bricksite.com/globaldialogueconference09 - News

Climate change justice is a process contesting historical inequality

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:58:17 +0100

At the conference, South African academics Hennie Stoffberg and Paul Prinsloo launched their new book Climate Change: A Guide for Corporates. Caroline d'Essen has interviewed the authors about issues of climate change justice and the fairness of carbon market system.

1 In your opinion, what were the main reasons that made the Kyotos Protocol fail? How can we avoid that a new agreement in COP15 takes the same way of Kyoto Protocol?

The Kyoto Protocol did not fail in the

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Struggling for ecological humanism: An interview with Fred Dallmayr

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:38:22 +0100

Every civilization needs to rely on some system of beliefs and to have its own characteristic framework of references that people minds can rely on. For some civilizations it will be a religion, for others philosophical systems.

What is this framework when it comes to the Western world?

"For the Western world, since Rene Descartes, it has become science", explains Professor Fred Dallmayr.

What a relief! one might think. Science makes for reliable bases to build the society on.

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Dialogue for awareness, responsibility and justice

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:01:53 +0100

After three days of plenary talks, track sessions with many different presentations on conceptual and foundational research, education, journalism and business, Jesper Garsdal, Fred Dallmayr and Hans Köchler restated the main value of the Global Dialogue Conference 09 as a means to facilitate comprehensive reflections.

With regards to the issue of climate change, Professor Dallmayr of Notre Dame University remarked that we have to talk about climate change from many different

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So what did you think of the conference?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:40:09 +0100

May Belle Guillergan's video from the final day of the conference contains lots of views on the conference. See the interviews and hear the comments from conference participants.

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Journalism, press conference and more journalism (day 3)

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:35:32 +0100

On the third day of the conference, May Guillergan and her video camera covered the journalism plenary with Chris Nash, asked questions about the value of the conference at a press conference, and went to hear presentations on the journalism track.

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Diversity allows for wise choices

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:07:55 +0100

Climate change is a scientific fact and I never would have thought that it could bring much debate on the floor. If its a fact, then there should simply be an acceptance of it; simply do what you can do in your own corner. Yet I guess what really drives debates over it, is that we actually could still do something about it but we often just disregard it.

Back home, in the Philippines, there are more urgent problems to be discussed, which is why environmental issues may often be set aside

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Plenary, journalism and business tracks (day 2)

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:49:15 +0100

May Belle Guillergan from the blogging team continued her filming of the conference's second day attending Fred Dallmayr's plenary talk and visiting the journalism and the business tracks.

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Happy Danes in black? Opening day video (2)

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:35:40 +0100

In this intriguing video from the opening day of the conference, May Belle Guillergan from the Philippines takes an intercultural view of the conference set against a backdrop of research that shows that Danes are the happiest people in the world.

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Opening day video (1)

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:17:56 +0100

The lighting was perhaps not the best, and the sound could have been better - but this short - and poetic - video by Caroline d'Essen from the blogging team perfectly captures the atmosphere of the opening day of the conference.

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Climate change between bite-size nuggets and revolution

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:30:41 +0100

Thursday morning, Chris Nash talked about a revolution which has to take place in the field of journalism in order to cover the issue of climate change more properly.

However, in the afternoon sessions of the journalism track, a lot of the obstacles in the revolutionary road became visible when Chinese, British and American journalists from the Erasmus Mundus programme (with help from Norway) presented.

Tainted heroes

As Andreas Ytterstad and E

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Climate change pays for Danish businesses

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:28:31 +0100

Did you know that sushi chefs should prefer frozen to fresh salmon? And that when you are dealing with WAL*MART you would do better to sleep in cheap motels and look anxious to pay for your coffee? And that these things are related, in a certain way, to the business impact on climate?

That and much more was what you could have learned at a last minute business panel discussion on the final day of the Global Dialogue Conference 09.

Its good news that there are businesses that take climate change

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Photos from the journalism track

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:16:38 +0100

Three journalists enrolled on the Erasmus Mundus masters programme in Media and Globalisation gave presentations about climate journalism in Europe, USA and China. From left to right: Cassie Werber, Jeanette Jordan and Diao Ying.

Diao Ying talked about three types of environmental journalism in China - here the official version in the state controlled media.

Jeanette Jordan from the US included practical examples of how television viewers in the US are treated as customers.

