The “Notebooks for thinking” are published as supplements to “La città possibile” (The possible city) by the Ecoinstitute of the Valle del Ticino. This highly praiseworthy initiative by a number of organizations aims to illustrate social and environmental problems in a direct, simple and scientific way. The first one was on Migration and Europe, while the second focuses on the Climate Crisis.
Let’s take a quick look at this second volume.
The first part sets out the seriousness of the challenge posed by climate change and the need to put sustainability principles into practice. Both should be seen as being connected to the desire to commercialize endless growth, imposed by markets and politicians. This will lead to environmental and social ruin. The alarm calls of researchers, organizations, ordinary people, and even the Pope have not been enough to change the situation up to now. Hope has been reborn thanks to the calls for change from the young and the very young, who in the past few months have revealed that the Emperor is indeed naked.
The second part “Understanding in order to act” provides the facts necessary to understand climate change. The increase in greenhouse gases, such as CO2 and methane, is described in detail with explanations of where they come from, their distribution including geographical distribution, their impact and their effects.
The next section is perhaps the most sensitive: it sets out the pathways that people can and should pursue in order to halve CO2 by 2030.
Everyone, as far as they can – including individually – will have to adopt renewable energy, change their diet (less meat and more vegetables), change their method of transport (move closer, slow down, share), build less and better (with buildings that consume less energy and are more self-sufficient).
Finally comes the analysis and the recommendations of experts – including one by Alexander Langer – to realize that the moment to act is now and cannot be delayed any longer.
The soil is mentioned only to remind people of its importance in gathering and storing organic carbon. And indeed if carbon is stored, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere falls dramatically.
This is by no means an exhaustive document, but it is certainly a necessary one to encourage people to take responsibility and stop delegating to others, but rather take action themselves. We recommend reading it, it is available free on the following website.
More information can be obtained from: Oreste Magni orestemagni@gmail.com
http://win.ecoistitutoticino.org/documentazione/CP/Quaderni_per_pensare_1.pdf
http://win.ecoistitutoticino.org/documentazione/CP/Quaderni_per_pensare_2.pdf
Gruppo Suolo Europa 