Karen O’Brien

Professor of Human Geography, Department of Sociology and Human Geography (ISS), University of Oslo.

In this lecture, I will argue that the biggest risk of climate change is that we are responding to the wrong problem. Drawing on the distinction between technical problems and adaptive challenges, I will explain why we need to rethink current approaches to climate change adaptation. This means moving beyond the very practical measures to adapt to climate change impacts and instead adapt to the "idea" that we can transform systems. This has both personal and political dimensions, suggesting that the best way to approach adaptation is through social transformation.