. We are now at a pivotal time for global biodiversity conservation. A year after the Global Assessment of IPBES, progress towards the achievement of the Aichi biodiversity targets is being evaluated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Parties. In parallel, discussions are on-going to design the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. All of these activities fundamentally rely and point to the need for strengthened efforts to monitor and observe the Earth’s biodiversity. With the 2020 GEO BON Open Science Conference and All Hands meeting we invite all members and interested parties to come together and present progress, achievements, and frontiers in BON and EBV development, as well as to plan and shape the future of GEO BON. The conference will also be the occasion to officially launch the outcomes of the “EBV 2020” initiative with the mobilization of EBV data products covering all EBV classes into the GEO BON portal.

Forestry Web-Seminar Week

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 22:30:21 +0100

The COVID-19 Forestry Web-Seminar Week will feature a series of virtual sessions in the week in which COFO and the World Forest Week were originally scheduled. The sessions comprise high-level events as well as technical thematic sessions. Thematic sessions are organized by the FAO’s Forestry Department with partners within and outside FAO. As the COVID pandemic continues to spread around the globe, multiple impacts become visible. This will affect forests and forestry in many ways. Businesses are disrupted along almost all value chains. People are losing jobs and income, and some migrate back to rural areas. There is also an increased risk of further deforestation and degradation of the natural resource basis from which people make their living – with long-term negative consequences to producers and society. Forestry and forest-based sectors have a key role to play in providing solutions. Forests act as safety nets for the most vulnerable members of society, providing food, subsistence and income in times of scarcity and thereby increasing resilience to shocks such as the current one. With the right incentives, they can provide sustainable jobs and income and become a source of economic prosperity and sustainable development. Find more information on the impacts of COVID-19 on the forest sector.

Closing Lecture - Kosmos: Entangled Worlds

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 17:20:29 +0100

This lecture will be discussing Alexander von Humboldt’s role in the Age of Enlightenment and Discovery and how his idea of the ‘web of life’ resonates with Oceanic philosophies and complex networks, opening up new pathways to the future. With: Prof. Dame Mary Anne Salmond, University of Auckland Language: English A lecture in co-operation with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Scientific Communication then and now

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 20:54:17 +0100

Humboldt was a gifted scientific communicator. His lectures inspired a wide audience and his books were bestsellers. How did scientific communication function in his day, and how does it work today? With: Sir Philip Campbell (astrophysicist), Springer Nature Guest Professor, University of Heidelberg A lecture initiated by the Klaus Tschira Foundation** and the **Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. Language: German

How Trees contribute to interdisciplinary environmental and climate Research

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 20:53:56 +0100

Environmental and climate information that can be precisely dated by the year can be gained from various tree ring parameters such as ring width, wood density, anatomical structures and chemical compositions. Dendrochronology thus offers a unique archive and precise tool for analysing human-environmental systems at the interface of archaeology, biology, climatology and ecology. The scientific potential and methodological limits of dendrochronology will be demonstrated, with examples from current research projects ranging from the cell to the hemisphere and from the present to the last ice age. With: Ulf Büntgen, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK

Towards sustainable business and finance within the planetary boundaries. A legal approach.

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 20:53:32 +0100

Demands for more sustainability in corporate business transactions and on capital markets have been becoming increasingly urgent since the outbreak of the financial crisis. There is clear potential for innovation here; the law, with all its options as well as its enabling and incentive function, can and must also be used to provide a regulatory framework for the positive developments that are already emerging in the markets with regard to sustainability, and to promote them as far as possible. At the same time, law can discipline companies that disregard existing requirements in this respect more than before. Following on from the interdisciplinary approach of Alexander von Humboldt's KOSMOS lectures, the significance of "Business and Finance" for the transformation to a sustainable society will be examined from a legal perspective. With: Dr. Anne-Christin Mittwoch, Institut für Handels- und Wirtschaftsrecht, Phillipps Universität Marburg Event is in english

