Green Talks
On September 6-8th 2013 CGIL, an Italian trade union, organized three evening events in Brescia during which experts from the Academia, trade unions and private companies discussed about Sustainable Development, linking the issue with national/international economic trends. Maria Luisa Venuta (De LAB and Catholic University professor) gave her contribution during the round table titled ‘Climate change, knowledge, innovativeness’ together with Luca Mercalli, an Italian climatologist and Gianluigi Fondra, representative of the Environment Dept. Municipality of Brescia. Maria Luisa addressed the relationship between climate change and economics from the connection between thermodynamics and economics. The rapid and massive exploitation of natural resources together with the effects of the climate change concur to rising level of entropy both at macro (biodiversity loss, glaciers reduction, etc.) and micro level, affecting our everyday lives. Economists, entrepreneurs and public administrators often underestimate the importance of climate change effects due to their supposed long-term evolutions, whose impacts are not perceived in the immediate future. In re-thinking the future economic system we need to develop a strong sustainability paradigm reducing production cycles and promoting long lasting materials and shared consumption, both at national and international level. Such a new vision, in which entrepreneurs are key actors, needs the contribution of public administrations and policy makers, trade unions and researchers in order to develop working groups specifically devoted to deal with such environmental challenges.
