LASER Talks Ispra: Entanglement of Desert Water: on the water conflict between demands for energy transition and rights of a fragile ecosystem.

This artist-led discussion brings together experts in economics and economic history, extremophile microbiology, the science of groundwater, and critical raw materials policy in Antofogasta (Chile) to expand the dialogue initiated by artist Penelope Cain within the framework of NaturArchy. Chaired/Moderated by: Penelope Cain

EVENT INFO

When: 19 September 2024, 19h CET

Where: JRC Ispra + Online

Access Info: WEBEX 

• Meeting number: 2740 559 5186
• Password: 7m3rPhtpu@7

The Atacama Desert is the driest in the world with a fragile and unique ecosystem, co-evolved to survive with the small natural hypersaline lagoons on the salt plains. This lithium-rich groundwater is increasingly pumped and evaporated for its lithium salts, making use of lithium as a critical raw material to service a much-needed battery-led transition away from carbon fuel, addressing the existential issue of human-induced climate change. Ultimately, this is also destroying the fragile groundwater balance and its critical nature, lacking effective monitoring systems and putting the unique environment and ecosystem at risk, from unique cyanobacteria to iconic flamingos.

The talk will explore these issues by posing and answering questions such as - how do economies and policies from Western centres of power such as the European Union impact these 'peripheries', and how can conflicting demands be addressed? What, if anything, can be learned from previous 'resource curse' extractive mineral rushes? How could considerations of recycling and reuse be placed at the forefront of a new technological breakthrough such as Li battery-led energy transition? What is the future of this desert site, and why should we care?

SPEAKERS BIOS

Graziano Ceddia is a social scientist with a background in applied environmental economics and political economy. He has been working on a range of topics at the interface between social and environmental sciences, with a strong focus on agricultural expansion and deforestation in the Global South. Between 2016 and 2021 he has been leading a research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) studying the impact of governance structures and indigenous peoples land rights on deforestation in the Chaco Salteño (Argentina). He has worked at different universities across Europe. He is currently working as a scientific research officer at the European Commission‘s Joint Research Centre on issues related to the social and environmental impact of agriculture, with a special focus on the role of agroecology.

Prof. Alicia Valero Delgado is head of the industrial ecology group at the Energaia Institute and full professor at the University of Zaragoza in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Her research has focused on identifying resource efficiency measures and applying thermodynamics in evaluating resource depletion, a subject from which she has received four international awards. She is the author or co-author of over 100 papers in international journals and book chapters relating to analyzing and optimizing energy and using raw materials. Together with her father, Antonio Valero, she developed Thanatia's theory. 

Elisabeth Lictevout is the director of IGRAC (International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre, Delft). She is a Hydrogeologist with a PhD in Water Sciences, an MSc in Sustainable Management and Protection of Water Resources, and over 26 years of worldwide experience as a consultant, project manager, researcher and research & development center director. After obtaining her PhD, Lictevout took her first steps into the (ground)water sector working for a consultancy firm in France. She later joined Action Against Hunger first as WASH HQ Coordinator and Field Project Manager in Latin America and Southeast Asia; later in the humanitarian sector as WASH expert at the European Commission Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid for Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. In 2011 Lictevout moved to Chile, where she served several positions and organisations before joining IGRAC. She has been director of research centre CIDERH to Water quality Consultant for Joint Monitoring Program (UNICEF/WHO), and from Associate Professor at Universidad de Concepción to Co-founder and Director of Carpe Science.

Cristina Dorador is a Chilean scientist, doctor, and former assembly member of the Chilean Constitutional Convention who conducts research in microbiology, microbial ecology, limnology and geomicrobiology. She is also an Associate Professor in the department of biotechnology of the Faculty of Marine Sciences and Natural Resources at the University of Antofagasta. She coordinates the Extreme Environment Network for the study of ecosystems in the geographical extremes of Chile and has developed biotechnological tools to value the unique properties of some highland microbial communities such as resistance to ultraviolet radiation for elaborate cosmetic creams, joining the field of cosmetic biotechnology. She has also led the development of textile material using the photoprotective properties of highland bacteria.

Penelope Cain’s artistic practice centres around land, water and air storytellings from the Anthropocene and Post-Carbon; these occupied, colonised, extracted and transformed lands. With a science background her art practice is located between scientific knowledge and unearthing connective untold narratives in the world. She works across media and knowledge streams, with scientists, datasets, people and residues, drawing on more-than-human entry points to speculate on planetary storytellings and near/future mythologies, as they emerge in end-Holocene times.

SPONSORS

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the Commission’s science and knowledge service and provides independent scientific advice and support to EU policy, in order to tackle the interlinked and complex challenges faced by our society. Operating at the interface between science and policy, the   JRC   wants to strengthen its capacity to be a key partner in helping to identify solutions to such challenges.Its Science and Art project (SciArt) brings together scientists with artists and policymakers to discuss matters of concern, not only to the   JRC   and the European Commission but also more widely to society. It brokers, curates and communicates transdisciplinary exchanges and encounters around given topics of interest. It operates on a bi-annual cycle, Resonances, during which the topics are elaborated jointly by artists and scientists. https://resonances. jrc .ec.europa.eu/front

The Leonardo/ISAST LASERs   are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of the LASERs is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 50 cities around the world. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website. @lasertalks