Saldiva remembers that "air pollution can not be solved with medication or health campaigns." It involves urban planning, issues related to mobility, studies on land use and occupation.

According to the researcher, while cigarette smoking is seen as a public health issue, air pollution is still not, even though about 14,000 people die early because of it only the city of São Paulo every year.

Saldiva's research integrates the USP Global Cities Program, which aims to draw scientifically sound proposals that can improve the quality of life in cities.

The USP Global Cities Program has the support from the rectory of the University and will seek support for public policies for the quality of life of São Paulo

Global cities influence the world. Regardless of their population size, they centralize global decisions. They are places where the best business deals are made and where the best art is located. One can also find the best orchestras, the best universities and the best food there. Their importance even transcends the countries where they are located. They not only attract more investment but also hold the top positions in quality of life. The criteria for a city to become a global city, which have been created by A.T. Kearney management consulting, give São Paulo the 34^th place in the overall ranking. But the USP Global Cities Program, launched on July 13 at the Oscar Freire Institute of USP's School of Medicine (FM-USP), intends to make São Paulo enter the group of the so-called elite cities, according to Marcos Buckeridge, a professor at USP's Institute of Biosciences (IB) and coordinator of the program.

2016 Ranking of the elite cities by A.T. Kerney management consulting

The event has brought together representatives of the civil society and non-governmental organizations, as well as researchers, politicians, and public and academic managers. Fernando Haddad, the mayor of São Paulo, has also attended the meeting in the company of his wife, Ana Estela Haddad, a professor at USP's School of Dentistry.

"The initiative is essential to the future of São Paulo. We will offer our databases, our intelligence and our public servants to contribute to the success of the program," said Haddad.

The project has been conceived by the director of the IEA, Paulo Saldiva, and meets a request from the rectory of USP, which plans to support the program "for years", said the vice-president of the University, Professor Vahan Agopyan.

According to Buckeridge, activities and research should be a base to public policies on quality of life in large cities, especially São Paulo. The idea is to systematize and deepen studies that are already carried out at the University, with a view to planning in areas such as mobility, pollution, waste, health, education, leisure, and land use and occupation. In short, the numerous aspects that involve life in large cities, he said.

"The IEA is already a crucial interlocutor, a sort of 'think tank' able to interact more freely with society with regard to academic rules. The program heads one of the priority themes of USP and I am sure that we will have benefits for the population in a few years," said Agopyan.

Vahan, Haddad and Saldiva: constructive partnerships with society and dialogue between various fields of knowledge for the success of the program

"We will seek to promote a dialogue between various fields of knowledge from constructive partnerships and common agendas. The University must learn to listen to society and the IEA will be a platform to make this happen. The idea is to link research networks and interested civil society groups to work in the light of scientific knowledge," said Saldiva.

Lawyer and environmentalist Fabio Feldmann has attended the opening session and gave a concrete example of how research at the University can become a base to public policy and bring effective results for the quality of life in cities. He recalled the traffic restriction program in São Paulo, which was introduced in 1995, when he was Secretary of State for the Environment. "We created the program based on the studies of Professor Saldiva. I often say that Saldiva designed the project and I carried the can," he joked.

He explained that the comment was made to remember the importance of involving politics and knowledge. "What we have seen in Brazil recently is a radical loss of contents in politics. As we associate politics to content we will have chance to rescue the country. The presence of Saldiva at the IEA is an incredible possibility of a realignment of various social actors. Anyone who has worked in public administration knows that the biggest challenge is how to make this joint," he said.

Professor Wilson Jacob Filho, from the FM-USP's Department of Pathology, has represented the unit's director and recalled the importance of the program to, among other goals, work in health and prevention of diseases of different population groups, particularly the elderly.

Buckeridge: "We have failed to produce databases and information that may support the diagnosis"

Population ageing, as well as physical and social inclusion of people with functional limitations, are issues that are increasingly becoming priorities in the context of large cities. "The USP Global Cities Program inteds to improve the quality of life of this population profile," said Professor Jacob Filho.

Urban planet

Urbanization is present on the worldwide agenda. If today 54% of the population live in urban areas, by 2050 this share will reach two-thirds. In Latin America the proportion will reach 89%, according to the UN report.

In the May issue of Science Magazine, 12 papers present diagnostics and revisions to the cities of the future. One of the studies shows that building knowledge-based societies is now a key strategy for the best use of innovative technologies. Knowledge societies will be better prepared to maximize the advances of science, technology and innovation (ST&I), according to the text.

"There is nothing more complex than a city. It is the only environment where man is wolf to man. We have been raised in a city concept where car ownership was an alienable right, such as the cigarette was a symbol of success or virility. Tinkering with values is not easy and so the cities are already being studied within the concept of complexity," said Saldiva.

