The truth is that we have an inconvenient nature

Résumé

Climate change is expected to have a huge impact on food security. The debate about the role technology can have to mitigate the effects of climate change is in our view hampered by an a-historical and dualistic view on nature and the natural. Using the movie ‘An inconvenient truth’ as an example, we see parallels with the debate about genetic modification. In both debates nature and naturalness are categories that are placed opposite categories such as technological, cultural and the human. We come to the conclusion that in order to move forward, also when it concerns climate change, a different, dynamic, and multi-facetted understanding of nature is needed in societal debate. We also believe that there is a scale possible to measure the relative representation ofthese aspects. The approach we propose intends to replace nature and wilderness as references to one specific and static binary with a triangulated relation that integrates the multiple aspects of nature. This provides an approach that can enable stakeholders to arrive at a standard for nature that is dynamic, doing justice to basic ethical concerns.