On Bullshit, Candor and Climate Risk: Reconciling Intent, Words and Actions
Organizer: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre *this session is part of the Development & Climate Days
| Why a humanitarian event on “bullshit”? The answer is simple: it is our job to care. And as climate risk management practitioners it’s hard to care for others when others don’t care about the insidiously pervasive nonsense cooking climate inaction. The deep mismatch between rhetoric, intentions and deeds is not unique to climate and development: we live in an age of bullshit (indifference to the truth). Philosopher Harry Frankfurt, in his book “On Bullshit” (2005, Princeton University Press) identifies this as ‘one of the most salient features of our culture’. Anchored in the need to understand and address risk, we deepen that analytically rigorous framework examining the various ‘flavors’ of bullshit (promissory, nonsensical, self-contradicting, optimistic, and whatevering). With your active engagement, we will examine and confront the current incentive structures making bullshit palatable to people and organizations. Interested in experiencing and co-creating thought-provoking cartoons, courage-provoking concepts, action-provoking tools, and inspiration-provoking art? Join our unconventional, serious-yet-fun exploration of how to detect and confront BS. This session is divided in two parts. The main session will last 90 minutes (UTC 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM) with additional 25 minutes for group work. |
Speakers:
Pablo Suarez, Associate Director for Research and Innovation, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Hayley Stevenson, Associate professor, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
Pierre Thiam, Chef, Author, Social Activist. PierreThiam.com
Bob Mankoff, President, CartoonCollections.com