Many scientific hypotheses are nowadays granted with a social, political or commercial function. They are prematurely released from the laboratory, without full support from empirical evidence, but with a specific task: to warn the world about dangerous situations or evolutions, or to inform it about promising trends and capacities. And,
This presentation is a contribution to the 18th Global Development Conference “Science, Technology and Innovation for Development”, 22 – 23 March 2018, New Delhi, India. The presentation will soon be available here.
Ethics of Environmental Health – Edited by Friedo Zölzer and Gaston Meskens © 2017 – Routledge Introduction Environmental health encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect human health, such as radiation, toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents. It is often assumed that the assessment
Abstract What do we mean when we say we live in a complex world? This paper characterises problems such as combating climate change, the provision of affordable access to healthy food for all, or evaluation of the possible use of nuclear energy as ‘complex social problems’ of which the complexity
This working paper is an output of the Fukushima Global Communication research workshop “Understanding and Communicating Risks Post Fukushima”, held in Tokyo on 12–13 November 2015. The workshop brought together international experts to explore the specific challenges of understanding and discussing risks related to nuclear accidents, and identify appropriate and
This statement was my contribution to the Public Seminar ‘Understanding and communicating risks post-Fukushima’ at the United Nations University in Tokyo on Friday 13 November 2015 Risk communication with respect to the current environmental radiation conditions in Fukushima has to take into account that there are scientific discussions going
On Sunday 8 November 2015, I delivered a statement on behalf of the Research and Independent Non-governmental Organisations to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The statement is a joint piece of work done by the RINGO steering committee. The meeting was organised by the French COP21
The missing goal: a new global governance for sustainable development One of the results of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, as presented in the outcome document entitled The Future We Want, was a mandate for the UN to establish an open working group to develop a set
A dialogue on foundational values and principles for the sustainable development goals: learning from the peoples sustainability treaties. This workshop is organised as part of the 65th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference taking place at the United Nations Headquarters, New York. Scope The workshop will be organised as a dialogue on
This paper Are there workable normative worldviews for global governance – gaston Meskens was a contribution to the U4 Conference “Global Studies: Critical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives” organised by the Ghent Centre for Global Studies on 28 June 2014. from the conference website: Global Studies is an inherently transnational and interdisciplinary field
The Possibility of Global Governance 