MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Event

Jun 23-24, 2025
Historical Epistemologies of Planetary Modelling III: Toward a Radical Earth System Science

Responding to the growing authority of computational Earth Systems Science (ESS), the HEPM workshops have been an attempt to historicise the methods, media, and knowledge which this science of planetary modelling work with. Historicization is intended to bring the science back down to Earth. Critical analysis of its political economy reveals an increasingly corporation-aligned science. Examining its political ecology reveals environmental and ideological implications.

The project has consisted of three international workshops, the third of which is at Ca' Foscari University of Venice this year: This workshop explores the possibility of a more radical ESS. It will present the work of politically progressive, radical, and innovative ES scientists, alongside the work of hackers, critical historians, and radical political philosophers of the Earth system.

 

23 June 2025

10.00 Welcome and introduction
Session 1
Thomas Turnbull & Adam Wickberg
The Philanthropocene: The Rise of Corporate Earth System Science
Drew Pendergrass
The Commodified Earth: Reductionism, Complexity, and Politics in
Earth System Science 

13.30 - 16. 00
Session 2
Geoff Mann
Damaged Functions: The Politics of Precision
Beatrice Cointe
IAM seem to like BECCS »: Valuation Paradoxes and the Political
Affordances of Negative Emissions
Edouard Morena
Terminal Logic: Michael Bloomberg and Billionaire Fantasies of Planetary
Management Control

---
24 June 2025 

10.00 - 12.00
Session 3
Leah Aronowsky
Climate Politics and the Limits of Democracy in the Age of Oil
Julia Nordblad
A Heterodox Thinker of the Planetary: Erna Bennett and the Question of Agricultural Diversity, 1967–1980

13.30 - 16.30
Session 4 + Concluding Discussion
Andy Stirling
Hacking the Colonial-Modern Cockpit: Convivial Unravellings of Hegemonic
Closures 
Jorge Nuñez Vega
Against the Extractive Gaze: Ecologizing Earth Observation with the
Ecuadorian Amazon

 

This workshop is part of NICHE's research cluster Histories of the Earth-System: Understanding the Anthropocene between Planetary Knowledge and Political Epistemologies.
Principal Investigator: Giulia Rispoli

‘Divided Planet’ Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, 1970. bpk / Kupferstichkabinett, SMB / Dietmar Katz
Organizer(s)
Related Project(s)
2025-06-23T09:30:00SAVE IN I-CAL 2025-06-23 09:30:00 2025-06-24 16:30:00 Historical Epistemologies of Planetary Modelling III: Toward a Radical Earth System Science Responding to the growing authority of computational Earth Systems Science (ESS), the HEPM workshops have been an attempt to historicise the methods, media, and knowledge which this science of planetary modelling work with. Historicization is intended to bring the science back down to Earth. Critical analysis of its political economy reveals an increasingly corporation-aligned science. Examining its political ecology reveals environmental and ideological implications. The project has consisted of three international workshops, the third of which is at Ca' Foscari University of Venice this year: This workshop explores the possibility of a more radical ESS. It will present the work of politically progressive, radical, and innovative ES scientists, alongside the work of hackers, critical historians, and radical political philosophers of the Earth system.   23 June 2025 10.00 Welcome and introduction Session 1 Thomas Turnbull & Adam Wickberg The Philanthropocene: The Rise of Corporate Earth System Science Drew Pendergrass The Commodified Earth: Reductionism, Complexity, and Politics in Earth System Science  13.30 - 16. 00 Session 2 Geoff Mann Damaged Functions: The Politics of Precision Beatrice Cointe IAM seem to like BECCS »: Valuation Paradoxes and the Political Affordances of Negative Emissions Edouard Morena Terminal Logic: Michael Bloomberg and Billionaire Fantasies of Planetary Management Control --- 24 June 2025  10.00 - 12.00 Session 3 Leah Aronowsky Climate Politics and the Limits of Democracy in the Age of Oil Julia Nordblad A Heterodox Thinker of the Planetary: Erna Bennett and the Question of Agricultural Diversity, 1967–1980 13.30 - 16.30 Session 4 + Concluding Discussion Andy Stirling Hacking the Colonial-Modern Cockpit: Convivial Unravellings of Hegemonic Closures  Jorge Nuñez Vega Against the Extractive Gaze: Ecologizing Earth Observation with the Ecuadorian Amazon   This workshop is part of NICHE's research cluster Histories of the Earth-System: Understanding the Anthropocene between Planetary Knowledge and Political Epistemologies. Principal Investigator: Giulia Rispoli Thomas Max TurnbullGiulia Rispoli (Ca' Foscari University of Venice) Thomas Max TurnbullGiulia Rispoli (Ca' Foscari University of Venice) Europe/Berlin public