Fake news about Emilia-Romagna and land consumption that generates disasters

When a tragic event occurs in Italy, our traditional Catholic culture, of which we are all more or less healthy carriers, instinctively leads us to react in two specular ways. The first is the “pietas”. We feel a sense of pity for the victims of the event, a closeness to the affected populations and territories and finally, and most importantly, the will to contribute money or actions to the emergency phases and to the reconstruction of the places. The second is instead the “search for the culprit”. If a misfortune has occurred, someone has not done their duty and, in some way, has put in place, with current or past actions, negligence and behaviors, acts that are not adequate to maintain and strengthen the security of the populations. Even in the case of the flood in Emilia-Romagna, the two instinctive reactions were triggered. I won’t dwell on the first one. But the photos of the boys in the mud, the “new angels of the mud” left in the collective memory by the flood of Florence in 1966, say it all. Better than many words.