Dear Mark,
Congratulations on a strong and useful proposal for a seminar series.
I think it might be stronger if it were more tightly focused on issues faced
by countries and nations with populations concentrated on the coasts of
heavily trafficked, industrialized seas such as the Irish Sea (the Irish Sea
Forum being your co-sponsor with the Department of Geography), the North Sea,
and the Baltic. There are many risk and uncertainty communication issues on
these shores concerning oil and chemical spills, contamination by and
catastrophic failure of nuclear power facilities, storm surges, and flooding.
By focusing in this way, you add value to the proposal by expliciting bringing
together people concerned with natural hazards and technological hazards.
These groups not necessarily meet and exchange views. One could add even more
value by integrating participants from the environmental justice movement.
This would provide a Northwest, national, and EU perspective without seeming
so broad and vague and possibly eliciting a "ho, hum ... risk communication
again" response. For example, two years ago there was a major early warning
meeting in Potsdam, and I understand that people there intend to carry on with
that focus. In other words, some such somewhat narrower focus would provide
your seminar series with a distinctive niche.
Good luck with this and please keep me in the loop.
All the best,
BEN
Dr. Ben Wisner
DESTIN, LSE & Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre, UCL
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