The world is in a dramatic situation. Humanity is going in an absolutely unsustainable direction. We have before us an enormous series of problems: the depletion of raw materials, pollution, the overexploitation of agricultural land, climate change linked to the release of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, but also methane, especially from livestock. .
The situation of malnutrition and hunger in the world is dramatic and perhaps we are moving in the wrong direction. It is unclear whether we will achieve the FAO Zero Hunger program goals in 2030.
Humanity must make essential choices; it must firmly resist climate change. For decades, science has warned us that human behavior was setting the stage for a dramatic rise in our planet’s temperature.
Science alone is not enough. Political decisions are needed, especially by rich countries. We must go beyond the short-sighted national interest to solve global problems in the spirit of all that is needed.
COVID has taught us that we are all connected and what happens in the gaming markets or the Amazon rainforest deeply affects us all.
Unfortunately, the actions taken by governments have not been up to this challenge and the results so far have been extremely modest. In recent years, the effects of climate change are there for all to see: the floods, hurricanes, heat waves and devastating fires that we have been amazed by are a timid glimpse of what will happen in the future on a much larger scale. wide. Now that climate change is starting to affect people’s lives, there is perhaps a more resolute reaction, but we need much stronger measures and we don’t have to limit ourselves to just saving our conscience.
From the experience of COVID we know that it is not easy to take effective measures in time. We have seen how many times the measures to contain the pandemic have been delayed, only when they could no longer be postponed. I remember that a head of government was told “we cannot block before the hospitals are full, the citizens would not understand”.
We all know that the pitiful doctor made the painful plague: governments have a duty not to be pitiful doctors. Their historical task is to help humanity pass through a road full of dangers. It’s like driving at night: the science is the headlights, but then the responsibility for not going off the road rests with the driver who must also take into account that the headlights have a limited range.
Scientists also don’t know everything. It is laborious work during which knowledge accumulates one after another and pockets of uncertainty are slowly eliminated. Science makes honest predictions upon which a scientific consensus is slowly formed.
When the IPCF predicts that in an intermediate scenario of reducing greenhouse gas emissions the temperature could rise between 2 and 3 degrees, this range is what we can best estimate from current knowledge. However, it must be clear to everyone that the correctness of the climate models has been verified by comparing the predictions of these models with the past; if the temperature rises by more than 2 °, we enter an unknown land, where there may be other phenomena that we have not foreseen that can greatly worsen the situation: for example, colossal forest fires such as the Amazon that would catastrophically introduce enormous quantities of greenhouse gases , but when would they happen?
The oceans are currently absorbing many of the greenhouse gases we emit, but will this phenomenon continue on a 2nd warmer Earth? The rise in temperature is not only controlled by direct emissions, but is mitigated by many regulatory mechanisms that may stop working as the temperature rises. While the lower limit of 2 ° is something we can be quite sure of, it’s much harder to figure out which scenario is more pessimistic – it could be much, much worse than we imagine.
We are facing a huge problem that needs decisive interventions not only to stop the emission of greenhouse gases, but we also need scientific investments: we must be able to develop new technologies to save energy by transforming it into fuels, non-polluting technologies based on renewable resources: not only must we save ourselves from the greenhouse effect, but we must avoid falling into the terrible trap of the exhaustion of natural resources.
Energy saving is also a chapter that must be tackled with determination: for example, as long as the internal temperature of our homes remains almost constant between summer and winter, it will be difficult to stop emissions.
Successfully blocking climate change requires a monstrous effort on the part of everyone: it is an operation with a colossal cost, not only financial, but also social with changes that affect our lives. Politics must ensure that these costs are accepted by all: those who have used the most resources must contribute more, so as to affect the majority of the population as little as possible; the costs must be distributed equally and fairly among all countries: decency requires that the countries that currently influence the resources of the planet must make the greatest efforts.
We must build bonds, bridges between people of different countries, underline what unifies the whole human being beyond nationalism. Science is a global enterprise as it is very suitable. Of course it takes time, but these are long-term processes and we need to think in a long-term perspective, which will be the situation in 10-20 years.
This year we are faced with a huge tragedy, not only soldiers killed, but also a large number of civilians. We are witnessing an incredible number of refugees, so high that I cannot compare it to anything I have seen.
However, we cannot give up continuing to build bridges between peoples, to dialogue with scientists from all over the world, with the awareness that if we have not died in a nuclear holocaust it is also because, even in the darkest hours, scientists have not ceased to weave the web of peace and to contribute substantially to the great season of world agreements on the control and reduction of arms.
Nobel Prize in Physics