It was just after eleven last night at the Temple of Venus and Rome. The Illuminated Colosseum it had been our fifth for more than two hours giving us the feeling of being in another dimension. For a few minutes the sky had been dazzled by impatient flashes, as if our time was running out.
Frida Bollani at the piano started play and sing theHallelujah at Leonard Cohen, covering with his magic the strangled sounds of the seagulls’ scuffles against a poor drone that filmed the stage from above. We were there, on stage: the speakers of this extraordinary opening night of Green & Blue Festival. On one side was Carlo Petrini, who had made the last speech, urging us all to become activists against climate change, not to leave young people alone but to stand by their side. Carlo Ratti, a little out of the way, had shown us how technology can really be used for the good of people. Beside him, the Norwegian Per Espen Stocknes followed the scene amused: he was in the Amazon forest when I invited him saying “prof, can you explain to me why many, too many, still prefer to ignore it?”. I was hugging the 4 activists : I was between Licyprya, arrived from India, who had enchanted everyone with a speech as a political leader, she who is only 11 years old; And Sophia, who at 21 is translating scientists’ papers on climate change into all the world‘s languages. They were with us Kindness, 27, from Rwanda, who in the morning managed to get a photo of Pope Francis behind the banner calling for compensation to the poorest countries of the world, most affected by global warming; And Mayawho one day beat everyone, men and women, by surfing the highest wave in history and has been fighting ever since to ensure that our plastic is no longer in the sea.
The president of the Club of Rome, Sandrine Dixson, came and stood between them, embracing them; and Beatrice Rana also joined us, who had seduced us with Bach and Chopin. Frida was now at the end of the song. The one when she says that “I did my best and even if it wasn’t enough I’m here to sing Hallelujah”. A distant thunder alerted us that the evening was over. Thank you, sister rain.