On my most recent work trips to Iraq and Afghanistan I noticed a curious thing: American and European journalists avoided talking to each other. They deliberately sat apart at press conferences in Baghdad and chose different tables in restaurants. If discussions did take place, the views on issues such as terrorism differed fundamentally and the lack of mutual understanding was baffling. Since 11 September 2001, a widening gulf seemed to have opened between American writers and their European colleagues.
It was this personal observation which inspired me and others to set up the Ankelohe Conversations, a series of international writers' symposia supported by openDemocracy and Germany's Draeger Foundation. Every year, "AnkCon" will convene distinguished non-fiction authors and journalists at the Gut Ankelohe estate on the outskirts of Hamburg, Germany, to discuss the most pressing issues of our time.
The writers mainly from the United States, Germany, and Britain are carefully selected from various professional backgrounds and given the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas in discussions with renowned outside speakers from academia, business, science, politics, NGOs, and international institutions.
This year's symposium is held on May 18-21 2006. It addresses arguably the most serious twin challenges of the 21st century, as indicated in its theme: "The Heat is On: Climate Change and the Oil Endgame".
A large number of authors and authorities on the subject who share a sense of urgency about the issue are gathering in Gut Ankelohe. Among them are Jeremy Rifkin, Ronald Oxburgh, Jeremy Leggett, Colin Campbell, Mark Lynas, Vijay Vaitheeswaran, and Mike Tidwell.
A transatlantic public debate about climate change and the energy crisis as well as about today's other huge problems (terrorism, wars, and poverty) seems more necessary than ever, for they no longer affect the citizens of single countries only but of the entire world. Crucially, these problems can only be dealt with through united global efforts.
Lutz Kleveman is a writer whose books include The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia (Grove Atlantic, 2003). He is host of the Ankelohe Conversations
Also in openDemocracy on the Ankelohe Conversations:
Simon Retallack, "Ankelohe and beyond: communicating climate change"
(17 May 2006)
Writers should play an active and responsible part in setting the agenda for this, as investigators, educators, and opinion-makers. They should initiate political and cultural debates. However, despite globalisation and European unification, these debates often remain nationally confined. This is partly because writers from the different countries rarely know each other personally, and they have few platforms to exchange views and ideas.
At the same time, book authors of all nationalities are increasingly losing their influence on political and cultural decision-making. They are sidelined by the growing dominance of shallow infotainment and breathless newsbite journalism, especially on television and the internet. For the individual writer, it is virtually impossible to counter this dominance.
These are good enough reasons for a few bright minds to get together at Gut Ankelohe. The AnkCon idea, in short, is to create a Ditchley Park or a Königswinter for authors which will create a network, initiate public debates, inspire controversy, and shape the intellectual landscape on both sides of the Atlantic.
The symposia will address how authors could write more effectively about serious issues, including the question of how public discourse could better engage with these issues to help galvanise people and governments into action.
Climate change is a simmering catastrophe that few journalists enjoy writing about, partly because it is complicated and lacks the usual man-against-man conflict pattern. The same is true for energy issues. Instead, most journalists prefer to cover the many little and large "straw fires" of the present. Economic worries continue to excuse lack of action. Obsession with terrorism is the ideal diversion from a problem that is ultimately more dangerous.
Writers have a key role to play in changing this. AnkCon participants will therefore investigate what scenarios exist for life on a hotter planet and for the transition into a post-oil era. If we accept that global warming and the end of cheap oil will force major changes and dislocations on our societies and lifestyles we had better start discussing our plans for them now.
