The 11th Environmental Conference will address the effect of climate change on the mental health and future of young people.

The future of young people will be the theme that will open and close the session.
The future of young people will be the theme that will open and close the session.
News | Divulgation | Sustainability
(01/06/2023)
The University of Barcelona will host, on Wednesday 7 June, from 10:00 am to 1:30 noon, in the Aula Magna of the Historical Building, the 11th Environmental Conference, organized together with Familia Torres and the meteorologist and professor of Physics at the UB Tomàs Molina. This annual event, which this year is entitled "Let's talk about eco-anxiety: is there a future for young people? Let's take action! Let's make the ecosocial crisis an engine for change", will bring together a dozen experts and activists with the aim of analyzing the effect of climate change on the mental health and future of young people, and how climate anxiety is provoking protest actions by young people.
The future of young people will be the theme that will open and close the session.
The future of young people will be the theme that will open and close the session.
News | Divulgation | Sustainability
01/06/2023
The University of Barcelona will host, on Wednesday 7 June, from 10:00 am to 1:30 noon, in the Aula Magna of the Historical Building, the 11th Environmental Conference, organized together with Familia Torres and the meteorologist and professor of Physics at the UB Tomàs Molina. This annual event, which this year is entitled "Let's talk about eco-anxiety: is there a future for young people? Let's take action! Let's make the ecosocial crisis an engine for change", will bring together a dozen experts and activists with the aim of analyzing the effect of climate change on the mental health and future of young people, and how climate anxiety is provoking protest actions by young people.
The Catalan minister for Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Catalan Government, Teresa Jordà, will speak at the opening of the conference along with the rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia, the president of Familia Torres, Miguel A. Torres, and the scientific director and host of the conference, Tomàs Molina.
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The future of young people will be the theme that will open and close the session. Oriol Anson, secretary of Rural Agenda of the Catalan Government, will focus his presentation on young people in Catalonia and will expose, as an example, the strategy of agricultural generational change, while Laura Rahola, head of Communication of the Representation of the European Commission in Barcelona, will put the counterpoint at the end of the day talking about the future of young people in Europe.

The event will be structured in two blocks: the first will address eco-anxiety from a medical and scientific point of view, and the second will give voice to young people and climate activism. Thus, the speakers in the first part will be Virginia Krieger, from the Faculty of Psychology of the UB, who will focus on the clinical side of eco-anxiety; Caroline Hickman, psychotherapist, who will present the conclusions of the largest scientific study published to date on climate anxiety in children and young people, of which she is a co-author; and Fernando Valladares, from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), who will give the conference "L'ecoansietat pot radicalitzar l'activisme climàtic?"(Can eco-anxiety radicalize climate activism?).
Twelve speakers, experts and climate activists will participate, on 7 June, in the annual event organized by the UB, Família Torres and the meteorologist Tomàs Molina.
The second part of the session will start with a conversation on climate anxiety between Tomàs Molina and Carlota Bruna, dietician-nutritionist and ambassador of the European Climate Pact. Afterwards, German climate activist Luisa Neubauer will give the talk "Why should you be a climate activist?". In the subsequent round table, on youth actions motivated by the ecosocial crisis, will intervene Beatriu Garcias, member of End Fossil Barcelona; Dani Arenas, from Greenpeace Spain; Maria Serra, ambassador of the European Climate Pact, and Elisabet Manich, from the Citizen Assembly for the Climate of Barcelona.
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The conclusions of the 11th Environmental Conference will be presented by Teresa Sauras, professor of the Faculty of Biology of the UB, delegate of the rector for sustainability and member of the advisory committee of the conference, just before the end of the session, which will be conducted by the vice-rector assigned to the rector, Ernest Abadal, Miguel A. Torres and Tomàs Molina.

This conference can be followed live on UBtv. To attend the event in person, please register on the website​​​​​​​ www.jornadesambientals.com.