Fight against the climate crisis between youth activism, political-media denialism and the indifferent - Conversation with Antonio Scalari [podcast]

“A disaster announced, but we ignored the signs.” Meteorologist Luca Mercalli doesn't mince words about the flood that hit Emilia-Romagna, causing 13 victims and leaving 20,000 people homeless:«Global warming must be stopped, we are all guilty.Nobody wants to make sacrifices except the kids who fight for the climate." 500 mm of rain in a few days, as much as falls in a year in Aosta.The rivers cannot absorb such a quantity of water, the soaked soil collapses, the entire system goes into crisis.

Floods in Emilia Romagna:an announced disaster and because climate change is also involved

In its annual report on global average temperatures, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said there is a good chance that in the next five years the Earth will experiment new temperature records and global warming will exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, a threshold beyond which there could be far-reaching repercussions for health, food safety, water management and the environment, potentially irreversible, as shown in several reports by the IPCC, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

This would be a marked acceleration of human impact on the global climate system that would plunge the world into "uncharted territory", the UN agency has warned.Let us remember that, with the Paris climate agreement in 2015, states committed to trying to contain global temperatures to no more than 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels.

World Meteorological Organization (WMO):The Earth could exceed the 1.5°C threshold by 2027

In its latest report, the IPCC writes that “human activities, mainly through greenhouse gas emissions [caused by fossil fuels], have unequivocally caused global warming and an increase in global surface temperature by 1.1°C.”This increase in temperature has occurred mostly from the post-war period to today.

More than 99% of studies published in scientific literature recognize that climate change exists and is caused by human activities.Yet on talk shows and in some newspapers a debate that doesn't exist continues to be staged, with the media playing the role of megaphone for baseless theses.It is a representation that fuels the distorted feeling among public opinion that a real scientific discussion between peers is underway.It's false.There is currently no ongoing discussion worthy of the name within the scientific community on the causes of climate change.

Climate change:handbook against disinformation

Ha written Antonio Scalari, expert in scientific journalism and science communication, historical collaborator of Blue suitcase: “The floods in Emilia-Romagna have not stopped disinformation and bad information.Just as the drought that lasted more than a year, the heat waves, the collapse of the Alpine glaciers had not stopped them.Indeed, they gave them a new impetus.The faces of characters already known to have been engaged for years in spreading pseudoscience have appeared on television, disguised and presented as experts by the media that offer them a stage.Some television programs, accustomed to replacing information and journalism with the staging of distorted and confusing pseudo-debates, continue to do what they have always done.Misinformation professionals are almost never deniers.The climate crisis, for them, is a topic like any other.They know little or nothing about what is happening in Italy and in the rest of the world, about the return of El Niño, about heat waves, about what science has discovered in recent decades.The climate crisis and extreme events are themes like any other to fill the playlists with.But it is precisely bad information and poor journalism that spread disinformation.This happens, even more so, in a political context like the current one, in which the forces culturally most inclined towards denialism are in government.The physical reality of the Earth, the carbon cycle, climate and ecosystem mechanisms proceed indifferent to all this.The problem, at the point we are at, is all ours:human, cultural, political.At the point we are at, climate denialism is no longer just a serious form of misinformation (documented by dozens of studies, books and journalistic investigations);a manifestation of malicious ignorance;a coverage for interests of some sectors.At the point we are at, climate denialism is, to all intents and purposes, a criminal ideology."

We have been fighting against systematic disinformation for decades.For which energy companies are also responsible.We saw it with the Exxon Mobil case who, despite having accurately predicted the pace and extent of climate change more than 40 years ago, had downplayed the risks posed by the continued use of fossil fuels.

A similar accusation it was moved last week by ReCommon, Greenpeace and twelve private citizens in the summons against ENI.This is the first case of this type in Italy.For the two organizations, although ENI has been aware since 1970 that the combustion of fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change and the "catastrophic" risks of burning its products, the energy company has used "lobbying and greenwashing" strategies to minimize risks arising from its business model and activities.ReCommon and Greenpeace "will ask the Court of Rome to ascertain the damage and violation of human rights to life, health and undisturbed family life" and that ENI "is obliged to review its industrial strategy to reduce emissions resulting from its activity by at least 45% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels.A lawsuit similar to this one, presented in the Netherlands by Friends of the Earth, 6 groups of environmental activists and over 17 thousand Dutch citizens, led to a historic ruling which requires Shell to reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels.

Meanwhile, climate activists continue to be attacked who, with their completely peaceful and non-violent protests, denounce governments' inaction in the fight against the climate crisis.

No we spoke with Antonio Scalari, expert in scientific journalism and science communication and collaborator of Valigia Blu.

Preview image via pxfuel.com