Open Festival, Guido Bertolaso:«In Romagna and Derna everyone knew what would happen, but no action was taken» – The video

For the Lombard councilor, more courage and responsibility is needed in the management of emergencies.Miani (expert in environmental medicine: «More greenery in cities would drastically reduce climate deaths»

"In Romagna and Derna everyone knew what would happen, but no action was taken," he said Guido Bertolaso, councilor for Welfare of Lombardy and for years responsible for Civil Protection to hypothesize the short circuit in the management of climate change.Today's media provide us with increasingly updated data and forecasts, there is a desire to change but there is no strategy.This is the overview that emerges from the panel “This climate is killing us:the effects of climate change on our health" moderated by Antonio Di Noto and Gianluca Brambilla.The policies to be adopted are not communicated and structured in a way that can be accepted by the community.Climate and economic sustainability must go hand in hand, but it is the institutions that must manage this balance, otherwise politics loses the most important game, that of citizens' trust:«Credibility and authority are the only two values ​​that a politician must have, I don't know how many politicians have them in Italy today», claims Bertolaso.

The cases of Derna and Romagna

Everyone knew what was going to happen, the predictions were accurate:«There was a 70% certainty that there would be a catastrophe in Derna seven days before, 100% the day before.Nobody warned, this is no longer done.Even in Romagna there was an alert, but now today there is the alibi of the red sticker.After the disaster there is immediately a rush to "I told you so, it was you who didn't move".We need to go back to working day and night, organize the largest national system that exists, police, civil protection, mayors, red cross, an extraordinary world that if not directed will not lead to the results that citizens need."And then the attack on politics and the perverse system of management of central infrastructure for the country:«The documents report that the Morandi Bridge would have collapsed.Nobody had the courage to say it because they wouldn't have known how to prove it, they would have been accused of damage to the treasury.Think what would have happened if someone had raised the alarm."

What can we do

Two facts to frame the problem:18 thousand deaths in 2022 are attributed to heat (Nature Medicine);between 2030 and 2050 there will be 250 thousand deaths every year, according to WHO estimates.As Alessandro Miani, doctor and president of the Italian Soc of Environmental Medicine (Sima), claims, solutions and actions to mitigate our climate impact already exist:«The real health challenge will be played out in cities, in 2050 70% of the population will live in large urban agglomerations.If we used greenery in 40% of the total surface area of ​​cities, we could reduce ground temperatures by 8-12 degrees.With 30% we would have a reduction in total mortality of 2%.If one citizen in four traveled by bicycle, mortality would decrease by 10 thousand individuals per year."But without greenery, how can we reduce the human footprint on the environment?There are several experiments underway around the world:light-coloured, draining asphalt, but "green roofs" can also be used which reduce temperatures in the home by up to three degrees.

Politics and communication, at the service of the transition

To change pace, however, dialogue between politics and the community is also crucial, says Serena Giacomin, climate scientist and president ofItalian Climate Network:«Each citizen would have the right to receive much more orderly communication that explains how it is appropriate to behave in risk situations.Communication should be oriented towards this, becoming a service with respect to these issues, without fueling a polarization that cannot exist in scientific truth."Communication also serves to explain the need for certain climate interventions and policies; without this, citizens will find it increasingly difficult to adapt to the economic sacrifices, with the corresponding gains, that the transition will require.