Salvini, the melting of glaciers and cycles:and thank goodness he studied 🙈

“I love the mountains.And when you go to Adamello and Tonale and see the glaciers retreating year after year you stop to think, then you study history and you see that they are cycles.The ice doesn't retreat because Capezzone goes out of gas with his Golf turbo."Even the deputy prime minister and minister of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility, Matteo Salvini, did not want to miss out on his contribution to the positions bordering on climate denialism of part of the government majority.​​"In winter it is cold, in summer it is hot...", he further said in Cervia, in Romagna, during the League's summer festival.

Salvini's statements come after those of the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni (who, referring to the extreme meteorological events in Sicily and Lombardy in recent weeks, spoke of "difficult bad weather" and "unpredictable climatic reality" and, during the closure of electoral campaign of the Spanish far-right party Vox, said that it was necessary to "stop the ultra-ecological fanaticism" which is leading the left to "attack our economic and production model"), of the Minister of the Environment, Pichetto Fratin (who in an interview with SkyTg24 questioned the anthropic origin of climate change and implied that there is no scientific consensus on the topic) and with the Northern League senator, Claudio Borghi, who puzzled over the temperature measurements taken in airports (here an explanation of how the measurements work).

Heat waves and climate change:against the deniers

All positions attributable to the context of climate denialism (or skepticism) and which re-propose theses which do not find much confirmation in the scientific literature carried out by scientists who, however, have not dealt with climate change in their careers, or who, for various reasons , try to prove that global warming is not caused by human activities.But, in the case of climate change, it is misleading to say that in the scientific field there are no certainties about the causes of global warming.The scientific control process has long come to an end and science today is certain that global warming is caused by emissions produced by human activities (primarily, fossil fuels), such as rebuilds in this in-depth study Antonio Scalari on Blue suitcase.

The scientific debate on climate change is over

In his speech, Salvini said that he had studied and understood that man has nothing to do with it, it is cycles.The Minister of Infrastructure has studied the theses put forward for years by scientists such as Franco Prodi or Nicola Scafetta, according to which cycles of solar and tidal activity, as well as planetary conjunctions, are the cause of the increase in global temperatures.Last year, after the detachment of part of the Marmolada glacier, in an interview with The Truth, Franco Prodi had argued that "climate changes are cyclical and recur punctually, regardless of man's responsibility.Global warming, the melting of glaciers and tragedies like that of the Marmolada are not man's fault, or at least not only."

Nicola Scafetta blames the increase in temperatures on astronomical cycles.Scafetta says he has discovered that "the most important climatic oscillations (...) are consistent with important astronomical cycles linked precisely to solar variations, tidal variations on a long time scale and, in general, to the most important gravitational resonances of the solar system.Among these cycles, the most important for the climate are a cycle of about 9 years (associated with the tides), the cycles of 11 years (associated with the sunspot cycle), and others of 20, 60, 115 and about 1,000 years.(...) The planetary system appears highly synchronized, as in a wonderful celestial symphony.And the variability of solar activity, I have been able to demonstrate, is synchronized by orbital astronomical resonances on all time scales, from monthly to multi-millennial ones.I find it fascinating."Consequently, according to Scafetta, “CO2 reduction programs are wrong and completely useless”.

But, they explain the site experts Climate-altering who refuted Scafetta's assumptions, "the increase in temperatures over the last 50 years is so clear that associating it with cycles of 5, 9, 11, 20, 60 etc.years requires, in addition to great mathematical expertise, a stubborn ability to ignore the physical explanation (the increase in temperatures as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere), which instead works very well and is supported by a monumental amount of evidence scientific knowledge and a very broad scientific consensus."That of Scafetta, we read in the article Climate-altering, is “irresponsible and obstinate cyclomania”.

Scafetta is also one of the Italian signatories of the petition, circulated in 2019, which asserted some of the positions recalled in recent days by politicians close to positions bordering on climate denialism:“The Earth's climate has changed since it existed”, “The models are inadequate”, “CO2 is good for plants”.All inconsistent positions, dismantled by Antonio Scalari in this handbook against misinformation on climate change.

Climate change:handbook against disinformation

What climate science says

The climate science is clear.There is a strong temporal correlation between two phenomena that are occurring:the increase in temperature and the increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.And we know the cause and effect relationship that links these two events:Global warming is caused by emissions produced by human activities

As rebuilds Antonio Scalari in the handbook:“When solar radiation reaches the Earth, much of it is absorbed by the emerged lands and oceans, warming the planet.This energy is then released in the form of infrared radiation.Carbon dioxide and other gases, such as methane and water vapor, are capable of retaining part of this radiation and in turn emitting it in all directions, heating the lower atmosphere and the earth's surface."In 1856, she was the American scientist, Eunice Newton Foote, the first to discover the heat-absorbing properties of CO2 and their potential effects on climate.A with similar conclusions arrived in 1859 John Tyndall.And in 1896, for the first time, the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius estimated the effect on global temperature of an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere:“Arrhenius calculated that a doubling of the CO2 concentration would increase the temperature by 5 or 6 degrees centigrade.We have therefore known for more than a century what the greenhouse effect is and how it works and what determines it."

