Over the weekend, heavy rains and thunderstorms, hail and strong winds hit the Aosta Valley and Piedmont, causing the flooding of watercourses, landslides and the isolation of entire villages. These communities are facing a devastating calamity, with hundreds of people displaced and injured. In Switzerland and France there are also victims and missing persons. We express our deepest solidarity with those affected.some of whom have experienced moments of terror, have been evacuated, have lost family members or have seen their homes and businesses destroyed and are now in extremely difficult situations.
The devastating effects of the climate crisis
It is crucial to understand that we are not simply facing an exceptional weather event, but the tangible consequences of climate change.
In this regard we have heard Antonello Pasini, CNR climate physicistwho comments as follows:
«As always, we climate scientists are cautious in quantitatively attributing a single event to climate change and we often do so a posteriori with our models, which in the area affected by the extreme events of the last few hours, so tormented orographically, must necessarily be high resolution. However, from a qualitative point of view, something can already be said. Global warming of anthropogenic origin in the Mediterranean basin has changed the circulation of the air, increasingly leading to the entry of strong African anticyclones into our territory that bring great heat and drought, but when they give way, even just slightly as happened in this case, they let in colder currents that generate an enormous thermal contrast with the pre-existing warm and humid air, all on a very overheated soil and sea. And all this generates violent precipitation and flash floods. This, especially in northern Italy, is the fingerprint of climate change of anthropogenic origin that we also see in this case. Heat and drought on one side, flash floods on the other are unfortunately two sides of the same coin: recent global warming».
The damage counting is already starting, but the situation remains critical and the emergency is not over yetwith further phenomena expected in these days – hopefully without consequences – also in other areas of Italy. All this shows that climate change is now a reality that already today heavily affects the lives of all of us.
AND It is imperative that we act immediately to stop our addiction to fossil fuels.whose exploitation is the main cause of these extreme events, and at the same time it is necessary ensure land management that safeguards those most exposed to hydrogeological riskswhich aggravate the impacts of increasingly intense and frequent extreme events. We are not facing isolated events, but we are in the midst of a climate crisis with dramatic effects, which requires decisive and resolute counteraction.
Who pays?
Extreme events such as those that hit Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta continue to cause damage and losses, in terms of human lives, devastation of the territories and also economic costs. And Those who pay the price for all this are above all the people and communities affected from extreme events. While instead the bill for this devastation should be borne by those truly responsible: governments that with their policies neglect the territories and oppose the energy transition towards renewables, and the large oil and gas companies that continue to make record profits fueling the climate crisis and putting the lives of people around the world at risk. In our country too.
Help us ask for concrete measures for the climate!