Alison Vogelaar analysed

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Photos from the final day

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:57:23 +0100

Keynote speaker, professor Hans Köchler from University of Innsbruck, Austria, takes questions after his speech.

The microphone tours the auditorium for final reflections from participants on the conference.

Invited speaker Chris Nash from Australia added his thoughts on the conference.

Buzzing outside the main auditorium during the final coffee break of the conference.

The blogging team also said goodbye after the conference. From right to left: Cassie Werber, Ula Papajak, Caroline d'Essen, Torsten

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Wheres the why?

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:48:17 +0100

Chris Nash reminded us in his plenary lecture of the one question that journalists always keen on finding the facts miss. We ask who?, what?, when? and where?, but in our rush to get the story out we dont always have time for why?.

Why, Chris pointed out, is the most important question.

In the conference presentations Ive heard, a lot of questions have been posed. I suppose from an academic perspective this is the ideal, if were trying to find n

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Journalism and climate change: Expect the worst

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:17:19 +0100

An old indian fairy tale goes like this: Five blind sages have been sent out to describe how this strange new animal called Elephant looks like. As every one of them touched only one part of the Elephant they came back with five completely different impressions. With this little anecdote Henrik Bödker only wanted to promote the interdisciplinary evening plenary. But actually he provided a great introduction to Chris Nashs speech about What can we expect of Journalism in Confron

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Inaugural Global Dialogue Prize to two Iranian philosophers

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:00:41 +0100

At a press conference today, it was announced that the inaugural Global Dialogue Prize of 500,000 Danish kroners (app. 100,000 US dollars) will be given to the Iranian philosopher Darius Shayegan and fellow philosopher and former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami for developing and promoting the idea of dialogue among civilizations.

The aim of the Global Dialogue Prize is to honour outstanding research on intercultural dialogue and value studes, as well as outstanding achievements in applying

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Meetings of minds (Wednesday)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:07:02 +0100

Professor Fred Dallmeyr in conversation with colleagues

Norwegian media researchers Elisabeth Eide, Andreas Ytterstad and Roy Krøvel prepare for their presentations at the conference.

Keynote speaker, journalist and academic Chris Nash from Australia brought a colleague from home.

A serious coffee conversation

A grape break

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Meet (some of) the conference bloggers

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:58:18 +0100

A group of international journalists enrolled on the 2009 Erasmus Mundus Masters on Media and Globalisation have been reporting on the conference for the conference blog. Here you can meet some of them.

Ula Papajak, Guia Baggi and May Belle Guillergan are deciding which sessions to report on for the conference blog.

Caroline d'Essen spent her birthday covering conference events.

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Meet (some of) the conference organisers

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:12:56 +0100

Conference organiser Johanna Seibt prepares for the day with Marco Pedersen.

Project manager Jacob Bock. Behind him business track director Peter Neergaard.

Conference organiser Jesper Garsdal (at the back) is having a good time.

Media consultant and co-director of the journalism track, Kirsten Sparre, stocks up on coffee.

Co-director of the journalism track, Henrik Bødker, chairs one of many sessions in session room 3.
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Should we share the bill?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:53:52 +0100

A rich man and a poor man went to a restaurant. The rich man ordered two courses, red wine and a dessert. The poor man just asked for the dessert. When the bill arrived the rich man said to the poor that they have to share the bill half-half.

This example, given by Kristian Hoyer-Toft, one of the conferences speakers, was really appropriate to illustrate the theme of TRACK 1 sessions of Wednesday: responsibility.

One of the points in the presentation made by the

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IBM aims for a smarter and greener planet

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:07:42 +0100

It seems like business and research are two different worlds speaking different languages. The conference has brought different sectors together and it creates a possibility that somehow in this conglomeration of thoughts and views, new and viable answers to the challenge called climate change may arise.

The sector of Information Technology takes part in this undertaking, as voiced by Harald Fuchs from the IBM Company of Germany. What he insinuates is that we may all know that the world is gettin

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Four ideas to journalists for reporting climate change

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:00:33 +0100

If journalists think there is little they can or should do to help people deal with climate change, they should think again. In a thought-provoking talk at the conference, professor Susanna Priest came up with four simple ideas for actions that journalists can undertake without offending professional norms of objectivity and the economic restraints of the news business.

