Ecosystems: A lens to the understand the world

Ecosystems are the core concept of the New Geography which underpin many of the events in the Terra Madre 2020 program, and indeed the logo of this year’s edition.

Among the many digital events on offer, the main conference dedicated to the theme will be held on October 8 at 5 p.m. Rome time: New Geographies and Possible Futures, a dialog between Italian geographer Franco Farinelli, British economist Paul Collier and International Relations expert Virginie Raisson, moderated by Davide Papotti, Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Parma.

Why ecosystems? Because in order to understand what has happened to the world in recent months, where our attention has been focused on the pandemic and the economic crisis that it has provoked, we must take ecosystems into consideration. And, as underlined by a multitude of world events, the real threat is the environmental crisis, which is both a cause and an amplifier of other crises. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how the dominant paradigm of the 20th century—infinite growth—is increasingly self-contradictory. The problem regards the health of ecological systems, the increase of social inequality worldwide, the constant and unimaginable scale of biodiversity loss, the disrespect for human rights, and various forms of malnutrition. All these phenomena are interrelated, and must be considered as such.

Tune in from 5 p.m. Rome time on October 8 to listen to what our panel has to say on the Facebook page of Slow Food International.