Ambassador Barzun Echoes Obama’s Call to Action in Chalmers Speech

Ambassador Barzun addressed an audience of about two hundred students, staff and members of the public at Chalmers University during an October 27-28 visit to Göteborg. On his first visit to Western Sweden, the Ambassador engaged the audience at this technical institution on how the Obama Administration and Embassy Stockholm approach finding productive paths forward on complex issues such as climate via the metaphor of fractals.

Fractals are forms in nature, such as a snowflake, in which the small parts that make up a larger object each look the same as the whole object. Ambassador Barzun argued that fractals are a lesson for success in complex endeavors, in that a small productive act, repeated over and over, can produce a big result. Applied to the climate issue, this means that while an international agreement is an important part of solving the climate challenge, it is the individual actions by people, companies and researchers such as those at Chalmers that are the essential parts to meeting the goals set out in international agreements and the targets dictated by science.

The Ambassador noted that President Obama characterized his selection for the Nobel Peace Prize as a call to action for the United States and the world to cooperate in solving complex challenges, and called upon the bright minds at Chalmers to actively contribute to meeting global challenges.