Background
Planetary Management in the Anthropocene
A defining attribute of the anthropocene is the global scaling of human actions. Avoiding the catastrophic consequences of this scaling requires parity in the scaling of global welfare linked to an ability to anticipate the effects of human activities. As has been pointed out by a growing chorus of scientific papers and academy reports, this will require a new quality of climate information encompassing all scales, from the global to the local, and from days to decades. A new generation of climate models, which exploit advances in information technology to greatly enhance their physical content and reliability, promises to deliver this capability. Realizing them will require involving the communities and sectors their information impacts, as well as the best techhologists and scientists world wide, making it an ambitious international effort.
National and international programmes, like WarmWorld in Germany, EXCLAIM in Switzerland, and the EU’s Destination Earth (DestinE), have begun coordinated efforts to develop this new generation of models, and to think about how to transform them into actionable information systems that embody user needs. In parallel, activites like the Global Framework for Climate Serveices have thought about how to increase the update of such information systems within the Global South. Missing is an operational integration of the modeling capabilities with the computational and data resources at the required scale on the one hand, and the active engagement of the vulnerable communtiies and sectors in the creation and dissemination of the information streams on the other hand.
EVE also emphasizes virtualization to leverage intuition developed of our experiences in our own world to better and more naturally engage users. By creating environments that will also allow the specialists and lay people alike to experience past and future realizations of our Earth, EVE aims to support the type of global concisiousness needed to legitimize attempts to strengthen planetary management globally. Thus virtualization is envisioned as part of the blueprint for operationalizing ongoing developments in science and technology to make the information creation transparent and its content widely accessible to sectors and communities impacted by climate change. As a driver of innovation and capacity building EVE will couple the green and digital transitions in support of more just and sustainable global development.
The Road to Dubai Starts in Berlin
The Berlin Summit will initiate an ambitious cycle of planning leading up to the 28th COP (Conference of the Parties) to be held in Dubai Expo City in the UAE ((30th November to 12th December 2023). After Berlin, plans for EVE will be discussed and refined at the World Climate Research Programme Open Science Conference, focusing on “Advancing climate science for a sustainable future”, to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, and online on 23-27 October 2023. The WCRP meeting will more deeply engage the global south in developing EVE to support communities whose lack of resources and geographic situation make them most vulnerable to climate change.
