Forests in Motion. How Will Climate Change Affect Our Forests?

On 15 March at 18:30h the artist in residence Paula Bruna, together with the group “EcoPhys: Fisiologia ecosistèmica i canvi global” participates in this activity in which she wants to reflect on our relationship with forests and how this can be modified in a context of accelerated environmental changes. Based on eye-witness reports from videos, voice clips and texts contributed by the general public, a group of researchers from the CREAF and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona will explain how climate change and other factors are already modifying our forests and will continue to do so in the future.

The forests are the protagonists of climate change in three ways: as the ultimate source of fossil fuels and the carbon dioxide we emit into the atmosphere, the main cause of climate change; as today’s sinks for carbon dioxide, and as living systems that are particularly sensitive to changes in the weather. Changing the forests means modifying the eco-system services that they provide to us and, probably, reducing their capacity to mitigate climate change. It is for this reason that the scale of climate changes and its effects in the medium term will depend, to a large extent, on the future of the forests.

Despite their appearance of stability, forests change over the course of time in response to variations in the weather or in human uses, sometimes in a dramatic way. With this activity we aim to reflect on this mutability of the forests within a context of accelerated changes, both in climate and in the uses that we as humans make of the forest systems. To do this, we will use experiences contributed by the general public that highlight the emotional element that often exists in the relationship between people and trees.

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