After 37,000 deaths, Italians still care more about Climate Change than COVID
Welcome to Climate Weekly!
Each week we ask one guest writer from our network to give you a short selection of some of the best climate news from their region.
This week, we’d like to introduce Marco Ranocchiari, a young journalist and geologist from Italy, who convinced me on our Podcast that geologists actually very important when it comes to the flooding in Venice.
Ciao!
I am Marco, a free-lance journalist and an environment educator, and I write from Trento, a town from the Italian Alps.
Italy in these weeks looks like a small boat, swept up by waves in every direction.
In the midst of Covid-19’s second wave, we realize we are not prepared yet, as it is spreading faster than ever with new restrictions all but upon us.
However, the rising seasonal tide in Venice has been stopped for the first time ever thanks to a complicated system of dams, that is more than 35 years in the making. The dam known as MOSE, is one of the most expensive and controversial public works in Italian history...well, since the Colosseum maybe.
There are critiques though. It’s not yet fully completed, but there are already those who are denouncing its environmental impact and many others who fear it will not be able to protect the city from future sea level rise due to climate change.
An example of this future can be seen in the recent storm “Alex”, which brought devastation across Italy and France, just after many of the same regions were flooded just weeks before. Extreme weather events are increasing in Italy, and 2020 is no exception.
EU countries are claiming to respond to the pandemic crisis with climate-friendly policies, but a few days ago Greta Thunberg met Italian Prime Minister Conte, and delivered a heartfelt letter demanding more engagement from EU leaders.
Meanwhile, this week’s State of Nature official report 2020 denounced that 80% of our key ecological habitats are in a bad way. Ontop of that, a network of ngos has documented a boom of environmental abuses, from illegal loggings to new unauthorised hydropower plants as we’ve all been stuck inside during COVID-19 lockdowns.
And Greta has picked a great target. According to a recent study from Pew Research, Italians are far more worried about Climate change than COVID-19, even after 37,000 deaths. Italians were found to be the 3rd most concerned about climate change in Europe.In another recent poll, a vast majority of Italians believe that recovery policies should support a more green and circular economy.
From Climate Tracker
Check out our new Podcast - And go ahead and Subscribe. We’ll be interviewing young journalists and media researchers each week.
Daniel Whyte writes about agri-ecological innovations looking to overcome rural poverty in Nigeria
Olivia Box has a unique take on the US elections, with an analysis of how climate change is being represented “up and down the ballot”
What else we’re reading
If you’re wondering what is at stake with China’s net-zero pledge, this article from Sixth tone about the town of Lueyang should paint an interesting picture about the incredible challenge of lifting and keeping Chinese communities out of poverty.
Over in Brazil, Indigenous leaders are facing off against their latest challenge in Federal court. They are challenging a Chinese funded “grain train” that would cut through the heart of the Amazon. The project has been a long term dream for big business, but an ongoing nightmare for Indigenous communities.
This is a Weekly newsletter created by Climate Tracker. If you have any questions, comments or want to get involved, email Chris at chris@climatetracker.org - that’s me. I’d love to hear from you...and don’t worry, I’m locked inside too.
And if you’ve been forwarded this email and liked what you saw, why not subscribe?