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carl folke

"Myself, I'm most interested in the Earth's ability to deal with change and continue to develop, what we call resilience."

Subject tags for this article: global change, Earth, ecology, economics, ecosystems, environment,

Born:1955
Doctorate in systems ecology, Stockholm University 1990.
Professor of Natural Resource Management at the Department of Systems Ecology, and head of the Centre for Transdisciplinary Environmental Research (CTM), Stockholm University

Interview by Eva Krutmeijer

It was assumed that Carl Folke would work for the family business, so he naturally started by studying economics. He has retained the economics approach but taken it into new areas. He was one of the first people anywhere - definitely the first in Sweden - to take a doctorate in the entirely new subject of ecological economics.
He is not a traditional ornithologist, yet it was bird life that prompted him in his choice of research orientation:

"Birds have always fascinated me aesthetically and emotionally. They're quite simply beautiful! What's more, something important often happens when we get a bird's eye view of life - we see whole entities and systems instead of parts and details."

What whole entities and systems interest you?

"I view the entire planet as an entity, about the same way as a doctor views his patient. Just as a doctor diagnoses and then proposes treatment, we survey the most serious environmental damage the world is suffering from and see what we can do about it."

Sounds simple, but isn't it difficult?

"Some years ago a huge UN-supported drive called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was started. Scientists all over the world are cooperating and a report was presented in 2005. It's a pretty clear description of the condition of our planet (link to Folke 1).

"Myself, I'm most interested in the Earth's ability to deal with change and continue to develop, what we call resilience (link to Folke 2). This is a new way of looking at the Earth, and it's been a real eye-opener. A resilient ecosystem has a good capacity for surviving sudden crises such as storms, fires and floods. We have to reinforce our planet's ability to deal with change, not just focus on what's destructive in the crises."

Don't you ever feel like giving up? New alarms every day about the climate, the world's oceans, the rain forests...?

"Rather the reverse. I'm trying to help where it's really needed. Then there's also an enormous communication challenge, to reach as many people as possible with this view of things. Only then are we going to see a real change for the better."

What's the greatest threat to the Earth today?

"If I have to choose two threats that are bigger than any others, it's that people tend to pretend that we humans aren't part of the biosphere, that the environment is something divorced from human society. Then there's the risk of inter-group conflicts as a consequence of loss of resilience. How we deal with religious conflicts is going to be decisive for the future of the planet."

What can environmental scientists do?

"Cooperate better! I believe absolutely in interdisciplinary research for improved policy. Biology, sociology, economics, history... By learning from each other and cooperating over the Earth's crisis areas we'll get results. Not least through gaining the respect of the public, which in turn will lead to change when people alter their behaviour."

You're a real ‘crossover scientist', then?

"Well, perhaps the traditional academic system is provoked by people you can't label clearly. But I'm noticing that the interdisciplinary approach is gaining acceptance - and you have to accept that innovators aren't always the easiest company!"