Th Swedish paper Aftonbladet reports on the presentation with freelance journalist and author Gwynne Dyer of the conclusions from his recent book, Climate Wars.

On the new risk and security landscape

Human civilisation has formed over roughly a period of ten thousand years. On a geological time scale, this has been a period of rare planetary stability. Temperatures have fluctuated only marginally; ice sheets and sea levels have been largely fixed. Similarly, the wider climate systems – inherently unpredictable in the short run and full of surprises and local variability – have over a longer time-frame exhibited fairly stable patterns. It is in this landscape of relative stability human civilisation has flourished.

Science now tells us conclusively that we are leaving this period of relative stability. How fast, and how far we will move into unchartered territory is not clear. It is however beyond doubt that we are entering a new landscape of risk and security, where the increased pressures on interacting natural systems open up for a new level of unpredictability.

Already many communities and states are stressed to the point of collapse, where small added pressures risk pushing them into social and political turmoil. Similarly, conflicts over land, water and energy are playing out at the global level – over gas pipelines, the unexplored arctic and over the protection of river water. We are seeing these conflicts intensify by the day.

The new landscape of risk and security is emerging with a pace that is quite staggering. Against these developments stands an institutional framework ill suited to handle the complexity of interacting natural, economic, social and political systems. There is an urgent need for our institutional designs to catch-up with the world they are intended to handle.

A presentation hosted by the Tällberg Foundation by Gwynne Dyer on Climate Wars was followed by a conversation with Lena Sommestad, CEO, Swedish District Heating Association and Former Swedish Minister for the Environment; Tomas Ries, Director, Swedish Institute of International Affairs; Anders Wijkman, Member of European Parliament; Peter Wallensteen, Dag Hammarskjöld Professor of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University. The conversation was moderated by Carl Mossfeldt, Tällberg Foundation.

The largest Swedish paper in circulation, Aftonbladet, was there and reported on the event. Read the full article from Aftonbladet (in Swedish).