The Need to Respect Nature and its Limits
Pluralizing the Anthropocene
Pluralizing the Anthropocene
Schedule: 15:00 - 16:30 (UTC + 1)
The session will be in English
Registration: Events will take place online. All welcome but registration required by this link
Events
will take place online. All welcome but registration required
Helena Freitas (Centre For Functional Ecology | Fundação
de Serralves)
Moderators: Gonçalo Santos (CIAS/ Sci-Tech Asia)Ana Luísa Santos (CIAS / University of Coimbra)
The pandemic
we are experiencing highlights the excess and irrationality of our production
and consumption system, exposing an evident merging of ecological and health
crises. We are victims of an economic system that has been asserting itself in
a growing blindness before the planetary limits, and that does nothing in the
face of the health consequences of the obsession with profit. The development
model on which all economic activity is based generates colossal health risks
and tremendous social and environmental impacts, while feeding an inequality
that has become unsustainable. The real
challenge today is to make the post-crisis an opportunity for individual and
collective transformation, assuming our vulnerability and our integral
condition of a planet committed to ecology, health and peace; a world bigger
than ourselves, based on complicity, diversity and cooperation, capable of
welcoming and caring for the plurality of life forms. It is not a question of
restoring and returning to a previous condition, but of proposing alternatives
for the universal good, with creativity and cooperation, supporting the
transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient activities, driven by fair
investments, training, knowledge, and embracing the wisdom of the world that is
after all our common home.
Related
Helena Freitas received her PhD in Ecology from
the University of Coimbra, in collaboration with the University of Bielefeld,
Germany, in 1993, and did postdoctoral studies at Stanford University, USA,
between 1994 and 1996. She is Full Professor of Biodiversity and Ecology at the
Department of Life Sciences of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the
University of Coimbra since 2003, and holds the UNESCO Chair in Biodiversity
and Conservation for Sustainable Development since 2014. Helena Freitas joined
the General Council of the University of Coimbra (2009-2011), was the Director
of the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra from 2004 to 2012, the
President of the League for the Protection of Nature (1999 (2002-2005), the
founder and President of the Portuguese Society of Ecology (2004-2013) and the
Vice- President of the European Society of Ecology (2009-2012). She is
currently Coordinator of the Center for Functional Ecology - science for people
and the planet, Scientific Coordinator of FitoLab - Phytosanitary Laboratory of
the Pedro Nunes Institute, and is a member of the Scientific Council of the
Department of Life Sciences of the University of Coimbra. Her research
interests include Ecology; Mediterranean Ecosystems; Forest and Agriculture;
Ecology and Management of exotic and invasive species; Conservation of Nature,
Biodiversity; Physiology of the tree; Diversity of Plants and Fungi; Tolerance
to Stress and Bioremediation; Environmental policy; Bioenergy; Conservation of
Nature; Microbial ecology; Ecology and Society. She is the author of more than
300 international scientific publications and several publications promoting
and disseminating science. In March 2000 he was awarded the Commendation of the
Order of Prince Henry the Infant by the President of the Portuguese Republic
Jorge Sampaio.