«Skating on thin ice, the only hope of salvation lies in speed», wrote RW Emerson, first creating the metaphor with which a precarious condition is described which has, as the only possibility of escape, an impelling prudence. By a strange fatality, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, commented on the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with a similar image, but by now anything but metaphorical: «Humanity is poised on a thin layer of ice, which is melting fast.
On March 19, the IPCC published 36 pages illustrating the very serious state of health of the planet and truly envisaging “speed” as our only possibility of “salvation”. In 2018, the IPCC had already alerted us to the unprecedented challenge we would have to undertake to contain global warming below the 1.5C threshold. A lost battle, if – as stated in the report – what has been done so far has not been enough: the “current plans”, but also the “rhythm”, the “scope” and the gaps of the previous ones have been completely unsuccessful to solve this global crisis that is dragging us into a future defined, in black and white, as “dangerous”.
According to the study, without immediate action, global warming will far exceed the maximum threshold predicted five years ago, reaching around 3.2°C by 2100.
Who are responsible for this disaster? We.
Climate, the great hypocrisy: because no leader wants to lead a concrete battle
MARIO TOZZI
The report underlined that it was “human activities” that “unequivocally caused global warming”: from the “unsustainable” use of energy to that of “fossil fuels”; from reckless “lifestyles” to reckless “consumption and production models”. As emissions and global average temperatures have increased, the frequency of extreme weather events and the extent of their damage have increased. Climate change dangerously affects man and nature, causing upheavals in the air, water, land and cities. The damage to food security is too often overlooked, but not in the report, which highlights the dramatic consequences on the availability and access to food, on the rise in food prices or on the increase in disease and mortality.
All these phenomena mainly affect some regions defined in the Report as “highly vulnerable to climate change”; there deaths from extreme events are 15 times higher than in the rest of the world. The paradox is that these countries – about half of the global population – are the ones least responsible for the climate emergency, despite being the most affected. The deduction, repeatedly noted in the study, so as not to be overshadowed, is that the cause of climate change must also be fought for questions of social justice.
The situation requires immediate measures. Returning to Emerson, “salvation” really lies in “speed”: because – as the IPCC warns – it is still possible to act, provided it is done quickly. It is essential to immediately activate a profound and lasting limitation of emissions, to bring them towards zero in 2050. CO₂ emissions must be reduced by 48% in 2030, 65% in 2035, 80% in 2040 and 99% in 2050; and approximately the same reduction percentages (43%; 60%; 69%; 84%) are required for greenhouse gases. Such interventions would trigger a series of beneficial effects on the quality of the air, water, soil and health; on well-being and nutrition; on the protection of biodiversity. Because everything is inextricably connected; and the change carries with it the need to renew the ties between the dimensions damaged by our mistakes.
I was therefore not surprised to note that the IPCC brings back one of the pillars of the Future Food Institute as a solution to combat the emergency: the activation of an integral ecological approach, which boosts sustainable development and, at the same time, protects nature . Changes in the food, energy, industrial and territorial sectors, but also in the political, economic, environmental, human and social spheres, which make possible what we call Integral Ecology and which in Italy finds in the model and in the Lifestyle “Mediterranean Diet ” its most concrete manifestation. A harmonious ecosystem between man and nature, capable of feeding and regenerating to sustain itself over time.
In concluding my comments on the report, I consider it significant that, in the Health and Nutrition paragraph, the IPCC highlights food as a founding element of one of the possible climate adaptation strategies: «healthy, balanced and sustainable diets» which «contribute to nourishment, to health, biodiversity and other environmental benefits”.
The pandemic has taught us not to underestimate the possibility of catastrophic scenarios: if we do not act immediately in favor of the planet – as stated in the Report – “losses and damages will increase, and human and natural systems will soon reach the limits of adaptation”.
But there is no destiny that is not won with contempt for what has been done. The IPCC tells us that we no longer have time, but that we have solutions: first of all, the awareness that, at times (it must be admitted, in spite of ourselves), it can only emerge from error.