Open AccessEnvisioning ARPA‐C: A Transdisciplinary Institution for Radical Climate Research and Intervention
Author(s) -
Badia Lynn,
Plaut Josette M.,
von Fischer Joseph C.,
Volckens John,
Muhs Jeff
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
earth's future
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.641
H-Index - 39
ISSN - 2328-4277
DOI - 10.1029/2021ef002115
Subject(s) - transdisciplinarity , transformative learning , agency (philosophy) , political science , climate finance , government (linguistics) , psychological intervention , climate change , sociology , ecology , social science , psychology , pedagogy , linguistics , philosophy , psychiatry , biology
President Joe Biden's administration is poised to make a significant investment in climate research, including the creation of ARPA‐C (Advanced Research Projects Agency–Climate). This commentary serves to promote discourse on ARPA‐C and the future of government‐led climate research. Here, we propose a revolutionary leap to the ARPA model that incorporates a focus on culture and equity in a unique institutional structure anchored by transdisciplinarity. With ARPA‐C, we argue for a radical rethinking of climate interventions that reconciles and evolves the relationship between social, technical, and environmental systems, by finding integrated pathways to improvement via a high‐risk, creative, and transformative climate action agenda. Without research that can address the network of causal relationships across multiple scales, systems, and nations, programmatic models for climate research and implementation are unlikely to succeed.