"Unfortunately, none of the 12 articles of Science Magazine mentions the city of São Paulo, showing that we have failed to produce databases and information that may support the diagnosis," said Buckeridge.

Another paper, published in U.S.News, shows how the perception or image that people have of a given city can help or hinder their growth. This is because the way cities are seen can or not attract investment and skilled labor, which will influence the prosperity of the place.

Buckeridge showed some details of the ranking of global cities produced by A.T. Kearney. São Paulo ranks #34 in 2016. In 2008, the city held the 31^st position.

"To create the ranking, the consulting firm has used existing data produced by cities, what we are still unable to do. This shows that have we also failed to gather data. We need to also produce information and new knowledge to give subsidy to public policy. "

However, the improvement of the indicators in São Paulo is not only to meet the first world's criteria, but mainly to improve the life quality of its inhabitants, pointed out the professor.

"We will seek those international standards, but always with Carmen Miranda's hat on our head. We will not stop being Brazilian. We should not abandon Modern Art Week or Mário de Andrade. We must remember that we can always be innovative. We are able to get those rates while creating new things," said  Buckeridge.

An analysis produced in 2014 by A.T. Kearney created the indicator of global cities of the future, that is, those who would have a chance to approach the position held by the currently called elite cities. In this ranking, São Paulo holds the 4^th position and the biggest challenges for the city to actually reach this place in the future are related to education and innovation, showed Buckeridge. "Education and innovation are precisely the contribution that the University can give. Therefore I believe that the outlook is positive," said the professor.

Images: Andre Deak/Flicker and Leonor Calasans

Community garden: the project has managed to involve students, staff and professors of the FM.

The Study Group on Urban Agriculture (GEAU) will hold debates and conduct studies on the theme "Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture in São Paulo: Possibilities, Connections and Contemporaneity". Approved by the IEA's Board on May 9, it will be coordinated by Professor Thais Mauad, from the USP's School of Medicine (FM), an expert in urban health and founder of the community garden at the FM.

The GEAU will be hosted at the IEA for two years, producing scientific studies on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) with emphasis on the city of São Paulo and its metropolitan region (RMSP).

Among the activities that have already been planned is a seminar with the participation of professors and researchers from the University of Melbourne to be held in August. The debate will address the research topic of Professor Mauad: "Achieving sustainable food production and irrigation in São Paulo and Melbourne," which seeks to understand, improve and promote the resilience of urban food production systems in these two cities.

The schedule for 2017 includes the presentation of the studies' results, as well as the publication of articles and the participation of group members in conferences and seminars.

The garden of the IEE is the result of the project Criando Terra no IEE ("Creating Earth at the IEE"), an example of urban gardening in an academic environment.

The GEAU has six members and two collaborating researchers from different areas. Given its interdisciplinary approach, the group brings together experts from the FM, the USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH), the Graduation Program in Environmental Sciences (PROCAM) of the USP's Institute for Energy and Environment (IEE), the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and the Université Rennes 2.

The research team was the winner in the academic category of the 5th Fecomércio Sustainability Award in 2015, with the project "Urban Agriculture: Production, Retail and Food Consumption." For the members of the GEAU, the award is "a great step forward in spreading the importance of urban agriculture in Brazil and São Paulo."

The studies should contribute to the debate about the nature of actors, social relations, socio-spatial dynamics and impacts generated by the UPA. The understanding of the new socio-spatial configurations generated by this branch are important to foster the academic debate on the contemporary urban world, according to the project's proponents.

In addition to establishing partnerships and disseminating the concept of urban agriculture, the studies aim at contributing with theoretical and methodological frameworks to explain urban phenomena, especially regarding the situation of the city of São Paulo and Latin America.

The Berlin-Tempelhof airport was disabled in 2008 and turned into an horticulture and leisure space after the claiming of civil movements.

Study Group on Urban Agriculture (GEAU)

Coordination: Thais Mauad (FM-USP)

Vice-coordination: Valéria de Marcos (FFLCH-USP)

Permanent members:

Angélica Campos Nakamura, Giulia Giacchè, Guilherme Reis Ranieri, Gustavo Nagib, Luís Fernando Amato Lourenço and Lya Cynthia Porto de Oliveira.

Collaborating researchers:

Mário Aquino Alves and Amalia Inés Geraiges de Lemos.

