On Utopias and the Climate Crisis with Danilo Palazzo
1 November 2021
The dystopian mood music surrounding the United Nations 26th annual climate change conference (COP26) is stark. Government and business leaders are not meeting the targets set in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, and humanity is quickly running out of time to correct course.
In this special episode of Voices, IHRB’s Haley St. Dennis and John Morrison unpack the concept and study of dystopian and utopian thinking throughout history, in search of guidance for how to think about and tackle the climate crisis. Feeding into the discussion is Dr. Danilo Palazzo, an academic expert on the subject of utopias, who emphasises the usefulness of utopian thinking as a response to dystopian realities, particularly their value in crafting blue-sky solutions and forcing problem-solvers to think beyond present generations’ needs.
Dr. Danilo Palazzo is a Professor and Director of the School of Planning at the University of Cincinnati since October 1, 2012. Prior to this, Dr. Palazzo was on the faculty at the School of Building Engineering and Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano in Milan, Italy. His major fields of interest are urbanism, urban design, and planning. Hear more on utopias from Dr. Palazzo here.
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Editor: Deborah Sagoe, IHRB's Communications Coordinator
