Event
Opening Academic Year 2022-2023 Planetary Boundaries
The opening of the Academic Year took place on Monday 5 September 2022.
At the opening of our academic year, three scientists from Wageningen addressed the theme planetary boundaries. Talking about research on agriculture, the social aspects of the food system and the driving forces behind transitions and tipping points. Our three scientists shared their ideas and vision on what is needed and what is possible. They showed how different disciplines and generations work together in Wageningen, in Europe, and across the globe.
This year’s theme: Planetary Boundaries
Global warming, biodiversity under pressure and imbalance in our nitrogen cycle: these are just a few examples that show that the earth is cracking under the pressure we impose on it. We must intervene and balance the growing world population with the limits of our planet.
In Wageningen we are aware of this urgency, thousands of scientists are working on parts of the solution. The challenges we face know no geographic boundaries, requiring science and society to work together to find answers for our planet, across disciplines. Education and dialogue play a central role in this.
Watch the ceremony:
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Sjoukje Heimovaara: opening speech
Sjoukje Heimovaara is the newly appointed president of WUR and she inaugurated the Academic Year 2022 - 2023 with a word of welcome. Heimovaara became increasingly aware of the role of our food system in putting pressure on our planetary boundaries in her previous position as director of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences Group.
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Hannah van Zanten: From linear to circular food systems
Hannah van Zanten, associate professor at Farming Systems Ecology and visiting professor at Cornell University, research the planetary boundaries of our food production? She is researching the planetary boundaries of our food production with a Circular Food Systems Model. The presumption is that we are able to produce sufficient healthy food within the boundaries of our planet.
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Jessica Duncan: Governing for just and sustainable futures
How can we change our production and consumption to stay within the boundaries of our planet? This is the societal issue at the core of sociologist Jessica Duncan’s work. She focuses mainly on what governance models best suit transitions towards a sustainable society.
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Marten Scheffer: How big change happens
Marten Scheffer, professor of Aquatic Ecology, has been working on critical boundaries for some time. He studies tipping points within ecosystems such as animal life in a pond: how a natural system slowly becomes fragile and tips into a different state. Fundamental insights from this research on the resilience of ecosystems are also relevant to planetary boundaries.
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