Recomendações políticas / Policy recommendations

Esperança vinda do Fim do Mundo

atsblogueDeixe um comentário

Por Fronika de Wit

“O Acre não existe!”

Inúmeras vezes ouvi essa piada brasileira, quando dizia que morava no Acre. Por estar situado na Amazónia, longe das grandes cidades, o Acre também é chamado “fim do mundo”. O Acre, situado na fronteira trinacional entre o Brasil, o Peru e a Bolívia, foi o último estado a ser incorporado no território brasileiro. Em 1903, com o Tratado de Petrópolis, a região do Acre foi comprada à Bolívia (a lenda diz que foi em troca de um cavalo). No entanto, somente em 1962 é que o Acre foi elevado à condição de estado brasileiro. O objetivo deste post é mostrar que o estado brasileiro mais novo existe! Além disso, é de destacar que a Amazónia é muito mais que a sua floresta e os seus recursos naturais a serem extraídos como se não tivessem fim. Para mostrar o potencial da região e dos seus habitantes e a importância dos processos de desenvolvimento local, descrevo duas iniciativas transnacionais de ação climática que nasceram no estado do Acre. Termino com um sonho para o futuro da Amazónia. Continuar a ler →

Revisiting public transport policies: the public bikes in Vilamoura, Portugal

atsblogueDeixe um comentário

By Alexandra Bussler

In an era of increasing individualism and acceleration, where patience is rare and the better-faster-cheaper rules, urban citizens’ expectations towards public transport are changing. What counts seems to be velocity, convenience, flexibility, reliability. Instead of delayed or non-arriving buses, inconvenient operating times and adherence schemes, public transport should fulfil the needs of its users with increased network flexibility (possibility of switching across different means), accessibility (it has to be financially attractive) and availability (24/7). Continuar a ler →

Uma nova geração… de financeirização da habitação?

atsblogue1 Comentário

Por Simone Tulumello

Este post é uma breve história de políticas com impacto sobre a habitação desenvolvidas à margem das políticas de habitação. Este post é uma breve história da financeirização da habitação em Portugal. O termo financeirização tem sido utilizado para descrever o crescimento da influência dos setores financeiros no Ocidente e em todo o mundo, bem como as transformações socioeconómicas que este crescimento produziu. A financeirização da habitação refere-se, em particular, à progressiva transformação da habitação num ativo a ser utilizado para obter lucro via especulação financeira (vejam-se os trabalhos de Manuel Aalbers). A motivação deste post é a aprovação, no início de 2019, de duas reformas que constituem mais dois passos na direção da financeirização da habitação: o regime jurídico das Sociedades de Investimento e Gestão Imobiliária (SIGI) e o Direito Real de Habitação Duradoura (DHD). Continuar a ler →

Desafios e oportunidades da política ambiental brasileira

atsblogueDeixe um comentário

por José Gomes Ferreira

Muito se vai escrever sobre o impacto do novo desenho institucional e as prioridades do novo governo brasileiro em matéria ambiental. Deixando de lado o posicionamento das forças políticas que o lideram, o país tem uma importante herança que reclama avaliação, continuidade e mudança, consoante os casos.

A imensidão do país, com a sua enorme variedade e riqueza em recursos naturais, permite que nele se concentrem: i) a maior biodiversidade de espécies no mundo, estando catalogadas na parte continental mais de 103.870 espécies animais e de 43.020 espécies vegetais, distribuídas por seis biomas: Amazónia, Cerrado, Caatinga, Mata Atlântica, Pantanal e Pampa; ii) 12% da água doce de todo o planeta, que apresenta, contudo, no seu território uma distribuição muito desigual, de tal modo que, segundo a Agência Nacional de Águas, a região Norte concentra 80% do total das reservas de água doce do país e a região Nordeste possui pouco mais de 3%; e iii) uma enorme riqueza mineral e no subsolo, assim como uma costa marinha de 3,5 milhões km². Em termos de água subterrânea, o Brasil partilha com a Argentina, o Paraguai e o Uruguai aquele que é considerado o principal aquífero do mundo, o aquífero Guarani, que possui um volume acumulado de 37.000 km3 e uma área estimada de 1.087.000 Km2. Continuar a ler →

On moral action for the sake of humanness and humanity

atsblogueDeixe um comentário

By Tim O’Riordan

I do not believe what I am about to suggest will happen. Nevertheless I feel it is timely to express it. I am a Gaianist, in that I subscribe to the provable evidence of an almost miraculous self-organising and self-perpetuating planet. We appear to be in stage two of the Gaian journey. The beginning was the microbial age of single celled biota which still colonise the microbiomes of our internal life giving functions. The second age of the more sophisticated many celled biota led eventually to the emergence of humanity. We seem to be heading towards the end of this age. What looms is a third Gaian age of a planet which is essentially post human. This could emerge within the coming thousand years. By post human I posit a species which has essentially lost any moral concern for the viability of its offspring, nor has the capability of being able to create the conditions for meaningful survival of the remaining human race. In essence that third Gaian age heralds the emergence of a species that can only live for its own existence. The humanness of caring, sharing and reciprocating will have atrophied. The essence of sustainability, namely providing both the conditions and the capabilities for future generations to live sustainably, will have been lost.

