FRIDAY
5 JUNE
SALA 2
17:30
What happens when people studying climate change stop observing reality with the objectivity science requires? When data are not mere numbers but rather daily proof that the roof is caving in? And what is the responsibility derived from awareness of knowing the extent of environmental crisis before and better than others?
Drawing on the issues raised in The Weight of the World, Jason’s Box, and Elements of(f) Balance, the meeting centers on the “burden of consciousness” as experienced today by many scientists and researchers: the frustration over political inertia and the irresponsible indifference toward the results of research, a sense of impotence about the worsening climate crisis, and the growing need to leave the laboratory and take a public stand.
Climatologist Luca Mercalli, film directors Michael Strassburger and Florian Heinzen-Ziob, and language researcher Maria Cristina Caimotto, moderated by Silvana Dalmazzone, professor of Environmental Economics and Climate Change, discuss the relationship between science, activism, and eco-anxiety regarding the role of language in how the climate crisis is communicated. Which narrations, metaphors, and communicative strategies can be used to talk about climate change? How do words, the media, and public discourse influence our perception of the emergency: do we react with denial, boredom or mobilization? A collective reflection on the distinction between observation and action, research and civic responsibility, and the need to develop new ways to present the complexity – scientific, political, and emotional – of the current ecological crisis.
