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SUMMARY:Discussion of chapters from Steven Pinker's book "Enlightenment No
 w" - Professor Bhaskar Vira\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20181030T130000Z
DTEND:20181030T140000Z
UID:TALK112021@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lucy Goodman
DESCRIPTION:Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason\, Science\, Humanism\, 
 and Progress is a 2018 book written by cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. 
 It uses statistics to argue that health\, prosperity\, safety\, peace\, an
 d happiness are on the rise\, both in the West and worldwide. It attribute
 s these positive outcomes to Enlightenment values such as reason\, science
 \, and humanism.\n\nA discussion session led by the University of Cambridg
 e Conservation Research Insitute Director Professor Bhaskar Vira\, will ta
 ke a Political Ecology approach to dissect key chapters in the book. \n\nA
 n extract is below:\n\n“A Babylonian in 1750 BCE would have had to labor
  fifty hours to spend one hour reading his cuneiform tablets by a sesame-o
 il lamp. In 1800\, an Englishman had to toil for six hours to burn a tallo
 w candle for an hour. (Imagine planning your family budget around that—y
 ou might settle for darkness.) In 1880\, you’d need to work fifteen minu
 tes to burn a kerosene lamp for an hour\; in 1950\, eight seconds for the 
 same hour from an incandescent bulb\; and in 1994\, a half-second for the 
 same hour from a compact fluorescent bulb—a 43\,000-fold leap in afforda
 bility in two centuries. And the progress wasn’t finished: Nordhaus publ
 ished his article before LED bulbs flooded the market. Soon\, cheap\, sola
 r-powered LED lamps will transform the lives of the more than one billion 
 people without access to electricity\, allowing them to read the news or d
 o their homework without huddling around an oil drum filled with burning g
 arbage.” 
LOCATION:Room 101\, Hardy Building\, Department of Geography
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