Dr Mark Charlesworth

Research Interests

Earthsystemology - Sustainable Development: Transdisciplinary Solutions
- Knowing the Earth System and the limits of this knowledge, particularly inertia and tipping points
- Policy, ethical and methodological implications of limits to prediction of the Earth System
- Risk assessment and it's limitations for issues such as climate change, genetic engineering, environmental toxicology and biodiversity
- Life cycle assessment and it's implications for policy
- Trans-Atlantean research i.e. post-Baconian research
- Environmental political theory
- Discursive democracy and The Open Society
- Ecological Economics

Publications

Charlesworth, M., Okereke, C., A call to reason. Nature Reports Climate Change (2009), doi:10.1038/climate.2009.118

Charlesworth, M., Okereke, C., Policy responses to rapid climate change: An epistemological critique of dominant approaches. Global Environ. Change (2009), doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.09.001

Charlesworth, M. (2000) ‘Sustainable Development: Transdisciplinary Research Programmes – The Most Important Transdisciplinary Research Question?' published in Haberli R et al (ed) Proceedings of the International Transdisciplinarity 2000 Conference – Transdisciplinarity: Joint Problem-Solving among Science, Technology and Society. Workbook 1: Dialogue Sessions and Ideas Market/, Zurich: Haffmans Sachbuch Verlag pp. 331-335

Forthcoming Publications

Manuscript in preparation for Springer - Sustainable Development: Transdisciplinary Solutions
Summary: The book will characterise the current limitations of scientific prediction for global environmental issues such as climate  change. It will review the epistemology of this policy field including current policy responses (e.g. to abrupt climate change) then suggesting potential ethical and policy implications and resolutions. Specifically, it will present innovative approaches to respond to these difficulties in prediction, which should also allow sustainable development policy to be more democratic, plural and open - in line with Agenda 21. This should be seminal in a new field: ‘earthsystemology’. It is intended to have a broad readership that includes natural scientists, social scientists, philosophers, policy makers and the general public.

A range of of other publications are in preparation based on completed doctoral research.

Selected Presentations

Earth Conference - June 2008
Paper 1 - Is Earth System Management Possible? Alternatives?
Paper 2 - Transdisciplinary Solutions to Earth System Stress.

Quest Summer School - September 2007 - 'Policy responses to rapid climate change OR Rapid Climate Change! What Now?'

Rapid Climate Change International Science Conferernce - October 2006 - 'Policy responses to rapid climate change OR Rapid Climate Change! What Now?'

Invited by Professor H-J Schellnhuber to present ‘Unpredictable Earth System: Implications for Policy’ at Tyndall UEA June 2003 and Tyndall Manchester September 2004