Andrew Maynard

For this first session of the Allies of the Anthropocene Dialogue Series, Andrew Maynard will be guiding us through a discussion about the fact that we as humans are more tightly coupled to our environment than at any previous point in human history. Emerging technological capabilities, a growing global population, and an insatiable desire for “more”—whether knowledge, resources and wealth, or health, well-being and happiness—are increasingly leading to a world where our every action leads to complex, often unpredictable, and sometimes devastating consequences. This relationship between actions and consequences is what we think of as risk—the probability of something bad happening as a result of some action or event. Yet the ways we currently think about and act on risk are often ill-suited to surviving and thriving in the Anthropocene.

The goal for this discussion is to address the dangers of not thinking differently about risk as we transform the planet we live on, and exploring innovative ways of approaching risk that can help build a better world.

Andrew Maynard’s work focuses on risk innovation, and the responsible development and use of emerging technologies. But his real passion is making new connections between ideas and understanding across many different areas of expertise to reveal novel—and hopefully useful—insights. In addition to his academic work, Andrew closely with a number of organizations on the responsible use of science and technology, including the World Economic Forum, the National Academy of Sciences, the International Life Sciences Institute (North America), and the science education not-for-profit, Keep On Questioning.

Andrew is also a well-known science communicator (and a strong advocate of using effective communication to enable successful partnerships and decision-making). As well as producing the YouTube channel Risk Bites, he writes a regular column for the news website The Conversation, and the journal Nature Nanotechnology. He hangs out on Twitter as @2020science.

This event was sponsored by the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability.