How long will the heat last? As we wonder, the world is left without water

The great heat these days he has reopened the theme of the changing climate, but always with the tone more of the need for refreshment than with an in-depth analysis linked to the real causes. In full emergency there is never time to do a serious analysis (if you want to do) of the problem. It is thus, therefore, that the main argument is related to overcoming the great heat, how long it will last, how to resist it, knowing that it will pass. Yes, it will pass but how? If the answer comes from climate break these days in the north of our country then it is understood that that break may not be a relief, but it can bring with it physical damage to people, destruction and environmental devastation. Yet all this is not surprising, the IPCC (Intergovernmental panel for climate change) has been saying it for years, using the data to demonstrate that we are doing nothing to mitigate this trend, let alone counter it.

Today’s theme, therefore, remains linked to how to bear it. Yes, because the call to governments across Europe is precisely to find ways to protect the fragile people, those which with their vulnerability may be subject to more serious consequences. A Spanish study speaks of over 60,000 deaths attributable to heat waves in 2022 in Europe (just under a third in Italy). In Sicily the tractors stay off during the day and turn on the lights in the evening, the working day for cleaning the almond groves before harvesting starts at 9pm and goes on all night. At the national level, there is discussion about which should be the maximum temperature which involves a suspension of work, someone proposes to imagine measures similar to those adopted during the pandemic. But no one is saying that we are obviously not capable of protecting this planet from devastation. The air conditioners will tend to lengthen this slow agony until the problems of energy supply they no longer become critical.

In recent weeks, Ispra (Experimental Institute for the Protection of the Environment) has published the report on the state of health of ours water reserves launching the red alert regarding the availability of water which has decreased by 50% compared to the previous fifty years. This figure is frightening if we think that water is needed for our survival, for the production of the food we eat every day, for the spontaneous flora and fauna, for all that biodiversity on whose conservation all ecosystem relationships depend, which today are at very high risk. The water is running out, by now it is evident and even proven, even in the presence of devastating rainy events that do not enrich our groundwater, but take away the soil, trees, plants and animals as well as bringing death and suffering. All always with the same origin: the climate crisis.

That in agriculture the answer is the biodiversity accompanied by production models based on principles of agroecology it is now clear to everyone, even to those who have never wanted to accept it. That the industrial production system be a significant part of the cause of this crisis no longer needs to be proven. In the Sicilian tomato fields, the biodiversity linked to the historical dry-growing varieties continues to confirm that the path is that of respecting the environmental suitability and not of trying to adapt the environment to the varieties. Nor that of building varieties tailored to the needs of the moment as one would like to do with the new GMOs. These are not solutions. We just need to revise ours footprint on the planet, convince ourselves that we have made too heavy a mark and try to continue our pace in a lighter way, hoping to still be in time to give ourselves a second chance. We’ve already played the first one.

(*Slow food)