Breaking the Feedback Loop
Online Symposium: October 27 & 28, 2026
In the 21st century, the environmental crisis of climate change and the political crisis of democratic decline have been pulled into a single feedback loop, in which each makes the other more severe.
As climate disruption heightens economic insecurity and fuels mass-migrations, the resulting spike in xenophobia within developed countries hastens the rise of ultranationalist leaders and policies that weaken democracy and thwart effective international cooperation to address the climate crisis.
The resulting rejection of democracy and cooperative climate action increases the likelihood of more severe climate degradation in this century with greater mass migrations and a more complete breakdown of democratic norms and multilateral cooperation.
The goal of this two-day online symposium is to understand these overlapping environmental and political crises and explore effective ways to break the cyclical relationship between climate degradation, ultranationalism, and democratic decline.
This symposium is sponsored by the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning.
Event registration information will be posted soon. View the schedule of speakers below.
Schedule of Events
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Opening Keynote
9–9:45 a.m.
Daniel J. Fiorino
Does Regime Type Matter for Climate Policies?
Morning Panel
10–11:30 a.m.
Déjà vu All Over Again: The Circular Politics of the Climate Crisis
David Abel
Telling Climate Stories
Malka Older
If there is no famine in democracies, why is there climate change?
Sheila Jasanoff
Why Political Theory Fails Climate Politics
Afternoon Panel
1–2:30 p.m.
How to Break the Loop? Energy, Education, and Human Rights
Rick Reibstein
The Prize: Extrication from the Extractive Mode
Juliane Mora
Global Studies: Interdisciplinary Team Teaching to Combat Climate Injustice and Democratic Decline
Erika Andiola
Protecting Human Rights in an Age of Anti-Immigrant Violence, Unlawful Abductions & Mass Incarceration
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Morning Plenary Address
9–9:45 a.m.
Rachael Boyce
Fighting for Democracy Through Polluter Accountability: How Climate Superfunds Fuel People-Centered Resistance
Morning Panel
10–11:30 a.m.
Power Hungry: AI, Authoritarianism, and Digital Disinformation
Quinn Slobodian
Elon Musk Attempts to Automate the Far Right
Judith Shapiro
China’s Contribution: Ecological Civilization as Environmental Authoritarianism
Joan Donovan
Refusing Data Centers
Afternoon Panel
1–2:30 p.m.
Global Strategies for Human Rights & Democracy in the Anthropocene
Brian Gorlick
‘Waiting for a miracle’: How to enhance delivery, advocacy, and solidarity on human rights and forced displacement
Augusto Lopez-Claros
Human Rights and the Transition from “Heart-Warming Sentiments” to Lived Realities
Jamila Raqib
Civil Resistance as Democratic Defense
Closing Keynote
3–3:45 p.m.
Luis Cabrera
In This Dark Time, Will the Eye Begin to See? Climate Change, Democratic Recession, and the Prospects for Renewing Global Citizenship
Photo: Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, “Rainbow, Storm Light on Dunes,” via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Cropped from original.