Media impact
This was a big year for the centre’s media and public engagement with many high points including a Netflix documentary about planetary boundaries and a global survey on public attitudes to transformation
The centre achieved over 1000 mentions in the media internationally in 2021. The biggest media moment landed in June when Netflix released Breaking Boundaries: the Science of our Planet, a major documentary about the centre’s planetary boundaries research.
Rockström also joined Netflix’s first sustainability advisory group. In autumn Gaffney also provided scientific advice for the BBC’s major series EarthShot.
Centre researchers caught the eye of the New York Times, early in the year. The pandemic created the conditions for a “natural” experiment on a small Baltic island famous for its birdlife. Would the sudden absence of human visitors to Stora Karlsö affect bird populations?
Centre researcher Olof Olsson and Jonas Hentati-Sundberg (formerly at SRC) found that the number of white-tailed eagles rose sevenfold once humans disappeared from the scene, wreaking havoc among the bird populations.
Linked to the UN’s Food Systems summit, the centre partnered with NowThis, one of the world’s largest online media platforms.
Now This published several video interviews with researchers from the centre including
director Line Gordon and researchers Malin Jonell and Laura Pereira.
Line Gordon explained what it will take to produce, consume and manage food more sustainably:
Malin Jonell explained how eating more seafood could help reduce the damage caused to our planet and its biodiversity:
Laura Pereira explained why we should grow more food that is indigenous to the land, rather than applying technology to grow foreign crops:
Global survey on change
In August, centre researchers published a global survey on attitudes to the global commons and transformations. Among the 20 richest countries on Earth (G20), 73% of people believe Earth is approaching tipping points (interpreted as regional-scale severe events that are abrupt or irreversible, for example relating to the Amazon rainforest or Greenland ice sheet).
The survey also revealed that three in four people (74%) support economic systems change to protect people and planet, rather than a singular focus on profits.
The report gained strong international media coverage and the findings were presented to a G20 preparatory meeting.
In Sweden, the centre is regularly asked to comment on rolling news relating to sustainability.
Deputy director Victor Galaz writes regular opinion articles for one of Sweden’s leading newspapers Svenska Dagbladet focusing on topics as diverse as climate threats, governance, the sustainability of cryptocurrencies and the risks of artificial intelligence.