Photos: HortaFSPUSP.blogspot.com.br / Cecília Bastos and Marcos Santos (JornalUSP)/ Sylvia Miguel (personal archive)

In order to explore this topic and to encourage changes, issue #86 of the Institute's journal 'Estudos Avançados' brings a dossier of seven articles on metropolises and health. "This dossier takes up one of the journal's goals: the combination of the objective study of Brazilian social problems with consistent and responsible public policy proposals," explains Alfredo Bosi, editor of the publication. The full content is already available at SciELO. To purchase a printed version (Portuguese only), please write to estavan@usp.br.

Paulo Saldiva, director of the IEA and a professor at the USP's School of Medicine, has closely worked with this issue, both with the publication of an article and with editorial advice. For years he has led research seeking to trace potential ways to improve the quality of life in cities. In the new issue's opening article, Saldiva, together with Laís Fajerstajn and Mariana Veras, gives concrete examples to answer how cities can improve or hinder the health of their residents.

"The anti-smoking law, which banned smoking in collective indoor spaces in the State of São Paulo in 2009, has reduced the exposure of nonsmokers to tobacco smoke. This law has also resulted in the decrease of the cigarettes / day rate among smokers," say the authors, completing with an opposite example: "The mobility crisis [in São Paulo] affects health not only because of the time lost in traffic and the adverse impacts of exposure to air pollution but also for its contribution to obesity, emotional stress, among others. In a congested city, children do not play in the street and adults do not return home for lunch", they argue.

In addition to this first article, six others make up the dossier "Metropolises and health". The authors are Aluisio Cotrim Segurado, Alex Jones Cassenote, Expedito de Albuquerque Luna, Suzana Pasternak, Helena Ribeiro, Célia Regina Pesquero, Micheline de Sousa Zanotti S. Coelho, Steffani Nikoli Dapper, Caroline Spohr, Roselaine Ruviaro Zanini, Emílio Telesi Júnior, Luís Fernando Amato-Lourenço, Tiana Carla Lopes Moreira, Bruna Lara de Arantes, Demóstenes Ferreira da Silva Filho and Thais Mauad.

The new issue of the journal also features a set of articles on literature, with readings of poetry and fictional works, and social sciences. Bernardo Sorj, a former visiting professor at the IEA, contributes with a text on democratic coexistence as polytheism of values. There are also essays on the Brazilian truth commission (by journalist Eugênio Bucci), on the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, on the political construction of Brazil, and on the public university in neoliberal times. The list below contains the names of the authors who have contributed with each one of the addressed themes:

Social sciences and the search for a meaning

Bernardo Sorj
Danilo Martuccelli
Ricardo Abramovay

Literature

Alfredo Bosi
José Feres Sabino
André Luis Rodrigues
Diego A. Molina
Alessandra Matias Querido

Current affairs

Eduardo Tomasevicius Filho
Jacques Marcovitch

Comments

Eugênio Bucci
Rubens R. Sawaya
Samuel Araújo
Bernardo Parodi Svartman
Matheus Cardoso da Silva

Photo: Marcos Santos/USP Imagens

The impact of climate changes in megacities is the subject of the fourth meeting of the cycle Towards COP 21: The Groundwork to Paris – Climate Change, Adaptation, Solutions and Opportunities. The debate will take place on November 19, at 9.30 am, in the IEA Events Room.

The event will be broadcast live on the web.

The title of the meeting is Climate change and Megacities: Sustainable Mobility, Public Health and Growth Planning. The panelists will be Luiz Firmino Pereira, Metropolitan Planning Superintendent of the Secretariat of Rio de Janeiro's State Government, and Silvio Barros, Secretary of Planning and General Coordination of Paraná's State Government. Coordination will be in charge of Tomas Alvim and Marisa Moreira Salles, both from the Arquivos do Futuro organization, supporter of the cycle.

Goals

The cycle seeks to identify and discuss opportunities to change patterns of emission of greenhouse gases. Another goal is to make a contribution to the Brazilian government and to the negotiators who will participate in the Conference of Parties on Climate Change Conference (COP 21) to be held in Paris, from November 30 to December 11.

Each debate has one or two coordinators who also act as moderators of a discussion with the panelists. The format aims to prioritize the dialogue between the panelists and the audience (in person or via internet).

Document

The results of the discussions will be consolidated in a document to be delivered to the Brazilian government and presented in side events at COP 21. After the conference in Paris there will be a new event in which the achieved results will be presented in order to suggests actions to be taken by countries, companies and the society.

The organizers of the cycle are: University of São Paulo, the Interdisciplinary Climate Investigation center (INCLINE) and the IEA’s Environment and Society Research Group. The project has the support of the Brazilian Chapter of the World Water Council, the Brazilian Network of the Global Compact (UNGC), Arquivos do Futuro and CPFL Energia. Three USP professors are in charge of the overall organization: Weber Amaral (Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture), Tércio Ambrizzi (Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences) and Pedro Jacobi (IEA, FE and Procam-IEE).

