There is nothing deadly about the Marmolada massacre, in which we will end up counting dozens of dead, it is the result of a series of shameful human actions that together led to the massacre.
The climate change that we are exploding in a heat wave and drought is the result of people’s work and development model. A development model based on continuous growth that certainly cannot be changed by the green painting of economies that prioritize profit above all else.
The war, which is obviously the greatest devastation of life and the environment, then unleashed the worst pollution again: coal, oil, wild drilling, nuclear power.
But the grim stupidity of those in power is not only doing nothing to stop the climate catastrophe, but also doing nothing substantial to adapt to it.
What measures are taken to control soil, water, air; From the cities to the sea, to the river, to the mountains? Nothing, the monitoring of the environment is being carried out with the scarce resources and the cuts in public spending that have been decided in recent years.
Is it possible that we did not know before that a huge glacier at a temperature of ten degrees can shatter in terrible avalanches? Not to mention when we are dealing with glaciers, when there are no adequate tools and means to transport water without wasting half of it, to monitor and prevent fires, to inform and educate the to respect nature.
After all, is it irresponsible for hundreds of tourists to gather under a glacier that could collapse at any moment? Wouldn’t it be necessary to organize access to nature differently, taking into account its real state? What does the hypocritical appeal to people’s prudence mean when the authorities, afraid of harming the tourism business, do nothing to ensure their safety? It’s like murders in the workplace: small talk and crocodile tears when safety measures are not taken, controlled, enforced.
At this point I hear again the same anathema that transcended the pandemic: We are free societies, they want to govern us all in some kind of communism!
Well, I believe that the current world, whether we are talking about health, environment, work and economy, this world heading for catastrophe, can no longer afford market- and profit-driven individualism.
I think that climate change, both in its medium-term effects and in its immediate effects, can only be addressed from a perspective of economic and social planning, equality, planned distribution of resources and organized way of life change.
Instead, we’re going in exactly the opposite direction. The two years of the pandemic have been followed by fresh cuts in public and territorial health services. The need for public planning was denied with the revival of the private sector and privatizations. We spend more on guns than on the environment. When the weather breaks into our lives, all power acts as if nothing happened. It really feels like living in the movie Don’t Look Up.
The massacre of tourists on the Marmolada is not destiny, but a system that does not want to change anything, either big or small. And for that reason it must be overthrown.