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Our House is Burning: Scientific and Societal Responses to Mass Extinction – Virtual – Course and Conference Office

21st EMBL Science and Society Conference

Our House is Burning: Scientific and Societal Responses to Mass Extinction – Virtual

Overview
Speakers and Organisers
Programme

EMBL is committed to sharing research advances and sustaining scientific interaction throughout the coronavirus pandemic. We are delighted to announce that the symposium is going virtual and invite you to join us online. The virtual symposium includes talks from invited speakers, short talk presenters, digital poster sessions and networking opportunities.

Conference Overview

There have been five mass extinctions in Earth’s history, but are we already in the midst of a sixth? At least one million animal and plant species are currently threatened with extinction, many within decades – a rate unprecedented in human history.

To what extent, however, can we measure loss of biodiversity across scales, or accurately identify the causes of mass extinction? And how will this development affect the planet? More importantly, perhaps, is the question of whether scientific and societal interventions can effectively tackle this issue. Will initiatives such as the UN’s “Decade on Ecosystem Restoration” really provide solutions to the problem?

The 21st EMBL Science & Society Conference in 2020 seeks to address these questions. It will consider the impact of environmental changes on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. Crucially, it will focus on potential solutions and types of action: from activism to political strategies, and from local grass-roots conservation groups to global youth movements. It will also evaluate the application of various targeted intervention methods across data science, emerging technologies, sustainability solutions and beyond.

Session Topics

The Anthropocene extinction: scientific overview
The environmental and societal impact of mass extinction
Scientific, societal and technological responses to mass extinction

For more information about previous meetings in this series please check the Science and Society Website.

What past participants say about the conference:

“A scientist must find time to step away from the lab table and question scientific practices more broadly. Without conferences like these, we would lack a forum to do so and would be blind toward potential improvements.” – Joshua Yudice, Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany

“The event was greatly organized and very interesting. All the speakers’ presentations were outstanding and the discussions very stimulating. I loved the possibility to talk to the speakers during the social moments.” – Anna Sofia Tascini, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Italy