Photo: NASA/Wikipedia

Entitled Water Scarcity, Governance and Environmental Justice, the meeting will be held in Spanish. It will take place on November 10, from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm, in the IEA's Events Room, with moderation of Professor Pedro Jacobi, coordinator of the IEA's Environment and Society research group.

"Metropolitan areas are experiencing prolonged drought crises. The experience shows that the models prioritize the supply of water to the detriment of demand control. The management models also fail to offer low investment in sewage treatment and water-free consumption, a scarce resource," says Professor Jacobi.

The panelists will examine the contexts of water scarcity in the world, the emergence of conflicts, and the reactions and responses of social actors from the perspective of environmental justice.

The conferencists

Geographer and historian Leandro del Moral Ituarte, who currently heads the Department of Human Geography at the University of Sevilla, specializes in hydraulic works. He has studied the lower basin of the Guadalquivir river, which bathes the territories of Andaluzia, in southern Spain.

Bernard Barraqué, research director at the Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement of Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, in Paris, has focused his recent studies on the allocation of water resources, evaluation of sustainable policies and methods, institutional and participatory approaches, and comparative analysis of the sustainability of water management in major European cities. He also works at Agro ParisTech - École Nationale du Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Fôrets.

The participation of Alex Ricardo Caldera Ortega, from the Department of Public Management and Development of the University of Guanajuato, has been cancelled due to the speaker's agenda.

Photo: Tim J. Keegan/Flickr

According to Eda Tassara, coordinator of the research group, by addressing the presence and representation of home, path and water in the landscape and in the city, the seminar aims to "contribute to the intentional, poetic and shared construction of a more balanced social environment in the future in comparison to nowadays". She explains that the seminar's title is inspired in a statement by French geographer Jean Brunhes (1869-1930): "There are three key things to start a human community: home, path and water." She adds that psychologist Omar Ardans, from the Federal University of Santa Maria, by commenting on Brunhes's statement, said that its content "is in no way contradicted by the current state of life on the planet. On the contrary, it is even more modern than at the time of his writing."

However, there is one condition for the establishment of this balance, as Ardans's comment cited by the researcher: "That balance does not exist in (or to) a single individual, in a vacuum. Instead, the spaces of coexistence of this individual, and the participation in community and societal contexts define the particular form of conquered balance (or, at worst, desired).along with the physical environment and objects built by humans."

That's why, he said, "the first word for the proposed reflection should be 'city', privileged form of organization of the man on the grounds that he dwells." In support of this choice, Tassara points out that American urban planner and thinker Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) opened his book "The Culture of Cities" with a statement saying that the city "is the point of maximum concentration of force and culture in a community."

She also recalls that Italian philosopher Rosario Assunto (1915-1994) argued that "the concrete environment, the environment we live in and of which we live, is always the environment as a way of territory: a landscape". It follows that "landscape" is the second word of the seminar, "understood as the way that nature and man gave to the territory as they organized it on the basis of life."

Viewed from these perspectives, landscape and city can be understood as "more-than-spaces" inextricably linked, with the balance of the assembly having crucial importance for human life, but not just for it, according to Tassara. "Both our organic existence as the persistence of the very way of life of our community / society depend on this balance. Recognizing this mobilizes our reflection on the essential aspects of the human-environment relationship that is expressed in the countryside and in the cities."

Photo: Douglas Pfeiffer Cardoso/Flickr

Studies in this area, especially in the UK, Australia, the United States and sub-Saharan Africa, show that there is a diversity of social policies evolving to support these unpaid young care providers. However, it remains a hidden world which lacks global visibility and more knowledge on the theme.

Professor Saul Becker, Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Birmingham and a specialist in this line of research, will address the theme at the conference Children Who Care – Global Perspectives on Children’s Hidden Care-Giving Roles within their Families, that will take place on October 21, in the IEA's Events Room, from 9.30 am to 12 pm. Ana Lydia Sawaya, coordinator of the IEA's Nutrition and Poverty Research Group and a professor at UNIFESP, will participate as a debater.

Becker's work has influenced the academic debate and the implementation of public policies and practices that are designed to meet the needs of young carers. In his speech, he will explore the hidden worlds of children who provide assistance and care to adults, showing how and why some countries have identified and legislated this role as that of a specific group that requires support and intervention. In most countries, these children and young people remain hidden, invisible and isolated, with negative consequences for their lives, families and society as a whole.

