Valeria Barbi studies and reports on the impact of human activities on biodiversity, promoting the importance of protection and conservation, as well as the creation of a new model of coexistence between our species and others. She is the author of Che cos’è la biodiversità oggi (What is biodiversity today, published in 2022 by Edizioni Ambiente) and, together with photographer Davide Agati, of WANE-We Are Nature Expedition: a reportage that took her into the field for 22 months to document the state of biodiversity and the relationship between us and nature along the Pan-American Highway, known as the longest road in the world, in 14 countries, from Alaska to Argentina. A reportage discovering animal and plant species that are at risk of disappearing and for which Valeria Barbi, Davide Agati and WANE want to be the voice.

On October 24, 2025, her new book in Italian Dall’Alaska alla Patagonia, viaggio alla scoperta degli ecosistemi più straordinari del mondo (From Alaska to Patagonia: a journey to discover the world’s most extraordinary ecosystems) was published by Laterza. In it, she recounts the WANE reportage and the 22 months spent in the field. Furthermore, after its inauguration in the Sala delle Colonne at the Castello del Valentino in Turin, The Wild Line, the photography exhibition by Davide Agati featuring images from the reportage – also depicting the impacts of climate change on species – is currently on display at the Esapolis Museum in Padua until December 31, 2025.

As part of the Earth Emergency 2025 series of public conferences, promoted by the Department of Environment Constructions and Design at SUPSI in partnership with Bobbium, Valeria Barbi points out how, thanks to renewed activism involving mainly the younger sections of the population, the spotlight has been turned on the climate crisis in recent years. This is undoubtedly a positive change, but unfortunately it has led to the neglect of an even more serious and urgent crisis: that of biodiversity.

In addition to widespread unawareness about its importance in our daily lives, five main factors threaten biodiversity, all of which are attributable to human activities: habitat loss, pollution, overexploitation, the spread of alien species and, of course, climate change.

While the relationship between climate and biodiversity has always been reciprocal, literally allowing life forms on Earth to emerge and multiply, the expansion of the human race has disrupted an already delicate and unstable balance. Some species seem to be able to survive, but many others are losing the battle. All of them, in one way or another, are trying to adapt.

Valeria Barbi’s lecture, entitled Adattamenti. La lotta per la sopravvivenza in un Pianeta sempre più caldo (Adaptations. The struggle for survival on an increasingly hot planet), will be held in Italian on Wednesday 10 December 2025 at 18:30 in the Sala polivalente on the ground floor of the SUPSI Campus in Mendrisio (Via Flora Ruchat-Roncati 15).

Free admission upon registration. 

In-person event only (remote participation is not possible).

Final aperitif by food designer Agnese Z'graggen with Capichurri.