Empowering women to tackle energy poverty in the Mediterranean

An international project led by the ICTA-UAB, Engineers without Borders Catalonia (ESF), and the Catalonia Energy Research Institute (IREC) contributes to address energy supply problems in 1,500 households in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area.

Global fisheries could alleviate a global food emergency in extreme situations

A new international study argues that, if managed sustainably in advance, global fisheries could alleviate food shortages even after a nuclear war.

Tackling shocking decline in nature needs a ‘safety net’ of multiple and ambitious goals

Researchers from the BC3, ICTA-UAB and the University of La Laguna evaluate the criteria of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Restoring 30% of the World’s Ecosystems in Priority Areas Could Stave Off More than 70% of Projected Extinctions

A new report in Nature involving ICTA-UAB demonstrates that this measure would allow the absorption of nearly half of the carbon built up in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution.

Diet of pre-Columbian Societies in the Brazilian Amazon Reconstructed

A new study shows that hunting and agroforestry management, and not fishing, were the foundations of subsistence economy for pre-Columbian societies in the Amazon coast of Brazil.

Wildlife conservation undermines the rights of indigenous people and local communities in India

A new EJAtlas map launched by the ICTA-UAB denounces that the current model puts growth and gains before human lives and the nature it is intended to protect.

Ocean Warming and Acidification Effects on Calcareous Phytoplankton Communities

A new study led by researchers from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) warns that the negative effects of rapid ocean warming on planktonic communities will be exacerbated by ocean acidification.

ICTA-UAB economist Joan Martínez Alier wins the Balzan Prize for Environmental Challenges

Economist Joan Martínez Alier from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology  of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) is one of the winners of the 2020 Balzan Prize in the category of "Environmental Challenges: Responses from the Social Sciences and Humanities".

Indigenous People Essential to Understanding Environmental Change

An international research involving ICTA-UAB scientists shows how local and indigenous knowledge can help manage ecosystems and wildlife.

New publication in the MAGIC project takes a critical look at circular economy

With the world’s attention focussed on COVID-19, issues that were in the forefront of public concern just a few months ago seem to have magically disappeared.

Economic Benefits of Protecting 30% of Planet’s Land and Ocean Outweigh the Costs at Least 5-to-1

First-of-its-kind report involving ICTA-UAB researcher shows the global economy is better off with more nature protected.

ICTA-UAB awarded the "María de Maeztu” Unit of Excellence Award for the second consecutive time

The Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) has been accredited a Maria de Maeztu Unit of Excellence Award for the second consecutive time by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Proyecto experimental de agricultura urbana, local y tradicional en Sabadell

El ICTA-UAB y el Ayuntamiento de Sabadell constituyen la comunidad FoodE, que reúne a todos los actores implicados en el sistema de producción alimentaria de la ciudad y en esta iniciativa.

What do we breathe when in the forest?

For the first time, a study characterizes the forest chemistry of the air under the canopy of a Mediterranean holm oak forest and detects maximum concentrations in July and August.

Catalonia's Scientific Contributions to Fighting Covid-19

Sixty ICREA researchers, including Isabelle Anguelovski of the ICTA-UAB, lead more than a hundred research activities on Covid-19.

Academia in the Time of COVID-19: Towards an Ethics of Care

                                                                                                                                                                       .

Computer Platform Gives Visibility to Catalonia's Small Villages

A research team from the UAB, in collaboration with the Association of Microvillages of Catalonia, has created a Geographic Information System (GIS) for Active and Sustainable Hamlets (GISASH), which gathers information on the state of and services offered by the more than 330 municipalities in Catalonia with fewer than 500 inhabitants.

Environmental justice defenders victims of violence and murder

Grassroots movements halt environmental degradation in up to 27% of environmental conflicts worldwide, according to a study by the ICTA-UAB.

Technological changes and new low-carbon lifestyles, key to mitigating climate change impacts

In order to mitigate climate change impacts and achieve a more sustainable society, it is necessary to transform the current energy system based on fossil fuels into a model based on renewable energies.

Exploring climate change impacts through popular proverbs

Members of an irrigation community doing maintenance work in an acequia de careo (irrigation canal built at the top of the mountain) to improve the circulation of water for irrigation and human consumption.