Studies in the area suggest that the informal care provided by the young in developed and developing nations can be located along a continuous flow of care. They also show that these young people have much in common, regardless of where they live or how the social security systems of their countries are developed. Thus, there is a global need for these young people to get recognized, identified, analyzed and assisted as a distinct group of "vulnerable children".

Through its Institute of Advanced Studies, the University of Birmingham is linked to the University-Based Institute of Advanced Studies (UBIAS), a network that brings together 34 institutes for advanced studies of the whole world. Created in 2010, it aims to promote the scientific exchange between generations, disciplines and cultures.

The meeting, sponsored by the ACIESP (São Paulo State Academy of Science), by the USP's Institute of Biosciences (IB) and by the INCLINE (Interdisciplinary Climate Investigation Center), and supported by the IEA, will be divided into thematic panels: Water, the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP-21), Biodiversity, Cities and Health, and Public Policies. USP researchers and science journalists will mediate the discussions.

In the late afternoon of the last day there will be the inauguration ceremony for the new members of the ACIESP.

Programme:

October 14 (morning)

Moderator: Marcos Buckeridge (President of ACIESP and professor at the IB)
Opening session
9.30 am Marco Antonio Zago (President of USP)
9.40 am José E. Krieger (Provost for Research at USP)
9.50 am Gilberto Xavier (IB)
10.00 am Marcos Buckeridge 
10.30 am – 12.00 pm Impacts of the global climate changes in São Paulo
With Jose Antonio Marengo Orsini (National Institute for Space Research)

October 14 (afternoon)

Moderator: Herton Scobar (O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper)
Panel 1 – Water
2.00 pm The drought of 2014 in the source of the Cantareira System
With Humberto Ribeiro da Rocha (USP's Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Astmospheric Sciences - IAG)
2.30 pm Water and Agriculture - The New Challenges
Orivaldo Brunini (Agronomic Institute)
3.00 pm Human right to water: relative scarcity and application challenges
Wagner Costa Ribeiro (USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Social Sciences (FFLCH), and IEA)
3.30 pm Break
3.50 pm Q&A

October 15 (morning)

Moderator: Tércio Ambrizzi (IAG/USP)
Panel 2 – COP-21
9.00 am The COP-21 and the science of the global climate changes
With Paulo Eduardo Artaxo Netto (USP's Institute of Physics - IF)
9.30 am Bioenergy as a global warming gas mitigation strategy and its contribution to sustainable development
With Glaucia Mendes Souza (USP's Institute of Chemistry - IQ)
10.00 am – 12.00 pm Q&A

October 15 (afternoon)

Moderator: Marcos Pivetta (FAPESP Research Journal)
Panel 3 – Biodiversity
2.00 pm Global climate changes and biodiversity: introduction to the problem
With Carlos A. Navas Iannini (IB)
2.30 pm The sixth mass extinction is underway: the reptile and amphibian biodiversity crisis
Barry Sinervo (University of California)
3.30 pm Break
3.50 pm Q&A

October 16 (morning)

Moderator: Eduardo Geraque (Folha de S. Paulo newspaper)
Panel 4 – Cities and Health
9.00 am Impacts of the global climate changes in Ciudad de México
With Víctor Orlando Magaña Rueda (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México - UNAM)
9.40 am Global climate changes and their effects in Paulista citizens' health
With Paulo Hilário Nascimento Saldiva (deputy director of the IEA and professor at the USP's School of Medicine - FM)
10.20 am Using computer games to raise the awareness of climate changes and neglected tropical diseases
With Manuel Cesário (Academia Magdalena)
11.00 am – 12.00 pm Q&A

October 16 (afternoon)

Moderator: Pedro Roberto Jacobi (IEA and professor at the USP's Institute of Energy and Environment - IEE)
Panel 5 – Public Policies
2.00 pm Reviewing public policies to deal with the water crisis in a scenario of climate change
With Pedro Roberto Jacobi (IEA and IEE)
2.20 pm Patrícia Faga Iglecias Lemos (São Paulo State Secretary for the Environment)
2.40 pm Science Diplomacy: Communicating Science in Society
With Julia Knights (Director of the Science Innovation Network - British Embassy in Brazil)
3.00 pm – 4.00 pm Q&A
4.15 pm – 5.15 pm Climate Change and the Earth System
With Carlos Afonso Nobre

Inauguration ceremony for the new members of ACIESP
Opening
5.30 pm - José Goldemberg (President of FAPESP/USP)
6.00 pm - Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz (Scientific Director of FAPESP/UNICAMP) - to be confirmed
6.30 pm - José Roberto Krieger (former President of ACIESP)
6.45 pm - Marcos Buckeridge (President of ACIESP and professor at the IB)