For two centuries, humans have been emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere using fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) for energy production, transport and various industrial activities.Current global warming becomes even more significant when you consider that it has largely occurred over the past 50 years.The last few years are among the warmest so far recorded and 2023 is a candidate to be the hottest ever.

Before the Industrial Revolution there were 280 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.More than half of the CO2 produced by human activities, from the Industrial Revolution to today, was released in the atmosphere since 1990.This year the concentration exceeded 424 parts per million (ppm) for the first time.Unfortunately, this data is not newsworthy.

As for glaciers, in the last two decades she registered an acceleration of the rate of melting due to human-induced climate change.According to recent research, published on Science at the beginning of the year, if global temperatures are kept within 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era, 49% of glaciers could disappear completely by 2100, of which “at least half” before 2050.Glaciers are also expected to lose a quarter of their mass, causing sea levels to rise by 90 mm.

In Lombardy, second data from the Lombard Glaciological Service, since 1991, 45 square kilometers of ice surface have been lost (38% less), 1.6 square kilometers on average per year, while 121 glaciers have become extinct.“The global nature of the glacier retreat that has occurred since 1980 is totally anomalous in the geological history of the last six thousand years.(...) If the current climate trend continues at this rate, or even worsens, our grandchildren will not be able to enjoy this environmental heritage", states geologist Massimo Frezzotti on the site.

All this shows us that it is senseless to reject the idea of ​​human-caused climate change, invoking natural climate changes that have already occurred in the past.As if humans can't change the climate.The climate change we are experiencing today is also natural.It is because it is caused by humans, who are an animal species.It is so because it takes place according to natural laws and mechanisms.The ongoing climate change is both natural and caused by humans.

And the media is watching

Salvini's sentences were reported by the various media without being analyzed and contested on the merits, in light of what climate science and the reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been saying for decades. A7 he even spoke of Salvini's show and irony on climate change.

Here lies the other half of the problem, of a prone media and megaphone of political propaganda.A question that does not arise today - it has also been discussed for decades - but which remains dramatically unresolved.“There are right-wing newspapers that, if they don't openly deny the climate crisis, are inactivist,” explains al Guardian Stefano Caserini, professor of climate change at the Polytechnic of Milan.On Tomorrow Ferdinando Cotugno he rebuilt how the media make space for the amplification of misinformation starting from the analysis of an episode of a talk show on Network 4.

This front page is a propaganda manual for the contemporary far right:"there is no climate emergency", alcohol is good for you, murderous foreigners, bad strong powers that destroy the GDP, etc.— but “they won't shut our mouths” (victimism) pic.twitter.com/TIXeiPivJN

— Fabio Chiusi (@fabiochiusi) August 1, 2023

When the news is given in the correct way, in-depth and contextual information is missing, it always adds to the Guardian Carlo Cacciamani, head of the Italian national meteorological and climatological agency.The superficiality, sloppiness, inattention, when it is not bad faith, of the media is the window through which disinformation, also thanks to the voice of those who we can define as "false experts", or "pseudoexperts", manages to reach opinion public.

Climate crisis and energy transition:the new denialist tactics dismantled one by one

As he explained Star Rising up International just a year ago, “public opinion should first of all be provided with the basis of the climate crisis:what it is, what causes it and why it is a problem.Once the basics have been clarified, which may seem trivial but in many cases are still missing, it would be useful to provide the tools to recognize disinformation and denialist or obstructionist strategies for climate action, in such a way as to be able to distinguish factual information from a fabricated and misleading one.Finally, it is necessary to delve deeper into the effects of the climate crisis, not only in physical terms but also in the interconnections with the social aspect, politics, the economy and so on".

If no light is shed "on more than fifty years of climate science which, if we want to simplify as much as possible, could be summarized as follows:more emissions = increase in global temperature = increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events”, will leave space unattended for interventions like that of Salvini and other politicians that we are seeing in recent days.And that we have seen in past years.

In recent days, over 100 scientists they sent an open letter to the media asking:“Journalists, talk about the causes of the climate crisis, and its solutions.Omitting this information condemns people to a sense of helplessness, precisely at a historical moment in which it is still possible to build a better future."

The letter continues:

“Not talking about the causes of the increasingly frequent and intense extreme events affecting our planet and not explaining the solutions for an effective response risks fueling inaction, resignation or denial of reality, translating into an increase in risks for our families and our communities, especially the most disadvantaged ones.For these reasons, we invite all Italian media to clearly explain what the causes of the climate crisis and its solutions are, to give everyone the tools to deeply understand the ongoing phenomena, feel part of the solution and build greater trust in future".

Until reporting on the climate crisis is done accurately and constructively, media platforms will share part of the burden of this responsibility.

Preview image via The Daily Fact