Simply furnishing people with enough information is not enough, Priest said and referred to recent research she had done amongst

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Empowering thousands of people to change together

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:58:04 +0100

At least 10,000 people from all over the world are expected to be part of the alternative summit Climate Forum 09 in Copenhagen next month. But what is the point of getting so many people together and what can be achieved? Kristine Holten-Andersen, one of the many driving forces behind the project, believes the summit is about empowerment and creating the feeling of acting together.

The conference blog has obtained permission to quote from Kristine Holten-Andersens manuscript for her presentatio

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Opening day pictures

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:53:43 +0100

Getting ready for the opening session.

Just before the panel discussion begins. From left to right: Professor Fred Dallmeyr, professor Timothy Reagan, Kristine Holten-Andersen from Climate Forum 09, Jacob Sterling from Maersk Line, chairman of the board for Grundfos Niels Due-Jensen, professor John Thøgersen and professor Susanna Priest.

Buffet on the opening night.

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Dialogue, politeness and the siren call of the coffee break

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:15:43 +0100

There are aspects of the structure of a conference which can be dangerous. I was concerned about this before coming; not about whether we would be bored or interested, whether the presentations would seem relevant or not - you cannot, or course, please all the people all the time. Rather, there is something in the formal structure itself which, while allowing conversation of a kind, also limits our ability to interact.

Politeness and convention require that we sit still and listen - even when

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Climate change can not be solved

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:47:19 +0100

Thanks to Mike Hulme, the global dialogue conference got off to a good and controversial start. The professor of climate change at University of East Anglia introduced some insightful and tantalizing propositions, which did no less than putting the whole COP15-joint venture in doubt.

Jumping onto his train of thought isn't easy. Basically, his intention is to liberate the way we think about climate change as a mere physical process which can be estimated by numbers and facts. "Rel

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Here is the appetizer, the grand dinner is yet to come!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:35:07 +0100

As a foundation for the dicussion in the coming two days, the first panel session in the afternoon gathered representatives from academia, business, media and civil society to talk about their own responsiblities.

It was an ambitous plan to draw people from such a broad range of fields to communicate on a complex issue like climate change within an hour. Yet it worked well. It made each group return to the basic values from the starting point.

Professor Fred Dallmayr from the US said

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Professor Hans Köchler to address the conference

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:30:56 +0100

Intercultural dialogue is the topic of the week in Aarhus. The city, the region, the university and Grundfos will announce the winners of the new Global Dialogue Prize on Thursday, and Friday one of the worlds leading philosophers, Hans Köchler, will speak about the philosphy and politics behind intercultural dialogue.

Hans Köchler is professor of philosophy at University of Innsbruck in Austria and has been working on intercultural dialogue for 35 years. His work has been very influential on th

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Danish companies join conference for discussion

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:39:47 +0100

Novo Nordisk, Maersk Line and the Confederation of Danish Industries will provide inspiration on how Danish companies can take responsibility for climate change at the conference.

The company representatives will provide concrete examples of how they work with climate issues at the session that takes place Friday 6 November 9.00-10.15 hours.

The presenters are:

Lykke Schmidt, Novo Nordisk: Novo Nordisk has been devoted to Corporate Social Responsibilty for years.

Jacob Sterling, Maersk Line: Maersk

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Climate Changers: What can hot dogs do for the climate?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:39:43 +0100

The worlds most travelled hot dog stand is Danish. Its owner Fanny Posselt is

And she is not alone in taking action on climate change. In the Philippines, university students are part of a During the conference, Henni Stoffberg and Paul Prinsloo, will launch their new book: Climate Change: A Guide for Corporates.The book is published by Unisa Press and aims to demystify the corporate response to climate change.

According to a What is the value of value research on climate change? So blunt is the question for the panel dialogue that is part of the opening session for the conference Tuesday 3 November from 14.00-17.30.

Professors in philosophy, education, journalism and economic psychology will be challenged to explain how their research and professions can help the citizens of the world to take moral responsibility for climate change.

Two representatives from Danish businesses with world wide representation will be ask

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International journalists blog from conference

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:12:21 +0100

A group of international journalists enrolled on the 2009 Erasmus Mundus Masters program on Media and Globalisation at Aarhus University and the Danish School of Journalism have volunteered to blog from the conference.

The students will be reporting from conference events, conduct interviews, and take photographs that will all be published here for the benefit of the wider world as well as those fortunate enough to be present at the conference itself.

The aim is to make ideas presented at the con

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