REVIEW “DIMARTEDI'” – ECOLOGY
Tuesday, March 10, 9:00 p.m.
Sala Civica, Via Marinai d’Italia
Let’s talk about ecology with Costanza Panella, President of the Legambiente Lario club.
“Laura Conti e il racconto dell’ecologia” (Laura Conti and the story of ecology)
Among the many aspects of the life and work of Laura Conti, doctor, writer, politician, member of parliament, and one of the founders of Legambiente, the theme that will be explored during the meeting is her interest in scientific dissemination and her rare ability to explain ecology to everyone, adults and children alike.
Free admission
BIOGRAPHY
Laura Conti (1921–1993), a forward-thinking doctor and scientist, founded scientific environmentalism in Italy and combined politics and science in her work as a provincial and regional councilor and member of parliament. A woman who lived and worked in Lombardy, she deserves, especially in this era of climate and environmental crisis, to be known above all by young women as an example to follow.
She was a partisan, interned in the Bolzano camp, and was later elected first to the Provincial Council, then to the Regional Council, and was a member of parliament, alongside her work as a doctor. She combined her political commitment with her studies and interest in ecology and scientific dissemination.
She introduced reflections on the problems of development, the limits of resources, and the relationship between industrial production and nature conservation to Italy. Her book “Che cos’è l’ecologia” (What is Ecology, 1977, Mazzotta) became a fundamental text for the formation of the nascent environmental movement. One of the promoters of the Lega per l’Ambiente (League for the Environment), she was president of the Scientific Committee of Legambiente. She became known to the general public after July 10, 1976, when a white cloud containing a then almost unknown substance, dioxin, escaped from Icmesa in Seveso. Hers was a passionate and relentless battle, close to the people and to women, to help them navigate between the reassuring voice of power and the justified concern of those who had studied dioxin and knew its harmful effects.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Among her best-known books:
– Cecilia e le streghe, Einaudi, Torino, 1963.
– La condizione sperimentale, Mondadori, Milano, 1965.
– Sesso e educazione, editori riuniti, 1971
– Che cos’è l’ecologia. Capitale, lavoro, ambiente, Mazzotta, Milano, 1977.
– Visto da Seveso. L’evento straordinario e l’ordinaria amministrazione, Feltrinelli, Milano, 1977.
– Una lepre con la faccia di bambina, Editori Riuniti, Roma, 1978.
– Il tormento e lo scudo. Un compromesso contro le donne, Mazzotta, Milano, 1981.
– Questo pianeta, Editori Riuniti, Roma, 1983.
– Gli animali raccontano, storie di nascite, Libri per ragazzi Mondadori, 1988.
– La fotosintesi e la sua storia, Giunti Marzocco, Firenze, 1991.
Recently, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth in 2021 and the 30th anniversary of his death in 2023, some of his books that were out of print in bookstores and only available in libraries have been republished by Fandango, namely:
– Una lepre con la faccia da bambina, febbraio 2021.
– Cecilia e le streghe, ottobre 2021.
– Questo pianeta, febbraio 2022.
– Il tormento e lo scudo, un compromesso contro le donne, aprile 2023.
– Discorso sulla caccia, 2023.
There are numerous testimonies to the esteem and affection that Laura Conti inspired. Loredana Lucarini collected some of them in a precious and rare booklet entitled “Laura Conti: dalla Resistenza, all’ambientalismo, al caso Seveso” (Laura Conti: from the Resistance to environmentalism to the Seveso case), distributed in 1993 together with l’Unità. A brief profile can also be found in Andrea Poggio’s book, “Ambientalismo” (Environmentalism), Milan, Bibliografica, 1996. In 2012, the Biblioteca del Cigno published the book “Laura Conti, Alle radici dell’ecologia” (Laura Conti, At the Roots of Ecology) by Chiara Certomà. In 2013, a garden in Milan was named after her, and in 2014, the driveway where Legambiente is based in Rome was named after her on the initiative of the women of the association, who have since submitted documentation requesting the naming of a street in the capital and repeatedly urged the Toponymy Commission to do so. The municipality of Bellano accepted the proposal to name a street after her.
In 2018, the essay “Laura Conti e la guerra alla fotosintesi” (Laura Conti and the war on photosynthesis), written by Costanza Panella and Valeria Fieramonte, was published in the magazine La camera blu dell’Università di Napoli Federico II (The Blue Room of the University of Naples Federico II) (free downloadable PDF). In 2021, the biography “La vita di Laura Conti, ecologia, politica e cultura a servizio della democrazia” (The Life of Laura Conti, Ecology, Politics, and Culture in the Service of Democracy), edited by Valeria Fieramonte, was published by Enciclopedia delle donne.
