Cambiamento climatico tra evidenze scientifiche e analisi economica

In questo elaborato finale viene trattato il tema del cambiamento climatico utilizzando un approccio economico-scientifico e cercando di proporre una panoramica della letteratura sul tema. Nella prima parte dell’elaborato vengono definiti dal punto di vista scientifico il concetto di cambiamento climatico e i vari effetti che sta generando. Successivamente, vengono analizzate le implicazioni economiche che comporta il cambiamento climatico, utilizzando vari studi condotti da figure di spicco della comunità economica. Nella seconda parte della trattazione viene fatta una critica ad alcuni aspetti dei modelli, descritti in precedenza, e ne vengono proposti altri, più recenti, che mirano a risolvere il cambiamento climatico utilizzando più strategie contemporaneamente. Infine, la conclusione cerca di riassumere quanto detto nell’elaborato cercando di mettere in evidenza anche le potenziali opportunità offerte dal cambiamento climatico

Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies In Italy. An Economic Assessment

In this paper, the economic value of the impacts of climate change is assessed for different Italian economic sectors and regions. Sectoral and regional impacts are then aggregated to provide a macroeconomic estimate of variations in GDP induced by climate change in the next decades. Autonomous adaptation induced by changes in relative prices and in stocks of natural and economic resources is fully taken into account. The model also considers international trade effects. Results show that in Italy aggregate GDP losses induced by climate change are likely to be small. However, some economic sectors (e.g. tourism) and the alpine regions will suffer significant economic damages.Impacts, Climate Change, Adaptation, GDP Losses, Tourism

Cambiamento climatico, inquinamento atmosferico e aumento delle allergie respiratorie: solo una coincidenza o qualcosa di più? [Climate change, air pollution, and increase of respiratory allergies: just a coincidence or something more?].

It is well known that the prevalence of respiratory allergies has increased over time. At the same time, climate change has become part of our everyday life. The resulting question is whether this 'allergic epidemic' is linked to this aspect. It is assumed that the causes of the increase of respiratory allergies are mainly related to environmental factors and lifestyle: first, the improvement of social and health conditions and related hygiene hypothesis; secondly, lifestyle change and anthropogenic activities, which have caused an alteration in the balance normally existing between soil, water, and atmosphere, giving rise to the phenomena of climate change. In fact, it has been demonstrated that they can influence beginning, duration, and intensity of the pollen season, as well as the allergenicity of pollen. The consequence is both an increase in frequency and intensity of allergic symptomatology in subjects previously affected by allergy, and a promotion of the sensitization of the airways to allergens present in the atmosphere in predisposed subjects. Several intervention strategies aiming to mitigate climate change and reduce anthropogenic emissions and, consequently, respiratory allergies are possible and can be implemented on an individual and social level. It follows that the allergist cannot solve the problem of the progressive increase of respiratory allergies on his own. Anyway, his role can have both clinical and educational purposes with a special commitment to reduce health impact due to environmental risk factors. KEYWORDS: respiratory allergies; allergenic potential of pollen; climate change; pollution

Coesione Territoriale in ESPON

Il documento presenta il concetto 'Coesione territoriale' attraverso il suo uso nei progetti di ricerca applicata finanziati nell'ambito del Programma ESPON 2013: ARTS, DEMIFER, ESPON Climate, TIPTAP, TERCO, TIGE

La complessità della valutazione della CO2 nella pianificazione dei trasporti

La riduzione delle emissioni di CO2 è fondamentale per valutare la sostenibilità nella pianificazione dei trasporti. Tuttavia, la maggior parte dei piani di mobilità non è ancora riuscita a trovare una metodologia condivisa per internalizzare tali emissioni e renderle uno dei parametri in grado di influenzare attivamente le scelte finali sulle politiche e sulle misure da adottare. In particolare, risulta estremamente complesso dapprima quantificare, quindi attribuire un prezzo economico unitario alle emissioni di CO2. Il presente contributo indaga le problematiche relative alla loro monetizzazione, mostrando le metodologie attualmente in uso e il vasto grado di incertezza scientifica ed economica che le caratterizzano. Attraverso una meta-analisi compiuta su una raccolta di circa settecento casi, si è arrivati a limitare l’enorme intervallo attualmente esistente (fino a sei ordini di grandezza) e predire un modello in grado di definire un valore economico basato sugli obiettivi stabiliti preliminarmente dai decisori politici. In tale modo, la CO2 può essere inclusa attivamente nelle decisioni relative alle misure da intraprendere per una corretta allocazione delle risorse pubbliche, garantendo ai decisori una maggiore trasparenza nelle scelte

Incontri artistici in spazi estremi. Solar di Ian McEwan e il progretto Cape Farewell

Cape Farewell is an international not-for-profit programme based in the UK which brings creatives, scientists and informers together to see global warming with their own eyes, with the aim to engage and inspire a sustainable future society and instigate a cultural response to the climate challenge. This chapter analyses two artistic experiences which stemmed from the Cape Farewell project: the one of the novelist Ian McEwan and the one of the choreographer Siobhan Davies, both members of the 2005 Cape Farewell Expedition to Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard, in the Artic Sea. While Davies’s response to her experience is a work embodying the idea of fragility of the body she had experienced in the Artic, McEwan writes a satirical and allegorical novel about a greedy and selfish Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Davies’s artistic work took the form of a projection titled Endangered Species, in which a ballerina dances inside a museum display case, wearing a costume made of long bending rods, suggesting the dramatic uneasiness of the body in the extreme spaces of the North Pole. The key element of McEwan’s novel, on the contrary, is irony, which is used to make fun of the Cape Farewell Expedition crew, and above all to depict the anti-hero Micheal Beard, who takes part to the Expedition but is actually shocked by the entire experience, insomuch as to imagine, while dreading to die from hypothermia, one of his colleagues proclaiming his obituary on TV by saying “He went to see global warming for himself”. Both works focus on the vulnerability and unsuitableness of the human body in extreme conditions, aiming at highlighting that it is time for humans to understand they do not belong to such spaces. To do this, both artists use the trope of metaphor: Davies makes use of the metaphor of the ‘endangered animal’ in a cage, out of place, while McEwan uses the metaphor of the boot room, which the crew is unable to keep tidy responsibly, concluding «How were they to save the earth […] when it was so much larger than the boot room?». Thanks to the use McEwan makes of irony, he manages to rise in the reader an awareness towards two great faults of humanity: egoism and incoherence, which are among the main causes of most environmental issues. Both artists present planet Earth as an autonomous ecosystem whose functioning does not depend on humans, but which humans must respect if they are to survive

I cambiamenti climatici: la sfida del XXI secolo

There is a large gap between the actions required to avoid a dangerous warming of the planet, and those already decided to contrast it. The more time passes, the more the pessimistic visions obtain valid motivations and reasons. In order to radically change in few decades an energetic system and a predatory attitude towards the planet’s resources, it is necessary to recognize the climate crisis as a systemic one, as a problem of justice and equity for the future generations. The climate science should help to understand the importance of this challenge, by emphasizing the consequences of today’s decisions for the future generations. To recover our reasons to deal with posterity, both as individuals and community, is a bigger endeavor. To understand the importance of the climate change requires not only more knowledge, but also the acceptance of the planetary limits, the redefinition of human expectations, and also a level of emotional understanding that is not sufficient today