Climate Change in Italy

The average temperature on the surface of the planet has already increased by 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. This may not seem like much but think about it this way, the heat from human emissions is roughly equal to 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs exploding across the planet every single day (Gillis, 1). That is insane. The Earth will gradually get warmer and future generations might be in trouble. If emissions continue to rise unchecked, the climate disasters will be so severe that they will destabilize entire nations, send refugees across borders, cause widespread extinction of most species on the Earth and melt the polar ice caps, leaving most of the world’s coastal cities several feet underwater (Stocker, 1). While Italy is burning lots of fossil fuels, Italy is attempting to counter this by going carbon neutral in the future. Climate change in Italy will result in the destruction of land and agriculture while also shifting Italy’s borders. However, organizations like the ICN help spread education and awareness to lawmakers and government officials.

Italy is a country in Europe that is known for its long Mediterranean coastline and Western culture and cuisine. Italy is ranked 29 out of 189 countries for its Human Development Index (HDI). Italy is slightly smaller than the US state of California with a population of around 60.36 million people. Italy is a very high HDI including a high life expectancy of around 83.4 years. This is one of the highest average life expectancies in the world. This is quite large compared to their Gini coefficient. Italy has a Gini coefficient of 35.4. This is a very good distribution of wealth when looking at their development and life expectancy. This shows that people are living longer and it is not only the rich that are living longer, it is the country as a whole that lives long lives.

As Italy attempts to gain economic success, Italy is uncovering lots of pros and cons of growing their country. In the past few years, Italy has had a huge success while trying to become carbon neutral. According to the UN HDI, we can see that they have increased the percentage of forest land by 23.2% from 1990 to 2016. This is a big step forward while trying to become carbon neutral. Planting trees and adding more forest land to Italy can help lower their overall emissions. This happens because trees and other plants store and use these harmful carbon emissions to produce water and they release healthy oxygen into the air. This is great but Italy is still struggling while trying to find ways of renewable energy. The UN HDI shows that Italy has only 16.5% renewable energy sources compared to 79.9% of fossil fuel consumption. If this keeps up, Italy might put itself in danger in the future. When Italy uses these harmful fossil fuels, they emit toxins and other waste into the atmosphere. These waste products are hazardous to public health and the environment and can lead to irreversible effects in the future (Trebbel, 1).

While Italy continues to try and boost its economy, its bad habits of burning fossil fuels affect Italy in a negative way. In the past, Italy has used fossil fuels to fuel large powerplants and create energy for certain machines. Italy is a large manufacturer (overall the second in EU behind Germany) and exporter of a significant variety of products including machinery, vehicles, pharmaceuticals, furniture, food, clothing, and electricity (Gustafson, 1). Italy’s economy was founded on its significant trade surplus and great quality goods but all of this production is not good for the environment. According to the UN HDI chart, Italy consumes 79.9% of their energy from the burning of fossil fuels. This is quite bad due to the fact that burning fossil fuels hurts the environment. When fossil fuels like coal and oil burn, they release tons and tons of carbon dioxide molecules. These molecules start to replace the number of oxygen molecules and start to make the air denser. These emissions are wrapping the Earth with more carbon infected air which warms the Earth. This unnatural warming of the atmosphere causes lots of problems in the air that we breathe and down on the Earth itself (Crisp, 1).

One way that Italy is attempting to help fight against climate change is its attempts to go green and switch to safer methods of production. Within the last few years, the Italian government implemented an arrangement for climate and energy which mainly focuses on conceiving a focal role in solar energy. Renewable energy, in particular photovoltaic solar systems, is expected to represent more than half of the power generation in the country by the end of the next decade, which is expected to achieve 93.1 GW from its current capacity of around 54 GW (Na, 1). Photovoltaic solar energy is a type of renewable energy that is used to generate electricity for homes and large buildings. These types of solar panels turn direct solar radiation into electricity that can power your everyday electronics. Italy has started to switch to this type of renewable energy because there is no carbon dioxide or other pollutants that are emitted from this process. What these solar panels do is use the high energy photos that come in the rays of the sun and they use those to naturally excite still, silicon atoms inside of the panels. This excitement of the atoms produces electricity.