Continuar a ler →

Urban Food Gardens and the Sustainable Development Goals: blooming opportunities for local governance?

atsblogueDeixe um comentário

By Tainan Messina

One of the first things that called my attention in Lisbon, when I first arrived from Brazil, was the amount of used and unused green areas available within city limits. As I disembarked straight from Rio de Janeiro, a city that struggles with land scarcity, real estate development and gentrification, Lisbon’s land availability confused and amused me at the same time. On my everyday commute, I would think about all the possibilities these areas had to offer to local communities` improvement, for food production enhancement and for the overall promotion of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Worldwide, cities have the challenging task of how to pursue multiple SDGs, and Urban Food Gardens (UFGs) may present an interesting window of opportunity, with numerous options. These gardens, where ‘open spaces are managed and operated by members of the local community in which food or flowers are cultivated’ within urban or peri-urban limits, have the potential to address both municipal specific issues or wider regional goals if properly integrated in local/regional policy frameworks, boosting Lisbon’s food security, food systems’ design and overall social well-being.

When we look at urban planning strategies and policies, food systems are less visible and seem to be less of a priority than other systems, like housing, transportation and employment generation, and Lisbon is, in this sense, no different. However, as urban populations grow and climate change impacts become more frequent, food systems need to be looked at more comprehensively, and different institutional arrangements must be considered in order to tackle key food security and urban challenges.

Foto_1_30MAIO2018
Figure 1.Soil improvement and planting activities (Source: Circular Schools Project)

Continuar a ler →

Navigating climate change communication between advocacy and denialism

atsblogueDeixe um comentário

By Jieling Liu

When I came back from Asia after a 4-month trip to Lisbon at the beginning of March this year, a friend came to pick me up. Driving into the city, I noticed how green every corner had turned and the sun was gently shining golden light into the car – “How nice! I came back to the peaceful, green and sunny Lisbon!” As I spoke out loud my happiness, my friend kindly informed me that it had been raining for three weeks in a row, and that the sun “only came out to greet my return”. I was surprised, as much of my memories of Lisbon have been associated with sunny summer on the beach. “Yes, my mother said it was not at all common fifty years ago to have so much rain at this time of the year,” with a look in my eyes, my friend added: “it’s climate change, yeah?”

If I was to respond instinctively based on my scientific knowledge of climate change, I would say: “it probably is a result of climate change”, which was what I responded. We know that climate change is not merely about the excessive amount of CO2 in the atmosphere resulting in warmer temperature and “the warmest year on record…in a row”, nor just about penguins and polar bears, it is also about warmer oceans, more vibrant storms and more destructive wind speed – Harvey, Irma, Patricia… record damaging storms and superstorms on earth, sea level rise, increasing heatwave mortality, and a range of uncertainty related to extreme events, causing great costs of life and the economy. But it was obvious that the word “probably” did the opposite of facilitating the communication and clarifying the issue of climate change, on the contrary, it turned off the conversation which had an excellent context “three weeks of unusual rain”, in delicate awkwardness. The next thing we knew was that the rainy season continued for another few weeks.

Continuar a ler →

Políticas Públicas Climáticas, Petróleo e Gás: Portugal, Espanha e Marrocos e a insanidade institucional

atsblogue2 comentários

Por João Camargo

Nas políticas públicas regionais, nacionais, autonómicas e municipais de Portugal, Espanha e Marrocos há um reconhecimento inequívoco da existência de aquecimento global e das alterações climáticas, da origem humana dos mesmos e da fonte principal do dióxido de carbono: a combustão do petróleo, do gás e do carvão. Esse reconhecimento deu origem a leis, estratégias, planos, programas e agências nos três países: por exemplo, a Estratégia Nacional Energética de Marrocos, que define que até 2020 42% de toda a energia elétrica do país venha de fontes renováveis, o Programa Nacional para as Alterações Climáticas de Portugal, que visa assegurar a redução das emissões de gases com efeito de estufa em 18 a 23% até 2020 e 30 a 40% até 2030 em relação a 2005 ou a Oficina Espanhola para as Alterações Climáticas e o Conselho Nacional do Clima em Espanha. A nível autonómico é possível ver, por exemplo, a Lei Catalã para as Alterações Climáticas e a nível local as estratégias municipais de adaptação às alterações climáticas em Portugal.

Continuar a ler →

The challenges of regulatory science: the case of chemicals

atsblogueDeixe um comentário

By Susana Fonseca

In the last decades, there have been regular alerts on the risks that different chemical substances found in day-to-day life products – textiles, toys, cosmetics, food, electronic equipment, inks, etc. – pose for human health, particularly when vulnerable groups – among them children and women in childbearing age – are considered.

The research community has been a central intervenient in this debate. In fact, at the scientific level, research conducted on the interaction between some chemical substances and human health started, in a more systematic way, more than a century ago, even if regulatory effects resulting from that work can only be identified in more recent decades. But this is an area of strong controversy, where the strength of evidence necessary to act by anticipation by applying the precautionary principle has been everything but consensual.

Continuar a ler →

Sustainable intensification of agriculture? Insights from water systems and an old oxymoron

atsblogue1 Comentário

By André Silveira

The concept of sustainable development is often seen as a contradiction in terms (i.e. an oxymoron). No form of economic development can be sustained indefinitely, given the inherent limitations of both humans and the ecosystems we depend upon to, for example, access good quality water and food. Economists continue to debate alternatives based on, for example, the concepts of ‘steady state economy’ and ‘degrowth’.  Ultimately, I argue, any form of long term development centred on human well-being must safeguard the health of our rivers, aquifers, lakes and reservoirs.

No other sector of economic activity interacts more extensively with water systems than agriculture. In both developed and developing countries, we are witnessing a new wave of agricultural intensification in response to food security concerns associated with a fast expanding global population as well as social inequality.  Food insecurity remains a highly complex phenomenon that has been greatly exacerbated by food waste, the production of crops for livestock, energy policies and prices (leading for example to the use of food crops for biofuels), as well as financial speculation.

Continuar a ler →