Neolithic vessels reveal dairy consumption in Europe 7,000 years ago

Pottery from the site located in Verson (Francia) analysed during the research (Picture by Annabelle Cocollos, Conseil départemental du Calvados ou CD14 publicada en Germain-Vallée et al.

Economic growth is incompatible with biodiversity conservation

A study involving more than 20 specialists in conservation ecology and ecological economics highlights the contradiction between economic growth and biodiversity conservation.

Power struggles hinder urban adaptation policies to climate change

Transformative actions implemented by cities to address and mitigate the impacts of climate change may be hindered by political struggles for municipal power.

Analysis of tropical fire soot deposited in the ocean will help predict future global climate changes

The ICTA-UAB begins a scientific expedition in the Atlantic Ocean to collect dust and smoke samples from the fires of tropical Africa deposited in marine sediments.

Red coral effectively recovers in Mediterranean protected areas after decades of overexploitation

Protection measures of the Marine Protected Areas have enable red coral colonies (Corallium rubrum) to recover partially in the Mediterranean Sea, reaching health levels similar to those of the 1980s in Catalonia and of the 1960s in the Ligurian Sea (Northwestern Italy).

Sub-national “climate clubs” could offer key to combating climate change

‘Climate clubs’ offering membership for sub-national states, in addition to just countries, could speed up progress towards a globally-harmonised climate change policy, which in turn offers a way to achieve stronger climate policies in all countries.
Esdeveniments
Seminar: "What is post-normal science and why do we need it today?", with Silvio Funtowicz and Andrea Saltelli

Date: 2017-06-09

Seminar: "What is post-normal science and why do we need it today?"

With Silvio Funtowicz and Andrea Saltelli 

Date: Friday, June 9th 2017
Time: 11.30h
Room: Z/023


What is post-normal science and why do we need it today?  
Post normal science is not a new science in the sense of a new discipline – as if would be for example if Isac Asimov’s fantastic psychohistory were to be developed. Nor is it a claim to a new scientific method, though it has led to the development of PNS-inspired methodologies. PNS is foremost a set of practical insights meant to assist scientists and the recipients of their research to work together fruitfully in situation where  the fact are uncertain, the values in dispute, the stakes high and decision necessary of even urgent. More often than not, PNS prescribe what ought not to be done, what pitfalls should be avoided, and what should make us suspicious in appraising scientific facts. 

Thus, PNS warns against the dangers of reductionism - the idea that every problem can be decomposed into a sum of simpler problems, or against arbitrary separations between facts and values, especially at the science-policy interface, or against science as a truth-machine. PNS is foremost concerned about the quality of the scientific process, seen as recursive and reflexive. In the present situation of crisis of science and of expertise, and of run-away innovation, PNS can provide useful diagnoses, if not always therapies.  In the seminar, we shall discuss the genesis of PNS and how it can influence our way of doing science today.

It is highly recommended that you read this article before attending the seminar:
​http://icta.uab.cat/Newsletter/F&Ravetz_SFfinal.pdf
 

Silvio Funtowicz
Silvio Funtowicz began his career teaching mathematics, logic and research methodology in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the 1980s he was a Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, England. Until his retirement in 2011 he was a scientific officer at the Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC) of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC). Since February 2012 he has been Professor II at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT) at the University of Bergen, Norway.

He is the author of numerous books and papers in the field of environmental and technological risks and policy-related research. He has lectured extensively and is a member of the editorial board of several publications and the scientific committee of many projects and international conferences.


Andrea Saltelli 
Andrea Saltelli has worked on physical chemistry, environmental sciences, applied statistics, impact assessment and science for policy. His main disciplinary focus is on sensitivity analysis of model output, a discipline where statistical tools are used to interpret the output from mathematical or computational models, and on sensitivity auditing, an extension of sensitivity analysis to the entire evidence-generating process in a policy context.

He worked at the European Commission, at the Joint Research Centre where he led for ten years the unit of econometrics and applied statistics. His most recent papers have tackled sensitivity analysis and auditing, the ecological footprint, the future of statistics, and the rational of evidence based policy. He publishes a series of pieces on the crisis of science and the post-truth discussion in the online journal The Conversation, and gives courses in sensitivity analysis, sensitivity auditing and ethics of quantification. 
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