Science Communication and Socio-Environmental Conflicts

Author: Diogo de Oliveira – Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, Brazil

Co-authors:

• Jean Ann Bellini – Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Pastoral Land Comission), Brazil
• Bruce Lewenstein – Cornell University, United States
• Anaid Olivares – National Observatory of Environmental Conflicts, Mexico

According to the Environmental Justice Atlas, in April 2019, there were 2776 active Socio-Environmental Conflicts worldwide. The actual number is probably larger. NGO’s, academics, science journalists, and policymakers are some of the actors involved, making issues of science communication key to understanding the conflicts. The issues are diverse – from nuclear to land conflicts, from mineral ores to fossil fuels. The Global Witness reports – from 2002 to 2018 – show that at least 1733 persons were killed in socio-environmental conflicts. Again, because of obstructions to accessing data, threats to denouncers, and many other reasons, the real numbers are also certainly larger. This alarming amount of people killed and the environmental damages that they were struggling against, reflect the failure at many scales of many agents in this complex scenario. Discussing and reducing these numbers is a challenge for science communication, one of the common interest to environmentalists, academics, journalists, and politicians.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Roundtable discussion
Theme: Transformation