MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Event

Oct 22-23, 2019
Anthropocene and Public Health

Controversies about the extension and seriousness of effects of human actions on the health of local communities via perturbations of environmental conditions were reported as early as 1661. In that year polymath John Evelyn published a book to complain about the insalubrious air of London and its impact on people’s health (their lungs). The message of John Evelyn was addressed to King Charles II, recommending tree planting. Under the aegis of industrial and technological enterprises, the impact of human activities in the last decades has extended so broadly that national and international institutions are now considering strategies to tackle related public health issues. The unhealthy effects derived from technological and industrial developments co-evolve with the flourishing of our societies.

Fields that integrate ecology, development and evolution within medicine offer unique perspectives and comprehensive explanations. Indeed, these fields link the health of individuals and communities to ecological and societal conditions. Moreover, within these disciplines, both developmental and ecological characteristics shared across multi-species generations are analysed to cover a long-term period. A historical perspective permeates these fields, and with its ground-breaking capacity to liberate disciplinary approaches, it can allow the development of sustainable futures. The leading question for the workshop is how to transcend the limitations of biomedical institutions through the solutions offered by epigenetics, ecological evolutionary developmental biology and history and philosophy of science such that we can develop viable, complementary models to clarify and eventually handle the interaction between anthropogenic activities and public health. Humanities and social sciences enlightened by cutting-edge empirical research in the natural sciences can help guide the formation of new infrastructures and frameworks to tackle the contradictory developments of our times in a context where different values are negotiated.

Organizer(s)
Related Project(s)
Address
Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Room
Room 219
Contact and Registration

Limited places available. Please email Flavio D'Abramo for further information.

 

Program: October 22, 2019

10:00–10:30

  • Opening, Jürgen Renn & Flavio D’Abramo

10:30–11:20

  • Chair: Ursula Klein
  • Hannah Landecker 30’, From Cheap Chicken to Genome Instability: Arsenic, Diabetes, and the Social Nature of One-Carbon Metabolism
  • Q&A 20’

11:20–11:35

  • Coffee break

11:35–13:00

  • Chair: Giulia Rispoli
  • Miquel Porta 20’, Plastics Define (our Lives and Health in) the Anthropocene
  • Jos Lelieveld 20’, Loss of Life Expectancy from Air Pollution Compared to Other Health Risks
  • Soraya Boudia 20’, Change in Continuity? Scientific and Political Life of Toxic Waste Residues
  • Q&A 40‘

13:00–14:00  

  • Lunch (for speakers and chairs only)

14:00–16:00

  • Dagmar Schäfer, Institute's Colloquium, Local Science, Imperial Knowledge: Disasters in the Thirteenth Century

16:00–18:00

  • Chair: Thomas Bosch and Flavio D’Abramo
  • Marina Romanello 20’, The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: Tracking the Health Challenges and Opportunities of a Warming World
  • Manfred Laubichler 20’, The Global Public Health Risks in the Anthropocene: A View from Evolutionary Biology
  • Salla Sariola & Scott F. Gilbert 20’, Microbes, One Health, and the Plantationocene
  • Rita Cantalino & Raniero Madonna 20’, Contamination and Environmental Conflicts: The Veritas Project
  • Q&A 40’

18:00–19:00

  • Dinner (for speakers and chairs only)

19:00–21:00

  • Roundtable

 

Program: October 23, 2019

09:30–10:00

  • Chair: Donatella Germanese
  • Paolo Vineis 20’, Externalities: The Hidden Planetary Impacts of Carcinogens
  • Edna Bonhomme 20’, Invisible Data: Mapping Gender in Public Health in the Middle East during the Age of the Anthropocene
  • Q&A 20’

10:00–10:15

  • Coffee break

10:15–11:15

  • Chair: Miquel Porta
  • Thomas Bosch 20’, On the Role of the Microbiome in the Anthropocene Epoch
  • Flavio D’Abramo 20’. Modern Epistemologies of the Environment: Biology, Biomedicine, and Geology at a Crossroads
  • Q&A 20’

11:15–11:30

  • Coffee break

11:30–12:30

  • Chair: Flavio D’Abramo
  • Franz Mauelshagen 20’, Climate Change and Public Health—Historical Perspectives
  • Ohad Parnes 20’, From Interception to Incorporation: the Immune System and the Anthropocene
  • Q&A 20’

12:30–13:00

  • Discussion of Future Publication

13:00–14:00

  • Lunch (for speakers and chairs only)

14:00–15:00 

  • Discussion of Future Publication and Future Projects

 

2019-10-22T10:00:00SAVE IN I-CAL 2019-10-22 10:00:00 2019-10-23 15:00:00 Anthropocene and Public Health Controversies about the extension and seriousness of effects of human actions on the health of local communities via perturbations of environmental conditions were reported as early as 1661. In that year polymath John Evelyn published a book to complain about the insalubrious air of London and its impact on people’s health (their lungs). The message of John Evelyn was addressed to King Charles II, recommending tree planting. Under the aegis of industrial and technological enterprises, the impact of human activities in the last decades has extended so broadly that national and international institutions are now considering strategies to tackle related public health issues. The unhealthy effects derived from technological and industrial developments co-evolve with the flourishing of our societies. Fields that integrate ecology, development and evolution within medicine offer unique perspectives and comprehensive explanations. Indeed, these fields link the health of individuals and communities to ecological and societal conditions. Moreover, within these disciplines, both developmental and ecological characteristics shared across multi-species generations are analysed to cover a long-term period. A historical perspective permeates these fields, and with its ground-breaking capacity to liberate disciplinary approaches, it can allow the development of sustainable futures. The leading question for the workshop is how to transcend the limitations of biomedical institutions through the solutions offered by epigenetics, ecological evolutionary developmental biology and history and philosophy of science such that we can develop viable, complementary models to clarify and eventually handle the interaction between anthropogenic activities and public health. Humanities and social sciences enlightened by cutting-edge empirical research in the natural sciences can help guide the formation of new infrastructures and frameworks to tackle the contradictory developments of our times in a context where different values are negotiated. Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany Room 219 Flavio D'AbramoJürgen RennLina Schwab Flavio D'AbramoJürgen RennLina Schwab Europe/Berlin public