How to survive the environmental crisis
The seminar 'How to survive the environmental crisis' by Prof Paolo Vineis will take place on 3 July 2026 at 2 pm in Pisa (Talento all'Opera Room, Palazzo Pilo Boyl). The seminar is organized by the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Sustainability and Climate.
Abstract
Decades of international conferences, detailed scientific reports, and broad consensus have not led to a reduction in global emissions. Climate change is accelerating even more rapidly than previously predicted. Biodiversity is declining rapidly. This is not because we lack solutions. Implementing them would require radically changing power structures, global inequalities, and world institutions. This transformation is not happening.
The scenario is alarming. Yet governments insist on weak responses—they minimise and sometimes deny the scope of the problems, or they cultivate the promise that technological innovation alone can save us without affecting acquired privileges and established lifestyles.
The book on which the seminar is based (Vineis-Savarino, Come sopravvivere alla crisi ambientale, Cortina, Milan, 2026) advances a different and more radical thesis: the environmental crisis is, first and foremost, a political issue. Based on scientific data, the authors show how the impact of this crisis on human health is generating an explosion of social and health inequalities. What emerges is the urgency to imagine a new ethics and a new politics, capable of profoundly transforming individual behaviours, institutions, and economic strategies, placing at the centre the interests of the poorest populations, young people, and future generations.
The environmental crisis is not a technical problem, but the greatest political problem of our time.
Bio
Paolo Vineis is Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at Imperial College London and a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. His recent books include Prevenire (with L. Carra and R. Cingolani, 2020) and Il capitale biologico (with L. Carra, 2022).