Networking Friday with Josep Pelegrí

Beyond global change: turning threat into opportunity

On January 27th, 2023, 1-2 PM UTC, Josep Pelegrí (Institut de Ciències del Mar, CSIC) will talk about Beyond global change: turning threat into opportunity.

The anthropogenic footprint is swiftly degrading many ecosystems and changing regional and global climates, resulting in a most serious threat to humankind and many other species. For the first time in the history of our planet, one single species is producing a global impact, threatening not only many other species but also impacting a large fraction of its own population. But also, for the first time in its history, humankind is aware of the limited resources of our planet and recognizes that its current interaction with nature is unsustainable. This awareness is growing not only in international bodies such as the United Nations and the European Union but also, very importantly, in a significant fraction of its population. Hence, global change is also an opportunity to rethink how we want to evolve as a species, how we envision our future generations.

Here we propose that this future should aim at an increased connection with nature, with the ocean as its essential and central component, searching a state of harmony where we feel and act as part of nature rather than as a privileged species that owns nature. This requires an expanded cognition of nature, where cognitive and sensory knowledge combine to expand our perception of the environment. This expanded cognition shall not only develop real natural intelligence to our lives – much beyond simple technological and even scientific knowledge – but will also bring consciousness that we are all interconnected, with people and nature. To recognize that we belong to nature is probably the only way to get rid of those individual and collective egoisms that prevent our individual and collective happiness: the single path for Homo sapiens to fully release its inner potential.

This is an Ocean Decade Event.

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Speaker

Headshot Josep Pelegrí

Josep L. Pelegrí

Beyond global change: turning threat into opportunity

Prof Josep L Pelegrí did his undergraduate degree in Physics in Venezuela (1978), MSc in Physical Oceanography in Wales (1978-1980) and Oceanography in USA (1982-1984), and PhD in Oceanography at Old Dominion University, USA (1984-1988). He was an oceanographer for the R&D offshore groups of the Venezuelan oil industry (1980-1982 and 1984-1988) and a university lecturer at the Universidad de Las Palmas (ULPGC, 1992-2003), serving as the Dean of its School of Marine Sciences between 1998 and 2002. During 2002-2003, Pelegrí was a visiting fellow at the University of Madison-Wisconsin. In 2003, Pelegrí became a Scientific Researcher at the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM) in Barcelona, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and was promoted to Research Professor in 2011. Between 2016 and 2018, Pelegrí was Head of the Physical Oceanography Department and between March 2018 and June 2022 he served as the ICM’s Director. In 2020, the ICM was granted the Severo Ochoa seal of excellence, becoming the first Spanish marine research center to obtain it. Among many responsibility positions, Pelegrí served as the Spanish National Coordinator for Earth Sciences between 2006 and 2010.

Pelegrí’s research has encompassed many topics and geographical regions within the broad field of ocean circulation, its interaction with biogeochemical processes and climate change. During the last years, Pelegrí’s interests have also turned to marine social sciences, incorporating qualitative elements to his research as a tool for citizen engagement with sustainability. Pelegrí’s research has led to more than 120 publications in impact journals, plus some 60 articles as book chapters and dissemination articles, and the edition of eight scientific journal issues and books. Josep Pelegrí has successfully advised 21 PhD and over 30 MSc and undergraduate theses. He has been PI of many local, national and international projects, is member of national and international scientific committees, and is the coordinator of Ocean Cities, a UN Ocean Decade international program..

We will continue with the Networking Fridays during the next months. More information about future sessions as well as presentations and videos from previous sessions can be found here. Twitter Hashtag: #netfridays. Expect some very exciting afternoons, or mornings or evenings, depending on where you are…

If you need any additional information please send an email to Jose Luiz Moutinho.

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