This summer too, Sicily was devastated by fires. 60,0000 hectares of
land have gone up in smoke at the time of writing (but the emergencycontinues): around 70% of the land affected by fires throughout Italy.They add to the 193,788 hectares which, according to official data, wereburned in the decade 2013-2022, of which at least half were in protectedwooded areas. If we consider that the island's forestry heritage isestimated at 381,647 hectares in total, the enormity of the disaster isclear. This is made even more evident by the failure of the fireprevention and civil protection system - the most impressive in Italy -,by the delayed or ineffective intervention of carabinieri and forestryworkers, park rangers, firefighters, voluntary associations, which onpaper they should have been alerted according to pre-established planseven before the summer season began. Why didn't this happen?The culture of prevention, the securing of territories, green work andeven environmental education, as we know, do not belong to the right inpower in Sicily and the rest of Italy, which actually prefers to focuson posthumous repression and militarization of the campaigns, on thescoops for the capture of very few alleged arsonists, and on the covertinterviews in which its exponents pass off the responsibilities (asbetween the minister of civil protection and former president of theMusumeci Region and the current president Schifani) or criminalize theoperators in the sector, who risk their lives every day, and thepopulations of the areas involved. It is a fact that prevention and theenvironment are deliberately neglected and sometimes opposed by thegovernments in office, with climate denialism, with subsidies taken awayfrom the green transition to support the fossil industry, with theweakening and distraction of the forces responsible for controllingenvironmental (the Carabinieri - former forest guards - are increasinglycalled upon to carry out judicial police duties), with the abandonmentof the sighting "towers", the daily patrols of the woods, the cleaning,maintenance and restoration of fire avenues and slopes firefighting,with the failed or delayed hiring of forestry workers.Behind all this there is a political and strategic plan that objectivelyencourages all those, arsonists, speculators, schemers, illegal ownersand builders who hate the green areas of the island and who, out ofeconomic or political interest or even ideological prejudice, arepushing for request its divestment, reduction, re-demarcation and, whenthey don't obtain it through formal means, they have few scruples aboutattacking it in the most disparate ways and, lastly, with fires. Themafia organization probably took charge of their requests, especially inWestern Sicily, initially with threats, blackmail, exchange of votes,and today by taking action.This is particularly noticeable this year in the deliberate attack onprotected park areas and natural and archaeological reserves managed bythe State and the Region, and in the spread of fires near populationcenters and even on the outskirts of large cities. In the first case, itis a real attack on public property, on the common goods - historicaland naturalistic - of the Sicilians and on the institutions thatguarantee them, but which on this occasion revealed all their realinefficiencies. From Etna to the Madonie, from the Nebrodi to Alcantara,from Capo Gallo to Monte Pellegrino, from Segesta to Pantalica, fromTindari to Ragusa Ibla, from Monte Bonifato in Alcamo to Lake Poma inPartinico, from Zingaro to Erice, from Piazza Armerina toFloristella-Grottacalda mining park very little was spared from the aimsof the arsonists, who were able to act undisturbed in welcomingenvironments. In the second case we found ourselves faced withsituations technically defined as "out of control", of unconditionalsurrender to fire by the civil protection apparatus, inconceivable andunimaginable only a few years ago, which resulted in three deaths,hundreds of injured and poisoned people. from the smoke, the evacuationof entire towns and hamlets, in Oliveri, Giarre, Scopello, Acicatena,Campofelice di Roccella, San Vito lo Capo, Scicli, Trappeto, PetraliaSoprana, Cinisi ... The fire surrounded Palermo, penetrated theoutskirts of the city, in Ciaculli, Monreale, Giacalone, Altofonte,Mondello, Sferracavallo, and reached the Bellolampo landfill, releasinga cloud of dioxin into the air which in the city reached 35 times themaximum permitted values, forcing citizens to hide at home and to wearmasks again.In these as in other sensational cases of suspension of flights forseveral days from the three main Sicilian airports (CataniaFontanarossa, Palermo Punta Raisi and Trapani Birgi), with an estimatedloss of 30% of tourist traffic, the interruption of rail and motorwayconnections , of the electricity and water blackouts, caused by the fireand the "African" heat and which occurred almost everywhere, all themanagement and infrastructural deficiencies from which Sicily sufferswere manifested, due to the responsibility of a grabber and incompetentpolitical class, if not corrupt, which the superficial make-up failed todisguise this time. Means and personnel are insufficient or broken downor inadequate, there is an excess of bureaucracy and sloppiness in theprevention, prediction and contrast of events that have been announcedand recurrent, there are no escape routes in many towns and cities,above all there is a lack of plans of alternative functioning forstrategic and major communications infrastructures, the judiciary,universities and media are increasingly supine to the governments inoffice and incapable of proposing remedies.The extreme climatic phenomena (excessive heat, "water bombs", strongsiroccal winds), which have affected the development of the fires but onwhich regional politicians unload their responsibilities, should not atall be considered as mitigating factors, to which they appeal more andmore the dumb-assed politicians and the bureaucrats of the regionalbodies tied to them, but rather aggravating factors regarding theirguilty non-compliances, since - even the children understand it - tocounter them we need to equip ourselves more and better and not lessthan the past.It is to those who command from above and concentrate all power ofintervention on themselves that this permanent disfigurement of thegreen heart of Sicily, the jeopardizing of the lives of individuals andrural communities, the destruction of forests and crops. The remediesmust come from below: from a mass mobilization for the removal of thoseresponsible, first of all, but also to ensure that the Municipalities,possibly coordinating with each other, become protagonists again in thefight against fires, employing and seconding an adequate number offorestry workers, supported by groups of volunteers, solidly trained,equipped with smoke sensors, turrets and lookout posts, and in any caseall those means necessary to carry out widespread control of theterritory. It is necessary to involve these groups, together withforesters and forestry technicians, in the drafting of real interventionplans for the constant maintenance, protection and safeguarding offorests and populations. It is necessary to open a dispute "for thetaxable workforce", in order to impose the hiring of the manyprofessional figures needed (foresters, roadmen, agronomic technicians,etc.) for environmental protection but also for the valorisation of thelandscape, of territories and cultivated or spontaneous products. Butmost of all, young unemployed people, those studying elsewhere, and themany living forces of local associations and volunteers need torediscover their taste for first-person commitment in the place wherethey live. Only from below, from those who know the territory, fromthose who love it passionately - and there are many -, from those whowork in favor of their community and have an interest in its protection,can that movement of recovery finally arrive that serves to eradicatethe fires and the devastation of the territory.Natale Musarrahttps://www.sicilialibertaria.it/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten