MEERTalk May 2026

MEERTalk: At the Crossroads of Civilization: Science, Society, Wars and Personal Choice w/ Phoebe Barnard

In this talk, Phoebe Barnard explores the urgent need to move beyond “business as usual” and consider how each of us can bring purpose and skill to the shifting of our civilization. As Dr. Ye Tao and others have shown, events are overtaking us, and everything we know and love is at stake, leaving little time to equivocate. Phoebe asks what pivot points each of us can create or influence, what skills we can bring to the table, and what role organizations like MEER or projects such as Biodiversity Early Warning Systems can play, even as war and crisis unfold around us. She emphasizes that ecological overshoot drives not only planetary crises, but societal ones as well. Drawing on historical patterns, she highlights how unstable climates often lead to social unrest, economic instability, and the fall of governments. Acknowledging that “misery and anarchy are no fun,” she ultimately asks how we can keep our hands as steady as possible on the tiller as we move into the future—while still enabling the scale of change this moment demands.

Phoebe Barnard is a US-born, Africa-grown evolutionary and global change scientist, professor, public policy strategist, mentor, convener and filmmaker. Highly output-oriented, with 36 years of deep and broad experience working jointly in governments, academia, international initiatives and nonprofits, and years of warning humanity about what's ahead, she is now fed up with the slow pace of change - and has gone straight for the jugular of societal and systems change at these crossroads of humanity.  

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Sunday, May 3, 2026
11:00am EDT
4:00pm BST

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Or watch on YouTube Livestream HERE: https://www.youtube.com/live/mqNrhgIlmUE?si=x5bouTH_Agmkgw88

REGISTER HERE TO JOIN THE LIVE DISCUSSION (Registration required): https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/CXN2esAOTDeZ9i0NlBUd9g