Humanity has abandoned the evolutionary drive for species survival in favor of individual comfort, according to Italian biologist and science communicator Stefano Mancuso, who spoke at the Enfoquem debate forum in Barcelona. Addressing an audience at the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau on Monday and Tuesday, Mancuso argued that modern civilization operates on the scientifically invalid premise of infinite natural resources within a finite Earth.
Stefano Mancuso Warns of Civilizational Crisis at Barcelona Forum
The human species stands alone in its capacity to consider the future while simultaneously stripping resources from upcoming generations, Mancuso stated during his conversation with ARA deputy director Ignasi Aragay. Reflecting on technological advancements, Mancuso admitted a shift from optimism to moderate pessimism, noting that humanity has replaced its primary evolutionary engine—survival of the species—with a focus on individual well-being.
“Any problem we want to solve by improving the quality of life for the individual has one solution, but if we want to solve it by improving the survival capacity of the species, it has the opposite solution,” Mancuso said.
In his latest essay, El càntic de la Terra (published by Galaxia Gutenberg), the Italian botanist reinterprets Saint Francis of Assisi’s 13th-century Canticle of the Creatures through an ecological and philosophical lens. He emphasized the Franciscan principle that consuming planetary resources constitutes theft from future generations. This civilizational crisis stems from an economic system built on the dogmatic assumption of infinite natural resources, a concept that contradicts basic science in a finite system.
Urban Monocultures and the Urgency of Renaturalization
Modern cities occupy less than two percent of the habitable surface of the planet yet consume 90 percent of resources and emit 85 percent of carbon dioxide, according to Mancuso’s presentation at the Sant Pau forum. Comparing the urban metabolism to a living organism perched atop its own waste, Mancuso noted that 70 percent of the global population now lives in cities—up from 30 percent in 1970.
To combat urban heat-related mortality—which reached 68,000 deaths across Europe in 2024—Mancuso advocates for the massive renaturalization of urban centers. “To avoid deaths from heat, you have to cover cities with plants,” Mancuso said, describing vegetation as natural air conditioners and warning that no city in the world currently maintains an adequate tree population.
Mancuso also criticized cities as human monocultures. Just as agricultural monocultures require pesticides and herbicides due to vulnerability, urban areas exhibit poor metabolisms characterized by massive energy consumption and high waste generation. Stable ecosystems, by contrast, rely on biodiversity and fixed interspecies relationships.
What Remains Unknown Regarding Future Climate and Bioethical Policies
Official data for European heat-related mortality during the most recent summer had not yet been finalized at the time of the forum, leaving researchers waiting to measure the full toll of recent temperature spikes.
Keep reading