Navigating the Sustainability Transformation in the 21st Century

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 20:50:51 +0100

this conference shall provide a landmark for today’s great challenges towards sustainability. A critical and constructive debate on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be the focal point of the conference. Linking to Humboldt’s perspective on nature and humanity as web of interconnections, we target symbiosis between social, cultural, political, economical, philosophical, human, philological, engineering, natural, earth, geo, and sustainability sciences to approach this challenge. The KOSMOS Conference is intended as a platform to discuss the science of the sustainability transformation, and to interactively conceptualize a science-based framework in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Oral presentations and thematic discussions will take place in the the seven topical sessions (expert forums) below: - Publics and ethics of sustainability - Democracy, governance, and societal conflicts in a globalized world - Economies beyond unlimited growth - Limited land - a local to global perspective - Urban and rural: a necessary partnership - Water and biosphere: preconditions of survival - Climate Change: biophysical impacts and societal responses This interdisciplinarity is fundament to scientific conference formats such as expert forum, treasure quest and poster sessions. With Humboldt's famous KOSMOS lectures in mind, the conference aims to open the scientific inner circle to public and politics with cutting edge public conference formats: citizen scientist table, public lecture, bar camp. Every conference day will be opened by a keynote lecture.

Criticism and Compromise – Humboldt as Politician

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 17:21:08 +0100

Alexander von Humboldt was a political writer. His collected writings show how resolutely he engaged as a public intellectual in international matters – against slavery, for the emancipation of the Jews and in the presidential election campaign in the USA. They also show the limits of his commitment and the compromises he made with authoritarian governments. His testimony in both these regards is of utmost topicality today. With: Oliver Lubrich, University of Berne Language: German

A Journey to the Chimborazo, cradle of Plant Geography

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 15:31:43 +0100

We will be following in Humboldt’s footsteps to explore his groundbreaking insights into broad patterns in nature, his importance for plant geography and the relevance of his holistic procedure for solving today’s global challenges. With: Naia Morueta-Holme, University of Copenhagen Language: English

Human nonsense that disrupts the natural order – Climate Change and/or Democracy

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 15:31:43 +0100

As in few other areas of policy and politics, climate policy exposes the erosion of public trust in science and democracy. Confidence that democracies will be able to get on top of the challenges presented by climate change is dwindling, while autocratic regimes such as China are viewed as forerunners. Democracy is being held up against these views of things as the political system that is ultimately best able to deal with climate change. A close look as Humboldt’s way of doing science can create an awareness of plural perspectives on climate. Democracy is able to admit these perspectives and bring them into (conflicting) dialogue with each other. With: Patrizia Nanz, Institute for Sustainability Transformation Research Potsdam Language: German

KOSMOS Opening Lecture

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 17:21:37 +0100

At the venue of the historical Kosmos lectures, the HU lecture series marking the 250th birthday of Alexander von Humboldt will be opened by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and climate researcher Paulo Artaxo. As an environmental physicist, Artaxo is one of South America’s most prominent scientists. He played a leading role in the 2007 IPCC Climate Change Report, for which he and his team won the Nobel Peace Prize. With: Prof. Paulo Artaxo, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil Opening by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier Language: English

The genetic basis of animal domestication - a walk in the footsteps of Charles Darwin

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 18:54:01 +0100

Charles Darwin used our domestic animals as proof-of-principle for evolution by natural selection. He argued that this is a very similar process to the one that occurs in our domestic animals due to selective breeding. In fact, Darwin himself made breeding experiments to prove this. During the 1980s I got the vision that the development of new molecular genetic methods now will allow us to reveal which genetic changes have been critical for the development of our domestic animals. In this lecture I will present some fascinating mutations that we have discovered and that have contributed to this process. This will include the specific mutation that explains variation in gait among horses. I will also discuss why the colour of our domestic animals changed and why Gandalf’s horse became white.

Tameness is the most characteristic feature of all domestic animals and I will also show how we used the rabbit to study the genetic changes that were needed to transform an alert wild rabbit with a very strong flight response into a docile domestic rabbit with a blunted flight response. Charles Darwin started by observing biodiversity in nature during his voyage around the globe on Beagle, formulated his theory of evolution by natural selection and used domestic animals to collect evidence supporting his controversial theory. My scientific journey has gone in the opposite direction. For many years I have used domestic animals as models to understand the genetic basis underlying evolutionary change. But in recent years, thanks to the development of cost-effective methods for whole genome DNA sequencing, I have expanded my research into wild animals. I will therefore end by explaining what we have learned by sequencing the entire genome of all species of Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos.

by Prof. Leif Andersson, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Sweden