Warm welcome to Think Corner to listen Dr. James Hansen and Clare Farrel on where we really stand with Climate change.
The event is free of charge and open to all. Organised by Operaatio Arktis, in collaboration with NUOLI (the Government's Youth Nature and Climate Group) and the Academy of Finland's ACCC flagship project.
Link to live stream: https://www.helsinki.fi/fi/tiedekulma/suora-lahetys
CLIMATE RECKONING: Dr. James Hansen & Clare Farrell on where we really stand
Following the opening remarks of Mervi Pantti, the director of The Democratic Epistemic Capacities in the Age of Algorithms (DECA), Dr James Hansen, former NASA climate chief and Columbia University professor who warned the world about climate change in the US Congress as early as 1988, will open his findings on why the average global temperature rose suddenly between 2023 and 2024, leaving most climate scientists baffled.
Hansen's research reveals that we have entered an era of accelerating warming, which changes everything we thought we knew about the time scale of climate change.
In a conversation with Clare Farrell, founding member of Extinction Rebellion UK, Hansen presents evidence of how the climate science community has systematically underestimated both the speed and scale of climate change. Together they will explore why current climate projections ignore many critical signals and what this means for the climate situation - and what we can do to address the problem.
Following Hansen's 20-minute presentation, Farrell will lead an interview about what these findings mean for our societies, our souls, our politics, and the movements fighting for climate justice. If we have entered a new era of human and planetary history, what is asked of us as communities, as institutions, or as a species?
SCHEDULE:
09:00-09:10 Opening words:
Anni Pokela, Operaatio Arktis
Rosa Rantanen, ACCC
Norppa Kivimäki, NUOLI
09:10-09:20 Opening remarks: Researchers’ role in a burning world
Mervi Pantti, DECA
09:20-09:50 Open seminar: Dangerous Climate Change: Understanding the Threat
Dr. James E. Hansen
09:50-10:28 Fireside chat
Dr. James E. Hansen
Clare Farrell, Co-founder of Extinction Rebellion & Democracy Campaign
10:28-10:30 Closing words,
Anni Pokela, Operaatio Arktis
speakers:
Dr. James Hansen
Dr. James Hansen is a renowned climate scientist, author, and advocate whose groundbreaking research first brought global attention to the dangers of climate change. He is Director of the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. A former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Hansen has spent decades advancing scientific understanding of Earth’s climate system and championing urgent action to protect the planet’s future. Today, he continues to shape the global dialogue on climate policy and solutions through research, public engagement, and mentorship of the next generation.
Clare Farrell
Clare Farrell is an active citizen. Her background is in sustainability, fashion and more recently climate activism having helped to co-found Extinction Rebellion. As a designer her work has expanded beyond clothing and material products and into experience design and participation design, strategic communications and strategies for positive social change. Clare has a deep love for humanity and a longing to support us to create a new story and a new way forward into an uncertain future, holding love and hard work as the key to our success. When she's not working on democracy via the Humanity Project, or changing culture through Hard Art, she loves growing vegetables, cycling, and gathering people to learn, drink and dance together.
Mervi Pantti
Mervi Pantti is a Professor of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Helsinki and the director of the multidisciplinary research consortium The Democratic Epistemic Capacities in the Age of Algorithms (DECA), funded by the Strategic Research Council. Her research focuses on media and societal crises, with recent work examining experiences of Finnish climate scientists and experts. Her recent publications include the books The Media and War in Ukraine (Peter Lang, 2023, co-edited with Mette Mortensen) and Platforms and the Planet: Big Tech, Digital Platforms and Environmental Responsibility (Emerald Publishing, 2025, co-edited with Salla Laaksonen and Olga Dovbysh).
Anni Pokela,
Operaatio Arktis
Anni Pokela is a founding member and strategic expert at Operaatio Arktis. Currently completing her Master's Thesis in Gender Studies at the University of Helsinki, she is developing a new feminist approach to climate interventions. An experienced international speaker, Pokela works to cultivate agency in the face of profound uncertainty and finding power in our capacity to act within complexity.
Norppa Kiviniemi
Norppa Kiviniemi (they/them) is the coordinator and member of the Youth Nature and Climate Group NUOLI. They study in the Master’s Programme of Environmental Change and Global Sustainability at the University of Helsinki. In their studies, Kiviniemi focuses on environmental policy and economics – with a particular interest in examining structural inequality and oppression related to the sustainability transition. Within NUOLI, Kiviniemi wants to highlight criticism of continuous economic growth and promote discussion on an ecologically sustainable economy in cooperation with young people. Previously, Kiviniemi has been active in student organizations in the fields of advocacy and societal influence.
NUOLI is an expert group under the Prime Minister’s Office, consisting of young people aged 18–28. The group supports ministries and strengthens the voice of youth in the environmental policy sector by issuing statements on decisions under preparation and participating in meetings of the National Commission on Sustainable Development. The group also seeks to engage young people by organizing a Youth Environmental Summit every two years. The next summit will be held in Helsinki on May 23, 2026