Invitation and programme

Humanity has fundamentally changed our planet Earth, which is currently undergoing a global transformation process driven by global warming, plastic in the sea, scarcity of resources, extinction of species or the disruption of important material cycles. Researchers have started a debate about renaming the current Earth Age: The Anthropocene as the epoch in which humanity has intervened so massively in the planet’s life system that this will still be visible in the geological layers of the Earth in tens of thousands of years. The term Anthropocene stands for a massive deterioration in the relationship between humans and nature. But does it make sense to consider humans as a geological force? Or is it rather a particular way of life responsible for these changes? Can the concept of the Anthropocene lead us to a new understanding of nature and environmental policy?
Are we heading toward an environmental catastrophe or is there still hope for life in the Anthropocene through technological solutions?

Welcome

By Christian Köberl (Director General of the Natural History Museum Vienna and professor at the University of Vienna), Jean-Robert Tyran (Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Vienna) and Thilo Hofmann (Director of the Environmental Sciences Research Network at the University of Vienna)

Keynote: The Anthropocene – is man a new geological force?

By Michael Wagreich, sedimentologist and associate professor at the University of Vienna, member of the Anthropocene working group / International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS)

Panel discussion

  • Eva Horn, Professor of Modern German Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna, who is currently working on an introduction to the term “Anthropocene”
  • Christian Schwägerl, science journalist and author of the German bestseller “Menschenzeit: Zerstören oder gestalten? Die entscheidende Epoche unseres Planeten” (Human time: Destroy or shape? The decisive epoch of our planet), lives in Germany (Riemann, 2010)
  • Michael Wagreich, sedimentologist and associate professor at the University of Vienna, member of the Anthropocene working group / International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS)
  • Verena Winiwarter, Professor of Environmental History at BOKU University and “Academic of the Year 2013”

Moderator: Marlene Nowotny, science editor Ö1 radio