Hello all,

I summarized the messages from the chat during Jessica Seddon's keynote talk. Here is the link for Jessica's TEDx Talk. Or copy the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGo1ditaaVQ. I could not add the attachment here and I will find a way to share the book chapter that Jessica mentioned.

Interesting chats:
Our answers to the question: Tell us about a piece of data, analysis, that provoked a response, enabled something new – changed the world?

• SANTIAGO: Silent Spring by Carson


• JENS Peters: biefuel rebound effects, indirect land use effects


• ARISTIDE: Planetary boundaries/doughnut; Limits to growth


• JESSICA: Randomized controlled trials (Duflo + Banerjee)


• TOM Logan: Death and Life of Great American Cities


• SYBIL: Open data movement.

Jessica’s answers:

• Atomic clocks: durable and precise marking of time. Fundamental ingredient for coordination, marking of sequence of actions. Fundamental precursor to GPS, internet.


• Social cost of carbon: what was first regulatory states willing to have rules, or the ability to obtain data ? Metric matters for change.


• In the 1960s demonstration by scientists of link between European sulphur emissions and acidification of Scandinavian lakes.
  https://www.jstor.org/stable/4314087?seq=1 and https://www.jstor.org/stable/4311936

LYNNETTE Widder: Is it not also a problem here that the entirety of benefit is calculated in offset, not in profit ie opportunity cost/assets lost rather than in potential gain ie improved efficiency and productivity as is the case in conventional infrastructural investment?

SYBIL @Lynnette: not sure, I did not fully understand what was being plotted.

NALLAPANENI MANOJ Kumar: The reason for not having correct estimations on flood prediction etc. might be due to the weather data manipulation at the monitoring station itself. I doubt on this as per few monitored records at one of the data centers in India

LYNNETTE Widder: Hi Sybil, I was thinking more in terms of the financial instruments: most financial instruments depend on an ROI that is predictable. Not only is underlying value contested in trying to develop new financing instruments to pay for flooding mitigation and resilience measures, it is not possible to calculate their benefit in the absence of the flooding risk (ie) except as an offset to potential cost for recovery/opportunity cost. Traditional infrastructure financing like a municipal bond is predicated on a predictable ROI. And insurance companies set up to price risk do not necessarily know how to price infrastructure development. There is a good case study in Washington DC around investment in wetlands redevelopment for flood mitigation (I believe it was DC) where they were able to compound a series of benefits to arrive at ROI, but the benefit to resilience was not central to valuation. Sorry if that is too specific...

NALLAPANENI MANOJ Kumar: In addition, the existing models the authorities use for prediction were not actually fit to current dynamics. The model needs to be updated as per the latest changes in atmosphere

DR. MERCEDES Quesada-Embid: @Lynnette, Many institutional economists and some ecological economists favor a transition away from the conventional cost-benefit-analysis toward what is called a "positional analysis". This allows more perspectives, stakeholders and qualitative elements to be "calculated" into what is more advantageous for society. It follows more of a triple bottom line philosophy.

JESSICA: There is a policy literature that touches on this: narrative policy making, it's an interesting perspective https://paulcairney.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/policy-in-500-words-the-narrative-policy-framework/#:~:text=Policymakers%20and%20influencers%20can%20only,of%20all%20policy%20relevant%20information.&text=In%20that%20context%2C%20the%20Narrative

SANTIAGO: Center for Science and the Imagination At Arizona Uni https://csi.asu.edu

DR. MERCEDES Quesada-Embid: Yes, the narrative approach is interesting. it seems controversial because it 'humanizes' the science. we are conventionally trained to "bracket" and objectify the world. treating things as 'objects' allows for separation and disconnection, which then gives rise to unethical scientific practice more easily.

OLEKSANDR Galychyn: Sure, cost-benefit analysis is in the past. The integrated economic-ecological analysis such as Emergy Accounting is taken popularity in the assessment of the work of both humans and nature did to produce a direct product and indirect service.

LYNNETTE wider: Here's a great comp lit study on this topic: The Future as Catastrophe: Imagining Disaster in the Modern Age EVA HORN TRANSLATION BY VALENTINE PAKIS Copyright Date: 2018 Published by: Columbia University Press https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/horn18862

OLEKSANDR Galychyn: http://www.emergy-nead.com/home

Other interesting sources:
The map about the area will be flooded

• • Resource Watch: https://resourcewatch.org/


• • Climate Central https://sealevel.climatecentral.org/maps/ and an executive summary of the paper that used to generate the map. https://sealevel.climatecentral.org/research/reports/flooded-future-global-vulnerability-to-sea-level-rise-worse-than-previously/

Interesting events:
ClimateWorks: Can speculative fiction help us prepare for the future? https://csi.asu.edu/calendar/events/climateworks-can-speculative-fiction-help-us-prepare-for-the-future/