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One way that Italy is impacted by climate change is that climate change is shifting the northern border of Italy. Italy, Austria, and Switzerland’s shared borders depend on the limits of the glaciers and they have been melting at increased rates due to climate change. This has caused the border to shift noticeably in recent years. Researchers aren’t sure how far the border has shifted yet but they noticed that a restaurant called ‘Rifugio Guide del Cervino’ used to be in Italy but is now in modern-day Switzerland. This small mountain restaurant opened in 1984 at a location high in the Italian Alps and is now in a whole different country. The restaurant has become the subject of a dispute between the two states due to a legal agreement that allows Italy’s northern border to move with the natural, morphological boundaries of glaciers’ frontiers, which largely follows the watersheds on either side of the ridges. If decided to be in Switzerland, the restaurant would be subject to Swiss law, taxes, and potentially even customs; Swiss inspectors would need to approve every box of pasta and package of coffee brought up to the restaurant by cable car from Italy (Bouhassira, 1). As humans continue to pollute the Earth, more and more layers of carbon dioxide begin to make the air denser. This increases the average temperatures which cause glaciers like these to melt. This melting shifts and deforms the land around it.

Another effect that climate change has on Italy is that it ruins land and agriculture. According to the UN HDI chart, 13% of the total land area of Italy is degraded land. Degraded land is when the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land (Conacher, 1). In northern Italy, land degradation will be mainly caused by run-off erosion due to the increase in intense precipitation and floods (Carraro, 1). As stated earlier, glaciers are melting and this results in flooding along with massive rainfalls. All of this water hurts neighboring farms and agriculture. Livio Salvador, a grape farmer from Rauscedo, Italy stated that his grapes were “drowning and getting sunburnt” (Salvador, np). Livio Salvador isn’t the only one experiencing these issues. Farmers all across Italy have been struggling to find new ways to keep their produce alive during these recent years. The lack of grapes doesn’t only affect these farmers and their brands, it also affects Italy’s economy a ton. Italy is known for its wine and Italy has had a hard time finding fresh, good quality grapes.

Italian Climate Network (ICN) is an Italian non-profit organization of volunteers committed to raising awareness on climate change and its related environmental issues. Italian Climate Network was founded in 2011 and aims to bring together citizens, advocates, NGOs, and businesses committed to solving the climate crisis to ensure Italy a sustainable future, working both at a national and at an international level. Since its foundation, Italian Climate Network has established several relevant official partnerships both at a national and at an international level, amongst which there are 350.org, the Climate Action Network – Europe, the World Bank’s platform Connect4Climate and the Global Power Shift. Italian Climate Network works to build an inclusive and empowering movement that will lead to positive changes in the society, covering as many aspects as possible of the climate change issue. This program focuses on science, policy, education, and awareness.

The ICN hopes to transform the Earth into a place where you don’t have to worry about climate change. They hope to help the world become carbon negative starting with Italy. The ICN uses, protests, movements, projects and uses social media to spread the word about climate change and hopes to catch the attention of lawmakers and government officials. They definitely don’t want to stay quiet. On their first l protest, 475,000 people took part in the first global climate strike in Italy on 15 March and a similar number are expected to join the latest demonstrations in cities including Rome, Milan, Turin, Florence, Naples, Bologna, and Bari (Guiffrida, 1).

So far, the ICN has had a hard time getting recognition from lawmakers and the government but they have recently crushed through those barriers and have been successful in forming a few laws. Recently, they helped pass a law that required climate change to be a subject in all schools and it required students to study 33 hours per school year on climate change and sustainability. This was a huge victory for the ICN but they wanted more. After that, they have also been able to make adjustments to previous laws. The ICN reduced the number of emissions that companies can emit per year and also encouraged businesses to lower prices on environmentally friendly foods. Another thing that they did was that they got the Italian minister on their side and he encourages students to skip class for climate crisis protests. He said on Facebook “the climate strike was essential for students’ future, which was threatened by environmental devastation and an unsustainable economic growth model” (Conte, 1).

On the whole, the example of Italy demonstrates the litany of ways in which countries are impacted by climate change such as the destruction of land, agriculture, and natural borders, and the impact that Italy has on climate change such as their process of going from fossil fuel-based to more solar-based, they seem to prioritize their economy over the environment. Italy’s strides toward solar energy prove that they are on their way toward a more carbon-friendly ecosystem, they are still moving quite slow. If these slow calls to action continue, Italy will be in lots of trouble with uncontrollable natural disasters, temperature rise, and coastal flooding. Thankfully groups like the ICN use the legal system to fight unforgiving governments and use social media and protests to spread awareness about the harmful effects of climate change. The ICN has made strides toward the future belief of a carbon-free zone. I think we need to step up and go alongside the ICM and help be part of the change. Take this one step at a time and start to throw out bad habits or else the Earth will be throwing us out instead.